Showing posts with label Ladakh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ladakh. Show all posts

Monday, July 19, 2010

The Flight to The Capital City

Finally the Friday Morning that we were waiting for - for almost 700 days had arrived! An anxiety but otherwise uneventful morning quickly passed away and thanks to the 'Hari Sadu' @ office, the clock soon struck 4 pm and the smile started its journey of a mile!

Ofcourse I forgot to add - as an ex-Accenturite - I am always impressed (its present continuous tense) by the facilities that the great organization has and had not expected the current organization to have a Cloak Room! Come on! How could I be so wrong :-) This great organization had a cloak room and much bigger! Yahooo :-)

So bags picked and byes told, I rushed to reach one of my favorite destinations in Bangalore - the Gupta Castle in Marathalli! A few bites munched, photos clicked, bakar (again in past, present and future continuous tense) and we were off on the road with the truckload of luggage. We were going to ride on the pride of Bangalorean Roads - The BIAS service of BMTC is a ride you cannot miss in the city of Volvos :-)

It was near about 5 pm and Mr. Gupta - the genius who had the Contacts - called up the Bus to find out where it was - YES - BIAS service is State-Of-The-Art and we reached the Bus stop well in time! Time for the ADVENTURE to begin!

Like us, many had plans to visit the BIA and the crowded BIAS bus - a rare sight proved it. So the opportunity to make our first DECISION! With less than 2 hours to reach the 50 km far airport with the traditional Bangalore Traffic - we decided NOT to board the bus!!!!!

Well - we were not lucky enough like Mr. Kaju so we did reach the airport by smarter means - And Well in time :-)

Fast forward to the flight:
For all those who thought Indian Airlines was #@$%^@! - here is an eye-opener --> After travelling in every operator including the famed Kingfisher (Not RED) - I undoubtedly agree that Indian Airlines is the real Maharaja of the skies. They have the best in-flight entertainment system, amazing food (Gupta got to eat twice) and really comfortable seats. It was unlike anything we had anticipated and the experience was a eye-opener --> Hats off to the Indian Airlines. I had recommend every flier to try their service once to believe it.

PS: I am sure Mr. Gupta will vouch for that - he was seating next to an mesmerizing beauty who I am sure enjoyed her flight more than we did :-) --> Thanks to??
Ofcourse - our Bakar :-) The bakar was so gooood that we could bakar on the bakar itself!!

Soon it was time to land - Sonam was waiting down there humming yeh Delhi hain meri jaan... And we finally landed in the City of ***** (you will uncover it for yourself towards end of the blog)

What I missed:
Wrong subtitle actually -> Amidst the bakar, I forgot to add that Mr. Kaju missed his flight and didn't reach Delhi as planned. Well Mumbai is such a city that missing a flight is after all - missing a flight! Big Deal :-)

To the Hotel:
With the few glitches we finally boarded the Marcopolo AC bus to Pahar Ganj where we had to find ourselves a hotel to stay. The bus ride was an experience in itself thanks to the Conductor who spoke and conducted himself - well nothing less than a DUDE. Come on, imagine a conductor with jeans, Shirt and Goggles :-) The ride it have the Delhi Bakar but thats too delicious to blog --> it needs to heard... not read.

Well thats the end of the day, we found ourselves a neat 3-star hotel with a plush comfy bed and well -- had sweet dreams!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Road Trip to Ladakh

Blog Contents:
This blog gives a complete overview and is a perfect ready reckoner to plan a trip to Ladakh. It lists all the necessary information required to make a successful trip. Its a culmination of exhaustive research on other blogs and information sources coupled with the experience of completing the entire trip.

Background:
It all started with a friend's friend posting the photos of his trip to Ladakh on Orkut and when four enthusiastic, adventure seeking guys saw the pics together - they mind was in chorus with one thought - We should be there.

Work and Normal routine life kept us going and the dream continued to elude us and time kept passing by - days to weeks to months and years! But the Dream lived on.
The spirit never subdued. We never let it.

Finally - after about nearly 2 years we finally were able to fulfill the dream we all saw together.
In spite of working in different companies, staying in different locations - On the 25th of June 2010, the moment of truth finally came. We embarked on our journey to the Land of Gamas - Ladakh! From the Silicon Valley to the Kashmir Valley - by Road (though not entirely :-)

Acknowledgements:
The sheer time it took to materialize this dream itself speaks volumes of the kind of effort and team work that went in to embark on this voyage spanning 16 days. Kudos to Abhishek Gupta, Bhawani Shankar Kaju aka Cash and Kaushal Sarathe for their sheer grit and determination that made this dream live on to become a reality. Well taking off for 10 working days amidst your promotion cycles or within days of joining a new organization isn't a child's play after all!