For my tour to Leh Ladakh I had booked “Rainbow Guest House” and this decision turned out to be very good. I would recommend this for all budget travelers to book in advance. The rooms are too good and services are awesome. Prefer staying in guest houses rathern than expensive Hotels. They are not only expensive, you won’t be able to feel the place.

Here is snap of the Guest House, it has only 8 rooms and well maintained:

They server amazing food, all home cooked by the family who lives and maintains it, this is the best part, you can go with the traditional foods or local cuisines like I did, here is the breakfast:
Breakfast :

And here was one of the traditional North Indian Lunch :

If you ever wish to book the guest house, here is how you reach them.
Contact Details :
Address: karzoo – chanspa, Leh, ladakh, pin:-194101, J&K, India
Mobile: 09419178644, 08000138302
Landline: 01982252332, 01982252211
Email: rainbowgh@rainbowghleh.com, tausef123@rainbowghleh.com, rainbowghleh@gmail.com
And do say Hi from me

Being a big foodie myself, I try different local dishes of places I visit. Leh-Ladakh tour offered variety of dishes and I must say few of them surprised me. Let me go one by one. And I also took pics Please note many of them are not traditional dishes, I just tried ones served across various restaurants.

1. Lemon Cake (WonderLand Restaurant) – World’s best Lemon cake is served here. With first piece in my mouth I was like.. yummm.. what is this.. awesome.. Must try if you go Ladakh.

2. Honey Banana Pancake – After Light Breakfast in Guest House, I wanted to try something heavy So I went to “German Bakery” nearby in Leh Main Market and tried this. It was freshly made and damn delicious.

3. Ladakhi Breakfast – Served in Our Guest House, we requested for traditional Ladakhi Breakfast

4. Ladakhi Tea – I am a tea lover, tried this in one local restaurant.

5. Chole Samose – I love Samaose, so I did try it here and it turns out they are awesome as well.

6. Rice – Dal – Curry – Traditional North Indian Food, served in Leh

7. Tuna – This was made from Tuna, was damn delicious

8. Lemon Tea – You know the specialty of this tea is.. it is being served at the world’s highest altitude motor-able road

9. Maggi – I know Maggi here, One day in breakfast we had it. It was different since I have reduced maggi after my hostel days..

10. Sku – This is a traditional Dish of Leh Ladakh. The maker of this told us that it is made of wheat flour or atta kneaded to make thumb sized small pieces and prepared or cooked with sufficient quantity of water with meat and vegetable preparation as the supplement. Its very heavy ad I could not finish even half of it.

After years of planning to my dream destination, I finally made it. On 13th May 2012, I landed on Leh

When I landed, I was like.. Mission achieved. “Lands on Leh”

We were a group of four who had planned for trip but unfortunately because of “WORK” other two friends could not make it. This did not make us drop the plan of trip. We continued as planned. Tickets were booked back in January 2012 which saved lot of bucks I must say. We got the tickets in just Ts 8400/- (Delhi-LEH) Return Trip Yeah that was cheap.

Here was our plan for 1 week Trip in Leh-Ladakh, it covered the entire ladakh.

Day 0 (Sat) – Reaches Delhi from Mumbai to Catch Flight from Delhi. Meeting Friends.
Day 1 (Sun) – Lands in Leh (Morning). Rest in Guest House to adjust the altitude. Only sleeps and eats.
Day 2 (Mon) – Tour Ares near Leh – Magnetic Hill, Gurdwara, Indus Sangam, BIKE RIDE
Day 3 (Tue) – Tour the Nubra Valley via Khadungla Pass and stay there for night.
Day 4 (Wed) – Head back to City Leh and rest in evening. Try local foods in evening.
Day 5 (Thu) – Tour the Pangong Lake via Changla Pass. Stay a night there.
Day 6 (Fri) – Head back to Leh City.
Day 7 (Sat) – Explore the Leh City. Shopping and local cuisines.
Day 8 (Sun) – Morning Flight to Delhi. And later in evening head back to Mumbai

[This trip was planned by friend Umesh Gogia, who had a sudden demise just a week before my trip. I dedicated the trip to him]

So Day 1 was supposed to be rest and lots of food. On Monday we hired a bike. Pulsar. Please don go for “Bullet”, they are old and always break down, go for 150 cc bikes that too in new condition. Driving a bike in Leh is magical. It was more awesome than I had imagined

First stop was: “Gurdwara Pathar Sahib”.. about 25 miles away from Leh, on the Leh-Kargil road, 12000 ft above sea level ! Me having the free tea being served there, yes it was awesome as well

There was a Nanak Hill nearby, we climbed it as well. Please climb slowly as oxygen level is less and you wiill be breathless and even faint if you try to climb in one go. The view from that hill is simply awesome.Moving forward we went to Magnetic Hill. Stop the Bike and feel the magnetic effect on bike. After that we headed to Sangam. Gaina scenic beauty that will impress you. It was around noon, after this we headed back to leh in eveining.

Next day ie Tuesday, we dropped the idea of Bike ride to Nubra Valley and hired a Tavera as it was too cold to drive bike in early May than we had imagined, we also got to Foreigners from Norway who where on tour. Thyw where just 23 years old and adventurous like us. On the way was “Khardungla Pass“, world’s highest Motor-able Road. Having Tea at the world’s highest motor-bale road :

Our vehicle broke down at Khardungla pass, it was unfortunate but we had unique experience of spending 4 hours. It did affect our health later the day but it is something we will always remember. We reached in evening and decided to rest, next morning he headed to Hunder – Camel Ride, unique experience and one must try it. Here’s me :

And then we headed back, enjoying the scenic beauty. Tea time :

Next Day we headed Pangong Lake via Changla Pass, a beauty, stuffs of which dreams are made of. At least mine are made of this off only. The peace at this place will simply blow you out:

This place is also the same where “3 Idiots” ending scene was shot. Anyways, it was on my plan from long long time from college.

The amazing trip ended on Sunday, I was so impressed, I will definitely go back again and again there. The people of Leh are very friendly and they don’t cheat like in other hill stations. The Tea is mostly 10 Rs, which is quite worth it. Compared to Tea in Mahabaleshar of Rs 20. Also I tried lots of local cuisines which will be published in separate blog.
So, in short Trip to Leh – Ladakh was awesome

Despite of twist and turns in the end, this scene was awesome I must say. Barney’s Magical Proposal To Quinn.

Barney proposing to Quinn, which was supposed to be magic trick and turns out to be a proposal scene in the end.

Snapshot :

The last episode of Season 7 had twits & turns and yes they have too much elongated the story. I watch the serial not to see who will be the MOM, but for Barney

Video :
 

Well, internet is not a need anymore it is a necessity for geeks like me. Living few hours without internet is like “the whole world is falling”. Mobile is the medium which makes sure we are connected always with the internet and yes it is fun!

I have been using internet on mobile from 2004. Remember the great legendary mobile – Nokia 6600 ? Back in hostel days, out of 100 boys only 3 boys had it. It was of 20+ K I guess. Luckily, one of my friend had it. I would sit in night and browse internet on it. The GPRS connection then used to be of 10-20 KB/s speed. I would check my yahoo emails, orkut (which I had registered just few days ago) & batchmate.com. And that hour used to be heaven, internet in my hands. No more dialup modem, no more computer needed for internet. It can be browsed right away on your mobile. I also bought a internet capable mobile by which at least messenger could work and finally bought a proper smart phone once I started working in 2008.

In 2008, I bought the Nokia N82, I was a big fan of this mobile from college when it was released, mainly of the camera it had, but I used it mostly for browsing internet, tweeting and check-ins on foursquare. I could not afford to buy in college as I did not want my hard earned Dad’s money to be spent on mobile. I bought it from my own salary Now, let me explain in details how this mobile was my savior in last 4 years

1. Navigation : I saved thousands of bucks when I had to go odd and unvisited places in Delhi. I used Google Map to track where I am and the shortest walking distance to the same. Instead of paying overcharged autos. Especially in time of Entrance Exams for MBAs.. Auoto-walas cheat a lot and make a hefty money of the poor students, In NCR the trend is more. My Mobile GPS Made sure I reached their in the best cheap way. Once in Varanasi in 2010, I had to guide the driver to Sarnath Temple from Varanasi.

2. Internet in Exams : I would not reveal the name of the exams but I had made quite a use of the internet.. Few answers are meant to be googled. It was the internet on which saved me

3. Tweeting : I have been on twitter from 2008 and I tweet a lot, it is hard to live without tweeting. I have tweet almost 7000 tweets from mobile in past 4 years. From various twitter-meets to live events I would post live pic and tweets.

4. Foursquare Check-ins : I am mayor of over 180+ Venues, Thanks to the internet on mobile right ? I check-in wherever I go. Maybe someday I would be going through the place I have ever been

5. Facebook : So after the dawn of orkut, came the facebook, photos, updates, comments all needs to be track while you are away from PC right ? So the internet on mobile comes to the rescue here as well.

The list is endless, in fact I can’t imagine a life without internet on mobile.

In 2012, I finally bought an “Android”. MY first Android Mobile : HTC EVO 3D. Now Internet on mobile became more smoother and I have more options, thanks to the variety of applications available for the same.

Internet is not only fun it is a necessity. And is best understood by geeks like me, it is hard to imagine a life without internet. With 3G already in action. I am waiting for 4G Speed and unlimited download on 3G as well. Real fun has no limits ! Rite ? So why should 3G ?