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

After dozen of official trips to Pune in past year, finally got the chance to go for an unofficial one with friends and explore it. Pune is a nice city, and much much better than Mumbai. Not only weather is nice, there is less crowd. No Congestion or hectic life and awesome food as well. From Pune, we continued our journey to Lavasa, which was a scenic beauty.

We reached around 10 PM and headed to a famous Dhaba – “Tony Dhaba“. Had some delicious chicken dishes and then we headed, to an Area called Chandani Chowk, there is a Cafe Coffee Day, which was crowded as if it was day time and the time was 1 AM. Not to mention the gorgeous eye candies there.. And finally some sleep for the night.

Next morning we went Lavasa, a scenic beauty. It was a little sunny and hot but worth a road trip.
Few of the snapshots :

Lavasa is in the Valley and with a great scenic beauty.

No crowd, being off season, which I liked as I hate crowd.

Friends showing their photographic skills Who isn’t a photographer these days ? Everyone is

I have heard this place is more gorgeous and more lively during rains.. will try to go one more time.

So there it was, long awaited and much needed trip. Three friends residing in different cities of India came together for Mahabaleshwar Trip.

Mahabaleshwar is a vast plateau, bound by valleys on all sides. It reaches a height of 1,438 m (4,718 ft) at its highest peak above sea level, known as Wilson/Sunrise Point. Below is a shot of us all three cheering up

On the eve of Independence day, we where at Pratapgad fort. One of the best way to celebrate our country’s freedom by making ourselves free
Pratapgad is located 15 kilometres from Poladpur and 22 kilometres from Mahabaleshwar, a popular hill-station in the area. This fort stands 1,080 metres above sea level.

Here is a shot on some waterfall we went. Don’t remember the name though. But the scenic beauty was awesome.

Considering the amount of fun we had on the trip, we should go out often and have frequent trips in future

Finally went to Jim Corbett Park on 11th February 2011, with office colleagues. My first visit and one more destination down from the places to travel. The trip was exactly at the right time. Right coz I was in my notice period.

Anyways the trip started from the Sec-126 SEZ Office NOIDA at 1:00 AM on 12th Feb in 2 buses with around 70 employees of HCL. The journey was filled up with lots of fun. It reminded me of my Shivpuri Trip during college days #nostalgic. Our first halt was at a dhaba tadka, were we had the morning tea around 4:30 AM.

With lots of fun on the way in bus, we reached the La Perle Resort Ramnagar , The scenary view from the hotel was awesome.

We refreshed ourselves with a heavy and delicious breakfast in the resort. And then headed to some adventurous activity planned at the Bridge.

Rock Climbing:

Rope Sliding::

I managed to win a Sweat-shirt as first prize in rock climbing
After the adventurous activities on the bridge, we returned back to the resort. Here I managed to get a 2 hours power nap. When I woke up, I found a bonfire at short distance from my room. I gathered myself and went to there and fun it was of our team. got myself seated and enjoyed with snacks n tea. After the long lasting fun at bon-fire there where dunk dances and as usual best enjoyed by people who don drink as they are in full senses. Like me. Dinner, and I decided to hit the bet at 12 ans we had to wake up at 6 for safari.

I was awake at 5 due to excitement of the Safari and couldn’t sleep after that.
So everyone was there ready to hit the safari. The weather was awesome.
Safari:

There are not much animals to be seen in Jim Corbett but the scenic beauty is awesome. And I enjoyed it the most. Though our vehicle did have the glimpse of the Leopard. There were Deers and Monkeys freely available. It tool 4 hours approx to cmplete the whole Safari with a short 30 mins break in between at some stop. After the Safari we returned back to the resort for late breakfast. After the breakfast, there was cricket match, which i i overruled for my sleep and got 2 hours sleep. When I woke up, We had to head back. That’s it, the amazing trip had ended. There was again fun in bus. I returned back at 12 AM at my place.

So, finally I saw Taj Mahal on 8th Feb 2011 on my second visit to the Agra. Thanks to wedding of a friend for which made it possible. The trip was my second trip to Agra, in first I could not visit the Taj Mahal due to the lack of time, which was wedding of friends bro.
I have never been a fan of Taj Mahal, to me it has been like waste of the Indian Resource by the Mughals at that time. Anyways it still looks awesome from the outside and has lot of visitors. We took lot of snaps here. KD’s SLR was a worth and we clicked over 500 pics from the camera and over 100 from my mobile N82.

The Taj Mahal.

Following Shot by KD is awesome. All up in the air.

It was perfectly captured.

Thanks to all friends who made it possible.
As usual there were live tweets from me, while I was on the Agra Trip and was appreciated by my Twitter followers