(I) It never happened to me before...

Pre-planned for a change...Expectations where high

Packing was quick and different 

Group was large and varied

One Man One Place made it EPIC!!!

Day 1 in Lab  (yeah Day1)
Its been 11 days I was not part of this WORLD and my 1st Day here... I don't know what to do literally my twitter updates ->
@khedkarsupriya DO I belong here??? Everything seems so different...It's a new world...it's a new place... 
It was the time when neither the REAL nor VIRTUAL world made any SENSE!!!

To my realization "I got Leh'd" 'I did' "I got Leh'd" That's what its called...Truly Leh'd!!!

Here I RELIVE those MOMENTS those Days again...

"An early morning wake up call on 5.8.2011 made sure I boarded my flight to Srinagar On Time!

A sleepy flight journey from Benguluru to Dilli took care that I wasn't bored at the height 45,000ft speed of 800mph and a temp of -45 Degree Celsius outside!Dilli to Srinagar flight was good mainly due to the scenic beauty outside and a Kashmiri co-passenger with whom had a nice talk about Kashmir-Srinagar and the SITUATION there!

On Srinagar airport I had the unexpected HEAT SHOCK ( I can bet even Bangalore and Mumbai were colder that day)On the airport two locals had come to receive me on behalf of Isha tours and one of them Muzarraf delivered a dialogue I won't forget Madam 

                   "Bambai ka fashion or Kashmir ka Mausam kab badale koi keh nahi sakta"

Muzaraff's houseboat is where I met the GROUP rest 34 of us! Yes! in total we were 40 of us on the trip to the 'Top of the World'"

Evening in Srinagar

"6.8.11 and the Road Trip on NH-1 began...
We knew we had to cover Zojila today and let me just introduce what Zojila is...

'Zoji La is 9 km (5.6 mi) from Sonamarg and provides a vital link between Ladakh and Kashmir. It runs at an elevation of approximately 3,528 metres (11,575 ft), and is the second highest pass after Fotu La on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway.'(Wikipedia)

Zojila

 Zojila is the place where people with motion sickness had their worst times but then by the evening we were in Drass the Second coldest place in the World obviously not so cold when we went there!

Now that we were at Drass 'The Gateway to Ladakh'

"We knew we were under Enemy Surveillance
 We knew we are at the place where Kargil war was fought
 We could see Tiger Hill from where we took a halt
 We could see the Tololing range at the backdrop of the War memorial built in Kargil
 We could see the walls built by Indian Army in a single night to protect NH1 D from the Enemy
 But we couldn't see into the eyes of the BRAVE WAR soldiers (yes!we met them they are now once again posted at Kargil after the war in 1999)who spoke out of their hearts about the war times! "

And even when I write this I get emotional... I literally cried that evening...Life is difficult and weird and in war times more so difficult and weird!

But as NH 1 goes on so does Life :)"

"Night well spent at Kargil we left for Alchi on 7.8.11 conquering Fotu-la pass having a nice time at Lumayuru monastery and Moonland!

This day this patch of NH1 D got me high yes! I got High!

Best of NH 1 I would say...

The mountains-the inseparable river alongside the road-the valley-the colors-the blind turns-the rocks-the trees-the melted snow marks from the previous season...

Man!!! AWESOME!!! EPIC!!!FANTABULOUS!!!

Alchi  is gem of a place had the Best night here...

Pitch dark 'Shooting Stars' and 'Milky Way' what more can I ask for!

(At Alchi we met sporty bunch of guys who took NH1 on CYCLES yeah!!! That's so COOL Dude types! All we wanted to do that night was to know their story! I don't know if anybody else thought so but they where not the same guys whom I knew before... faces content and happy and minds filled with recently experienced AWESOMENESS of a different and EPIC kind!)"

L to R: Subhash-Aditya-Anni-Ravi-Akshay-Ashwin

 "Next morning the guys left ahead of us Cycling to Leh form Alchi and what the road had to offer cannot be described but only seen in the picture below I just LOVE such roads and now you would know why the mention why the words of praise and why hats off to BRO...

And finally on the EPIC road that it is we reached the other end of NH 1-> 'LEH'"


What happened next needs another post...
What we experienced on NH1was as we say just the Trailor
Awesomeness continued to achieve new levels and heights in the coming days...