Leh Ladakh - Chapter 1

It was the most exciting trip of my life. The discussion started with a friend of mine, Krishna, about making a trip to Leh Laddakh on a bike. The trip included three of us, me, Amit, and Krishna. Krishna loves to travel and spends almost all his money on it. He tries to get to the destination as fast as possible, with the least amount of fuel spent. And in my opinion, he's a great guy to travel with. But if you're afraid of speed, I suggest you look for some other driver. All in all, he's a great guy.

Now comes Amit, silly by nature, but sweet like chocolate. You can trust this guy completely. He's so intelligent that while we were on the trip, when we reached Himachal Pradesh, there was a question-answer round which was on the radio channel. They asked a question on who the president of Cuba was? He answered in a second, Raul Castro. I was amazed. Well enough about these two chaps, let's get to the trip.

There was hardly any time left for packing as Krishna got the tickets on a short notice. Originally there were four of us, but the other person backed out. And then there were three. Now the day of the departure begins.

Krishna was in Mumbai, while Amit and I were supposed to catch a bus from Pune. We had to catch a train from Mumbai to Roorkie. The bus was supposed to leave at 2 pm, so I told Amit to be there on time, but of course, he got late. The bus was on time, but I made an excuse and stopped the bus from leaving. I stalled for 15 minutes and by that time, Amit arrived. Now that we on the bus, we were on our way to Mumbai, and from there on, to the most beautiful place on earth. We reached our destination at around 6 pm. I got down in New Mumbai and went to my cousin's place which was close to where the bus dropped us off. I had two huge bags, a sleeping bag, and lots of food for the journey. We stayed at his place for some time, and then he dropped us off to the train station. After we reached the station and Krishna was waiting for us with more bags, a puncture kit, tents, and a big can of petrol. We found our seats and got settled. There was hardly anyone there, and it kind of felt a bit spooky.

The train started and our hearts started to beat faster. We had a weird smile on our faces and kept looking at each other for 10 minutes. We had a long journey ahead of us, with us being in the train for the night and the next day. We reached our destination the morning after. The journey was long, and the train seemed like the slowest train of them all. It took 90 unnecessary halts before we could reach Roorkie. But we were there, we were actually there. I couldn't believe it at first, and Amit had shake me back to reality. I was so close!!