Royally Leh'd

An empty mind is a devils workshop. But the devil does wonderful things sometimes; it creates a wave of thought that you can completely drown in.

It has happened to me. Ladakh has drowned me for over a year now, all routes and all photos in every site, and all blogs - nothing has escaped my screen. Long live google (I tried some other search engines too but came up with already seen results in google -he he… don’t ask me where I work).

It is madness I begin to think, to expect, to visualize and to dream of a goal for so long.

And as it comes near (the time to ride), I am tempted to think, would a clean slate have been better, is it better to have no expectations than suffer disappointment.

But then there is a difference in dreaming it and doing it ;-).

And I do sincerely hope that I get royally Leh’d this summer.

Arbit thoughts

What do you consider as Success, money, fame, etc. But then I think why is the world so judgmental why do I have to be constantly evaluated. Maybe it’s the society you live, it decides your success and there is no way to escape it.

Clichéd as it may sound at some point in their lives everyone realizes its more personal; I believe success is to “YOU». Rather it should be only to “YOU”, why should you involve anyone else.
Let me explain..you grow up in an environment where right and wrong, good or bad is subject to culture, its impossible to break that rhythm. I am not saying you break that rhythm but when you follow that rhythm and see the other side of the coin and begin to question Yourself, you tend to dissociate from Success and Failure as defined. You set your own paradigm. Ha… easier said than done. This I believe is the essence of spirituality (not religion)

Easier said than done…its difficult to exist and be detached at the same time.

My craving is the experience of it ALL, Just imagine “ALL Experiences in this world”.(I don’t mean material only)

A single experience of a place, of people, of nature, of culture enriches and opens you up so wide, that I wonder what it would be like to have all Experiences, it might be impossible, but Just imagine the state you would be in if you had that. And yet this Lifetime is too small to get it all, this brain is too limited to even imagine it all.

And that I believe is the existence of god, nature, whatever you may call it, something which is realized, and cannot be known.

I cannot describe what I think here, I am not a good writer, I have these bouts of ….I don’t know what to call them, clarity, incoherence. Call it what you will, and this time I thought I would try to jot it down

Kayaron…

I went there (Cairo) for an official trip (dunno if that’s a legal word for office work ..he he..but who cares) March End. Didn’t have much time to explore the city, but I guess you don’t need much time, It’s the kinda place where you would want to go only to the TOURIST attractions, at least I thought so. Just like India crowded, unruly, dirty at times and every cabbie is out to fleece your money.

ALL of them know Amitabh Bachhan. I almost got lost in a cab, the driver spoke nothing other than Arabic…except…”Amitabh Bachhan..India”

If you are a bargainer par excellence this is the place for you. The pre arranged Nile cruise are nice, but frankly I would have loved it if it was more mundane…kinda like the Kolkata ferry experience.. with the belly dancing of course ;-).

Here are a few pics enjoy madi.
The Pyramids are awesome….the WOW factor is way up there

Thats the Citadel Of Salah e Din

Hookah And Chai

Sun sand and the wonder

Just look at the size of that thing ..they are Huge

STart

Ok , so thats a start i have a Blog now! but dunno what to start up here!!

so its going to be blank till i come up with something..dont want this to be a news channel! lets see how it goes

Trip Log

A 4 day weekend..damm... this was too cool. We decided to go on a bike trip WE=me,Khader and Tandon.

We had planned to start off early around 4 Am but thanks to Mr Model Tandon we started at around 4:30..."How can i comb my hair in the dark" he said. Of course we had no further arguments.

The highway till Moradabad was good, Paved roads no traffic early morning. We wanted to cover as Much ground as we could on the plains, and reach the hills as fast as we could. Had breakfast in a roadside dhaba somewhere, Nice Aloo parathas.

Tandon N Khader w8tng to hog

We reached kathgodam in good time, i think by 10:30 odd we were there, waited a while with refreshments to begin the ascent and also cool off our bikes.

Reached Bhimtal in no time clicked a few there.

Bhimtal me and Tandon

There is something about the hills that always mesmerises me, to top it off if you are on your bike, cant ask for too much more.

The ride from Bhimtal to Mukteshwar Via Padampuri was awesome...Lush Jungles roads, no traffic, and the hills fresh with Rhododendron (Buransh) flowering. A special squash is made with these flowers


Lush Forests and no traffic...totally awesome


Just stop in such a place, to hear all the sounds its amazing





Reached Mukteshwar around noon 2:00 found a nice place to crash. It was on a cliff extremely windy and the view...just amazing...and food to match..we decided to have food in the open air under the Zillion's of stars visible (yes u cant see em in Delhi) and cold wind. unfortunately we didn't have good enough Cameras to capture the amazing night scenery. It was like a stars in the sky and stars in the mountain opposite, small villages with scattered homes.




Next Day we hit Nainital, and boy what an amazing road from Ramgarh to Bhowali, have never seen such an amazing piece of asphalt.

Naini



Spent a nice evening in Nainital, and after a hearty brekfast of Bun Tikki and aloo paratha headed off to Naukuchiatal for some paragliding.


The wind unfortunately wasnt on our side, it was too much in the morning to start, and too little in the evening to carry people above a certain weight..ahem..i dont want to say any more.

Lets Just say Tandon had a nice flight.

Tandon in flight



Another peacefull night in Bhimtal and early next morning we were off to delhi. Tandon, needless to say was the last one to get ready! sorry tandon this is my blog..hehe


Found a nice Dhada on the way, after an ass breaking road stretch, where we relaxed a bit.

and by 2:00 pm Sunday we were back in Delhi.