I got this idea of maintaining an account of the planning and scheduling as and when it happens, for our Delhi-Leh bike trip which we have intended to attempt in Jun/Jul 07. This is the first post and here are the details as they happened till today:

1) My cousin invited me to join him and his friends on his Delhi-Leh trip scheduled for Jun 30 – Jul 15 2007. This invitation came via an email on 11th April 2007. This is of course a trip of a life time and I would have had no hesitation in saying yes, if not for the fact that my boss had just approved my Singapore vacations a day before. Tickets to Singapore were to be borne by my company and this was a gift for completing 3 years. I had happily announced this to my friend in Singapore and was planning to go in Jun/Jul. After hearing from cousin and being invited to join them in Leh, I was in a fix!

2) After much contemplation, I decided to ditch Singapore and join my cousin (whose name is Rajith, btw). I decided this on April 12th and booked tickets on the same day. My Spicejet flight is scheduled to depart on Jun 30th at 11:30. I paid 3174/- for the tickets.

3) Meanwhile, I did a lot of googling to read travelogues of others who had done this trip. My excitement grew with each story I read Here are some good links that I came across:

1. http://www.xbhp.com/gir/blog/?m=200608
2. http://www.60kph.com/interact/manali_leh_tips.htm
3. http://jayansr.blogspot.com/2006/08/himalayan-motorcycle-expedition-2006.html
4. http://www.yogeshsarkar.com/trips/ladakh05/ladakh.htm
5. A gallery (link too long)
   
6. http://wikitravel.org/en/Leh

Today, April 13 I booked by return tickets on Indigo airlines for Jul 14th (Saturday). Funnily I flew SpiceJet to Delhi and Indigo back to Bangalore during my Dec/Jan Himachal trip too.

So total cost of the trip till now: 3175 + 3024 = 6199/- for tickets

Things to do yet:

1. Plan the route/see what are the pros and cons of the different routes from Delhi to Leh
2. Plan what gear to take
3. Get physically fit

The countdown begins!