Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Conclusion

Day 8 ( Leh – Nubra Valley ) 15^th August 09

The morning was not seeming so pleasant and my back was still hurting a bit, but the 15^th August significance and the aim to reach the “Highest motorable road in the world” gave me the boost to move on. The roads were clear and it was colder than usual as we moved on.

Not much exciting along the and we reached Khardungla around 11, it was a great achievement something I would want to mention in my resume as a landmark achieved and everyone was quite pleased. We managed to get the Indian flag from the army camp near by and clicked a lot of photographs there. I was trying to be positive but the pain was starting to increase which was really not gud.

The next destination was Diskit, just before the Nubra Valley, along the way it was Indus flowing on one side and was a real fun drive. Just before we reached Diskit there was a desert area in which the ride was quite enjoyable but we didn’t stop to take photographs. We reached Diskit around 2 and everyone was really hungry. It was a small town and we couldn’t find any restaurant to eat, we finally found a place to stay and orderd lunch there. We freshened up and had lunch.

My back pain was really troubling me now and was now starting to get worried about it. We had to visit the monastery called the Diskit Gumpha, which was on a hill around 5 km from the hotel. We rested for a while and went to the monastery, when we climbed up the hill on our bikes, the view from the monastery was amazing, with another monastery being constructed nearby. After parking the bikes we had to climb up the stairs to reach the top. Ashish and myself decided not to go up because of my back and his leg and we remained at the foot of the monastery to njoi the view and talking.

It was evening and I went to bed early, it was really important for me to decide what should I do next.

Day 9 (Nubra – Leh ) 16^th August 10

The pain had not reduced in the morning and I decided to head back to Leh, to take rest for today, and give a chance for my back to improve. Uttaran and I requested a French couple staying at the hotel to take me back in their Taxi and they happily agreed. Others moved on to have a look at the two humped camels famous in Nubra valley.

As I headed back the thought process was really on, and it was decision time for me on deciding whether I should continue or I should head back. The thot of the excessive pain was really scaring me, but it has always been a dream for me to do this trip and I really wanted to complete it.

With the thought process continuing I reached Leh in the afternoon and straightaway went to bed. The guys came in around 4 PM and the pain was still there even after the sleep. I decided to leave the group and head back home. I didn’t know whether it was right or wrong, but this is what I promised myself before the trip and I had to do this.

Next step was to find a way to get back and the easiest was to take a flight from Leh. On enquiring we got to know that the flights from Leh are costing 19K for 17^th and 18^th so it was really no option to use. The other and feasible option was to go to Srinagar and take a flight from there, the flight from Srinagar was 4K and I booked that. Next target was to find something to reach Srinagar, from the taxi stand we found there are taxis to Srinagar and I can take one tomorrow, but they would not book us on anyone right now and have to come tomorrow morning for the seat.

The rest of the evening was taken up bby the shopping especially of TShirts and the most popular ones were :

“ How I Got Leh’d” – with a map from Delhi – Leh

“Kardungla – Highest Motrable Road in the world” – with the picture of a Bullet

“My Friend went to Leh and all he got me is this Bloddy Tshirt”

We had dinner and with mixed emotions I went to sleep.

Day 10 ( Leh – Srinagar) 17^th August 10

Ashsih and myself headed out to get a Taxi in the morning and with a lot of problems finally got a seat in the last row of the Taxi. We were not completely satisfied but that’s the best we could get. All of the guys got ready and they left by 11, I had really got them late and they had to reach Kargil today, so I bid them goodbye and went up to the room to rest again.

The taxi was to leave at 4 and I was really getting bored as I was resting almost the earlier day and couldn’t sleep anymore. This was the time I realized that the trip for me is really over and I was heading home.

Boarded the Taxi and there was a pleasant crowd with Mixed nationalities inside, the front had the Driver and his wife and a young child. In the middle there was an Indian hardware engineer and a couple having a British wife and a Spanish husband. On the last row it was an Israeli guy , myself and the helper. The taxi ride was in no way boring and everyone kept chattering about their lives and it made for a fun ride.

Though the company was gud the ride was really bumpy as the road from Leh – Kargil was being relayed and the car was hitiing a lot of bumps, I think I made a wise choice of not going on the bike, as the condition of my bike would have been worse. I couldn’t really njoi the view outside and it was dark soon as well, so everyone finally got tired of talking and went to sleep.

Around midnight we stopped at Draas (The second coldest inhabihited place in the world) with recorded temperatures reaching -65 Degrees in winters. It was the coldest part of the trip but again nowhere as cold as I had imagined. We had a few snacks and moved on.

Day 11 ( Srinagar – Delhi ) 18^th August 10

I reached Srinagar in the morning at around 6 AM, though I really wanted to visit a bit of Srinagar and I had some spare time, but I seemed a bit drained out of energy and the back was not helping. So I headed straight to the airport. I reached the airport at around 8AM, my flight was at 11 AM, and waited outside for a while before they let us in. Comes out that the flight was late by 3 hours which made the wait agonizingly long L .. but I had time to cherish the past 10 days and acknowledge that the work was still half done, I would love to come back again and complete it the next time.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 6 & 7

Day 6 – (Leh Sight Seeing ) 13^th August 09

The done still began a bit early tha expected and almost everyone was up around 8, the main aim for today was to get the Bikes serviced and then visit Leh in general. So everyone got ready and moved out around to Tashi, the mechanic we had talked to yesterday. There was already a queue built up there and we knew we have to be here for a long time, but we were relaxed kept chattering around and waiting for them to be fixed, the work was not much but it still took the whole of the afternoon to get them fixed.

Meanwhile we had applied permits for Pangong Lake and Nubra valley, and got them till the afternoon. The rest of the day had to be devoted to sight seeing and the first place was the Leh Palace. The palace was nowhere as big as the Rajasthan palaces but the structure built on the hill was fairly fascinating. From top of the palace we could see entire Leh. The palace had a museum explaining the design and some old remains.

From there we headed off the Santi Stupa, built on top of a hill, this was something at even an higher altitude than the palace, at a distance from there we could see black spots in the grounds and concluded that those might be army testing grounds. There a rock and roll monk there and we listened to him before we headed back to the hotel. We njoied dinner at KCs again and went to bed soon.

Day 7 (Pangong) 14^th August 09

The pangong lake was around 150Km from Leh and we were told to reach there by 9 and return by 2:30PM if we wanted to come back the same day. But as we are got late and it was 7:30 by the time we left the hotel, the ride was amazing, nice roads and beautiful sceneries. The time factor had been bothering me a little but we needed to push on.

As we passed a fairly green patch with a little stream of water and flowers around, everybody got down to take a little nap J. And we pushed again, near Chang la (third highest motorable road in the world) the road was really bad, the worst we have had so far, and it was similar after crossing the pass as well, the patch was around 10 Km on each side and it wasted a lot of our time. But the roads were gud again after that and we pushed along.

We were almost near the lake when we hit a road block, there was a stream of water running in the middle of the road and this is what we dreaded. The problem is that as the sun starts to come up the ice starts to melt and the stream becomes wider and starts pouring in more water, taking the bikes across was out of the question. It was around 12 and there was no signs of this slowing down. After an hour of trying to find the best place to cross, it was decided to cross from the same place where everyone was crossing :P . but the flow had increased even more of we formed a human chain and slowly crossed the stream, Ashishs ligament was in a bit of a problem, but we managed to cross it without much problems.

Now was the big walk, it was told to us that the lake was around 4 Km from there and we had to walk the rest of the way. The people who know me well know that I was really annoyed on being late at the place and not being able to cross the stream on the bike. But in any case we started walking, the sun was at its peak and at a distance there seemed to be a glimpse of the lake at a distance

I would also want to tell you that I had not heard about the lake and did not know anything about it, everyone else had researched a lot and were looking really forward to it. As we started walking Varun calculated that it will take him 20 minutes to reach there and he bet on it and started walking fast, and soon he was nowhere to be seen. The biggest problem with the walking was with Bandar and his stressed leg, so we were the slowest walking slowly. After walking for 20 minutes we realized wat mirage actually means the bright sun shining on the ground was making the ground look like the lake and the lake was still nowhere to be seen.

We keep walking further and I see a car coming on the road, the driver was going in the opposite direction going to drop some people at the other end, he said he will be back soon to take us. I was filled with joy as I was very tired. As the guy came back we got in the car, and picked up everyone on the way, except Varun. As I got down at the lake the sight was jaw dropping, I haven’t seen anything so beautiful in my entire life and I was just gazing at it with my mouth wide open. The best thing about the place was the calm of the place and the lack of commercialization as well, the place was perfectly clean and not many people as well. When we came back to our senses we realized that Varun was still nowhere to be found, we got a bit worried but then he had nowhere to get lost and we knew he should be here sooner or later. He arrived after almost 10 minutes, and we were altogether.

We ordered Maggie and kept gazing at the beauty of the lake, this is one of the biggest lakes measuring 140 KM, situated at the India China border and most of it being in China. We finished eating, lied down at the lake for a while and waited for the cab to return to take us back to the place where our bikes were. We reached the side around fiveish and the flow seemed even stronger. Now we realized that the flow might be pulling down small rocks downstream and it would be difficult to cross, we tried a few different places and decided on a spot to cross, made the chain and crossed, everyone was quite relieved to have crossed but we had been completely drained of energy and we still had to drive back another 150 KM, all of us being quite wet and the sun setting.

I was in no mood to slow down and wanted to cover as much of the distance as possible while there was still sunlight and was riding very aggressively. On the way we found a biking couple with apunctured bike, we tried to help them with a few of our tools and the pump and all we could manage was to waste another half hour not being able to be of any help ( well we tried J ). The sun had set and it was a bit chilly, being wet was really not helping our cause, and we were at the worst part of the road, we were very slow now as the visibility was also very low. While going up in one of the slopes GKs bike struggled to go up and I quickly stopped and Ashish helped GK get up, if the bike had slipped it would have hit my bike and cant imagine what would have happened.

We had been driving almost continuously for quite some time and because of my hands freezing, I asked Ashish to take over, as I was in the pillion seat soon my back started to hurt a little, but we had to keep moving. After some time I was standing on the back seat as I couldn’t keep sitting, it was a completely free road with not even a single road for kilometers and kilometers. As we came down I came back to the drivers seat and kept moving on, we reached straight to KC’s around 11, had dinner and went to bed.

It had been a really tiring day for me, and my back was starting to hurt a bit, I hoped things would be fine tomorrow morning and I would be on the road. Its 15^th August tomorrow and being near the border with all the army around makes you feel even more patriotic.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 5

Day 5 – (Pang – Leh) 12^th August 09

The night was a bit chilly, it had been the coldest so far, but nowhere as close to what I had imagined. The advantage I had in the trip was that because I was a last minute entry, I had not read a lot and had not prepared much as well, so I had no idea of things were going to be and there was almost zero disappointment.

Hot aaloo paranthas and tea was just we were looking for and breakfast was served, was really excited to reach Leh as I didn’t know whether I will be able to make it or not.

Moore Plains

As we hit the road the first thing we encountered were the Moore Plains, oh boy even the sight of it was breathtaking. So imagine no concrete road, mountains on both sides and around a 500 meter wide dusty path with tyre marks everywhere. It was like a scene out of the old movies where people are on their horses riding in the middle of Mountains on both sides, it gave a real sense of excitement. The road was really dusty and loose mud was making the bike slither a bit and control had to be maintained, after going for about 10 Km we started thinking are we really on the right track or are we lost, 1-2 cars crossing us made us feel that we should keep moving forward. At last we found the concrete road, which was almost always running parallel to us but at a farther point. We stopped to admire the vastness, calmness and the peace of the place. It gives you different kind of a high.

As we moved forward this was the first time we had to use the petrol cans, so they came in handy afterall J and yeah we haven’t found a petrol pump yet after Tandi (at many places you could buy petrol at 100Rs a litre though).

Tanglangla - Second highest motrable road in the world

The next stop was Tanglanga pass, it was the second highest motorable road in the world, reaching there gave me a sense of pride, that I have done something worth remembering all my life. Because of the height the views were mesmerizing ( I know keep using the same adjectives again and again, but each place seems to be better than the earlier one and even more beautiful).

The downhill from their was pretty neat and we really zoomed, all the pillions asses were already hurting a lot, and the bikes going at 80 was not helping their cause, but the roads were so gud that I couldn’t resist. I really appreciate the effort that BRO (Border Road Organisation) puts in to build the fantastic roads. The mountains here were really beautiful, or it was just me noticing them now different shaded, different texture but the heat was no less I wasn’t really expecting it to be that hot.

We stopped at Upsi for lunch very near to the crossing Indus river, and were on our way to Leh. As we entered the city it was still too hot and this was the first time I was kind of disappointed as I was expecting some snow at the destination, but it was nowhere to be found. We parked and tried to search for a Hotel and everyone was going in circles, then the phone came in really handy, I called up Shakul and asked where he had stayed and we went straight to that hotel, negotiated to the price what Shakul had told me and it was a decent enough accommodation.

The first thing to do was to take a shower, and believe me what a big relief it was. We settled down and took some rest. In the evening we went out to find a mechanic as the bikes need to be checked once again and took a time from him to bring the bikes tomorrow. In the evening we went out in 2-3 groups exploring and soon it was time for dinner. The mobile network was not gud and we didn’t know how to contact each other and all of a sudden we all reach at the same corner J , lucky us J. Shakul had told me that KC’s is a gud restaurant with a big screen and bonfire and all and we set out to find KC, it was trouble to find it but “Dhoondhne se to bhagwaan bhi milta hai” and this was just KC.

We finally reached KC and evevryone was starving. We had booze in our mind and got an Old Monk, food was worth waiting for and the ambience was amazing, the place was just perfect but everyone was quite tired and people started dozing off there itself J , soon most of them left and Dutta and me were the only ones, we finished the booze and headed off to the hotel, rejoicing the accomplishment of reaching Leh.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 4

Day 4 – (Darcha – Pang ) 11^th August 10

The day began early around 4:30AM and we had to crap out in the open as there were no restrooms and so we did. Uttaran got into a poetic mode while downloading and said the inspiration was the beauty of the place. I have heard that many ideas strike in the toilet but I poem was a first timer, well here is the poem :

What a view when i was at the loo,

It could have been to a fortunate few,

Slowly the sun grew,

Giving a yellow hue,

When i was doing poo

Everyone took their sweet own time to get ready but we managed to get nice breakfast, and got late again. There was an issue as soon as we started, there was a petrol leak from GK’s bike, this was the worse bike now, ofcourse Sayrathi’s bike was not with us. So a quick jugaad with a thin wire fixed the thing and we were set to go.

Around half an hour into the drive we reached “Deepak Taal” it was beautiful lake in the heart of the mountains, I hadn’t seen a beautiful lake than this before, we took out time there appreciating the beauty of the place and moved on after a while. The roads were nice to drive and we were going at a decent pace. Next stop was at Sarchu around 11 AM and to our surprise we got Daal chawal there, of course Maggie was also available, I had heard a lot about Sarchu and was supposed to be our stop for last night but we couldn’t make it due to delay and had to stay at Darcha, and found that it was quite similar to Darcha, a few more tents and places to stay.

We pushed on and reached Lachulungla, the highest pass we had reached so far, GK was struggling with altitude sickness and he had to take a Diamox, and we were also out of water so we had to borrow it from some passing by foreigners.

As we were climbing up the bikes were at hard labour, hardly managing to go up in the first gear and lack of oxygen was also not helping the cause. At one of the bends Varuns bike could not move further, any guesses who his pillion was (of course it was Bandar) and while trying to get down from the bike he managed to get entangled in the bike and both of them fell J. Just ahead I parked and we reached to their rescue. Bandar had strained his ligament again, and was in a bit of pain.

The worst part of stopping where its not necessary is that all the trucks you have overtaken so far move ahead at their slow pace and you need to overtake them once again L. On that note I must say that truck drivers in this region are the sweetest, you need to honk once and they will give way, some times you don’t even need to do that, more often than once did the truck drivers pull up at the side to let us through, i had a lot of respect for them. A few kilometers ahead a truck parked at the side stopped and asked for “Oxygen wali Goli”, and we were happy to give him the Diamox.

There were a lot of Army trucks on this route and it made for a wonderful site. One of the army trucks had a flat tyre and there was a road block, so we got down from the bikes and took some pictures, one of the army guys asked us as to what we were doing here and as told him we are here on a holiday, he had a surprised look on his face and he said we want to go back from here, why would you want to come here for a holiday J. Country man, little did he know the absurdities of city life J. It was a break of around half an hour and we pushed off again.

We drove for another hour in the valley and got climbing up again almost reaching the top we found a nice view and got down to take some pictures, believe me guys the beauty of the place is breathtaking and the calm and peace about the place was feeling so good.

On one of the turns a slowed because of traffic on the other side and Sayarthi hit my bike from behind and fell down. Luckily no one was hurt and no major damages to the bike.We had almost reached Pang but were thirsty as hell so we stopped by the side and washed our faces in the river and also drank the water, it was cold and refreshing. Almost at pang we had to cross a check post and needed to register there. The point is that these are so remote places that the police wants you to register urself just in case you are lost and they can track up. Two of the bikes had gone zooming past the checkpost and the officers were really annoyed with them on doing such a thing.

We reached Pang around 4 and it was pretty early for us to park, but most of us were just tired driving, driving and more driving, so we wanted to take a break. Ashish wanted to move on but we didn’t buzz. GK was still in bad shape and headed straight to the bed. Pang was no more than a few tents and we parked at one of them, all of the tents were the same cost , so we stayed at the one we had parked J. It was owned by an old lady, but she was very energetic and she handed over a notebook to us to write down whatever we take, this sense of trust was a great gesture and cannot be forgotten. Of course we were not gonna cheat her, but trusting travelers is a big thing.

The toilet was again in the open but there was slumdog millionare type of a rest room as well, and Sayarthi had some relief as he dreaded the open. We had a nice meal strolled around for a while and hit the bed early.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 3

Day 3 – (Manali – Darcha) 10^th August 09

We had not driven for more than 2-3 Km and it started to rain, we as it is were not carrying many clothes and a heavy raincoat was out of the question, luckily I was carrying my Beeline raincoat ( or rainsheet u might say) and wore it, thanks for the effort we put in to buy covers for the luggage otherwise we would have been in deep shit.

Raining in Manali

As we continued the views were mesmerizing, we stopped and had tea for others to catch up, it was around 9 and the rain had stopped. We had tea and some bread butter for breakfast and carried on. We wouldn’t have gone far when we got into the heavy traffic jam of Rohtang pass.

The roads were all muddy and slippery, and we had to ride on the side of the cliff where one slip can do its thing, it was testing all our biking skills. We saw Sayarthi fall down in his bike (giggles) but luckily he wasn’t hurt. I got to the edge of the cliff once and my bike stopped, I asked Katti to get down and tried to get the bike out of there, but it wont move and if it slipped a bit I was goner, no matter how gud I ride, I am still a small fella and the bike was big so I tried again, and didn’t work. I took a deep breath relaxed a little and saw that I haven’t put it in a gear :P . that did it katti had chuckle about it and we were off again.

It would have been a big fall had i fallen from there :D

We had Maggie (Maggie is available everywhere, infact it’s the only thing available in many of the places and the 2 minute thing always works) and eggs at Rohtang pass, there was no snow and was the picture was very different to the one I had seen when I cam e here last in 1998.

Soon the roads were clear but the conditions were not rider friendly and Katti wanted to drive but gave it soon back to me, as he was really worried about my back. We saw a gang of about 50 westerners returning from the trip, all of them in their Bullet 500’s, it was a gud site to see.

Everyone trying to fix Uttarans Bike

We hit another roadblock when the cloth for dusting the bike got somehow entangled in the chain and had been stuck inside the cover, it was shredded to pieces and might harm things if it doesn’t come out, myself and GK being having small hands tried our best to retrieve whatever we cud, but there was a lot still stuck inside. And the tyre was rotating with a lot of friction, suddenly an idea came to my mind. I asked Uttaran to put the bike on main, put it in gear and accelerate full throttle, though there was a lot of friction, but it was just cloth and shredded to pieces and flew out when full throttle was applied, the plan had worked. The incident wasted almost an hour and we were ready to head off again.

Tandi -- Next Filling Station 365 Km Ahead

We stopped at Tandi to refuel as it has a famous board saying last filling station for the next 365 KM. Another funny moment happened when Katti slipped in the dusty road to Keylong and because of the luggage on both sides he was unhurt.

Meanwhile the seal of the engine oil cap in my bike had broken and broken in a funny way, the cap had broken and the rest of it was still stuck inside so there was a very small hole from where the oil was coming out and ruining the jeans I borrowed from my brother :P …. The descent was decent from there on and we stopped at a mechanic shop in Keylong, to fix the engine oil problem as the oil was leaking and low engine oil can cause serious problems.

And the thing we dreaded happened, the spare was not available. On this point another brilliant idea (jugaad) came in Bandar’s mind and he said we can refill the engine oil daily with the use of a syringe, and myself and him headed out to find a hospital or a medical shop to get a syringe, we found a hospital and headed back, on the way back I was talking on the phone and found Ashish loose a bit of balance and fall on the side, I cut the call and immediately ran to help him J . An even more funnier thing happened a moment later, we were coming up on a steep slope and the bike wont pull, we tried every trick in the book and it wont pull up, with the breaks in one hand one leg down on a heavy bike I was like trying to do circus act. Then I asked ashish to get down and help me with maneuver and as soon as he got off, the bike just took off. So it was his little weight (100Kgs) that the bike was unable to bear :P .

We reached Darcha at almost sunset, found there were only a few tents to stay and we didn’t care as it is, had hot paranthas and loved them. Sayrathi found the gurl who owned the tent as cute, which was enough to pull his leg for the rest of the trip. Uttaran was carrying his tripod and we tried to take pictures of the clear sky full of stars I had seen after a long long time but no one succeeded. Time to head to bed.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 2

Day2 – (Rupnagar – Manali) 9th August 09

Everyone got up fairly early and got ready, realized what a big pain tying and untying the lugaage can be everyday. 2 Bikes were in a bit of trouble so they did not have a pillion and had more luggage on them. We filled the tanks and started off again.

Sutlej River

We crossed the Sutlej river, took some pictures and off again. After only an hour of riding the hilly region started leading to Bilaspur which was a gud sign. GKs Bike had a clutch wire problem and the jugaad was in place to get it on its way :) . Sayarthis bike had started troubling now, it was misfiring and was looking in bad shape.

Varun was the cashier and had the common pool, to be a bit on the safer side I asked Varun to give me 5K so that we have money just in case, in the evening I realized that Varun had given me 15K instead of 5, and that is the riddle Varun cant resolve and everyone else cant stop laughing about.

The roads were really nice and the views were exquisite. Around the afternoon we crossed a long tunnel, obviously it was very dark tunnel, but I was riding in the tunnel for the first time, it was different kind of thrill I was thinking it is only one way when suddenly a head light flashed from the front and I realized I still need to be on my side of the road. The ride through thetunnel was really exciting, we joined for a break and realized that Sayarthi and is bike are nowhere to be found, waited for around 20 mins, when he joined us reporting his bike needs a mechanic.

We had a late lunch at Mandi, food was never on our mind (ofcourse till the time you can remain hungry :P). I was following Sayarthis bike as it could not be left behind and now we were stuck as it was not starting. People had taken rest, just a bit ahead of Kullu and Sayrathi and we joined them for a cup of tea. It was alongside the Beas river ( the second river we were crossing since morning ). It was a pleasant time of the day and we njoied the tea alongside the river, meanwhile Sayarthi pushed on to find a mechanic and make up time as his bike was not able to go above 50 anymore.

We reached Manali around 6 and caught up with Sayarthi almost there which was gud, the first thing to do was to find the mechanic and second was to find a place to stay, so we divided into two and started looking. We found a decent place to stay and parked ourselves there, whereas the other guys found the mechanic and all the bikes had to be made mountain ready and overhauling needed to be done. So all the bikes went to the mechanic.

We did not carry any polythenes or anything to cover the luggage and rain was a big possibility now, so myself and dutta started on a search to buy some, looked all over the mall road and found something that might do the job for us. Dutta also got a pair of shoes as his had given up already. Had an ok dinner and slept nicely.

PS : forgot to add earlier, the Mechanic said that Sayarthis bike has given up and cannot take the treturous ride ahead so we were left with only 4 bikes, the bigger problem though was, that what do we do with the bike as we were in Manali and were not going to go back the same way as well. Bandar found another jugaad and got Sayarthi to park at SBI in Manali, later we got the Gati guys to send the bike directly to banglore. Well it was kinda of a blessing in disguise as the bike was really holding us back.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 1

It was a dream for me to ride to ladhak on a bike as its considered the most beautiful ride ever, but I never thot I could do it after my back problem in 2007. The doctor had strictly told me not to do too much biking and a 3000 Km round trip was certainly out of question.

A week before the journey Uttaran came to Delhi to drop his bike which he got from Banglore and to rent thunderbirds for the others for the trip, this was the first time I felt that I should go realize my dream, but the back pain that put me on bed for almost 2 months had not gone out of my head completely and I knew how bad I had suffered. So I sat down and decided what to do as I really didn’t want to miss it. SO I came up with the idea that no matter what if I start feeling the back pain I would immediately head back home, no straining the back more than its limit, doesn’t sound that simple but believe me I would follow that. So I was the last minute addition to the Gang of 7 now with 5 Bikes: Ankur (chotu), Ashish(Bandar), Uttaran(papa/bhokal), Gaurav (GK), Mohit (Katti), Varun and Sayarthi.

Sayarthi had arrived a day earlier and we had to get the 3 bikes we rented and Vijai Dixit was kinf enough to get the third one for us. Everyone else came late night on 7^th and stayed at Manu’s place, We had to start early morning next day.

Day1 (8^th August 09)

As usual we got up late, infact Ashish and Uttarn came to my house and woke us up :D .. so we started getting ready and since we were already late why not take our own time J .. so everyone got collected at my place and we had breakfast at my place, figured out how to use the Bungee chords to tie up the luggage and were set to go (at around 11 of course) … since I was the last minute entry I really didn’t know the plan for sure but today we planned to reach Chandigarh and the decision was not to ride more than 250-300 Km a day.

My House, Noida

One of the bikes started giving problems as soon as we started which is not really a gud sign, but luckily no major trouble and we were on the way. I am not new to the Delhi traffic and know all to move in the traffic. As we reached the Karnal by pass we gathered together and found that Sayarthis bike is not doing so gud. Oh! I did forget to tell you , Sayarthi had a 1988 Royal Enfield and it was not picking up speed, and 60 was the best it could do, and maybe the reason was that Sayarthi and Ashish were sitting on it. So we moved Ashish to another bike to give Sayarthis bike a breather and trust me the bike would have felt a lot better.

We stopped in at places for water and snacks and it was really really hot, slowly made our way to Ambala. Everyone was quite exhausted specially because of the heat and hungry, but here is where Bandar comes in, he had googled that there is a famous Puran Singh Dhaba in Ambala and we shall eat there only. There were Puran Singh Dhaba’s everywhere, so the fantic search for the right Puran Singh Dhaba started and lasted for almost half an hour on which it was decided that the one we found is the authentic Puran Singh and lets eat there. Trust me I would have eaten anywhere they would have taken me, the food was average and not really that great. Anyways we had a lot and finally moved on.

We took a diversion from Ambala and left behind the Chandigrah road and got onto the way to Rupnagar AKA Ropad. On the way there was a beautiful patch with wheat fileds on both sides of the road and the calm evening weather, I just loved the ride J wished it went on forever. After some time Katti took over and I was in the back seat njoing the view, after half an hour I couldn’t sit anymore the back had started hurting really bad, so I got back to riding the bike and seemed ok in a while. We reached Rupnagar around 6 PM and it was starting to get dark. Now the problem was to find a decent place to stay for the night.

As we stayed Ashish went on to find a Hotel and came back after half an hour to take us to the Hotel which was a bit too far, we had to cross a Railway Gate and when we reached ther we found out that GK is missing, on calling him we found out that the his bike has some problem, so Uttaran went to have a look, when they came back after 1 hr we burst into laughter that after a long time they finally discovered that the power button was off J.

We had a nice dinner in the hotel itself and went to sleep. It was going to be an early morning tomorrow.