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.