This story is especially for those of you who had written in after reading the Himalayan Ride story of the RD boys from Bangalore and loved it. Some of you had expressed the desire to read more such stories direct from the riders mout..I mean pen… I mean keyboard. Go on and read about the ride in the Himalayas by a few of the Bangalore riders. They all are a part of the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club (RTMC) and the write up is by Prashanth, a prolific tourer on his 1969 Royal Enfield Bullet 350. (Aarrgh! Where is that bullet I’ve been promising myself for so long!! Sigh!)
In the mountains
by Prashanth Kumar P.K
An year ago I was there at this same place riding with a huge group of people… a battalion I should say just having a feel of what it means to be frozen down to the bone… about snow glaciers… and water crossings about tire slashing rocks,… and the lunar landscape !!!.Its fun to have my feet in ice cold water losing sensation. Its fun to get myself shaken off my wits at about 40kmph… just as my bike moves about with a will of its own… but this year I am here again but, now its different… five good friends… a nice group is what I am with the same place again… but different people… so a different feeling
But why again… and how did you manage??? People ask… A bunch of close friends and the wanderlust made it all happen…true to being a democratic Indian I took enough of liberties of pulling the bosses ego down making adventure sound the essence of life and reminding him that he had missed it all… and it would take only two weeks although I knew I won’t get back by then… but well I wasn’t lying was just concerned. That the boss doesn’t get a shock…. and run through tense moments through the three weeks till I get back!!!! It cud be conveyed to him leisurely… well I was just being concerned… so nice!!!!!!
With the bike on a truck and myself cocooned in the sleeper class bogie of a train in true “janta” style I started my journey on the 27th of June.the adventure starting right from the boarding point itself… with 2 members of the team scraping away by seconds in boarding the train… The train journey was pretty uneventful but arising the curiosity of the fellow travelers on watching a bunch of youngsters carrying saddle bags and helmets and always conversing about the ride and the mountains… we pulled each others leg generously and took things on the lighter vein of life… 40 hours later we reached Delhi hopped off and got out through the paharganj side… after a good bit of negotiation with a auto rickshaw driver we reached our regular hotel “Hotel Sahara International” in paharganj area .where Sandy was already waiting for us. He had taken the easier way by taking a flight… we realized that it was a Sunday and the transport offices were closed and there was no way through which we cud get our bikes. So a visit to Karol bagh for our shopping for panniers and sleeping bags was done… while I proceeded to meet a family member who was in Delhi, the others relished on Rum and chips in the air-conditioned comfort of our hotel room…
The next morning was spent in locating the transport office and we were in for a rude shock, our truck had arrived on Saturday and was waiting to be unloaded… but there was an other truck getting unloaded and it would take 6 long hours to be unloaded. After frantic requests and bullying, the transport guys agreed to unload the truck after half of the first one was completed… so there we stood and the saga of waiting continued… we realized that our bikes were on the end of the truck, and most of the stuff needed to be pulled down by the time our bikes would come out… what also shocked us was that the luggage was all piled up on our bikes and damage to them was certain… finally the bikes came down. And we found that my bike and Sandyzz bike was damaged… my bikes tank was dinched and the dc lever was cut and Sandyzz bike handle was outta shape… so cursing we set off to Karol bagh to fix our panniers etc… and filled fuel and got ready to leave early next morning for we already were behind schedule by a day.
Early next morning we loaded our luggage and started off… getting out of Delhi was a task that was a bit tough. one on the beautiful four lane highway we kept the throttle wide open to do three digit speeds and reached chandigarh by 10.30 or so… we headed straight for “T”zz place… tiwana always referred to as “T” was from chandigarh and also Priti was supposed to join us from here… So the stopover. Good hospitality at Tzz place with parathas and butter and picking up odds and ends like fuel cans and after Priti picked up a helmet for herself we repacked filled our rations of water etc and around 2 pm left chandigarh headed towards manali.the raods were nice and we kept up to good average speeds but the stopovers and the darkness of the night made going tougher. We decided to halt over at kullu instead and found a nice comfy place @1000 bucks a night for 6 members. After a nice meal at a close by restaurant we slept well hoping to wake up and leave quite early…
We did wake up early but not too early though, today’s destination being keylong or jispa and the ride through the rothang pass through manali… we reached manali after a short ride and went into town to do some shopping for some cans, food and gum boots… we spent over an hour doing the stuff and got ourselves some sandwiches from the bakery and got back to where we had parked our bikes. thatzz where I met a friend of mine from pune sachin chavan who was getting back after his ride in the mountains… last year as well I had met him in darcha when he was getting back… call it coincidence… he had recognized my bike and pulled over… so after a small chat and some photographs we left manali and started our climb into the mountains as the pine trees became smaller and smaller… we stopped at madi for chai when Ranjith realized that his camera needed a new battery and the spare he carried was a bit oversized!!!! The scenery was awesome with greenery all round and winding roads throughout. as we reached rhotang pass the place looked like a mela ground with crowds of people and vehicles all over and in a bid to get through the crowd we missed the Rhotang jot board and the snaps…
From rhotang it was a downhill journey till khoksar the roads were in pretty decent shape and we kept up a good pace with all the four bikes in one row with me and Mahendra following last. we stopped at khoksar for our lunch of maggi noodles and omelets the only thing on the menu… after having our fill we proceeded towards tandi where we needed to fill our fuel rations… just about 7 kms off tandi the road was straight and nice and everyone zoomed past. Mahendra who was riding then too picked up a good pace and as we proceeded we hit a fine patch filled with fine dust… the heavily loaded bike veered out of control and we went flying away… I managed to jump off and watched Mahendra flying away into a heap of mud screaming away “sorry da machaaaaaa”… Mahendra got onto his feet and walked upto me with a guilty look on his face… looking for my reaction… well I just handed over the camera and asked him to take a snap for the memoirs… The damage… was a torn leather riding pant which I was wearing, a bent footrest and the front number plate on the mudguard. We lifted the bike and got to tandi fuel station where the others were waiting and explained over laughs how we had just gone “off piste” … tandi was the last fuel station before leh 365 kms away and so we stocked fuel rations. Our bike and Sandys bike carried about 11 liters each plus a tank full and Ranjiths bike resembled a mini fuel tanker with about 20 liters plus a thankful… we rode into keylong town and in the heart of town found the hotel we were going to stay in “valley view”. a real nice place nice carpeted large rooms with hot water and clean loos @ 250 bucks was a good bargain although food was a bit expensive for that place. After making a couple of phone calls and a couple of drinks we retired for the night…
Early next morning by about 8 after a breakfast of bread omelets and some photo session… and checking up the bikes we started off towards sarchu. Ranjiths bike needed a clutch adjustment.. And Tzz bike needed a clutch and a tune-up work… after this we got on the road and kept up a good pace until we hit a slush path… mahenda got down and walked over hoping to take some good snaps and I am sure he did do so…
Happy with the start of rough paths we proceeded further at a slow pace to hit an other water crossing… baralacha. i was riding all through and was having my share of fun while Mahendra was on a photo taking spree… happy with the fun we had been having we climbed further up again with me and Mahendra bringing up the rear…the sound of bikes chugging away was heard making a rhythm… when suddenly it stopped… the reason was a massive river crossing(or waterfall shud I say??)..The water was gushing away in top force over the boulders and there was a maruti 800(yes I got it right) on the other side of the crossing… T has managed to cross it and so we were convinced that we cud do it as well… But whatzz the maruti800 unto was the question… an elderly man , a woman and two kids were the occupants of the car. They were from chandigarh and had unknowingly ventured out on this route!!!… My suggestion for them was to wait until 7-8 PM when the water level reduces as the water freezes to ice over the mountains… but the fear in them and their persuasion for help convinced me to take the wheel… i got into the car and was like “boys give me a shove when needed “he he… so with the accelerated floored and the clutch let off I entered the water in full force with the wheels flying over the boulders and water splashing all over… as the car crossed three fourth of the crossing ..it got caught by a huge rock and got struck… With the engine at full revs I tried hard to get it out by slipping the clutch and with 5 people pushing it… the car refused to budge… and also the engine coughed, spluttered and died !!!!… so struck right in there I looked out of the window… half the car was in water… if I opened my door it would just flood the car with water… I pulled the choke and kept on cranking as T and Ranjith tried to clear the boulder off… finally after a lot of effort the engine started responding slowly fired to life and revved her limit. I shifted over to gear and as I let the clutch go the manpower too worked with the engine power to release the car off the obstacle and the car was on the other side… as I got off with a sigh of relief T was right in that ice cold freezing water he has missed his footing and had plunged in… all our feet had lost sensation and we relaxed for sometime and slowly Sandy and Ranjith took the bikes across… when it was my turn I took the bike in a bit too fast and into the wrong place and it went over a huge boulder forcing me to
drop it in the water… but the engine was revving away and I managed to lift it again and ride it through.. The kicker had fallen off into the water but luckily I had noticed it and we got it back… I cant really imagine our plight if that was lost… the long stay there at 16 thousand odd feet had done enough damage and most of them were having bad headaches… altitude sickness had struck bad and we rapidly descended to bharatpur where at a tent camp we sat sipping tea .the tents were really comfortable and slowly one by one got under the warm quilts and passed off… except for me and Priti all were out and it was decided that we stay there instead of proceeding to sarchu the same day. I had a good meal of phulkas and some veg curry and countless number of chais, as Priti settled down with her daily dairy writing I spent time chatting away with the nepali couple on their ways of life… altitude sickness sure does bring out confessions… as one was concerned that he had spent all his savings to do this ride and lay there suffering undergoing the torture, the other one admitted that he should have been happy riding up nandi hills and drinking beer and eating Chinese pakodas.at Scottish pub .. the third one agreed that going on the wyanad ride with a girlfriend would have been a better option.. so with one more round of chai and a nice talk with a trucker I settled down into the warmth of a nice corner and slept away ..
By next morning everyone was feeling much better except for Priti who was feeling sick by the morning… . some local medicine and one round of diamoxes seemed to do the job of keeping people steady… after breakfast, a couple of snaps and tune up and chain tightening of all the bikes we proceeded on the next part of our journey. This day we would pass the 2nd and the third highest motor able passes in the world and also gets to ride through the gata loops and the more plains. We entered the Project Himank range after sarchu and did slow speeds and lots of stopovers for photographs. Towards afternoon we had reached brandy nallah we stooped over … I cud see Ranjith and Sandy much below on the bridge munching something… me and Mahendra relished on a chocolate each and Mahendra decided to have a smoke and I decide to get down and ask Sandy and Ranjith to hurry up as T n ptiti had gone ahead already… Mahendra said he would wait where he was until I got back and I went down and got back with Ranjith and Sandy not to find Mahendra ..we though he had “passed away” behind some rocks and frantically searched for him for over an hour and were exhausted and had to give up. all kinds of thoughts came up… there was a truck which had passed… .had Mahendra been kidnapped????… Fully worried me and Ranjith were trying to get back our breaths when Sandy decided to go further and check out.. About 5-10 mins later Sandy returned with the message that our Mahendra was around up the mountain posing for snaps.. He had hitched a ride in the truck and got down when he saw T n Priti… I was furious and on questioning his reply was “hey macha I did wave to u before I took off”… .and there I was stunned at his reply wanting to *$&# him.. Grrrrr… at last relieved that he was safe and after a couple of snaps we started off from there into some really dusty mountain terrain which had seen a lot of landslides continuously..
We scaled the gata loops a series of 21 hairpin bends raising elevation to a couple of thousand feet feet’s… to reach pang for lunch.. The bridge at pang was broken and that required wading in water. The first one to take it was T and he did it pretty well although he ventured into a bit of deeper water… . then was Sandy who did it peacefully holding a steady throttle.. And then Ranjith who did it with quite a bit of help… and then its my turn… I walked across… kicked the bike to life, shifted gear… blipped throttle and entered the water blasting away… I cud feel water splashing allover. And the bike cutting through the current… well I almost managed it through when I felt the bike sucking in water through the air filter and then the only option was to cut it off … so for the second time I got struck in pang for the same reason… with help from the mates I pulled the bike out and the saga of clearing the water started. And we successfully started the bike… Straight over to the group of tents at pang we went to have our lunch and a couple of chais… ..Sandy myself and Priti ate well while the others were a bit on the bad side of altitude sickness… Sandy tried his beat to manage a few pods of garlic from the Tibetan lady who ran the tent but with no luck… finally an hour later we started off to get down into the more plains which allowed us to open throttle a bit… although a straight stretch the road surface was uneven And would throw us over the bumps.. Mahendra took over the riding and we continued keeping up decent speeds to manage reaching our destination for the day… we stopped for some good snaps and then took off at good speeds to cross tangnangla the second highest motor able pass. The usual photography session was hurried over to descend as altitude sickness had started to pop up again … we descended over to rumtse where we met a good old army man from Karnataka handling the army outfit there. The guy ran almost half a kilometer seeing the KA registered bikes. And played host really well … .so a round of chai and some slices of bread…. Talk of the hometown and stuff … .we got up to leave after politely turning down his offer for the dinner and a packet of food to carry along for the way!!!!!… we got back on to the road eating out kilometers at a decent pace, as usual me and Mahendra we bringing up the rear with Mahendra riding when I noticed Tzz bike running under inflated … we stopped them and pumped up air and got on the road again. By which the sun had gone down the horizon and darkness had set in… . we made it to upshi and stopped for a much awaited chai, the bike also needed fuel as it had just then run into reserve and we got to use our rations. From upshi guided buy the headlights we set of towards choklamsar where we decided to stay for the night… Ranjith and T took off at full blast…. Sandeep and ourselves rode at consistent speeds with our bike providing the extra lumens for sandeep to move ahead… it was a torturous ride with lorries not letting us any place on the single lane road… .finally we reached “Hotel Indus” at Choklamsar and I got in to find the old mate “Chef Ben”… we managed two rooms @300 bucks each and me and Ranjith got to leh market to buy some food for ourselves from the only source “Amritsar Punjabi Dhaba” as the whole leh market closes at 9.00 pm, while Sandy and the others got to sleep after the tiring day… we planned to stay over the next morning at leh town itself… so we cud really sleep well without needing to get up early…
The next morning we woke up at a relaxed pace to find Tzz bike had a flat, lucky that it hadn’t given up the previous night… Sandyzz bike had broken back stays decided to get my bike washed at 100 bucks a wash.. so we pulled out Tzz rear wheel and got it to fix the puncture while my bike got washed… .me and Mahendra went out to the DC office to arrange for inner line permits. I spoke to the big man himself and managed it quite easily… the afternoon lunch was decided to be had at KC garden … the food wasn’t that great but the boards proclaimed that it was quite a “happening” place… although we never got to find out weather it was… we walked around leh market in the evening and got back to sleep early after fixing up sandeeps stay welding…
Early next morning we packed up and set out towards nubra valley through Khardungla pass … we were stopped at south pallu for our permits and we proceeded to khardungla and it started snowing then… .wow what an experience ..Ranjith rode with his visor lifted up and his tongue out hoping to catch some snow in his mouth… … .almost after 2 hours of riding we reached the pass ..it was totally packed with almost 50-60 people out there… .looked like a picnic spot… the chai served by the army free last year was priced at RS 3/- this year and there was pakodas also available @ 10/- a plate … after the been there done that picture
We proceeded to khardung in the nubra valley through the north pallo..We were checked for our permits again and we descended down and we got a glimpse of the beautiful nubra valley..We stopped at khardung for a meal of maggie noodles and tea…. After which we started our decent on well paved but winding mountain roads… Hats off to the Border Roads organizations for their ability in keeps the roads in that state countering the harsh weather conditions… not only were the roads in good shape there were road signs put up. We were as usual bringing up the rear when suddenly after a turn I realized that far away I cud see two specks which looked like bullets but one was on the road and one right below it… . as we got nearer we realized that T and Priti were off the road with their bike.. They had gone off the road into the mountains after negotiating a turn and not being able to get onto the road… . luckily they weren’t hurt much except for t who had slammed his rib cage against the handle bar and Priti who had bruised her foot… thankful that the damage wasn’t much we pulled out our first aid kits… while Sandy and Mahendra struggled to roll the bike downwards to hit the road passing below … the damage to the bike was a bent fork and a totally bent handlebar. The footrest had protruded into the clutch case breaking it at the oil level inspection screw. The wheel had also gone outta shape so was the crash bar … Ranjith came to the rescue using all his muscle power to straighten out the handlebar and the footrest along with the crash bar. . Nothing much could be done about the wheel and the fork so we decided to leave it at that and proceed further with T riding solo and Priti riding pillion with Sandy.. We slowly proceeded towards sylok where the road branches into two one going towards Hunder and Diskit while the other towards panamik … we choose to go towards panamik and return to get back to diskit and hunder the next day.. en route we found a desert and we all jumped in to feel sand in the snow country… .Priti managed to footprint RTMC for a great snap and Ranjith set up the tripod and we all posed and the camera was all set… and thee comes Ranjith hurling towards us right through the lettering messing the whole thing up … with enough of curses for dear Ranjith we took a couple of snaps and proceeded further…
We reached Panamik early in the evening a through enquiry educated us that we cud go no further as it was army territory and we were barely a few kilometers from the siachen base .we decided to say at the North Adventure camp … clean tents at 150/- per tent accommodating two .the place was really nice and food though expensive was nice. we spent the evening talking to two Swedish guys who were cycling around !! … The place usually had electricity for 3 long hours everyday … but since about 15 days they had run out of diesel for the generator and the army wasn’t much bothered… so well candlelight was the only option. And then Ranjith and Mahendra opened up their bottle of Old Monk and we hit sacks …
Woke up pretty early and Sheru the doggie took us out to the Hot water Sulphur springs. While we were desperately trying to find a soul to ask the way…sheru walked up in front. And waited giving us a stare as if trying to say’ idiots why cant u just follow me, I know where u want to go”… the sulphur springs were found and I decided to have a good dip for sometime in the small rooms built out there where the water pours in after mixing up with the mountain stream to make it pleasant temperatures. The bath was really great and it felt nice… . after which every one got in one by one …
We returned back for our breakfast and decided to leave just after breakfast and Sandy noticed that his bikes wheel and handle bar wasn’t aligned we pulled off the front wheel mudguard etc and checked if anything was loose and fixed it back. The problem wasn’t solved so we decide to give it a check once we reached leh.. so now with Priti back on Tzz bike and Sandy riding solo we proceeded slowly back to leh deciding to skip hunder and diskit .Sandy was maneuvering the bike with his handlebar to the extreme left but his bike still seemed to be going straight … but since it was a Monday and a dry day through khardungla there was zero traffic and we had the roads and the mountain paths to ourselves… .so we kept phut-phutting slowly and were just short of 4 kms for K-top when Mahendra said “macha the French guy whom we met is waving wildly on a hairpin below us. I was riding so I pulled over and stopped.. Mahendra got down and started running towards the French guy and his vespa while the Frenchman was try in to push the scooter up towards us… as i stood watching I saw Mahendra reach the bike and join the Frenchman in pushing the bike !!!… as they neared me I walked across and asked… whatzz wrong… Mahendras cool answer “dun no da… we need to ask”!!! And happily the Frenchman proclaimed that he had just run out of gas… just the way he had while going down… .but then how did u get to nubra then I questioned… ..oh a jeep gave me some gas he said… ..jeep and petrol I was surprised and for a moment I thought the vespa was running on diesel… .he confirmed that it was a small Suzuki jeep… oh a gypsy… .ok I relaxed… ..he confessed that he had fallen for someone words that petrol was available in nubra and had just rented the vespa and taken off… so cutting a bisleri bottle to be used as a funnel we poured in two liters of fuel from our 12 liter ration. And the guy offered payment, which I refused politely, asked it to put it up for the wonderful memories he would carry from India. he thanked me for saving him from pushing the bike for the 4 kms after which he thought he cud have rolled down the mountain for 40kms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a couple of more snaps on k-top we descended down uneventfully except fro running into a pack of wild yaks… we got back to leh and got Sandys bike checked and found one fork tube broken and it cud only be fixed next morn. So back to Indus we checked in and slept away after a good meal…
The next morning we got to Jumazz garage the man was quite busy tuning bikes (150 bucks for a carb adjustment) brake cleaning (front brake drum cleaning @rs 175)amidst which we barged in and I managed to pull the fork of Sandys bike apart myself … we replaced the tubes with new ones ..And the guy hammered the stuff in. he decided the bushes were all extra fittings and just threw them off… so at the end of the exercise I just pushed 600 bucks into his pocket and walked off… we got back to the hotel and started off towards pangong-Tso we were just reaching upshi when we saw two bullets taking off in the opposite direction… we waved casually and we saw one stop suddenly… it was MH registered and so we turned back to find a friend Histaspk and his wife naaz from mumbai ..they were riding with the 60 Kph and were returning back from tso morrori. He had recognized my bike and had stopped… .so wishing each other luck and hoping to meet after we get back we proceeded further… the ride was good with really nice roads and bridges built everywhere throughout… we stooped at a checkpoint to meet a manglorien Sunil on duty … so we spoke in Tulu and about South Canara while he served us tea and suggested about the place to stay and stuff… .so on his directions we proceeded further to find Wonderland… a nice resort kind of place nicely done up and stationed ourselves in the warmth of the quilts while Mahendra and Ranjith went to hunt for some smoke and old monk… and t and Priti decided to go for a walk… .after a long wait everyone returned and we settled to have our grand dinner of great pulkas, dal and some green peas… ..superb food I shud say we had our fill and retired for the night planning to wake up early and ride to see the sun rise over pangong…. . Sandy decided otherwise and so did Mahendra so me,t Priti and Ranjith decided and Ranjith asked me to give him a wake up call… Early in the morning our resort dude gave me a wake up call..it was freezing cold and I managed to wake up and get set to go… t and Priti too were ready and I tried waking Ranjith up… .through the window I cud hear.. “Its too cold dais aren’t coming you go”… so we three set out and after almost an hours ride reached pangong ..the river was beautiful changing colors as the sun changed positions. I waded into the lake with the bike for some good pics!!
We spent sometime out at the lake enjoying every bit of it and turned back A couple of signboards on the road warned us of landmines and to stay away on our way back we met our teammates getting to the lake leisurely… as we got back we had our fill of breakfast and waited for the pals to get back so that we cud start off back to leh… .after the guys returned we spent sometime photographing the place and Ranjith decided to let his slippers wade down in the stream hoping to catch up with it somewhere downstream!!!
After bidding adieu to younus and his guys (who run the place)we got back … an uneventful journey throughout except for a couple of Tibetan kids throwing water over us on the roads… .we finally realized that it was some sort of a festival that day and it was a ritual… Back at leh we relaxed and roamed leh market looking around for some souvenirs..Ranjith was impressed with a lamp shade which would have costed only a fraction of the price back here… Sandy was busy hunting around for some designer “tops” … while Mahendra was looking at some stones… ..we got back and I decided to do some washing and cleaning while the others still went around the market….Sandy returned after sometime and told me that he had met up with the 60kph members in the leh civil hospital and one of them had a fall and a fracture and hence were delayed … ..I got back to town hoping to meet the guys n gals and I did … first with gaurav and amol getting to load a bike on the truck,. I joined them and after the task proceeded to leh market to meet up with the other members after a round of introductions with members whom I hadn’t met and an exchange of hellos with the familiar friends we settled down at a restaurant talking about nicer moments … I split with the team and planned on meeting up somewhere throughout on the way… they were scheduled to make an early morning start whole we hoped to start only by afternoon as most of us needed good rest …
We got up at a relaxed pace in the morning and bid adieu to nishanth and ben as we proceeded on the journey … we refueled at the only fuel station and proceeded we hoped to see the zero gravity point … a place which defies the principle of gravity… .we got on to the kargil road and moved on a steady pace as we(me and Mahendra) leading the pack ..the road seemed straight and flat but the bikes really refused to cross the 50kph mark on full acceleration… … we reached the magnetic hill after about 25 kms of riding and stopped to feel the phenomena and for the pictures…
we rode flat out from there and as we reached a series of bends and got out we found a group of bikers… and lo thy were friends… the 60kph members. they had stopped to regroup and we started off with them to stop again. The reason… amols bike was having an electrical problem and we tried sorting it out… the bike started and we proceeded only to stop again thanks to the bike stopping again… amol was badly upset with the bike and alwyn offered to ride it after fixing it and we split away and proceeded on our own… .we reached a small village and stopped for chai when we were told that the meera marg after drass was closed on Fridays for mining and we would have to stop at drass for a day as it was Wednesday that day … the sixty kph guys too arived and they suggested that we stay at lamayaru… we reached lamayaru pretty early and Sandy suggested we move further up and reach mulbek… but mulbek was really a tough reach cozz we had to cross two passes the fotula and namkala … .in the eerie silence and darkness of the night we proceeded with our headlights to reach the next point where we could hit sack … Sandy cursing himself for the suggestion throughout… .we reached mulbek by about 10-1030 and managed stay at the govt guest house at 40 bucks per head… but with only one working toilet and water to be carried in from outside … just cozz the plumbing had ruptured somewhere and none had bothered to repair it… ..we went out for a quick dinner at “the Paradise” after a fast drink… ..
Early next morning we started towards kargil after some breakfast of parathas … we reached kargil pretty early
And we could see the huge military deployment. We made a couple of calls and heard from the guys.
About the number of people being killed in the last few days and about shelling going on in drass… so what… we reached all the way here and we are going further we decided. and proceeded to see the tiger hills and the Indian army at its peak deployment… a sign board read” Do not Stop, Halt, or Slow down, you are straight under enemy fire. The posts on your right is guarded by the enemy”. and other board prohibited photography… so well we got away silently hoping that the enemy wouldn’t try target practicing on us… ..30 kms later a board proclaimed that we were on the second coldest place on earth…
We reached drass to check in at the tourist bungalow and were told that there was no place… .so the only hotel at drass being our savior… .we got into a bit of tiff settling the price but further took two rooms to catch a good sleep fro the night and to get up and proceed at 1am to cross zozila pass… .we grabbed a spicy meal at a local joint and slept under the warm “rajayis” at 12.00 the mobile alarm woke us up and we dressed up and got out… to travel 25 kms of road which had huge craters. And since it was pitch dark it was inevitable to maneuver without hitting any!! … by about 1..45 we reached a check post called meeramarg where a number of vehicles… typically the amaranth yatris were waiting and the gatekeeper coolly told us that the barricade would open only at 4.45 in the morning … so cold and shivering we stood there and found a small makeshift chai joint where we grabbed some chais and biscuits… .at 4.45 when the gate opened it was like a dirt track with all the 4X4 zz blasting away with dust on our faces… .we had a hard ride through slush and water and were stopped again at a checkpoint for more details to be filled in… as we stood in the crowd… the guard proclaimed… ..”Any motorcycles??… . Let them come first and get away”… so well bikers are respected after all!!… We got off from there to hit the beacon highway… .superb tarmac roads and fairy tale type of landscape as we entered into Kashmir … sonemarg to be precise… .amazing it was… ..
we got into sonemarg and stopped for breakfast of some omelets and bread… .and the guy decided to charge us 3 bucks per slice of bread and 20 bucks an omelets. .and plus table charge of 50 bucks!!!… After flaring up the costs came down drastically and we paid up and we proceeded to leave when the 60kmh crowd emerged… . well a small chat. And gaurav suggested we go into sonemarg to see “Mandakini cottage” and stay at the house boat … we took the info and got through to the mandakini cottage to see naturezz magnificane and proceeded to Srinagar… dusty roads army convoys made the going tuff and messy… we decided to follow a military truck with two armed guys behind with rifles pointed at everyone and yelling to get out of their way and we made brisk progress in getting into Srinagar… but by the time we had got to Srinagar we were in such a mess that we looked like proper Tramps… ..and one passerby even asked preeti about the number of days since she had had a bath and even directed her to a cheap place to take a shower..
We landed up at the house boat place and started making enquires about a boat called the “Little Ceylon” wit no luck but found an other boat called robin hood for 50 bucks a head and 50 bucks for a three time simple meal… we took the offer and with all our luggage packed into a shikara we got through to the boat in two trips with our bikes parked in a safe place … a nice refreshing bath on the house boat and a nice simple meal brought our spirits up and we slept for quite sometime after which me Ranjith and Sandy and Mahendra decided to go on a boat ride to see the various places… on the dal lake… a nice ride it was the boat cutting through the waters at a slow pace… .while we relaxed… .the normal life happens on the dal lake on boats… everything is bought and sold in boats on the water channel itself… so well we got into a cloth shop where Sandy and Ranjith did extensive shopping (I ant saying more) and Mahendra too picked up some stuff while I just looked around… ..later we managed to find some booze and coke again on a boat at real expensive prices cozz its smuggled in from haryana and sold in black… .after a couple of drinks we decided to go and meet up with the 60kph team… where the boat man said his boat cud take 12 ppl and he would take us. It was a small boat… me and Mahendra got in… so did Ranjith… and when Sandy got in … he steeped over the edge and the boat toppled… while each of us held on to the houseboats railings for dear life… somehow we were pulled in… so fully shaken we sat… with most of em blown outta their minds… .but the spirit of adventure never died and we decided to do the journey in an other big boat… the boat came and we proceeded to the 60kph boat… narrated the adventure over laughter and discussed the lighter vein of life… late in the night we got back to our boat and slept peacefully hoping to wake up early next morning, which as usual did not happen… … we conveniently got up packed and got out to continue our journey… .as we proceeded to get out of Srinagar town we were stopped by the police to check our identities… all of us pulled out our ids when Ranjith realized he had left his license over on the boat… so some frowning faces and me and Ranjith got back to the boat house to get the license… so exactly towards afternoon we were out of Srinagar on to the Jammu road… the roads were good and we kept up to real good speeds… we were stopped at the jawahar tunnel but were let off easily without much fuss… ..we were blasting away through a corner when suddenly a huge catchments of policemen waved to us to stop… ..we stopped over immly expecting some trouble… when one of the police men… casually told us that there was puja happening at the mandir and we should pray and wait for the “Prasad”… stunned we pulled off our boots. And waited for the Prasad to be served and managed to get off the place… ..as we were nearing the road was getting better and windy and we had good fun blasting away till the top… ..right on the top suddenly we found Ranjith stopping in the middle of the road and trying something on his bike… we pulled up to him and he explained that he had heard a clack sound and it had just jammed… on further checking we realized that there was some gearbox trouble. i sat down on the road to dismantle the gearbox and the next moment realized that we were surrounded with guns pointed at us… .the usual questions and after we had convinced them that we were desi guys on some wild voyage and had got stranded. they let us continue work but with vigil on us… removal of the gearbox proved Ranjith chettanz might… for he had managed a broken gear cog and also the main sleeve… ..by then the 60kph guys had arrived and suggested we load the bike on a truck… we flagged down the next friendly trucker passing by and dumped the bike into it with the 60kph guys helping us in the task… thanks friends… .we followed the 60kmphers and had a nice ride through the well laid out winding roads till Jammu… .we reached Jammu and had planned to meet at the kali temple … we found the place… waited and waited but Ranjith and Mahendra on the truck were not traceable… towards 10.30 I decided to venture out to the highway to check up and as soon as I had made two trips up and down I was chased by a swaraj mazda and stooped… ..guns popped up at me and uniformed men stepped down and took position… .I was asked for my ids..and questions when found satisfactory they seemed to relax a bit but well they wanted to check my belongings… they tried to search me and found a long screwdriver in my jacket and my handitool..the leather man in my waist pouch… all my things were strewn about all over and all they found were bike spares and tools… ..they calmed down and helped me put in everything back and pack it and strap it on the bike… and one guy gave me serious gyan about how unsafe the palce was and how every outsider was a suspicious guy and explained about their liberty to shoot anyone down without questions!!!!!… . Adventure indeed..
While I was having my adventure… Sandy had called our common contact in Bangalore and luckily we had the communication established and our pals landed up at about 11.00 we unloaded the bike and managed to convince a nearby household to leave it there till the morning … they agreed with a condition that we take permission from a local police chowki… oh to find the chowki was a big task… but after that we managed it fine … and set off to find a place to bunk for the night. We were again stopped by a police party and checked and the guy “Thakur policewala” gave us a few leads and directions to find a place to bunk.we managed to reach the place and finally bunked for the night…
The next morning we suggested T n Priti to leave for Pritis home… “Batala which was nearby… .cozz there was no point in them waiting… we found the top mechanic in town bansi bhai and me and Ranjith after confirming with him went to get the bike … ..dragging the bike along in traffic was a big task and we finally managed with my bike towing the broken down bike… .bansi bhai did a pretty quick job and charged accordingly ..i and sandeep got our bikes washed and we set off towards patankot .the ride was good … till evening and we were doing pretty good speeds when Ranjithz bike conked off and he ended up spraining his leg… we tried our best to fix it but the exhaust valve was getting struck and we cant get it going… .we used up some good lads who offered us a place to put our bike in their shop … and we proceeded back to patankot for the night stay…
Early next morning we decided that Ranjiths bike shud go on a truck back… and we found a transport “Nitco” which would take the bike to Bangalore… .so about 15 kms we went back and sandeep and me towed the bike into town… .again the old lady doing the pulling job… .we put the bike at the transport office and got back to the hotel and found that our luggage was a bit too much to accommodate… .Ranjith and Mahendra offered to take alternate means of transport but myself and Sandy were persistent that whatever we need to finish the journey on the bikes… We piled luggage like crazy… my bike looked like a goods lorry and the riders were not to be seen from behind for the pile was that high … Sandyzz bike with Ranjith pillion looked like it was to take off for the back shock springs vanished into the cups… so slowly we proceeded further towards ludhiana … .where we halted for the night … we got up the next morning and continued towards Delhi… we reached Delhi in the peak traffic and struggled in to our hotel at paharganj… ..tired and weary we were at last happy and comfortable for the ride had turned on well… Sandy needed to catch the next mornings flight and we got into karol bagh to pack his bike off… again on Nitco … .Ranjith wanted to meet his cousin at the other part of town and I decided to take him along… .and as we reached Ranjiths dear sis was really proud of the younger bro zz adventures … and well I settled down to narrating the turn of events and the sort when we realized that we were actually expected for dinner and dinner was waiting… I suggested that we call the other members to have dinner without us. but well dear Ranjith had different plans… of grabbing a second round as well… .but well we reached by 12.00 and Sandy and Mahendra were too pissed off cozz they just had waited for us and had to go hungry!!!!!
Well Sandy left early next morn.. And mah decided to stay over to catch a flight later.. Ranjiths train was in the evening… and I decided to ride back alone and left early in the morn… as I had crossed faridabad… the heavens let loose and it started pouring… .the bike spluttered coughed and died … the fault was traced to water being sprayed on the ign coil… a bit of cleaning and wd40 did the trick ..I got back on the road again… .and did good speeds throughout… and managed to cross gwalior … further on I was doing good 3 digit speeds when suddenly I heard a loud burst and the bike served out of control… .I ,managed to pull it off the road and drop it… .I had guessed it right… a tube burst it was… I slowly pushed the bike back on road… and pulled all my luggage off to check the damage… .6 broken spokes and a tube was the damage… and the culprit was a metal piece which had cut through… ..I dismantled the wheel and put in a new tube and managed it fine… I had a curious bunch of onlookers … asking all kinds of weird questions about my origin, religion… identity… .job and the sorts… .and as I finished packing a bunch of the so called “elders” convinced me to have lunch with them. of the amazing dal and rotis… ..i agreed and a guy set off on a cycle to get the necessary stuff from the village while I settled down on a nice machan. .talking about the adventure… ..the food arrived and I had my fill… by which the people around me had decided that I was a madrasi and a”Fauzi” posted in Kashmir… and I was just returning home on my “Chutti”… .they were thoroughly convinced about the same. thanks to my dress and the color of my bike… I decided to play resistant… .and follow the fun… ..the guys were persistent about my Job profile (KRA for the corporate crowd) and I happily replied that my job was to wipe the windshields of the planes … … check the air pressure in the tyres… .fill fuel and the sorts… … .and the crowd was sure impressed… .and the next question was “oh u must be fixing guns as well”..haha yes I replied proudly… and the next moment one of the dudes had pulled out a gun to just show it to me and to explain that he would “overhaul”it on his own… ..a bit stunned I slowly gave them the slip and got back on the road… ..that night I stayed at “guna” in MP a nice small place with closed parking… @150 bucks a night… ..ate a nice dinner of rotis and dal..and slept early…
Woke up early next morn and set off on a good pace… . passed indore on the bypass doing about 125kmph too good a road… got through mhow… .and malegaon to shoot through to shirdi … stayed at shirdi @150 bucks a night … and got out early in the morning to blast through ahemednagar into pune … .pune was homely staying with some intimate family members … so a nice reunion… ..and a whole day was spent there… …
Early next morning I left pune heading out to Bangalore ..i just kept to 3 digit speeds throughout ..the roads were being done up. but were decent with diversions throughout… … I filled up at satara… .and continued,… and by the time I reached kholapur I had run into reserve again… .. as I stood for the refuel I noticed the strong smell of petrol… so I filled up and pulled the bike to the side ..Put err on stand… and I noticed some petrol trickling over the engine… oh no… I realized that the tank had sprung a leak thanks to a rocker cover nut rubbing against it… i pulled the tank out… removed the nut… and used the usual soap trick and it did work… so I blasted over from there… .the whole road is lined with construction activity of pulling A.B vajpayeezz dream alive… the golden quadrilateral… with deviations throughout. I kept to real good speeds throughout and about 2.00 had reached belgaum and stopped for lunch… in 20 mins I had finished a ghee rice and some salad… and I started again… .keeping to good speeds hoping to halt at chitradurga and proceed… but towards 7.30 I realized that I had already reached chitradurga and Bangalore was just 200 kms away … the blinding lights were a bit of a pain… .but still I proceeded keeping up to 80kmph plus speeds… ..and well uneventfully reached nelamangala by about 10.00 … I blipped throttle hard from there for home was just about 14 kms from there… .and well in 15 mins I was inside my house… in 14.5 hrs I had done pune Bangalore… ..the thought of which gives me the creeps… … .but well its been a wonderful trip… some thing I wud always remember… the team was awesome… Sandy,Ranjith,Mahendra,T and Priti were great friends and we formed a wonderful team… and I am sure each one of us will remember this trip for years to come…