born2lead

Day 2 - 10 August ‘08
Well plan was to leave Manali by Dawn, so woke up at 4:30am and started to pack, left the hotel at 5:30am and went to the nearest Petrol Station and got the bikes tanked up along with additional two liter in each fuel can.
Few pics enroute to Rohtang.





It was a little cloudy and by the time we were half way to Rohtang it started drizzling. Roads towards the last 15kms to Rohtang were in very bad shape. BRO is working to widen them up probably double lane so the construction work in rains made it quite a combination. Leaving those rainy clouds below, we reached Rohtang at 8am. Not very long ago last time when we (Ankur, Rumia and I) visited Rohtang in mid June, it was all covered with snow and there were cars and loads of kids with uncles and aunties, daadies and naanies all wrapped in big warm suites, but this time the place had a deserted look, only few tents serving tea and few truck drivers enjoying their short tea break.

This was Rohtang on 15 June'08 and below was on 10 August'08

We parked the bikes in front of a tea stall and picked the chairs to position them so that we could enjoy the cold wind reminding us of the altitude we were at on one side and the warm sunrays comforting us on the other.
Comforting him on the chair, laziness showing up in the body language and with winking eyes due to sunrays Ankur asked the tea stall owner to serve us tea and while enjoying the tea we ordered the breakfast too - another round of tea, maggi and bread omelet. We have had all this before endless times but here the experience was so different.

After lazing around for little over half an hour my attention was stuck by some very familiar looking stickers on a passing by MUV, it was a white colored TATA 207 and it had stickers of xBhp and its sponsors OK TATA BYE BYE . COM, CASTROL, CANON and KRP. While I was still trying to realize that what I am seeing is for real, the vehicle stopped not very far from us near a tea stall; well surely it was the atmosphere there that makes every one to take such halts. And that gave me an opportunity to get my inquisitiveness satisfied and instantly I stood up with my camera in one hand and rushed towards the MUV. While I was clicking few pictures a guy asked me “Are you from xBhp”, and taking the nod along with the smile as affirmation he said “This was the Backup Vehicle in GIR” and that today they are carrying a generator for a Tamil Movie Shoot just near Rohtang.

We resumed our ride and started to descend towards Koksar, and in between saw a heavy mustached man enjoying the scenery through his Ray Ban (well they looked like one) with a Cigar wearing a sleeveless Tee and Cowboy Hat, well surely I wont have missed to notice the Mitsubishi Pajero behind him if he wouldn’t have been driving a huge V12 Volks Wagon SUV. The way he was driving this gorgeous machine was like he was gliding around and as if he has forgotten long back that he had gears in that vehicle. They stopped at a crossing board where it said right for ChanderTaal (may be next time with a smile we passed the cruise and the board.



Double lane roads just passed Koksar for a few kms were laid with a fresh tarmac and after the not so great experience since the morning we started to open up the throttle and very soon were enjoying this part in almost touching three figure speeds. While we were still spellbound speeding into the Chandra Valley just suddenly saw a board stating apologize for bad roads ahead by BRO. The next 12kms till Sisu were undergoing resurfacing, so no tarmac just the leveled crushed stones with lots of dust, well surely we came all this way to experience this and we were all prepared for this (well atleast we thought so), so this time we raised are butts from the seat and taking most of the toll on the thighs we finished this stretch.



Roads ahead were a mix of offroading and some tarmac occasionally. There were a couple of small villages here (sorry I forgot the names near Jispa) and there were SBI banks, guest houses too. Met two guys on a Pulsar 150 from Noida, they needed tools to tighten their bike’s chain. I was surprised to see that they seemed quite ill prepared for such a trip, just some local helmets and no riding gears, no tools and of course no spares and yet they had a smile while stating with pride “we are heading towards LEH”. After getting their chain fixed we proceeded further and with the glimpse of Indian Oil sign on a board we knew we were at Tandi. As we stopped at the fuel station the same P150 guys just passed us and while we were getting the bikes tanked up they came back. No prizes to guess that they had no clues about Tandi being the last fuel station for the next 365kms till LEH.



We resumed our journey towards Keylong and saw a board Welcoming into Bhaga Valley. We came across a V infront of us, one of which was pointing to SachPaas, this was important to note as our plan was to take that route as the return journey. This was just before Keylong, which is a nice small town surrounded with few Apple Orchids and fresh water streams, got to know that it is also the night halt for HP Roadways Buses. There were quite a few guest houses too, so next year instead of Manali as the first halt we can look forward to Keylong. We decided to break for lunch at Darcha and proceeded from Keylong. While I was expecting Darcha to be another town like Keylong, it just had handful of tents on both sides of a river bridge along with an Army Unit surrounded by high deserted mountains with snow on there peaks. We reached Darcha at around 1pm and stopped at the very first tent we saw.

While we parked our steeds and settled on chairs, it came to my notice that it was just Ankur and I who seemed like a minority there, with just a few Pahadi locals and rest 80% foreigners. I was thanking GOD for food coz looking at the smaller arrangements and the majority unlike I expected we got a Thali (comprising of Chapati, Dal, Mix Veg), while they also had the options of Chinese and Continental. While everybody else was rushing inside the tents we decided to sit outside under the sky for food. It was an amazing sight with continuous sound of gurgling water and Barren Mountains all around with almost no sign of vegetation but some snow on the peaks.

Sitting back at Delhi we always use to associate hills with greenery and thick vegetation and here it was an entirely different experience.
While we were enjoying the food, two small girls may be 6-8 yrs old came out of the tent with bucket full of cloths to wash. We realized we were sitting on a cemented platform which happened to be there washing area just by the side of the tent. But sensing the discomfort in us they just settled on the other corner of the platform which was approximately 15-17 feet away. I started to think about the difficult life they lead in such extreme conditions. While the owner came over to serve us with the next round of chapattis, I asked him “what do they do during the winters” and he replied that by October they go down to places like Ambala, Faridabad, Noida to sell stuff at the seasonal Winter Monastery Market. And that they would return here next year April to setup this tent, where not only they server food but also provide night stays with bedding quilts etc for just Rs50. And his entire family including the small girls assists him in all this. I then asked the owner about the road conditions ahead and especially towards the next Paas BarchaLa and even before I could realize that I have pronounced the name wrong, the younger girl among the two almost instantaneously corrected me in quite a harsh tone “Aye Uncle BaralachaLa Bolo”, and there I was with no words to speak not even sorry sitting there looking at the girls giggling.

In the post lunch lazy afternoon we started towards BaralachaLa, we crossed ZinzingBar and where again resurfacing was going on but as the roads weren’t leveled very well and there were quite a few trucks too and if that wasn’t all we saw the first bikers group racing down from LEH, some 15 odd Bullet 500 riders all geared up making the most of it. Post ZingzingBar roads were amazing till we reached BaralachaLa.







A German couple came right behind us on a 500Bull when we reached at the top. People have made small piles of stones and at times placed a few balancing one on top of the other and there were hundreds of them, the German couple told us that this is for Luck and we should do the same, which we did.







Roads from here were fine and ride down till Sarchu was quite comfortable; the last 30 kms to Sarchu were almost planes and we covered them in much less time. Saw some green patches with some sheep and goats grazing by the road side, which was the only life we saw since afternoon.











At Sarchu we checked into a tent and met a guy (UK national) who was riding a RX100 which he bought at LEH. Later he told that he had to go to Keylong to get clutch and spark plugs for his bike, and thus his bike was lying at Sarchu since last three days. Had dinner and went to sleep at around 9pm.








Click here for Day 3...