Incubus

“After your first day of biking, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in your brain. You ride through Dreamland on a wonderful bike that changes your definition of biking and you grow to evolve as a different individual with an attitude to learn and to explore the nature that surrounds you”.



Biking is a newfound passion recently discovered a little over a year ago. Although there were small rides on the Rx 100 to nearby places like Mahableshwar and Lonavala, things changed when I got the Fazer in Jan 2010. I had joined a small biking group called Bladerunnerzz and have completed more than 16 rides with them, the longest being Kerala. There was an attempted Saddle sore on the Rx100 to Pune and Bangalore and back (1600Kms); however it was completed in 27 hours instead of 24 hours.

It was a distant dream riding to Leh, although there have been many bikers traveling to Leh-Ladakh and the beautiful Spiti Valley from all over the country sharing their experiences. It was difficult to muster the courage to travel 2000+ Kms of hilly terrain, add to it the amount of funds that would be required for a ride which was near to 6000+Kms spanning over 24days. My friend and fellow biker Bharat mentioned that his brother Vasant was heading to Leh, that’s when I decided it’s now or never.

I already had custom made saddle bags with a rain cover, a mountaineering back pack with a rain cover, riding jacket with Alpine stars knee guard’s and made a last minute purchase of DSG water proof gloves. Saddlebags can never hold everything you want, but they CAN hold everything you need. The bags were large enough to accommodate enough clothes for 14 days.

Thanks to Bharat for lending me his sleeping bag and Cramsters hippo waist pouch and approving my leaves without which I would not have been able to make the trip.
Special thanks to Ayush for lending me his Videocon Map my India phone, it provided a lot of help for navigation around cities like Varodra, Jaipur and Delhi.

I am going to skip the details on the gear listing part as it is an exhaustive one considering you would need to carry gear, spare parts and medicines in case of any emergency.

__________________
Royd

My first saddlesore attempt on a RX100:

Journey to the city of Pearls: Hyderabad on two wheels

My memorable ride to Kerala- God’s own country (3500Kms)

Incubus finally Leh'ed


"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived".



Owned:
1976 Bajaj Chetak
1986 Yamaha RX100 (Jap Engine)
2003 Honda Activa
2010 Yamaha Fazer

SKSy_Biker

Travelogue approved

Incubus

Thank you for your approval

Cheers!

__________________
Royd

My first saddlesore attempt on a RX100:

Journey to the city of Pearls: Hyderabad on two wheels

My memorable ride to Kerala- God’s own country (3500Kms)

Incubus finally Leh'ed


"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived".



Owned:
1976 Bajaj Chetak
1986 Yamaha RX100 (Jap Engine)
2003 Honda Activa
2010 Yamaha Fazer

eliksir

waiting for the rest

__________________
CRAP Blog

Incubus

Day 1: 4th July 2011- Pune to Vadodara (630Kms)

The excitement was way too much to handle, I still could not believe that I am going to Leh and I was unable to sleep. It reminded me of the same excitement I had before my saddle sore attempt on the Rx100. My parents were up early and were tensed about my safety as I would be traveling all the way to Delhi and back alone without anyone for company. Mum’s are like angles from heaven, always caring and ensuring that their children are well looked after. My mum had taken the effort to make a lavish breakfast to ensure that I do not leave home on an empty stomach and even packed extra food for the way. As I was packing and rechecking my gear till late night I overlooked packing the Tubeless tyre puncture repair kit and realized it halfway to Mumbai. The route was straight forward to Mumbai via NH4 with a few confusing turns hear and there onto NH8 that led straight to Delhi. The Videocon GPS phone was put to use to get on to the right route. Initially I was quite hesitant with its accuracy and directions, after confirming with three different people at different intervals I was convinced it was a 100% accurate. The packed food was a blessing as it gave me the flexibility to eat whenever I wanted on the highway without wasting time to stop and order for food.
Mumbai to Vadodara was a superb stretch of tarmac and I made the best of it.


Vadodara was reached in less than 10 hours. The best part was that most pumps accepted credit card payments which would save me the trouble of exhausting hard cash. Upon entering the city I was greeted with stares from every commuter on the road as if an alien on a UFO had been sighted. On the way I had made arrangements with my friends Mayank and Prachi to stay with them for the night. It was an auspicious day for Mayank as he was just taking delivery of his new Hyundai i20 and it called for a celebration. I was already tired; a week ago I had returned from another ride from Bangalore and due to lack of rest was resulting in fatigue. We picked up Prachi from her work place and headed out for dinner. It was a joyful reunion as I was meeting them after a long time and we had a lot to talk about. Seeing my condition they suggested I take rest for a day and then leave for Jaipur which I gladly accepted. Upon laying my head on the pillow the lights were out and only came back on when I woke up the next day.

Day 2: 5th July 2011- Rest day at Vadodara

Prachi and Mayank played the perfect hosts making me feel at home all the time. Even after they left for work they kept checking with me if I had my meals. The decision to stay back was proving to be worthwhile and I was enjoying lazing around. Now it was time for the Fazer to have a clean up. I headed to a nearby pressure cleaning centre and was amazed by their sincere work of doing a near to perfect clean up. They had used a sponge for fiber parts, a cloth for metal parts and a brush to clean the tyre’s. For 50 and 30 minutes of effort it was value for money and I went home happy. I had even hand washed my riding jacket, jeans, knee pads and boots which were soiled. The temperature in Vadodara was so hot that the jacket had dried in 3 hours flat. The rest of the day went lazing around till the time Mayank and Prachi returned from work. We had a good dinner and I went off to bed early with the hopes of leaving early in the morning for Jaipur.



Day 3: 6th July 2011- Vadodara to Jaipur (800 Kms)

It was a regular phenomenon that I don’t hear the alarm go off or I put it off in my sleep, I was woken up by Mayank at 6AM and packed off my stuff in a hurry. Bidding them adieu I hit the highway by 7AM and continued the journey onward. I was targeting reaching Jaipur within 12 hours which looked remote as I would need to cross Ahmedabad. I was made aware that 2 wheelers are not allowed on the Vadodara Ahmedabad expressway and I would have to travel via the old NH 8 highway which was a narrow 2 lane highway which had multiple turns to stay onto NH 8.


The handling of the Fazer is brilliant even while overtaking trucks at 90+KMPH, the only drawback being the lag in power delivery which became more obvious with the weight of the saddle bags and backpack loaded on the pillion seat. Nevertheless it chewed the Kms and did not complain maintaining high speeds for long stretches. As I crossed Udaipur dark clouds were assembling up above signaling rain is near. I took a halt at a Dabha to grab a quick bite and enjoyed my meal.



The flat plains of Rajasthan did not pose much of a challenge and I was able to reach Jaipur by 9PM. The 14 hours ride had ensured that I was tired and needed to crash in. Locating accommodation late evening can sometimes be a pain in the wrong place. After roaming in circles I found a board which stated “Hotel New Pink city” and I decided to check it out. The rooms were average and it did not make any difference to me as I just wanted to crash. It did not come as a surprise that the owners asked many questions to understand where I had come from and where I was heading to. After sometime they were convinced that I was a genuine traveler and not a terrorist! I quickly changed and rushed to one of the nearby restaurants to grab my dinner, came back and crashed.


Day 4: 7th July 2011- Jaipur to Delhi (260 Kms)

I had spoken to Vasant of my arrival to Delhi and he had mentioned that it would be better to leave by 9AM so as to reach by 4 PM. He was working in one of the esteemed firms in Gurgaon and would be able to meet me on his return back home. As usual, I landed up in Gurgaon before time and was hunting for accommodation by 5PM. Vasant had recommended staying near Karol Baug so as to be closer to the meeting point which was fixed for the ride. Accommodation rates were quite steep and after a lot of hunting landed up in Pahar Ganj and settled in for a decent accommodation for 800 bucks a night in a pleasant AC room. Prachi’s Brother Sunny was also joining the ride and would be traveling from Lucknow. We were uncertain on the accommodation front to which we decided that we shack up at the same place at Pahar Ganj. The bike was due for servicing and while I was roaming in circles with my bag and baggage I noticed a Yamaha center (Perfect Yamaha) at Karol Baug and had enquired on the timings of the center. The next day would be spent on servicing the bike, replacing important worn out parts. For dinner I visited the famous Galina restaurant at Ghole market and gorged on their famous mutton shek kababs. By the time I was done it was already 10PM, time to crash out.


Day 5: 8th July 2011- My stay in Delhi

Sunny had left Lucknow early morning and was expected to reach Delhi between 4 and 5 PM. I headed out to the service center and kept waiting for someone to come by. There was a steady drizzle which was there most of the time to wet the road and then stop as quickly as it had started. I kept waiting for someone to come and open the center and was disappointed to find out that the authorized service center had shut shop and the space was taken over by a private player. The unnecessary waste had cost me a couple of hours and I wanted to ensure that the bike would be serviced the same day as the ride was scheduled to start the following day. Post some enquiries I found an authorized service center (SETCO Yamaha) located behind the Moti Nagar bus stand.



The only major work done was a change of clutch plates to ensure the bike would be able to take the load on a hilly terrain. It was another long wait nevertheless worth the effort and I was enjoying the noticeable change in performance. Sunny was yet to reach and I was famished. My friend Bharat had recommended a few must visit places around Delhi and one of them was Wenger’s pastry shop at Connaught Place.



On my return back to the Hotel had paid a visit to India Gate as well.



Sunny arrived just in time and was hunting for the location of the hotel; somehow we managed to sail through the navigation part as Pahar Ganj was highly congested with vehicular traffic. Sunny settled down at the hotel and we looked around later for dinner on foot around the hotel and were quite reluctant to eat around that place with the chickens being cooked in the open dusty area. We had almost walked for a mile without much luck. Sunny was in the mood to gorge on some kabab’s and I happened to tell him of my experience of eating at Galina. He was so delighted with the thought of eating hot mutton kabab’s that we headed on to Galina at Ghole market after picking up the Fazer back from the hotel. The GPS phone was repeatedly put to use and had become my assistant for navigating around the city without stopping to ask people directions towards our destination. We enjoyed our meal and headed back towards the hotel. Both of us were exhausted after the long day during which we went about our respective tasks, however the excitement was heightened as we were set to leave early in the morning at 3:00 AM.

Sunny and Incubus





Day 6: 9th July 2011: Delhi to Pathankot (500kms)

Sunny had crashed out the moment he laid his head on the pillow. I tired to sleep with little or no effect. I could feel the adreline rush, all pumped up with the thought of the ride. So while Sunny slept in peace I packed up, checked the weight of the saddlebags to ensure both were evenly weighed and sat there dressed up watching television till it was time to leave. I tried waking up Sunny at 1.30 AM and all I got was an “uhhhh” and an “Ummmm” and again he was out. Finally at 2AM I succeeded in getting him to stand up wide awake. We were to meet Vasant at 3:00 AM at a point 8-10 kms away from the hotel and thanks to the efficient hotel checkout procedure we got out by 3.15AM. We were late and Vasant was waiting at our rendezvous point patiently, he was happy to see us and from a distance I could make out a fully loaded Bullet with a carriage case and a lot of equipment. We greeted each other and moved on to the start point of the ride which was somewhere near the Karnal bypass on NH1. To our delight there were 6 Royal Enfield bullets, an Fz16 and a Fazer waiting for us and I was happy to ride in the company of the lords and the thumpers of the street.



The Fazer fully loaded


The initial plan was to ride to Ladakh via Manali and return from the Srinagar route. Vasant had mentioned that there was heavy rain around Manali and the Rothang pass was in a mess with slush and landslides.
With a quick round of intro’s we headed towards Ambala via Karnal.


Km reading from the start point



We were to cover 500Kms on the first day itself; there was a sense of urgency with all the blokes to cover as much distance possible with some amount of traffic on NH1. The only traffic which was there were crazy truckers who though they could outrun 2 wheels with their excess baggage of goods. Its not that I have anything against them, they are making a living transporting goods for our consumption and are doing remarkably well. It’s just that they need to mend their attitude towards two wheelers by giving way rather than pushing them off the road.
We started off in a line formation and somewhere ended up in a wedge like formation occupying most of the three lanes on an average velocity of 80Kms/hr. Our first halt for breakfast was to be at McDonald’s at Karnal which was around 100Kms from our start point. We reached there to find out McDonald would open up only after 7AM which would have been a long wait for us. We settled down for JhilMil dhaba and gorged on Paratha’s and Lassi. Vasant was busy as usual gathering updates on the Manali route conditions. It seemed to be a hopeless situation as there was incessant rain battering the region around Manali and there was news of Landslides at Rothang. We reached Ambala and received confirmation that Manali was ruled out. We would have to travel via Srinagar. As we crossed the Rajpura toll towards Ludhiana I felt a sudden change in the climate. It was gloomy and in no time the heavens opened up. It felt like as if the rain gods had released a ton of water per second. Wind, thunder and lightning just piled on battering us as if that was not enough; we came across pools of water with muck logged due to road widening work further slowing down our pace. We took a breather at a roadside dabha to sip on hot tea. It was cold, and we were drenched to the bone. Earlier before our stop Vasant had already confirmed that travel via Manali was ruled out. We stopped at McDonald’s at Jalandhar and made use of the lavish lawn to dry out our socks and boots. Some of the blokes were luck enough to have space for an extra pair of shoes which were put to use. Initially it did feel quite odd walking inside a joint like McD’s barefoot, it was rather a hapless situation and nobody cared about it. We reached Pathankot quite late in the evening and were lucky to get a hotel and I was amused that we actually parked the bikes inside the reception are of the hotel! The intent was to keep our bikes safe. Even better, we found a small dhaba and had a decent dinner post which we enjoyed a little ice cream as an incentive to keep up the spirit. There was less talk as we headed back, our leader Vasant had kept the start time at 5:30AM the following day and we all had to catch up on sleep.

__________________
Royd

My first saddlesore attempt on a RX100:

Journey to the city of Pearls: Hyderabad on two wheels

My memorable ride to Kerala- God’s own country (3500Kms)

Incubus finally Leh'ed


"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived".



Owned:
1976 Bajaj Chetak
1986 Yamaha RX100 (Jap Engine)
2003 Honda Activa
2010 Yamaha Fazer

revvhard

Amazing log Royd...
its great to see someone from pune travel all the way to delhi for a trip to leh,givs us lazy fools some motivation to get off our asses and on the saddle

__________________

ridermax

HA! Finally Royd, the thread i up ! Was wondering whats holding you up (?). Looking forward to the rest.

Cheers !

harikeshpk

good story and good going. waiting for the rest

__________________
Mountain biking on impulse with my wife and our bike goes down in water

http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/2...own-water.html

my saddle sore 1600k is official - the story

http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/2...ddle-sore.html

my space
www.harikesh.com

Incubus

Day 7: 10th July 2011- Pathankot to Ramban (260Kms)

The group was ready in the morning to leave towards Ramban. I was all excited to see winding roads and the same was felt with fellow bikers on the Fazer and the Fz16. For some unknown reason some of the group had got lost and we had halted at Jammu to re group. We headed to Ramban via Udhampur, lots of traffic was experienced. JK drivers have some nerve and skill to maneuver the sharp bends at high speeds even with oncoming traffic. How on earth do they manage to do that? Sunny was as usual at his best on his P220 having the skill of taking on the curves with pace.





One of our fellow bullet riders had a minor mishap as he took the bike off the road while negotiating a bend. One moment I saw him all fine riding at a decent pace and within seconds saw him flat on the side of the road in my rear view mirror. Sunny and I turned and went back to help get the bike of him. Luckily there were no major injuries besides a few cuts and bruises. The fall had damaged his mirror and headlight and there was nothing major to worry about.



We continued with a speed to stay together as a group, although there was an occasional burst of speed with the sporty Yam’s to enjoy the handling of the bikes on bends. The river Chenab was in full flow and we could hear the rumble of the water from a distance indicating that the force of the water was high. We reached Ramban pretty late evening and were in a discussion to decide either to move ahead or stay the night in Ramban. We later decided to stay put and only found one hotel with rooms available. We shacked in and went to the river bank; there is a beautiful temple right on the bank and some hutments around it.



Sometimes I wish we had gone ahead and taken a chance to get accommodation some other place as the electricity in the hotel went off by 10PM and there were a lot of mosquitoes due to its location being near a river. We had found a dhaba to have dinner, little did we realize how famished we were. We had consumed more than 50 rotis with dal and Sabji. I later enjoyed the evening with a couple of vodka shots and retired for the day. The start time the following day was an early one at 5.30AM, we all retired without second thoughts.


Day 8: 11th July 2011- Ramban to Drass (300 Kms)

Starting early in the morning seemed to become a routine, nevertheless there were no complaints considering what we were here for. After a quick briefing by Vasant we headed out towards the famous Jawahar Tunnel, for those who are unaware the tunnel is 2194.56 meters above sea level, Jawahar tunnel, situated between Banihal and Qazigund, has been operational since 22 December 1956 - built with the help of German engineers, at that time it was the longest in Asia.



This 2.5 kilometer long tunnel, dug through a mountain of Pir Panjal range, is the main link that connects Kashmir to the rest of the country. In fact, it's not a single tunnel; "Jawahar Tunnel" is a set of two long wet tubes, each 2825 meter long, dug inside the mountain range!



Apparently Sunny and I were playing the role of a “Sweep” and were to stay behind to ensure no one gets left behind. We clicked some pics outside the tunnel entrance and enjoyed covering the tunnel at a brisk pace. We soon came upon an amazing view of the Kashmir valley, a point named “Titanic View Point”. It was then I realized the importance of having a DSLR with a wide angle lenses as I was unable to capture the entire valley with my camera.









We had halted for breakfast at the point itself. 13 bikes lined up in two rows did attract a lot of attention. The place was small and there was an elderly gentleman manning the outlet. To save up on time, few of us invaded his space with good intensions to help him out make omelets with almost 30 eggs and loads of namkeen consumed. Wit fuel in our belly we headed out towards Srinagar.





Traffic in Srinagar was a terrible mess and to add to it we had to stop to withdraw cash. Apparently one of the bikes got lost and we waited for the bullet to meet us where we were waiting.



We rode around the Dal Lake in formation and halted a short while to capture some pics. I was happy to see that there was some cleaning work going on, hope the lake stays clean post the effort put in.




I was feeling like as if I was having a dream within a dream. The surroundings were so picturesque that one would just feel like living with nature.


We headed out towards Drass and reached the beautiful town of Sonamarg which is a tourist attraction just before Zoji La pass.



The place was quite crowded due to the Amarnath yatra. We thought we had enough time to reach Drass as there was enough daylight, we were wrong. The moment we reached the corridors of Zoji La we were greeted by a serpentine queue of vehicles stuck due to overloaded trucks trying to climb the massive ascend round the mountain. We tried to navigate the trucks from the left, from the right- where we could slide down back from where we came rather quickly as there were no safety barriers. Either ways seeing the number of landslides throughout the journey it did not make sense as the debris would not be able to be cleared easily if there were barriers. There was a point when we had even turned back to head towards Sonamarg in frustration as it would be scary to be stuck on the Zoji La pass without food and shelter, the pass is also known as the “pass of death”. We had hardly traveled 500 meters when were stopped by some trucker who showed us that the traffic had begun to move from above. Delighted with the prospect of pushing forward towards our destination we headed towards the “pass of death” pushing our steeds to the limit on the dusty track. As we climbed higher and higher, my head began to spin. There were a large number of tents camped in the valley below where the pilgrims were put up. The higher we went the smaller the tents looked, to a point where there were like stationary multicolor ants.



I finally got my first encounter with snow on this ride and it was a delightful achievement to scale the “pass of Death” situated at a height of 3530 meters.



After we clicked some pics we traveled towards Drass. The roads were quite bumpy with craters all over the place. Daylight was about to end and I was already getting the jitters of traveling in the dark. There was an eerie silence around and all that I could hear was the thump of the bullets and the soft growl of the Fazer. The route seemed deserted with and the occasional trucker that came by. We came upon an army outpost and tried to request them for accommodation for the night. It was rather obvious they would refuse as they would not be able to accommodate us, however told us that we would get accommodation at Drass which was around 40 odd kms away. To add to our misery one of the bullets had refused to start and Sunny was behind helping to tow the bike. Seemed like there was some problem with the clutch cable, I am not sure of the intricacies of a bullet. Somehow these guys made it through. It was pitch black now, with the only visibility coming from the headlights of the bikes. We started to rev with the intent to reach Drass as soon as possible. The consistent jerks had begun to make my shoulders and back ache. The Fazer is strictly not meant for off-roading and here I was pushing the bike at 60Kms/hr. The chill was becoming unbearable, the terrain- good enough to rattle your teeth. With grim determination we reached Drass and went directly to the JKDC guest house. Vasant had been here before and said it was one of the best accommodations available in the small town. Drass is the second coldest inhabited place in the world with a min temperature of 40 degrees! We ordered for food to be prepared from a restaurant across the street and unpacked and changed. The thought of having a shower vanished when I opened the tap to splash water on my face. It was ice cold and my fingers began to numb if I kept my hands more than a minute under the running tap. After making a couple of calls back home I headed for the restaurant for dinner. We actually dint realize that we were so famished that we consumed more than 90 rotis and 4 chickens amongst 13 of us. The food was excellent, every penny worth and we headed back and crashed. As there were only 3 rooms available we stacked up 3 in a room. Here is where I got to use the sleeping bag and I pulled up the zipper of the bag and was dead asleep.

Day 9: 12th July 2011- Drass to Leh (200Kms)

I woke up with the chill in the air even before my alarm went off, the cold water made my teeth rattle, it felt like as if there was ice kept in my mouth and my teeth wanted to dislodge and run away. Somehow I managed the ordeal. The moment I went out of the room for a stroll I could feel the chill and wonder how people survive out here. Since most of the blokes were still sleeping I decided to stretch my legs a little and captured a few pics of Tiger Hill, a mosque near the guest house and the guest house as well.











The road from Drass was in a bad condition and I had already accepted the fact that it would be the same from here onwards.
We reached Kargil by mid day and stopped for brunch. A couple of bullets underwent some minor repair work and one of them required a change of clutch plates which could only be taken care of at Leh. Post the repairs, fuel and food we reached Mulbekh which had giant status of a deity carved on the slope of a hill. Post a few pics we crossed Namikala which was at a height of 12198 Feet and reached the Fotula Pass, the highest point on the Srinagar- Leh highway.





It was quite windy, and the only sound that could be heard in that area was the loud thump of the bullets. There were plenty of prayer flags around, which signified a place of importance.
With the frequent stops for pics, the condition of the roads and the wind pushing us both ways we headed towards the famous village called Lamayuru.



The approach to the village itself was stunning. Winding roads, the towering structure of the monastery situated against a hill was a feast for the eyes.




We decided to shack up here instead of traveling directly to Leh. We tried for accommodation at a small guest house right next to the monastery. It was futile as there were no rooms available. Getting accommodation was quite a task with the few guest houses asking for a large sum per room. We had actually spent a couple of hours hunting for a room rather than using that time to travel towards Leh. In all the stay was worth it. There were only a couple of charging points in the room and I managed to charge three appliances with one adaptor. We had a decent meal and crashed off. The itinerary for the next day was quite simple and straight forward. We were to visit the monastery, spend some time and then head to Leh.

Day 10: 13th July 2011 Lamayuru to Leh (100Kms)

The habit of ignoring the alarm to wake up had now changed to waking up without the alarm. I was up early and got ready quickly as the gear was required to be loaded onto the bike. I used up the remaining Motul chain clean and used some of the Yamaha Lube as it was very evident that the chain was taking a beating in the dusty conditions which we had traveled in.
Lamayuru is one of the largest and oldest monasteries in Ladakh, with a population of around 150 permanent monk’s resident. The oldest surviving building at the monastery is a temple called Seng-ge-sgang, at the southern end of the Lamayuru rock, which is attributed to the famous builder-monk Rinchen Zangpo. While we explored the monastery we enjoyed the view from the height we were at. Some of the little monks seemed to like our steeds and wanted to have some pics clicked with it.



One of them enjoyed to sit on my bike and even posed with dark glasses borrowed from a fellow biker. He was one cool dude with lots of attitude!



We left Lamayuru by noon after having breakfast and made a dash for Leh. The roads turned butter smooth and encouraged us to ride as fast as possible. We reached Nimmu in no time. We reached the famous “magnetic hill” where we stopped to experience the natural phenomena but we could not feel anything on two wheels. There were boxes drawn on the road and we were supposed to keep the bikes within the boxes. We were told its better experienced in a four wheeler. A couple of the blokes on bullets did feel something; I tried a couple of times and then gave up. A small army convoy was passing by and we had to get off the road to let them pass.
The road was as flat as a runway, a straight stretch of tarmac right up to Leh.



Sunny and I were delighted and opened up the throttle. The Fazer seemed to choke after crossing 80 km/hr apparently it seemed due to the density of air which was low at high altitudes. I had read about this in travel logs written by bikers on XBHP suggesting a remedy for this. We reached a point where there was a sign board which indicated were a mere 10 kms from Leh.



Everyone was jubilant and celebrations began. It was a first trip for all of us with the exception of Vasant who had been here before. I had to pinch myself to believe that I am not dreaming. This is not even a dream within a dream and I made it! We headed on to Leh, one of Vasant’s colleagues had arranged accommodation in a cozy guest house and we began to seek directions to locate it. With a lot of assistance from the locals we managed to find it and shacked in. The agent who was arranging our permits gave us sad news that there was a delay in obtaining them which meant that we would not be able to proceed without them. Rather than wasting our time in the guest house we planned to visit the tourist attractions in and around Leh the following day. Once settled in we headed to tend to the needs of our steeds. There was a mechanic who was specialized only with bullets and everyone tried to get their bike fixed. Sunny and I decided to chill out, make some calls to near and dear ones and check out the cyber cafes around Leh market.
We had missed out on dinner so our buddies packed some food for us which we gratefully accepted. Post dinner we crashed out.


Day 11: 14th July 2011 Sightseeing in Leh (50 Kms Approx)

We woke up early and headed out to tend to our steeds post which we had a decent breakfast at a roadside shack. We headed towards the famous Shey palace which was located 15km to the south of Leh on the Leh-Manali highway. The 3 storey palace is perched on a hillock overlooking the beautiful Shey village. 'Shey' loosely translated into Ladakhi means mirror (or maybe reflection) and it is the reflection of the palace on the still waters of the lake below which gave origin to its name. Shey used to be the capital and the home for Ladakh's royal family. The Shey palace is situated at a strategic location overlooking the entire heartland of Ladakh.
There are 2 statues of Sakyamuni in the palace complex. The first one located inside palace is made of gilded copper and is about 3 storeys tall. The other statue is in a temple outside the palace, nearby a group of white chortens. This seated statue of Sakyamuni is about 7.5m tall, made of copper and brass plated with gold and studded with gems and other precious stones. At the foothills of the palace there were handmade souvenirs and also prayer flags which we all purchased to carry with us back home as a memento.



We moved on further down the road to Thiksey Monastery.
Thiksey Monastery, an outstanding specimen of Ladakhi architecture, is a glorious Buddhist monastery located nearby Leh in Jammu and Kashmir. The monastery is located at an altitude of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) in the Indus valley. Thiksey Monastery is the part of Gelukpa order in Buddhism and is beautifully located in the picturesque top of a hillock. It encloses numerous stupas, Thangkas, statues, swords, wonderful wall paintings and a large pillar carved with Buddha’s ideas and preaching, all in a mammoth 12 storied building complex. A marvelous Buddha statue in the seated position is adorning the main prayer hall.



We were mostly engrossed with clicking pics and admiring the architecture that would only be found here and not where we come from. With most of our day consumed we headed back towards Leh. I had taken the liberty of riding a Bullet Machismo 500 and was delighted with the feel of the bike. En-route we passed through Chuglamsar, a district in Leh which was destroyed in the cloud burst which occurred in August 2010. It was heartening to see that people were back on track with their lives and most of the houses were re built. Upon our return to the guest house in Leh we were informed that our permits had been delivered and were all excited to ride to Khardung La Pass. A last minute decision made me take out the fazer and head over to a mechanic to do some adjustments to the carburetor to reduce the fuel flow by inserting a thin copper wire in the Carburetor jet. At high altitudes due to lack of oxygen there is a reduction in the combustion of fuel leading to the engine choking with excess fuel being wasted. This technique was mentioned in a couple of write up’s by fellow bikers who had previously scaled Khardung La and shared their inputs. After getting the small modifications done I headed to the Leh market where we had dinner and retired to the guest house for the night.

Day 12: 15th July 2011 Leh to Hundar (120 Kms)

I woke up at my regular time at 5.AM without any assistance with an alarm. I was rather surprised that this was becoming a routine for me and I was able to do a pretty good job of getting up without being dragged from bed.
Daylight was already out; the clear blue sky’s now had menacing clouds which were covering most of the mountain range. Vasant confirmed that we would need to carry change of clothes for a day so that we can travel to Nubra Valley spend the night there and travel back the following day to Leh after visiting the adjoining places. I carried my backpack tied with a couple of bungee cords to the pillion seat of the Fazer.

We had hardly covered about 15 kms when the road began to ascend in a winding fashion which began to strain most of the bikes. The chill in the air began to increase. Even with the thermal DSG gloves I was feeling my finger tips were getting numb. The higher we went the more resistance we felt with our bikes negotiating the climb in the first and second gear. It was rare that we even touched the third gear. One of the Fazers began to stall; no matter what we did it was becoming difficult for the bike to climb. The bloke had even confirmed that he had done the carburetor modifications the previous day. We reached a place called North Pullu where we were required to submit a copy of our passes to move ahead. I was actually having boiling hot tea like one would drink water. My hands were almost frozen and I had to keep rubbing them together to get some life back into them. After having almost 3 rounds of tea we found that the Fazer was still having problems. Rather surprised I tried to remove the air filter of the bike to allow more air to be absorbed. It worked for a few Kms then again stopped. Somehow all of us managed to reach “Khardung La”, the world’s highest motor able road at 18380 Feet. It was a moment to cherish for all of us who had overcome arduous terrain.






For me it was still a dream for which I had traveled all the way from Pune to realize it. It was rather soon I began to feel early signs of Altitude Mountain Sickness; the same became evident in the group as well. I gorged on some piping hot Maggie with tea and rejoined the group clicking pictures to capture the emotions of overcoming the obstacles faced during our journey. All of a sudden I felt a chill in the wind and it began to rain snowflakes. Though the flakes were really tiny but you could feel it. It was an unusual scenario where you had the sun burning your skin, the wind blowing icy cold and snow flakes falling around you. What more can one as for?

With one of the Fazers in trouble there was initial talk of turning around and after some discussion the group split up with 6 of the riders deciding to go ahead and the remaining to return back to Leh to get their bikes fixed. We headed on towards the famous Nubra Sand dunes. The roads were at their curvaceous best, the only drawback being a narrow two lane road with mud at the corners which could be fatal at high speed maneuvers.



This was never going to deter us from enjoying descending almost 8000 feet and we made the best of it. We stopped by the Khardung village for a quick bite and headed towards Diskit. There was an Indian Oil pump which was deserted and as we passed by we keep looking at our fuel gauges. It was an awesome sight to see the Shyok River running alongside the sand dunes.



There were some mind blowing designs created on the river bed. Although the river was not in its peak flow I could imagine the furry it could unleash when the snow caps melt off. We reached Hunder by 4PM and began our customary hunt for accommodation.



Here the group split up with a couple of lads going ahead to hunt for accommodation and the rest of us enjoying hot tea. We later shacked into a lovely guest house and unpacked our stuff. Not wanting to waste time we ventured out towards the dunes to get a glimpse of the famous two-humped, Bactrian camels. By the time we had reached the spot, it was already 6 PM.




Sunny had another disaster in store when he found that the handle of his P220 was broken. Although we did a temporary fix, there was going to be an element of risk for him. It was one of those days where luck did not favor us; we were late by 15 minutes and did not get to ride the camel. We headed back to the guest house and enjoyed a sumptuous meal where no one had any left over’s. Exhausted with the long day we wanted to crash off and before we did, the electricity went off and we were told that the current would return only in the morning. The batteries for our cameras were almost drained; luckily I was carrying a spare one.



Day 13: 16th July 2011 Hundar to Turtok to Leh (280 Kms)

We woke up early in the morning to head towards Panamik, however after talking to the care taker of the guest house we decided to ride to Turtok and our passes had it mentioned as the last place we could go up to. Sunny and I went on the Fazer as we dint want to risk too much with riding a P 220 with a broken handle. Although Bajaj comes up with these mean machines they sometimes tend to ignore the little tit bits that probably makes them lose the edge compared with the likes of the Japanese. The roads were sometimes non existent with some covered in streams of water. The presence of the army was increasing with almost every kilometer we covered. When we reached Turtok we realized why there was such a dominating presence of the Indian army. We were so close to the Pakistan border, it was just a small mountain range and then it was Pakistan. I could not say “Hi!” to those folks on the other side as they were too far. Not too far though to be shelled as one of the sentries cautioned us. At the stall where we hand some Maggie and omelets we were told that the locals have a special pass which had to be carried with them at all times. Hats off to their courage to live at a location which experiences shelling during troubled times. There wasn’t much to do at Turtok so we started our journey back to Hundar to collect our stuff and Sunny’s bike. By the time we had reached Hundar it was nearing 2PM. We were beginning to have disturbed thoughts of crossing Khardung La pass and reaching Leh before nightfall. On mutual agreements Sunny and I blazed off in a jiffy. The climb once again began and I could feel the need of another 5-7 BHP where the Fazer lets you down, nevertheless the handling on bikes like the Fazer and the R15 are unmatched. We reached the same joint at Khardung village and stopped by for a quick cup of tea. Sunny’s temporary adjustment of the handle was working fine for him and he was doing really well with the bike. On the way we passed by a gorgeous 35 meter statue of Maitreya Buddha facing down the Shyok River towards Pakistan.



I stopped for a quick couple of snaps as we did not have the liberty of having a closer look. We reached Khardung La pass and the Fazer began to get breathless just as I was running out of breath due to the high altitude. Sunny and I took a few snaps and headed towards Leh. By the time we reached the city it was becoming dark. We needed to first get Sunny’s bike fixed up and fuel up, the following day we were to leave for Pangong Tso Lake early in the morning. The mechanic was intelligent enough to get the handle heated to remove the broken screw and fix it with a fresh one.



Although we spent an hour getting it fixed it was worth the effort. We were greeted by the group that returned to Leh the previous day to get their bikes fixed. In all it was an action packed day of ridding almost 300 Kms in the hilly terrain and the next day was going to be even tougher. Without wasting much time we grabbed something to eat and crashed off.

__________________
Royd

My first saddlesore attempt on a RX100:

Journey to the city of Pearls: Hyderabad on two wheels

My memorable ride to Kerala- God’s own country (3500Kms)

Incubus finally Leh'ed


"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived".



Owned:
1976 Bajaj Chetak
1986 Yamaha RX100 (Jap Engine)
2003 Honda Activa
2010 Yamaha Fazer

Incubus

Thanks Buddy

__________________
Royd

My first saddlesore attempt on a RX100:

Journey to the city of Pearls: Hyderabad on two wheels

My memorable ride to Kerala- God’s own country (3500Kms)

Incubus finally Leh'ed


"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived".



Owned:
1976 Bajaj Chetak
1986 Yamaha RX100 (Jap Engine)
2003 Honda Activa
2010 Yamaha Fazer