Travelogue approved.

Seems like you had lot of 'fun'. Waiting for more

Just me, am eagerly awaiting to read more of it, especially now when I wish to do Leh this September with my wife.

bring it on Mate.



all cheers

dcs

Congrats for getting Lehed..

Request: Please upload pics.

Justme, Good start! I am waiting for your next installment of log, as I too am heading there in Aug end with wife.

Congrats for completing your ride mate.

Sorry for delay in update.

Day 2
The day started early (from our standards). This was the day when we had a bath till we reached leh :-) and my wife was worried that we might fall short of shampoo & conditioner sachets - little did she imagine what lay ahead :-)

Hotel @ Bilaspur


Anyways, during the night the petrol prices had increased and filling fuel @ rs 57+ did not feel great (I have a diesel car) but remembering that the bike mileage was still much better than the car, we adjusted with the situation with heavy heart :-) plus while I had heard about fuel price diff between punjab, hp, haryana, j&k etc, I never cld plan it. So it was fill time whenever it was fill time.

On way to Manali


Off we went towards Manali and after decent number of breaks, TB pillion seat and travelling with female to be blamed for this, reached outskirts of Manali. Now the oil leakage was really bugging me and decided to show it to a mechanic. While he was doing some gharelu ilaaz, came to know about Mrs sonia gandhi impending visit wch wld close the route for next 2 days. So it.was imperative that we move as further as possible. After some minor shopping - water, batteries, food items from Manali market we moved ahead. Mechanic & his friends had indiacted that we shd stay at Marhi since going any further after day light was not advisable.

Meeting of two rivers / streams


Cloud peeping through






Enroute to Rohtang


Loads of tourists come to rohtang to see this and are ofcourse majorly dissapointed


The road for rohtang / marhi was nice and progress was good for some time before we hit traffic jams. Yup traffioc jams due to many tourist vehicles going to rohtang pass for seeing snow. There was big jam at Marhi and it was immediately decided that we shd proceed and cross rohtang and find a place to stay on the other side. The road also decided to test the riding skills and with mud, slush and tourist taxis providing all kind of challenges, the progress was slow but certain. We reached rohtang by the time daylight chose to leave our company and so did any other vehicle. We were the only vehicle getting to the other side (other than an occasional truck, wch was total contrast to the other side). The road was even worse this side and seeing the road, water crossing with puny 35W headlight was quite challenging, add to it the cold and it was getting interesting. But more than difficulty, I was now tired and wanted to reach a place where we could get a place to crash. Add to this the mental fatigue because from now onwards I was always worried abt tyre puncture (bad roads, negligible traffic, negligible chances of getting puncture repair shop for kms). I had put in new tyre tubes (original) for the trip (changed the one I had put at the time of my lasy trip in 2007 wch never had a puncture till they were changed) but the terrain had me worried, add to this that it was 9 pm at night. A few kms from khokhsar (or hoksar, I am bad with names and have very poor memory), saw a shack wch had few bikes parked outside. Inside thr was group of 5-6 girls and guys who were headed for leh too. They were not too friendly or were busy among themselves, so initiated a chat with a lone rider who was headed to spiti and was travelling with this group till they had to part ways.



Anyways, after having coffee and thawing ourselves, we proceeded to khoksar. Reached there by 9:30 but there was bigger challenge there. The pwd guest house only had a dormitory which already had 3 guys in it who looked drunk, so we decided to find another place. There was only one other place which though had separate rooms, were so dirty and unhygenic, we were not able to make up our minds. Since riding to keylong was not an option due to timing / tiredness, we thought of waiting for the above mentioned group so that if they chose the dormitory, we cld also stay there (it was much cleaner). But after waiting for some time, we decided to take the room. At rs 200 per night, we could make out why it was so dirty. We decided to use the tarpaulin as bed spread, it was that dirty. Anyways we had to take the rajai as they were. It was good that we took the room since after around half an hour, another biker group came and all rooms were full. The place owner even had to turn away few taxi wallas.

Room @ Khoksar


Anyways, thus ended a very eventful day which gave us a taste of the things to come with regards riding (water crossings, horrible roads, wet clothes or atleast shoes and socks, poor accomodation options etc)

For others planning to do this with their wives, in my view, it is better to do in a group which is really helpful during difficult crossings as you wld fall, atleast everyone I met did plus accomodation etc everything becomes easier. But in case that is not happening, no need to wait for it since u will meet others on the way.

Not able to upload pics as updating from my phone. Will upload in 1-2 days

Nice triplog.Upload the pics....... fast

I think I have stayed in this place@Bilaspur for 1000 bucksHotel on highway,rooms with cooler ,parking on road and underground types entrance

I should have bargained too

Travelling at night on lone roads thru water n mud n all.... it's a perfect recipe for inviting unforeseen events! Glad the day ended well!

Keep going

Day 3: Start of the real deal

We woke up early and were ready to leave by 6:30 - 6:45 AM (waking up early was no issue with the kinda room we were in). Again the agenda was to travel as far as possible. I was thinking of reaching Pang but then I was not aware of what awaited us ahead. The roads were mix of good and bad but mostly ok with reasonable water crossings till a certain stage.

View from outside hotel


The place where we stayed


My Bike had company for the night (sharing travelogues I guess)


On way to Tandi




First and foremost thing on my mind was to fill fuel because in rush to cross Manali, we did not fill fuel there and I was now worried if Tandi petrol pump was closed, it may be difficult for us to even return and reach Manali, but my apprehensions were ill formed and we did get fuel at Tandi, we even filled two 2 litres bottles as extra (which were not required). We clicked a couple of mandatory photographs against the board highlighting no petrol pump for next 365 Km.

At Tandi


















Frozen lake


At one of the water crossing my bike stalled and there was bus behind us. The driver asked one of the foreign pessenger to help but by the time he could reach us, I was able to restart the bike and complete the water crossing, but felt nice about the helping nature. Since water had entered my shoes, we were taking a halt just after the crossing when 3 bullets stopped just near us to take pics. Started conversation with one of the guy, he sounded and looked like a foreigner but they were all Indians with 2 of them from Mumbai and one from Delhi. After a brief chit chat, we went our ways. The ride was uneventful till around 25-30 Km from Sarchu. We saw some tents and stopped to get something to eat / dry my socks. The weather was quite chilly and it felt great to be in a heated tent (because of the stove, I guess). They had just started putting up the tents and the lady was quite apologetic about the conditions (while there was no need to be apologetic). During chit chat, we came to know that they come every year for 4 months here to put up these tents and balance part of the year is spent in Manali. This was also where doing daily duties in open started for me. We were there for around 45 minutes (was around 1 PM) and left filled and dried and looking forward to reaching Sarchu in no time. But then, things changed drastically.

Halt before the main water crossing


After no more than 100 metres from where we had a break, there was a large water crossing with snow on the side. What we didn't realise that there was ice beneath and what happened was what happens when one rides on ice, we slipped. When we tried to pick up the bike, it kept slipping on ice. I realized that this was exercise in futility and and would need help. We could see some people just after this crossing and started waving to them, so did my wife. A foreigner (travelling on a BMW bike) and an Indian guy came to our help and we could get the bike straightened. The bike started in first kick itself which was a relief since the way it had fell, I was worried about water entering the silencer. During all this, MJ also slipped and fell in water (partly saved because of the jacket). Anyhow, we crossed this and reached the bridge and then realised that work is only half done and there is water crossing on the other side as well. The Indian guy again helped me cross this by pushing the bike whenever it got stuck (he was God sent). MJ crossed it on foot and after falling in water and wading through knee deep water, her shoes were soaking and even clothes (jeans) was wet. Similar was the case with me, and this was no ordinary water, this was not a water stream creating by melting snow some 100-200 mtrs away, it was mix of water and ice. Anyhow after crossing, realised that it is now my duty to help others as I was helped by strangers. Saw the 3 bikers I had met earlier and went to help them cross. Before all of them could cros, a maruti omni got stuck, we all helped it to cross but it was hard work, moreso when you can't feel your feet. Anyways, all of us crossed the stream and then started the process of getting blood back into our feet. All of us got bare feet and started walking randomly just to get the blood recircluted. My wife was also struggling since lot of water had entered her snow boots and while she was also helping people cross or in navigating, her feet had gone numb. We also got formally introduced to the 3 gentlemen. One of them was 59 year young retired professional (Sharad), with him was his friend and old colleague who was 54 years young (Vasu), the third was 23-25 years old young professional (Arvind) who had met these guys at Keylong and had joined them. All 3 were lot of fun and we did some fooling around taking pics etc while we were getting our whole body back. This was when we decided to stick with a Group (theirs) and were happy to note that were cool with that.

Getting circulation in the feet back


Another frozen lake


All this took good amount of time. Going further, again we encountered a difficult stream which required one bike to cross at a time with other helping push the bike. During this crossing, I hurt my leg which became swollen. I frighthened the guys saying that I think I have broken my leg. Again after getting circulation back, we proceeded further. We were now tired with all the pushing and crossings and thus planned to stay at Sarchu instead of going to Pang. Vasu and Arvind enquired the rates for luxury tents which I believe were quite expensive hence we moved forward and reached Sarchu and took two double tents which were given at Rs 300 per tent. This was at ~4:30 PM and after having late lunch cum dinner and chatting for a while, we went to sleep. We were very tired and cold. My wife wasn't feeling that great in breathing and took half a Diamox. She wanted me also to take half a tablet but I was not feeling any breathlessness hence thought of avoiding it (I was told by most chemists to take Diamox only if needed, when the symptoms of AMS are visible). We did not have a very sound sleep.

Tent at Sarchu


It is located on the other side of this board


View outside tent


Day 4: AMS attack

Woke up in the morning with heavy head. After some time I starting vomiting. Initially thought of it because of the food that we had last evening but it was not to be. Did not eat anything as I was vomiting everything, even diamox tablet did not stay inside for more than a minute. Was feeling weak but still we continued on after others were finished with the breakfast. We had not gone more than 5 km, when I had our first fall. The bike just skidded on the road and both me and MJ followed it sliding. The riding jacket saved my elbow (where the jacket got torn) and legs and behind saved by jeans and raincoat lowers (I wore raincoat lowers as it provided added protection against cold wind). Wife was saved by leather jacket and jeans. However, we lost the right side RVM which is not a very good thing for me as I am a major user of RVM be it bike or car. Anyways, we went ahead with my broken pride but now my confidence level was down in dump as I could feel that my reflexes were slower. I was now intentionally riding towards the mountain side as any mistake while riding in valley side could have been disastrous. We again had a near fall. Then around 22 Km from Pang, I wanted a break and while I was continuing vomiting, others caught hold of a sumo driver who agreed to take me and MJ to Pang to Army medical camp. He even agreed for his support staff to ride my bike till Pang. He was God sent and so were the others in the Group. Without them, I would have contnued without asking for help, which was not the right thing to do as I could make out from my slow relflexes. On the way, the driver even stopped an army medical jeep. The army personnel gave me a couple of injections to stop the vomiting. We reached Pang and I was taken to the army hospital where they found that my oxygen level was early 50 against atleast 80+. They gave me oxygen number of times, even fed me & MJ. Was there for a while and had good conversation with them. Was informed that they undergo a 7 day acclimitization camp before being sent so high. They also told that water and food are source of oxygen and should be taken periodically. Also, about a case of truck driver who's oxygen level was almost zero when he reached hospital but was saved.

On way to Pang




I was beginning to feel better but any plans of going further were not entertained. By now, even others inlcuding MJ had started feeling effects of AMS and it was decided to take a halt at Pang itself. Others made arrangement of stay (tent), we took a large area having place for 8 people between 5 of us (Rs 800). This tent was owned and organized by Sonam who was gem of a person, very caring. The guy who bought us here was taking a group of people who were riding bicycles to leh (intermittently). The guy who had organized this tour had an accident a few days back and had fractured his leg. The same driver had taken him to Leh hospital. Anyways, we all rested througout the afternoon and in evening I again went for oxygen check up and replenishment. Now my wife had started vomiting and she was also given injections. Her oxygen level was though fine. For dinner we had maggi in which sonam added some vegetables - it was quite nice. Plus having known that we should all eat and drink properly, we did eat properly.

Stay @ Pang


Kiddo


The Sumo driver who bought us to Pang


This 76 year old lady was travelling with bicycle group


I took half a tablet of diamox at ~4:30 at night when I started feeling heaviness in my head. Had a good sleep and woke up fresh.

Justme: This is one of the scarier logs I have read! Why did you take risk with Diamox? Advised amount is about one tablet per day: half in morn, half in evening, starting from 2 days prior to the trip. If you are allergic to sulpha, then you can use the homeopathic alternative too.

Glad your oxygen level was recovered to normal levels. Very interesting log.

Yup Animeher... it was scary.. after reading all the travelogues you believe that leh is just another ride with bit more difficulty.. it is till something like this happens.. and then its a different ball game altogether... can't imagine if my wife or I were seriously injured when we fell or if something might have happened when we crossed rohtang at night with negligible traffic on the other side.. with not many to help and their is not much which can be done.. I was lucky that when this happened, we were very close to Pang and professional help (Army hospital) but it could have been different.... Hence wanted to share that leh is not all hunky dory... one needs to take certain precautions.. and therefore started the log with learnings...

There are diff opinions about Diamox, but for me, when I do leh next, I would consider Diamox as preventive medicine (though it may be not)... cause I have realised I am not good at deciphering the symptoms of AMS..

Enthralling log! Please continue..

@JustMe: I remember your previous trip log pretty well. Had shared it with a few friends and they were just amazed at your wife's courage to tag along for such a ride!

This is an interesting thread. Sad to see that you were plagued a lot by AMS and falls, but its all a part of this enticing destination called Ladakh. Fantastic stuff! Pics! Pics! Pics!

PS: AMS cannot be predicted, but can take all precautions and avoid it as much as possible. Just need to plan it out. On my Leh ride last year, none of us had AMS despite living in the plains for most part of our lives!

@Praful: Thanks mate.. Yup my wife is really passionate & courageous. Even before this ride, when we were struggling for leaves, I suggested that lets cover HP only, but she was insistent that we do Leh even if it means travelling almost all days and for most part of the day. And to top it, she was not even sure what is there in Leh / Ladakh, she just knew that I wanted to do it and that it would be adventurous.

@All: The pics would not be good since our main camera konked off very early in the trip, but since we were carrying backup camera (more than 5 years old), atleast were able to capture few photographs. Plus, after we joined the Group, we relied on others to take the pics (they had all kinds of amazing cameras and lens) but I am still to get hold of the pics as they are still continuing with their trip. Will add those pics later.