Thanks a lot Henry! Hope to ride with you soon!

Splendid pix & narration ketan.!! The snow reminds me of our journey back in 2009
Btw, sharing pic of Kangla Jal & Suraj taal , what we saw on the current ride..

Thanks Rachit bhau! Kangla Jal pic looks awesome!!

Ketan bhau and Mandar Bhau, can you share a funny moment in your journey which would have made both you laugh you a$$ off? I am sure there would be plenty, please do share with us.

Day 15: Keylong - Rohtang La - Manali - Mandi

As usual, we woke up on time and followed the morning chores to get ready. Somehow carried those heavy bags and riding gears down to ground floor at the reception office. The young boy who showed us our room, the previous evening, was there, having tea with his friends. Before making the payment I asked him to order tea for me as well. Bought a Parle Hide n Seek biscuit packet from shop next door and we all(me, boy and his friends) shared the biscuits Since Mandar doesn't drink tea I asked him to go to the parking to get his bike while I finished my tea and looked after our luggage. Mandar took a lot of time to come back and all that while I was wondering what might have gone wrong. I couldn't think of going there myself because then there wouldn't be anyone to look after the luggage. After a lot of time Mandar came back with his bike and told me what the problem was. Some cars were parked in that narrow parking space leaving very little room to turn a bike or to reverse it. To add to it some bricks had blocked the entire exit. So in a way it was a tiring early morning exercise for Mandar as he moved all the bricks out of the way. My bike was parked further down the narrow lane and even I had tough time reversing it and getting it out. Finally, we made the payments and mounted our luggage onto the bikes. But the young hotel boy was missing. We made the payment to some other guy. There's a reason I am mentioning the boy here.

Once we were all set to ride, we bid adieu to the Keylong village and moved towards the same junction from where we had entered into Keylong village on the previous evening. We were about to enter the national highway and we saw this hotel boy. He was roaming around for some reason. We both recognized each other and to say good bye we slowed down. He quickly said, why are you guys going this way? There's a HUGE water crossing up ahead. Don't go this way. Instead use the other route which passes through the bus depot and by-pass the water crossing. Now that was so helpful. Call it co-incidence or something else but when luck is on your side you meet such people/signals just at the right time. If this fellow had not warned us, we would have gone by the same route and would have had to cross a major water crossing right at the beginning of the day. We thanked him and followed the route he suggested. It went through the Keylong bus depot. We managed to skip the water crossing and entered NH on the other side of that water crossing.

Roads were mostly in good condition with only occasional bad patches and we could cruise nice and hard. This road condition was there right up to the base of Rohtang pass. The scenic beauty around was marvelous. I had mounted the tank camera on my bike and managed to record couple of good videos as we crossed village after village on the NH. We used to ride hard for some time and then used to stop for photo break or just to take rest. Here are some of the pictures and videos that I managed to capture en route Rohtang pass.





















Cruising on the Leh - Manali Highway, NH21 - YouTube

I clearly remember, I was waiting for Mandar at the base of Rohtang pass and a couple of guys on a Splendor(or a similar bike) stopped next to me. Their behavior looked a bit suspicious. One of them came close to me and asked me, "thoda petrol milega kya?" I said no and I expected them to go away without any argument but he they waited there for couple of minutes discussing something. Now I don't know if they were really out of fuel or they had something else in their minds but I was scared Mainly because they both were well built and there not a single soul around to cry for help. Even Mandar was no where to be seen. But thankfully they left after sometime. May be seeing my army pants they thought I am from army and didn't mess with me Well may be...

Mandar reached there in sometime and we carried on with our ride. Roads in Rohtang were of two types - Good roads were extremely good with hardly any potholes and bad roads were... well... the worst(even poorer than Tanglang La). We found good road only near the top but rest of the time it was a war that we fought. Terrible road condition. There was no rain as such but the melted snow water resulted in roads full of slush. Some patches were very slippery with hardly any traction. There were lots and lots of waterfalls on the way and all of them were damn beautiful. We even crossed a few small/big water crossings. Enjoy some of the pictures en route Rohtang top -

























You can see from the photographs, there were hardly any tourists or vehicles in the pass. That did surprise us a bit because Rohtang was supposed to be a major tourist attraction, especially for those visiting Manali. View from Rohtang top was beyond imagination. Simply amazing. We couldn't distinguish land from sky. Have a look at the following picture and videos -



Riding my R15 in Rohtang Pass, Manali - Leh highway - YouTube

Conquering Rohtang La on my R15 - YouTube

After spending a few quiet minutes at the top admiring the mother nature, we started the descend towards Manali. Still there was no sign or tourists or other vehicles and we were enjoying it a lot. But soon that enjoyment turned into horror worst nightmare you can call it A couple of kilometers down the Rohtang top we came a long queue of vehicles - traffic jam. We squeezed our way through the empty spaces and managed to reach to the front of the traffic. BRO/PWD officers had stopped vehicles. Reason? A huge landslide. It wasn't raining at that time but for some reason a good 500-700 meter long patch of road had turned into slush, almost knee deep slush. There were JCBs and BRO officers all around and vehicles on both ends of that slushy patch. Landslide had not stopped yet. Rocks and stones tumbled down occasionally. We waited patiently for sometime but it didn't look as if the traffic would move. Landslide had stopped then and I talked to a BRO officer who had a walkie-talkie in his hand. He was coordinating with the officers on the other ends. I asked him if it's good to go. I said we'll cross that slushy patch on our risk. I was expecting a big NO from him but what happened was totally unexpected. He spoke to a guy on the other end and first asked a Toyota Fortuner to try and cross the slush. There were 2 Toyota Fortuners who crossed that slushy patch one by one. Even a car like Fortuner struggled in that patch and fish tailed a lot. It also gave us idea of how deep the slush was, as we watched their tires carefully. Once they were through, he signaled us to go go go... quick! Mandar followed me as I hurled my bike into that slush. First few seconds were OK as the bike could move on it's own but as we entered deeper section of the slush bike simply refused to move. OH MY GODDDD.. It was so difficult. Half the wheels were down in slush, my legs were buried under knee deep slush and I was trying hard to rev and push the bike. It was not just about the safety but also the Embarrassment Hundreds of people on both ends of the slush were watching us as we crossed it Oh my God.. I'll never forget those few minutes in my life Only we know how we crossed it and reached the other end. Mandar said one of the firang ladies(she was with a bullet group) gave him a thumbs up saying good job guys!

Phew.. we looked dirtier than pigs when we pulled over to the side of the road. All our clothes, bags, bikes were full of mud and slush. Damn.. and I hated it But soon our attention was grabbed by another scene. As we looked down the mountain towards Manali, we saw the same traffic jam all the way till the base of Rohtang, and trust me guys, it's a LONG was down. Our jaws literally dropped and we realized why we were the only souls on Rohtang top . We quickly saddled up and moved ahead. There was chaos all around - total chaos. Cars trying to move ahead in double lane, cars parked in the middle of the road making the situation worse, cars taking U-turns and getting stuck.. Oh my gosh... It was horrifying. No need to mention that the road was in bad condition too. We had hard time getting through that traffic and reaching down. It was the last high mountain pass of our journey and it surely gave us a special send off.

Chaos and traffic increased at the base since then there were shops and stalls around. Matters worsened as a state transport bus got stuck after the driver brushed it against the mountain wall. Slowly it had started to affect us psychologically. Once we were through the traffic and saw the empty road ahead I opened the throttle. There was enough understanding between the two of us and Mandar automatically understood that I'll be taking out all my frustration by riding as hard as possible. He didn't try to follow me either. He rode in his own comfort zone. Here's the video I recorded as I moved ahead..

Nice twisty roads just after Rohtang Pass Manali. - YouTube

I realized that I had covered a lot of distance and that I should wait for Mandar to catch up. So I was looking for a food shop/stall to stop over. Couldn't find a proper shop but what I found was another landslide. It was comparatively smaller than the one before but big enough to create a traffic jam. Fortunately I managed to cross it before the traffic built up but at the same time I was worried for Mandar. Few minutes later I saw a small hotel and stopped to wait for Mandar. I loosened up the gear, drank some water and stood by the road for quite some time. Mandar was no where around. And just as I went inside the hotel to ask if there's anything to eat, Mandar passed by. I saw him go and shouted his name. But I guess he couldn't hear me and carried on. I ate a kachori(God damn that kachori You'll know why!) at the hotel, drank some water and hastily moved ahead in search of Mandar.

Mandar called me on my cell phone in few minutes and informed me that he's waiting for me near the main bridge of Manali. That was a relief. But the problem was as soon as I left the hotel I was feeling uncomfortable and uneasy. It was definitely the Kachori magic That feeling and pain increased with every passing minute. We regrouped and moved ahead. By the time we crossed the Manali traffic that feeling had become uncontrollable. I was desperately looking for public toilet or something like that but couldn't find one. Finally we had to stop somewhere before kullu. It was a bridge over a nullah. I went down the bridge and boy and boy what a relief it was.... Here's a pic that Mandar clicked while I was busy...



We were back on bikes very soon and headed towards Mandi - our destination for the day. We were already very tired due to what happened in Rohtang. We decided to stay on the outskirts of Mandi to avoid high tariff rates. Once we were close to Mandi, we started looking for accommodation. We checked a couple of hotels but all of them asked for a lot of money. Then we were at this hotel and were looking for an attendant. Then all of a sudden there came an old man and asked, Tumhi Mumbai varun alaat ka? Holy cow, a marathi manus at Mandi? Wow, we said yes and told him that we were really tired and looking for accommodation. He said he saw our bikes' number plates and realized that we were Mumbaikars. He was a plumbing contractor by profession and frequently visited that place. Therefore he and the hotel owner knew each other well. He used his contacts and managed to give us a good deal. Room was not that great but heck, we were tired and all we wanted was a bed to sleep, hot water to take bath and if possible a TV to listen to music. This room had all these things and we happily accepted it. The old man sat in our room for quite some time. Mandar chatted with him while I took bath. He also suggested us a short cut for next day's destination. Well it sure was a short cut but a painful shortcut.

Later on, he left the room and we relaxed a bit watching the music channel. Had dinner in a nearby restaurant and fell asleep.

Day 16: Mandi - Delhi

I thought you'd given up on the travelogue. Good to see you back Nice writeup.

Looks like Rohtang la did give you a warm send off

hehe. No not exactly. Actually I prefer writing trip log when the mind is totally free and I have ample time at hand. That way I try to recollect as many small small things as possible that happened during the ride. It's not that I didn't get free time at all during these past few days but then either I used to be tired at night or some other work going on alongside. That's why waited for a few days and as soon as I got free time I updated it But let me tell you all one thing, this ride has made such an impact on my mind that there's hardly a day when I didn't go through the pics. Same thing happened the other day when I was going through the pictures and listening to these songs in the background. Lyrics of these songs inspired me to make a small video out of some of my favourite pics of the ride. Here it is... Hope you all like it

Experience Ladakh - June 2011
Experience Ladakh - June 2011 - YouTube


Yes.. a warm send off. Memories warm enough to last for at least a few decades

Ketan bhai, you left us dry for so many days after providing us with mouth watering snaps... eagerly waiting for the rest of the log bro... please show some mercy on us...

Killer narration and pics Ketan bhai... I have lived those fifteen days while reading the logs... Congrats.

No sir, I won't leave this thread without completing it. It's just that am not getting enough time to continue the log further. No posts anywhere else either... But I'll definitely take out some time soon and complete it. It feels so nice to know when people actually like the log and they wait for next updates. Thanks again and sorry for the delay.

Thanks a lot Sumit.

man ketan u r soooo damn much soooo muchhhh lucky man.......
i jus wish i could do dat insane ride....i love ridin and do ride a lot but city ride is nothin like u do......all i've been onis a trip to alibaug......

Man i so attched to ur log now dat i've been readin our log all day yesterday and since mornin....i cant think of work yaaarrrrr........
I really want to do this.....

Hope ill get some help when i finally gather courage to do some think like dat.....

My lifes so borring

It was a great pleasure reading your log also liked your pics & videos. But I am not able to watch this video-'Nice twisty roads just after Rohtang Pass Manali. When i try to open this video, it shows this message -
"This video contains content from SME, NBC Universal and UMG, one or more of whom have blocked it on copyright grounds. Sorry about that." Whats wrong? Anyways, waiting for further log.

I was just waiting for you to finish the log as I dont like interruptions in great stories....read it completely....woow...
n finally came to know about ur camera mount trick...


I am definitely visiting ladakh next year...

Awesome Pictures !!

Great Ketan bhai.... janamdin ke pehle kam se kam age to bare... i know nobody wants to come back from that place