As usual we woke up at 6, had breakfast by 7 and got ready by 8. The plan for today was to visit a few places that were around kaza. We inquired about the route from the hotel guy, he told us there was one road that goes to key monastary, and then to kibber village, and one more route which goes to komik village. I suggested that we do the first route after breakfast, come back, have lunch, and then visit komik village in the evening since the afternoon sun is pretty harsh. After much debate, we decided to visit key first and see how much time we have left. The monastary was just 10km away from our hotel, so it didn't take us long to reach there. Here are a few pictures from the road that goes to the monastary.





As we neared, we got the first glimpse of the monastery up on the hill



A closer look



There was a school boy who was waiting for a lift to the monastery, so i offered him one. When we reached there, we found out that there was some festival going on because of which the the place was teaming with tourists and cars. There was no place to even park the bikes. Since we were not that keen on seeing the monastary from the inside, we decided to skip it and head to the village of kibber. The road from here climbed further uphill for another 15km to the village of kibber.













We then reached the village of kibber. The village was, well, just another village. But it did have a few modern amenities. This was a sign board which i wasn't expecting considering the remoteness of the place.



We also got some pretty modern food. Like a tuna sandwich with olives in it. After having that snack, we roamed around the village clicking pictures.











We then started back towards kaza. There was a group of tourists walking to key monastery and one of the girls was not feeling well so she asked me for a lift and i offered one, but the others seem to think that the only reason i offered a lift was because she was a girl. They conveniently ignored the fact that i had offered a lift to a school boy as well. We reached kaza and it was still early, so we decided to ride to komik and then come back for lunch. The road to komik was really steep and full of stones. The bikes were in 1st gear most of the time. We had only covered a few km and we could already see kaza disappearing way down below.








The ninja started heating up on this incline since it had a pillion (and probably low tyre pressure because of a puncture which we found out after a few days). It got so hot that we could hear the coolant boiling, so we had to abandon the ninja half way down. Anahita stayed back with the bike, while Om and I rode further up on my P220. The road got even more steep and more challenging. After quiet a bit of riding, we reached a point where we could see a village.





I checked the GPS and found that this was some other village, and komik was still far ahead. We dropped the idea of going to komik because the roads were bad and Anahita was waiting for us in the sun. We took a few pictures here and then took a u-turn.





Descending was easier than riding up. Within a few minutes we could see Anahita and the ninja waiting down below.



From here we headed back to our hotel for lunch. We had asked the hotel guys to prepare an authentic Tibetan lunch for us, and they didn't disappoint. It was spicy, but it was the most delicious food we had on the trip. They had prepared some kind of Tibetan bread, chicken momos and Shab Tra



After lunch we went back to the rooms to rest for a while, and decided to go to the market again in the evening. Just as we got in our rooms, it started pouring outside. The entire area was covered in mist and dark clouds. The other 2 were glad they didn't listen to my plan of visiting komik in the evening. Those roads would have been impossible to ride on in the rain. We spent the gloomy afternoon in the room watching TV. It was friendship day today, so they were showing friends reruns all day. The rain had subsided by evening, so we went out to the market. The dark clouds were still present, but at least the rain had stopped.





We went to the german bakery for a cup of tea and some snacks. The german bullet gang was there as well. We spoke for a while and found out that even they didn't reach komik. We were low on cash so we stopped by the ATM after snacks, but there was no power so it wasn't working. We sat there for around an hour waiting for the power to return, but it didn't. We had to get cash from here since there were no other ATMs till manali. After waiting for some more time, we decided to go back to the hotel and ride to the ATM when the power returns. We brought another quarter of rum with us, and reached the hotel. Om felt like taking the ninja out for a short ride and anahita decided to join him, but i felt like staying back in the room. There was still no power, so i sat there in the dark listening to music on my phone after 10 days of no music. A couple of songs later, the power returned and i too took my bike and went to the ATM. the SBI guys reached there within a few minutes and started the ATM, he told us to withdraw cash fast as there were still power fluctuations and it could go down anytime. Luckily all of us were able to withdraw cash, and we went back to the rooms relieved. The next item on the agenda was to finish the rum that we had, and then head for dinner. After dinner, we stayed up for a while and then called it a night.

Distance covered - 90km

Tomorrow we visit chandratal, the most adventurous day of the trip

what happened guys??? Boss, I do not read all the travel logs. I have been reading this very patiently & have gone through every pictures. It's just fantastic. I won't comment further. I want you guys to finish this log. Please do that.

This is some serious travelogue guys. Nice to read and moreover excellent pics which adds the beauty to it. Couldn't read the log fully, Bookmarked it for later...

Day 11: Chandratal is just one more mountain away.


8th August, 2011

Great going brother, me and my mate went seperate ways at the turn off towards Chandrataal and eventually I too didn't attempt the lake ride. Its quite nice re living through your lenses. How much did the tents cost you? Please do post some pictures of the area in and around tent.

The tent guys charged us Rs.1000 per person which includes... stay for night. And whenever u check in, that day's meals and next day's breakfast. Blankets, sleeping bags and those thick sheets that u find in Himalayas.

The site is just beside the road, 4kms before the lake. I have some photos in tomorrow's log.

/Om
223cc.com

Here comes my version

We woke up at 6am today, the plan was to head to chandratal. We thought we could start early, but one look out the window ruined our plan. It was raining pretty heavy today as well. We had a nice long breakfast in the hotel waiting for the rain to stop, and we finally left at around 9am. I was exited about today's ride for 2 reasons. We were going to cross kunzum la, our first mountain pass, and we would be visiting chandratal lake. The sky was covered in clouds and there was no sun light at all so it was a pretty cold morning. My hands were cold even inside the cramster gloves. we rode for 30km and took a break at losar where i had a cup of tea to beat the cold.



There were a group of kids there who were facinated with the bikes, so we took one picture of them as well, and anahita gave them some chocolates and biscuits.



We then left towards kunzum pass. The road from here was pretty scenic so we took a lot of pictures along the way.









Just when we were starting to enjoy the roads, we came accross this big stream. When i tried crossing it, my rear tyre got stuck between some rocks and the bike wouldn't budge. Om parked his bike on the other side and came into the stream to help push my bike out. After a lot of struggling and accelerating, i managed to get it out of the stream. I think i may have worn out the clutch plates trying to get the bike out of this stream, because for the rest of the trip, the clutch was not as responsive as it was before this incident.



Our shoes and socks were wet again with icy cold water and the usual routine of drying the socks followed. We found a small shop a little ahead so we stopped there and had 3 bowls of hot maggi. Maggi was just what we needed in that cold weather. From here we continued towards kunzum top. Since the weather was so cold, i was hoping to see snow on the top and i was getting impatient to reach there. I could see some mountain peaks that had snow on them, and wished one of them was kunzum top.



But the peaks were still far away and the road was still flat and showed no sign of climbing uphill. We took a couple of breaks on this road for photography.











The road now started to climb upto kunzum top, and the milestones said that it was 8km ahead. It was here that we realized we had a problem. The ninja had overheated the previous day, because of which some coolant had evaporated and the coolant level was low. This was causing problems while riding two up on inclines. The temperature meter was reaching dangerously close to the H mark, so we had to take breaks every 2 km to allow the bike to cool down. I rode ahead while Om and anahita took 2 or 3 halts on the way up. In the next picture you can see them waiting down below.



Since i had to wait for them to catch up, I too was stopping every few km for pictures.







After around 10 minutes for the ninja to catch up. Om arrived and we took another 5 minute break waiting for his bike to cool down.



As i mentioned before, i was getting impatient, so i moved ahead towards the top. I reached the top and i was a little disappointed to not see snow everywhere, but there was snow on the hills just above us. Im sure if i walked for around 15 minutes i could have reached it, but i didn't try that because it would have been too tiring at that altitude.



I took a picture of my bike next to the kunzumla signboard, and also checked the GPS to see what altitude we were at.





Being at 14,800 feet was pretty exiting, even though i didn't get to touch snow. Om and Anahita soon caught up and we took one more picture and then started descending the pass.







When we were 3km before batal, i reached the diversion where the right road goes to chandratal. I waited here for Om to catch up, and then we proceeded. The signboard said chandratal was 13km ahead, out of which 12km was motoroable by jeep. There was not much of a road here, there were just tyre tracks to follow. Some sections of the road were near the edge of the cliff, and they were very narrow with round stones that could throw you off balance. One slip here and you would fall into the river below. This was one of the most dangerous roads that i have ridden on. I couldn't stop for pictures on the risky patches, but i did take a few pictures of the better sections of the road.









As we neared chandratal, the road moved away from the edge of the mountain and we were now riding on a plateau. This felt a lot safer than before.





We then reached the north face campsite, where we inquired about the prices. They quoted 1000 per head inclusive of lunch dinner and breakfast. We decided to move ahead and check if there were any camps that were closer to the lake or cheaper. As we neared the lake, there was one more stream that we had to cross.

[ ]stream crossing enroute to chandratal - YouTube

A little ahead, the road was blocked abd there was a signboard saying vehicles were not allowed beyond that point. There was a campsite nearby, but that didn't seem as good as the first one. The tents were small and didn't have adequate wind protection. We now started debating if it was a good idea to stay in the tents in the first place. Our main concern was the bad weather. There were strong winds and it was so cold that i didn't even feel like removing my helmet. We started to evaluate our options. It was already 4pm and if we trekked to the lake, it would have been almost 7 and dark by the time we returned. Covering those 13km in the dark would have been next to impossible. moreover, we had no idea how far the next village was. The only way we could reach a decent place to stay was if we skipped chandratal altogether and started back right away. Since i had come so far, i was in no mood of turning back without seeing the lake. We then came to a consensus that going back in the dark would be very risky, and battling the cold in the tents would be a lot better than being stranded in the cold at night in the middle of nowhere. With the decision being made, we now had to choose a campsite. We decided to go back to the northface camp since it had better tents. On our way back, we had to cross that stream again. We soon reached the campsite and dumped our luggage there.





We had not had lunch yet, so we asked the camp guy to prepare some tea and noodles for us.



That hot cup of tea and noodles worked like magic, and suddenly i wasn't feeling cold anymore. After tea we started debating if we should trek to the lake today itself, or do it the next morning. I suggested that we do it in the evening since we still have a few hours of daylight, and that would also give us an early start the next morning. Fueled by the tea and maggi, we started towards chandratal lake. We had decided to take the bikes upto the point where vehicles were allowed, and trek from there onwards. That meant crossing that stream once again, the 3rd time today. I was a little too enthusiastic to see the lake, so i ran ahead while the others followed me. The weather was really cold and windy, so windy that we had to wear gloves and cover our faces while trekking.











The trail was a little hilly at first, so there was a road winding up, and a couple of shortcuts that go straight up. I took the shortcuts and waited at the top. Om and Anahita soon arrived and we stopped there for a while to catch our breath.



We kept trekking for more than an hour, but there was still no sign of the lake. I kept thinking that the lake would be behind the next hill, but we crossed 5 such hills and the lake still wasn't visible. Anahita had half a mind to turn back, and she used to start yelling everytime i said "i think it's behind that next hill".









At one point of time, we were all thinking to ourselves "where the hell is the lake?". I went up one small hill and found one really tiny lake. I thought to myself, that coldn't by chandratal, so i went back down.



Just as i went down that hill, I caught the first glimpse of chandratal lake, nestled between hills on all sides. After all that trekking, the sight of the lake took away the tiredness and it all felt worth while.



I was way ahead of the others, so i went ahead towards the lake and clicked a few pictures and climbed back up so that i could show them the right path to the lake.





Once om and anahita reached the spot, we climbed all way down to the shore of the lake. The tripod was out again, because we really needed a group pic at this lake.











We spent around an hour at the lake, and then started our return trek since it would be dark soon. The return was easier since most of it was downhill. we made it back to our bikes within an hour, and started riding back to the campsite. It was so cold that the ninja had some trouble starting up. After 10 minutes of trying, it was finally idling normally and we then proceeded. We crossed that stream for the 4th time today and reached back to the warmth of our campsite. All the energy we spent trekking to the lake had made us really hungry, so we asked the tent guy to prepare dinner for us. Dinner consisted of dal, rice, some veg food, and rotis. It was steaming hot so we gobbled down all of it in no time. We spent some more time in that dining tent, where we had a little bit of rum to beat the cold.



This was one of the coldest days of the trip. If i were to take a guess, i think the temperature would have been close to 5 degrees. It was soon time to hit the bed. It was so cold that i was wearing my riding jacket with the thermal liner, the leather gloves and i was inside a thick sleeping bag, with a thick blanket on top of it. Luckily for us the strong winds had stopped later in the night and the temperature was more bearable. This was the most fun day of the trip.

Distance covered - 102 km

Day 12: Mission Rohtang

Here comes my version

We had crashed pretty early the previous night, so we were all up by 5:30am. The wind had died down, so the weather was not as cold as it was last night. The most dreaded part was when we had to use the tent loo. It was just a hole in the ground with a pile of mud on one side. It was a one of a kind experience, but in the end it wasn't so bad. We had our breakfast at the campsite and then started the return journey. The owner of the camp site had warned us about one stream after batal which was difficult to cross, so we were keeping an eye out for it.

Today we realized that we had made a very wise decision by camping at chandratal and not riding on this road the previous night. The road condition was very bad. There was no road at all, just stones and rocks everywhere. Another thing we got in abundance today was streams, there were so many streams on the way, that i was finding it hard to count. I think there were around 7 major ones, and lots of smaller ones. There is not much i can write about the road, so i will let the pictures and videos do the talking.

]streams on the road after batal 1 - YouTube
<br>
]stream after batal 2 - YouTube





Om couldn't cross some of the streams with anahita sitting behind, so he asked her to get off. Lucky for her, there was a tata sumo crossing the stream, and they offered her a lift across the steam. While Om and i struggled to get our bikes across, she cross the streams comfortably in the car. This same sumo was following us and took her across the next 2 streams as well. I was riding faster over the bad roads, and the ninja was a little behind so i took a few breaks along the way waiting for them to catch up.







We then reached a small shop, where we had some egg maggi for lunch.





The road from here started climbing up towards rohtaang, and it was surprisingly empty. On asking some of the people, they said the the road is closed on for maintenance on mondays, but since we came from the spiti side, no one had stopped us. The road to till top was freshly laid, so we had no trouble at all reaching there.





The weather at the top was also not as bad as we expected. It was foggy, windy and cold, but again, no sign of snow. After spending around 10 minutes at the top, we started the long descend towards manali. Somewhere on this road i seen a huge block of ice and stopped for a picture. This was the closest that we got to ice or snow on this trip.



As we moved ahead, we found that the traffic had stopped because of a landslide. We spent close to an hour waiting for that landslide to be cleared. Somewhere along this road, our phones also came back to life. We were back in a network zone after 4 days, and it felt nice to be connected once again.



Once the landslide was cleared, we thought our troubles were over, but we couldn't have been more wrong. The entire road that descended down from rohtang was covered in slush. At some places the slush was so deep that the bike would sink in upto the silencer.



Once again Anahita had to walk most of the way, while Om and I made our way through the slush. The landslide and the slush ensured that we took 4 hours to cover the distance of 14km to mari. It was 5pm by now, so we took a longe break at mari for evening tea and some aloo parathas. We then started riding towards manali which was 40km ahead. From this point onwards the roads were very good. Smooth tarmac, twisty roads, green hills, and a light drizzle all the way till manali.





We found a decent hotel at manali, and sent Anahita to bargain and get us a good deal. The first thing i did after reaching the hotel was have a shower, which i couldn't do at chandratal. Once we all freshened up, we walked to the market area for dinner. After dinner we were back to the room again, and the usual routine followed.

Distance covered - 133km

10th August, 2011
What a trip it has been till now. From the scenic views of Chitkul to the daring valleys of Kaza.
And here we are now back on the highway, the main highway. No potholes, no slush, no track roads, nothing. Just plain two lane highway. I was so wrong.
Our balcony had a great view so we though of having breakfast here. It was pleasant in the morning. And sitting in the balcony and taking photos was quite a treat.

Our plan for today was to visit solang valley in manali and try paragliding. We woke up early, had our breakfast, and rode to the valley by 9am where we inquired about paragliding. There were 3 guys there who coincidentally happen to be in charge of paragliding, so we struck a deal of 1500 per person for paragliding from the highest point. The rope-way that goes to the top hadn't opened yet, so we had to wait a while.



Once it opened, we brought tickets at 400 per head and then got into the ropeway with the paragliding instructors.





At the top, we had to walk through some really slippery mountain sides to reach the point from where paragliding takes place.



We then geared up and they instructed us on what to do.







I have a fear of heights, so i was a little scared of paragliding at first, but watching the others go convinced me that it's pretty easy. Om was the first to go, and i clicked a few pictures of him taking off.





I was next in line, and as i took the run-up i knew there was no turning back. Pretty soon the glider lifted us and i was flying in the air. We took a few circles around the valley and after around 10 minutes, we reached the bottom. Anahita was next, and i could see her up above.





She also had a nice crash landing, but she wasn't hurt



There were a bunch of guys below who recorded videos of us and asked us if we wanted to buy it. We brought the CDs from them for 300rs and then headed back to the hotel. We had planned to carry some apple juice and apple wine back to bombay, so we had to make space for it in the bags. Since we didn't need the warm clothes anymore, we packed them into one box and couriered that back to bombay. That freed up one side of my saddle bags. Couriering took time, and could only leave manali at 1pm. Somewhere near kulu, Om spotted a food stall that was set up inside the river beas, so we stopped there for our lunch. Having lunch while dipping our feet in the cold water was very relaxing.



The menu didn't have much options, we only had egg maggi and omlete, but the location and the setup made the experience worth while. We left from there at 2:30pm and then crossed the 3km long tunnel near kulu. After the tunnel, we took the road that goes to jalori pass. The road was pretty narrow with a lot of blind curves, and we also got some rain along the way.



As we neared jalori top, the road got worse. It was so steep that we had to stay in 1st gear most of the time, and to make matters worse the road surface broken as well. The ninja started heating up again since it was low on coolant, so we had to take a break after every 2km to let the ninja cool down. This delayed us by an hour, but i got a chance to take a couple of pictures along the way.







Om knew of a place to stay near the top, but when we reached there it was closed. We now had 2 options, either ride back to the nearest village downhill, or continue to the highway and find a place to stay there. Since we had a couple of hours of daylight left, we continued uphill. After an hour of riding, we found a guest house near jalori top where we initially intended to only stop for a cup of tea, but on checking the time we knew it would get dark soon, so we stopped for the night at that place.



We had also heard that the other side of the pass was blocked due to a landslide, and there was a diversion that had to be taken. On seeing the condition of that road the next day, we realized that once again we made a good decision by not riding on that patch in the night. As the sun started to set, we were treated to a wonderful display of colours in the sky.





Later that night we had our dinner at the restaraunt of the guest house, and the usual routine followed before calling it a night.

awesome guys...wow.. what a trip. this is my dream. pictures are just awesome. that ninja looks good but not the p220

11th August, 2011
Today is the day I realized riding in Ladakh or Spiti is nothing compared to riding on real offroad.
We started the day on schedule. By 6am we were up and by 7 on the breakfast table and by 7.40am on the road going up to Jalori pass.

Great log OM...
N would love to see more pics of Anahita walking into the knee deep slush!!!!






PS:If she reads this.....Doobuk!!!!

We woke up at 6am and had breakfast at the same guest house before leaving. My bike chain was making a lot of noise the previous day, so i oiled it and mounted the luggage on the bike. We then started towards jalori top. The top was 6km from where we were staying, and the climb was really steep. Since the ninja's engine was completely cold, it made it to the top without breaks, just before the needle could reach the H mark. We stopped at one of the shops there to ask about the road ahead.



The shop owner confirmed that the road was blocked, but there was a link road that descended down from the pass. He also told us that this road was in a bad shape, and it was 10km longer. We soon reached the point where the road bifurcates, and took the diversion as he suggested. Calling this road bad was an understatement. It was so bad that it took us 3 hours to cover a 10km patch. Some parts of it were decent, but some patches had huge stones, slush, streams, and a lot more obstacles. I took a lot of pictures on this route, they should give you an idea on how bad the road was.

These are some of the better patches









And these are some of the bad patches where i could stop for pictures. The others were so bad that they needed my full concentration just to keep the bike rubber side down. In the next pic, we had actually stopped to check if the road ahead was motor-able.







As we got down, it had become foggy as well.





There was a house by the side of the road so we stopped to ask for directions. They confirmed that we were on the right track, and that there was a tar road a little ahead. Thankfully they were right, and we reached the tarmac in the next few km. Even though this road was narrow and broken, it felt good to be back on tarmac. The turn to narkanda was still 18km ahead, and there were no good place to stop on this road, so we continued riding. We reached the junction within 45 minutes, and took a break there for lunch. Lunch was done in an hour, and we continued riding towards narkanda. On the way, we witnessed an accident that had just happened. A lady who was sitting pillion probably fell asleep and fell of the moving bike. It looked like she had a slight injury on her head. We stopped there and offered our medical kit and some water. They then put her in a car and took her to the hospital.

After this incident, we continued riding to narkanda. The road was pretty wide and curvy, and it was on one of these curves that Om realized that his bike was handling weird. On closer inspection, he found that the rear tyre had a puncture and was low on air pressure. I had noticed this a few days back as well and asked him about it, but he said it was fine. This probably explained why the ninja was overheating on inclines. Narkanda was not far away, so we rode upto the hatu and waited there while Om went to get the puncture fixed. Anahita and I had tea and she asked about availablity of rooms. They said that they had only one room, but with her pleading and may be a stroke of luck, one of their bookings got canceled and they now had 2 rooms for us to stay.

Om returned soon, and we checked into our rooms and freshened up. I also washed the past 3 days clothes and kept them to dry. We then sat outside enjoying the fog and the cold with a glass of fresh apple juice. After it started getting too cold for comfort, we came back indoors and sat in the restaurant for an early but long dinner. We had ordered for some starters, and a bottle of apple wine to go with it. The wine was the best i have ever had.





After dinner, we retired back to the room and the usual routine followed before calling it a night.

Distance covered - 100km