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Its been a couple of weeks since we completed our journey. A journey which was on paper for 4 years. A journey which screamed out for attention whenever i pored over the numerous leh logs.
Circa 2008 August: I was newly bitten by the touring bug. The next big thing seemed to be a ride to Leh. Talked to the boss and he came up with an offer i couldn't refuse - an onsite opportunity :-)
Circa 2009 August: Now married to a girl who loved travelling herself, we were desperate to go to leh that year. But then, fate struck twice and i became seriously ill. A month and a half bout in the hospital left me too weak to even ride a bike. I actually had to let go of a bike and go to Nainital on a Volvo. What a torture for a bikers' soul.
Circa 2010 August: This was going to be the year. A good friend of mine and me planned things in detail. The ride plan was made. But then, this time, fate struck Leh. The cloud burst devastated the region and riding out there for a holiday just didn't feel like a correct thing to do. Another year, another Leh plan gone bust.
This was almost like a jinx now.
2011 June: The mid august holiday window was too good to resist. Just 4 days of leaves would give me ten days. Both me and wife secured our leaves. My frequent ride partner, Subrata, had picked up a job in Bangalore but had left the zma with me. He was in too. A classmate from college and now a captain in the Army, Manish Negi was also gungho about the whole idea. Asked a few others but they couldn't join due to various reasons. We were set.
July: A leh preparation is not just about packing your saddle bags and riding out. The more we delved into it, the more things we needed to carry. We did some trial trips to SatTal and to Khajjiar, just to check our setup.
D Day - 1 week: The boss called in a meeting and uttered the golden phrase. "Guys.. we need your support" Bad start. He went on about a very very critical time and how we needed to work weekends to make the release happen. Its a jinx, its a jinx my mind kept on saying. I called up Subrata and Negi to ask them if we could shift the trip around. Turns out they were also in a tight spot and it wasn't possible to shift it at all. I offered to work double shifts and finish my part of the work in time so that we could still start on 13th of August. The boss agreed and i breathed a sigh of relief. Things were still on track.
The Route Dilemma:
We had ten days in hand. Not enough for a comprehensive tour. I toyed with lots and lots of potential route ideas. Ideally, i wanted to take the tso moriri-hanle route. Considering the situation in Rohtang, we were looking at doing a clockwise run from Del-Srinagar-Leh-Manali. Papa is an army veteran and had been in the thick of things there at the peak of militancy. He was staunchly against us riding through Srinagar on 14th and 15th August. My fauji friend, Negi also was uncomfortable with this idea. So, we decided to do it the traditional way.
D Day -1 day: The excitement was building. By a lucky twist of fate, the work at office had been deferred and i was free to work out the last minute details and printout of the life saver ramkys maps and the travel guides of bcm-touring. Went to the market and bought some last minute stuff. Negi had made an early morning start from Kota and reached my house in the evening. Subratas' bangalore-delhi flight was supposed to land at 8. We were all set.
Thats when the phone rang and Subrata was on the other end. " I missed my flight"
I generally don't use family endearing abuses in front of my wife but this time i did. Since it was the rakhi and long weekend, all the bhaiyas around India were flying out to meet their sisters. Flights were full. I checked online. Go Air was available at 19000Rs from Bangalore to Delhi. Damn! 19k for a seat in a low cost carrier. Any special favours from the air hostess, i wondered. We left the poor guy with no choice and he had to handover one third of his salary to the smiling GoAir counter girl. Sign of things to come, chuckled the married me.
The flight was to land at 0030Hrs and i expected him to reach our house by 0130Hrs. The early 0300 start was out of the question. I lay down to sleep, slightly worried. Some obscure dreams of me riding along with ghostrider played on for sometime. Don't ask my why. Maybe its that cool leather jacket.
D Day: Bless EasyCabs. Curse the DoorBell. 0115 hours and Subrata was at the door. We decided on a 4 am start so that he could get some sleep. Turns out the bugger didn't get any in the GoAir flight. Even my half sleepy mind chuckled at the dirty fantasy. Wife called out. Back to sleep.
0245 hrs: The android,the grumpy symbian and even the lame Samsung all sang out in unison. It was time to get ready. The last minute packing stretched to last one hour packing. Finally, at 0430hrs we were outside our apartment complex. The photo was taken and the trip meters reset. It was a Go (Air.. did you say)
Karnal was the first stop. Tried out Zhilmil dhaba for the first time. Boring and over rated. The paranthas at Pehelwan dhaba in Murthal(my fav) must have shed a drop of oil or two (blame my lame sense of humour on the Bournville crying cocoa bean ad) Next stop, Ambala -- the last chance to get petrol 5Rs sasta than Punjab. We tanked up there and then took the Kharar-Ropar route. At the Kharar section we faced a major traffic jam. Lots of out of city cars jostling for space. Guess the punjabi Bhaiyas love their sisters the mostest. Hmmpphh! Out of that cacophony and into a thundershower. Shubrata was carrying our rain gear and he was way ahead of us - living it up in the rain.
Posing on a bridge
Finally, mercifully he stopped and we were able to change into rain gear. Time for some laughs. Shubrata had brought along a bright light blue one.
So unbecoming of us ultra cool (and drenched to the core actually) bikers.
Anyway, we crossed two mini floods around KiratpurSahib and were forced to stop at a Dhaba because it was raining way too much. Had some so-so standard punjabi fare here. The time was 1 pm. Bad! Manali was very far off. We were getting pessimistic. How about a Kullu or a Mandi as a first day stop. We surged ahead, nah.. no biker spirit crap. Just the need to get to a dry hotel room.
It was raining all along the way. Met two funny guys who were on their way to Manikaran to get high. I remember what he said.. "Bikes, Alcohol and Music.. what else do you need man. Thats pretty much it" I guess he was missing the sex part of the equation. Maybe he wasn't getting any.
We crossed Sundernagar and then started overtaking a very long line of trucks and cars parked on one side. This was not good. With good reason too. Some part of the bridge had collapsed and all that remained intact was a three feet path at one end, just about good enough for bikes. Half empty or half full. Who cares. This made for a good story and a nice photograph.
We were allowed to walk our bikes across. Good enough for us. Onwards to Mandi and towards further chaos. The Beas at Mandi was going crazy, threatening to turn into a flood. The Mandi to Kullu road was blocked. Turns out there was a winding single lane hill road, an alternate and slightly longer road to Kullu. Half empty or half full, you know our pick :-) We clicked the below pic and some pretty frustrated bees there were not impressed with the effort at all. They attacked us. Bless our riding gear, it protects from stings too!
Last view of Mandi
We got out of there and were on our way to Kullu. The winding road made its way through various villages and straddled along many little rivulets.
The sunset was spectacular
and then sometime later
Oh yes! some landslides too. Bulldozers were going to our knights in rusting armour through out the journey.
But we didn't know it yet. Finally, at 9 pm we reached Kullu and checked into Hotel Vikrant. A pathetic hotel really, but dirt cheap and with safe parking. What more could i ask for. How about a House on Dwarka Expressway, just 2km from Delhi with no EMI offer - my phone suggested. Damn, i needed to get out of the networked world.
Day 2: The journey starts.
Just a teaser
Circa 2008 August: I was newly bitten by the touring bug. The next big thing seemed to be a ride to Leh. Talked to the boss and he came up with an offer i couldn't refuse - an onsite opportunity :-)
Circa 2009 August: Now married to a girl who loved travelling herself, we were desperate to go to leh that year. But then, fate struck twice and i became seriously ill. A month and a half bout in the hospital left me too weak to even ride a bike. I actually had to let go of a bike and go to Nainital on a Volvo. What a torture for a bikers' soul.
Motorcycle travelogues by thousands of xBhpians from across the world.
Circa 2010 August: This was going to be the year. A good friend of mine and me planned things in detail. The ride plan was made. But then, this time, fate struck Leh. The cloud burst devastated the region and riding out there for a holiday just didn't feel like a correct thing to do. Another year, another Leh plan gone bust.
This was almost like a jinx now.
2011 June: The mid august holiday window was too good to resist. Just 4 days of leaves would give me ten days. Both me and wife secured our leaves. My frequent ride partner, Subrata, had picked up a job in Bangalore but had left the zma with me. He was in too. A classmate from college and now a captain in the Army, Manish Negi was also gungho about the whole idea. Asked a few others but they couldn't join due to various reasons. We were set.
July: A leh preparation is not just about packing your saddle bags and riding out. The more we delved into it, the more things we needed to carry. We did some trial trips to SatTal and to Khajjiar, just to check our setup.
Motorcycle travelogues by thousands of xBhpians from across the world.
Motorcycle travelogues by thousands of xBhpians from across the world.
D Day - 1 week: The boss called in a meeting and uttered the golden phrase. "Guys.. we need your support" Bad start. He went on about a very very critical time and how we needed to work weekends to make the release happen. Its a jinx, its a jinx my mind kept on saying. I called up Subrata and Negi to ask them if we could shift the trip around. Turns out they were also in a tight spot and it wasn't possible to shift it at all. I offered to work double shifts and finish my part of the work in time so that we could still start on 13th of August. The boss agreed and i breathed a sigh of relief. Things were still on track.
The Route Dilemma:
We had ten days in hand. Not enough for a comprehensive tour. I toyed with lots and lots of potential route ideas. Ideally, i wanted to take the tso moriri-hanle route. Considering the situation in Rohtang, we were looking at doing a clockwise run from Del-Srinagar-Leh-Manali. Papa is an army veteran and had been in the thick of things there at the peak of militancy. He was staunchly against us riding through Srinagar on 14th and 15th August. My fauji friend, Negi also was uncomfortable with this idea. So, we decided to do it the traditional way.
D Day -1 day: The excitement was building. By a lucky twist of fate, the work at office had been deferred and i was free to work out the last minute details and printout of the life saver ramkys maps and the travel guides of bcm-touring. Went to the market and bought some last minute stuff. Negi had made an early morning start from Kota and reached my house in the evening. Subratas' bangalore-delhi flight was supposed to land at 8. We were all set.
Thats when the phone rang and Subrata was on the other end. " I missed my flight"
I generally don't use family endearing abuses in front of my wife but this time i did. Since it was the rakhi and long weekend, all the bhaiyas around India were flying out to meet their sisters. Flights were full. I checked online. Go Air was available at 19000Rs from Bangalore to Delhi. Damn! 19k for a seat in a low cost carrier. Any special favours from the air hostess, i wondered. We left the poor guy with no choice and he had to handover one third of his salary to the smiling GoAir counter girl. Sign of things to come, chuckled the married me.
The flight was to land at 0030Hrs and i expected him to reach our house by 0130Hrs. The early 0300 start was out of the question. I lay down to sleep, slightly worried. Some obscure dreams of me riding along with ghostrider played on for sometime. Don't ask my why. Maybe its that cool leather jacket.
D Day: Bless EasyCabs. Curse the DoorBell. 0115 hours and Subrata was at the door. We decided on a 4 am start so that he could get some sleep. Turns out the bugger didn't get any in the GoAir flight. Even my half sleepy mind chuckled at the dirty fantasy. Wife called out. Back to sleep.
0245 hrs: The android,the grumpy symbian and even the lame Samsung all sang out in unison. It was time to get ready. The last minute packing stretched to last one hour packing. Finally, at 0430hrs we were outside our apartment complex. The photo was taken and the trip meters reset. It was a Go (Air.. did you say)
Karnal was the first stop. Tried out Zhilmil dhaba for the first time. Boring and over rated. The paranthas at Pehelwan dhaba in Murthal(my fav) must have shed a drop of oil or two (blame my lame sense of humour on the Bournville crying cocoa bean ad) Next stop, Ambala -- the last chance to get petrol 5Rs sasta than Punjab. We tanked up there and then took the Kharar-Ropar route. At the Kharar section we faced a major traffic jam. Lots of out of city cars jostling for space. Guess the punjabi Bhaiyas love their sisters the mostest. Hmmpphh! Out of that cacophony and into a thundershower. Shubrata was carrying our rain gear and he was way ahead of us - living it up in the rain.
Posing on a bridge
Finally, mercifully he stopped and we were able to change into rain gear. Time for some laughs. Shubrata had brought along a bright light blue one.
So unbecoming of us ultra cool (and drenched to the core actually) bikers.
Anyway, we crossed two mini floods around KiratpurSahib and were forced to stop at a Dhaba because it was raining way too much. Had some so-so standard punjabi fare here. The time was 1 pm. Bad! Manali was very far off. We were getting pessimistic. How about a Kullu or a Mandi as a first day stop. We surged ahead, nah.. no biker spirit crap. Just the need to get to a dry hotel room.
It was raining all along the way. Met two funny guys who were on their way to Manikaran to get high. I remember what he said.. "Bikes, Alcohol and Music.. what else do you need man. Thats pretty much it" I guess he was missing the sex part of the equation. Maybe he wasn't getting any.
We crossed Sundernagar and then started overtaking a very long line of trucks and cars parked on one side. This was not good. With good reason too. Some part of the bridge had collapsed and all that remained intact was a three feet path at one end, just about good enough for bikes. Half empty or half full. Who cares. This made for a good story and a nice photograph.
We were allowed to walk our bikes across. Good enough for us. Onwards to Mandi and towards further chaos. The Beas at Mandi was going crazy, threatening to turn into a flood. The Mandi to Kullu road was blocked. Turns out there was a winding single lane hill road, an alternate and slightly longer road to Kullu. Half empty or half full, you know our pick :-) We clicked the below pic and some pretty frustrated bees there were not impressed with the effort at all. They attacked us. Bless our riding gear, it protects from stings too!
Last view of Mandi
We got out of there and were on our way to Kullu. The winding road made its way through various villages and straddled along many little rivulets.
The sunset was spectacular
and then sometime later
Oh yes! some landslides too. Bulldozers were going to our knights in rusting armour through out the journey.
But we didn't know it yet. Finally, at 9 pm we reached Kullu and checked into Hotel Vikrant. A pathetic hotel really, but dirt cheap and with safe parking. What more could i ask for. How about a House on Dwarka Expressway, just 2km from Delhi with no EMI offer - my phone suggested. Damn, i needed to get out of the networked world.
Day 2: The journey starts.
Just a teaser
)
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