Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Sadly we had to take leave of Shane to continue towards Diskit and Hunder the next day. Late at night just before going to bed I explain the routes that we gonna take and he keeps nodding his head. Then politely asks what is the total distance, I reply around 850-900kms, with the eyeball popping out, he asks “ How many petrol bunks in between? “ With a smile and “None” being answered I quickly act to have slept, the room lights were for about an hour and a half with Arnab doing some calculations on where all we can source fuel My hatred with touring on a D390 escalates to a different level. He had somehow managed to squeeze in some 15 ltrs of fuel in the tail bag the next morning.


L-R: Sud, Shane, Arnab,Adi and Myself






On a closer look



The infiltration of Chinese inside the Indian border, shattered our plans on most places we had planned. Though we had all the permits, we were very doubtful of access to Hanle, Marismik La and other places which shares a close border with China. Crossing Khardung la, we realized that Tanglang la was much tougher though it had snowed in Ktop the previous day. Probably I had set more expectations from Khardung La. Let me be frank, the Leh chapter had started to bore me. Spiti was still singing a better song at the back of my mind, like those first crush memories decade later. Once we reach North Pullu, Arnab pulls by the side of the road as soon as he see a “Bangla Dhaba “ Board, but to his bad luck a packet of chips, a cup of tea and a plate of Maggie was the best what he could manage with, nothing more.




















Flying High Atop Khardung La
























With a little hope of finding some adventure, we head to Diskit and Hunder, Again our bad luck shows its evil face, roads to turtuk gets closed because of some land slides. When entering DISKIT monastery, heard a voice in Kannada, was wondering since when did Arnab start speaking in proper Kannada. It was apparently the monk at the entrance, after seeing the KA regd plates on the bikes. Came to know that he was educated at Namdroling Monastery in Madikeri. That feel you get when you are few thousand miles away from home and somebody speaks to you in your native language, in the least expected place, PRICELESS. The good thing about all these monasteries is that they are all located at strategic locations, perched on the top of a hill. The vistas they offer is mind blowing. The most important thing we liked after visiting so many monasteries so far is the SILENCE which translated to Peace of Mind. Diskit Gompa is the largest and oldest buddist monastery in the whole of Nubra valley. Apart from the architectural genius that the Diskit Monastery is the statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha. As the sun starts going down behind the monastery slowly we could see the rays of the sun illuminating the statue with splendid colors.


Climbing Diskit









The Statue of Maitreya(Future Buddha)









Diskit Monastery



As we proceed further ahead of Nubra valley we reach an army settlement at Hunder. A big board which said, Dosa and Idly available welcomed us. We happened to meet a gentleman from the armed forces who was from Karnataka, was very happy to speak to someone from his homeland. Not just here, Armed personnel wherever we went so far offer you the hospitality that most of the so called luxury hotels put them to shame. A quick walk around the dunes , we enquire about a place to crash for the day, most of them seemed to be out of our budget, so we decide to head to Sumur. In the meantime it gets completely dark and spooky to ride around, from Diskit to Sumur we were the only ones on the road, no vehicles on either side.











The Dunes at Hunder



Thoughts of Change in Profession












We happened to stop at the prayer bell at the entrance of Sumur town, where we were welcomed by a group of young men who were very helpful in sourcing our dinner in a candle lit shack (which was the only source of food at that time) and a good place to crash for the night at a throw away price. The house had a beautiful garden and an even better interior design to go with. The kind of people we were meeting through the ride, mainly locals are so self-sustaining and humble. Whatever you ask them they reply back with a smile.


Sumur is yet another pretty villages in the lap of Himalayas, which houses the famous Samstem Ling Gompa. Its more of a stop over for people inclined towards the spiritual attainment at Gompa or for backpackers , as you can find a few good, basic accommodation at a very affordable price.








Charcoal painting done by our care taker at the homestay



Samstem Ling Gompa



The checkpost at Harlam






View from Panamik Hot springs






After a filling breakfast, we start for Panamik and see how far we can go towards the last point where we will stopped by someone. Harlam, few kms aheade of Panamik was the last we could manage to go. A cup of tea at the hot springs at Panamik and we were off to Agham hoping that the Agham Shyok stretch is doable, irrespective of difficulty level, but unfortunately we were left disappointed and instead we were made to ride through Wari La, which was a better option we bartered for. This is what I was expecting from Leh, open skies, snowcapped mountains, green patches at few places, yaks grazing, the sound of the stream providing the perfect background score.


Dunes at Sumur



Phoser Times









Following Shyok















We reach the top of Wari La, what immediately was a trail of pug marks which most likely looked like a snow leopard from a distance. I was over excited, had it been a snow leopard sighting happened that day, it would have completed my tally of seeing all the big cats in India, but unfortunately we could only see the paw prints. That sent our sense hyper active, stood there for few minutes looking for the big cat, but we were unlucky


Big Boys


















Three cheers to Sakthi/Serthi



Landscape while descending down Wari la



We descend down with that missed chance in mind, hoping for better tablets of experiences. Once we are at Sakthi, we happen to meet the Trio: Ananth, MG n Karthik, who were in their attempt to complete maximum number of High altitude passes in one single ride. Some laughter exchanged and we head back to Leh.


A small GTG

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Really superb captures sir. Waiting for more!

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Thanks buddy will try to complete the log asap.

........... P.S:Had to make an extra post as the max number of images in a single post is 100

Completing your daily chores in Pang, is an art in itself. Those who have been to Pang might relate to this . One guy who had stayed with us started shouting from the restrooms, reason: the water in there had partly frozen overnight and he had forgotten his roll of tissues. So what happened next is left to your imagination





Our Hosts


















The temperature had gone below zero and the dry cold continued through the day. Reluctantly we started the ride coming out of the comfort zone of multi layered fleece. Now that the entire stretch of Moore plains is being resurfaced, hats off to the ground team working in those inhospitable conditions where breathing efficiently itself is a task on its own.


At Debring






Took a break at Debring to warm ourselves up with a cup of hot tea. Debring has a army outpost and emergency medical help available, also only 1 shack which can offer a bed if you are too late and tired at night. Since road laying work is underway , one has to get off the road for some distance. Also a route towards Tso Kar and Tso Moriri.


Things started getting too windy and cold, and it just intensified with the every turn we took climbing Tanglang La. Things started get a bit uncomfortable on top so the descend down to Rumtse was the only option to marginally improve the condition. As we head further and further towards Leh, things start getting organized, or rather must say civilized. With a quick identification check at Upshi, we head to Leh. With all these years of planning to ride here, I was overwhelmed with the proceeding while Arnab over the intercom had a conflict of interest to fill fuel in Karu or at leh directly


























Shortly after Rumtse


















The magnificent Stakna



Thiskey Monastery












We catch up with Adi and Sud only to realize that they haven’t been anywhere inspite of reaching Leh 2 days before we did. Head to the DC office for permits, and in under 20 minutes we had permits for all the places we had in store. Unfortunately Shane had to wait for an extra day or two, since they had some issues with giving permits to a Foreign individual and a non Indian Bike.


The Permits



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To be continued ..........

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Lovely pictures.

And I love to hear that

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Ladakh Ramble


13th of September had a surprise in store for us. We get up early, gear up soon and get ready to saddle up the bike, only to realize that the shocker on Arnab’s bike taken a beating and leaking oil. Not a good start for the Day and also for the Leh Leg of our journey.











So started to search for options to get it fixed, as the closest KTM showroom/service center was a good 170kms away in Bhuntur and next closest being 230kms away in Mandi. So tried calling people to ask if their friends or themselves are most likely to be coming towards Leh, to carry a shocker from their city. Fortunately the showroom in Mandi had one shocker in stock which meant wasting 2 days of the ride to get the bike fixed. Got in touch with Highway Emergency Response Team Chief HVK Sir, to know if anybody is heading via Mandi towards Keylong. In little less than 5 mins he calls back to say that one vehicle will be passing Mandi in about 2-3 hours time. Few calls were exchanged for logistical support to bring back the bike back to life. Fortunately both the showrooms in Mandi and Bhuntur were owned by the same person, Mr.Rahul Solanki . So he told he can get the shocker to Bhuntur itself by evening. So the think tank in the both of us analyzed that instead of sitting idle the whole day till the shocker arrives and then getting it fixed by a relatively less knowledgeable mech in the vicinity we thought lets get to bhuntur and have fixed properly at the service station itself, with lesser margin of humar error. So we now had to take the Rohtang Pass which meant we had to deal with the traffic jam at Koksar twice, but had no other options. The adventure quotient of the ride was already surpassing our expectations.


So request Adi and Sudhakar to start their journey towards Leh, promising them to catch up there in a day or two. The bridge work at Koksar again played a spoilsport but this time the waiting time was lesser than the time you take to have a McD order delivered across the table. Rains, Slush, snow, fog, low visibility : was loving every bit of it, unlike my partner who was having a hard time with the suspension. Just before Rohtang top Zma develops a float stuck problem. Spend some time out to figure outif that was the only problem or anything else. And the location at which it got stuck had one of the best views I had in the entire stretch.











At Marhi









Arnab rushed to Bhuntur as fast as he could to reach before the showroom closes, only to realize that the owner was still on his way. Got the bike fixed at 11.30 in the night, FINALLY. The ride was ON. On return we happened to crash into RIDE INN(Rideinn.in), as suggested by many who have been there. Had parathas till we burped so loud that it echoed in the mountains.














How to make use of your worn out clutch plates






The playful Luca






The dining area



Why you Ride ??? Answered


















Rohtang Top






Head back to Keylong, pack our stuffs and head out by the first light. Had the opportunity to catch up with Shane, who was though his RTW and was in India. A dinner with him and sharing few stories, we happened to catch up with one more couple who were on their drive from Italy to Varanasi. The kind of people we were meeting through this journey just got getting better and better.


At a snails pace we got ready and started a new part of journey which we had been dreaming all this while. We happened to cross a series of high altitude passes: Baralacha La, Nakee La and lachung La before we eventually reach Pang for the stay. All the images see though the countless travelogues kept on getting checked with every mile we passed by. Everything looked so familiar and better in real than in Pics. The blue sky was getting me on a high by now, for the good. Got a good cozy accommodation for a throw away price, along with 3 layers of fleece with hospitable people.


Zma, Someday grow up to be a DR please












Deepak Taal















Baralacha La





















Home Run


















The mighty Hilux



The route taken by the couple from Italy to India






Selfie at Bharathpur



Sarchu




































Gata Loops





































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To be continued ..........

Notice the Wire Rope on the right side. People cross the cliffs though that currently.










































Mr.Photogenic of the Ride
Saviour Couple of Batal

Snowbound







































The ride from Batal to Koksar is a motorcycle enthusiast dream( or even Disaster). One has to literally cross flowing rivers. This was the toughest stretch of the ride so far. As we get to Gramphoo, we were fortunate enough to see some traffic. As there had road widening taking place, traffic was stopped on both sides for about 3 hours or so. Also the bridge at Koksar had been damaged due to over tonnage trucks plying on them. So that made matters even worse. Once we entered Koksar, we were reunited with something that had been absolutely absent for few days now, Asphalt. Suddenly everything seemed like an expressway. Halting for the day at Keylong after the tank up at Tandi marked the end of the Spiti Chapter of the ride.




More Pics and Details will be added sooon...............................

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Amazing, superb, wow pictures, now we are waiting for more...

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

The only thing which can be said is WOW, amazing trip and pics. Waiting for the rest eagerly...

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

A surpise in this process was a confirmation by Arnab to accompany the ride, for most part of it. So the ride plans changed a bit, and decided to start the ride from Chandigarh. Cheap Air tickets from Air Asia(Comparitively) and access to ship the bikes via Gati made things easier. Though I was quite hesitant to ship the bikes though Gati.

All Set.......









The Spiti Saga
The fight landed on the air strip of Chandigarh airport, a beautiful city I must admit. The smell of butter around, light drizzle in the evening after a long summer and smiling people around set the tone for the evening. A big thank you for Gati Logistics for transporting the bikes safely. Quickly unpacked the bikes and started riding towards Shimla, thought of covering as much distance as possible and halting somewhere on the highway, for dinner and lodging.
As the saying goes, good people are always around you, in fact you don’t even have to search for them. Its just a smile and a “Hi” that brings you closer. Just as any other day, we stopped to ask a person at a traffic signal for direction for a place to dine and crash. A quick conversation kick started which lasted the signal turned green. He signaled us to follow him till the street corner to give us info. Over a chai, sponsored by him, the conversation which hit a pause button at the signal continued. He gave us 2 options: One that can stay at Nada Sahib, which was hardly about 4kms from where we were or if we had time to go to his house to have a drink. We were bowled over by his hospitality, but we didn’t want to disturb his family at that time of the day. So we opted for Nada Sahib. So he came with us till the gurudwara to make sure we have a comfortable stay. We didn’t expect the first day itself to be of so eventful. We thank him a thousand time till he disappears along the dark road flying on his humble moped. Gurudwaras mean hot rotis and sabji, served with a smile.





The next day we start our journey towards Shimla, a town that’s multifold densely populated compared to the hill stations in the south. The rain gods seemed they didn’t like the change of plans, it started pouring heavily. The last thing we wished for was a Srinagar kind of a situation right at the start of the journey.














Surprise waited for us outside of Kufri, a landlide that stalled hundreds of vehicles. Seems like mother nature had something else in store. At Wangtoo, the rain and cold started to creep in.






Fortunately(rather unfortunately) we spotted a tea shop near the Jaypee Project. Little did we know that the tea shop double up as a Theka(Wine Shop). Their hospitality was becoming way too much to ask for. One of the Driver had worked with Kudremukh Iron ore Company Limited(KIOCL) for about 6 years so he was very happy that somebody from his former place(read state) of work. They made few calls and arranged accommodation around. It took a hell a lot of convincing tactics to free ourselves from them. After telling us what all to look for in this route and telling us not to venture out in the dark as it was getting increasingly dangerous with the rains. So Had to settle for Theog for the night.
It slowly started to sink in that the ride had actually started. The sena conversation as we were passing by the greener parts of Himachal were something like this:
P: Abe this is just like Kodai ghats.
A: Haan be.
P: Who dekh the landscape seems like Avalanche.
A: Haan
P: This section looks like Valparai Isnt it.
And so on …
The comparison started to weaken up when the size and altitude of the mountains started increasing gradually. The rain gods added some excitement to the ride going forward. Population started becoming sparse and the roads were disappearing around every turn.

The Stay at Theog


How hard is life out there



























We happened to meet up with Sudhakar and Aditya who were on the same route as ours. We started a bit early buy was asked to deviate towards Urni since there was landslide ahead and army was working on the same. The village of Urni, probably the size of my locality in Bangalore is filled with such Sweet people that even if they are fighting for space in that small road, they sound better than YoYo honey singh. People here work hard to make sure this small road is made accessible for essential commodities like LPG, Transport etc.
Regrouping with Sudhakar and Adi at Reckong Peo, for filling fuel in whatever possible for the pipette fitted dukes. We had our first view of snow covered peaks which brought out the excitement. The owner of the fuel station stocked up our tank bags with tasty apples. By now Apples had been an essential part of our Diet irrespective of Breakfast, lunch or Dinner, not for a single one did we pay. The so called roads ahead was tested our patience and stamina.

It took just 10 mins to turn from this ......


To this......






































An over ambitious effort from a puny camera



Roads start to get progressively Bad till some distance post Pooh, near Khab. After that it’s a riders delight. Brilliant roads to reach a miniature heaven called Nako. For the uninformed, the Nako is a high altitude village that is located in the Pooh sub-division of the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. Nako is a sleepy town that has a lot to offer for a nature lover. Apart from (Proper) Fuel you get most of your essentials for a journey. It also has a Helipad for emergencies. There are few Homestays based on your budget and requirements. Himachal was slowly becoming too hospitable for us, all thanks to the beautiful people we found enroute.
A small group of village elders welcomed us with a gracious smile. Nako has something in it that makes the place very memorable. One thing we noticed was almost every house in the village was self-sustainable. Every house had a cattle for milk and related products, vegetables grown in the backyard, Apple orchards, Flowers to decorate the place so on and so forth. Nothing went waste. After a relaxed evening, bonding with the hosts of the place over a campfire and some delicious food, we hit the sack hoping for an even better experience going forward.





























The next morning, the entire place looked as if it was a pale gold plated canvas as the sun kissed the valley. From Nako we descend down to Chango, another monstery in a hope to fix the flat on Sudhakar’s bike. Roads start deteriorating as we edge closer to Tabo.

Chango Monastery




Finally civilization after a long time. Like most monasteries in the area, the one at Tabo too was rebuilt/restored after an earthquake sometime in mid 70s. Tabo is geographically very well located. Its on the valley floor between two gigantic mountains. Access to the old temple is very restricted, as in you are not supposed to touch anything or even take photographs Most of the paintings are few centuries old. Silence prevails everywhere, along with a strong sense of spirituality and peace. As we were having lunch, a gentleman in his late sixties came panting for accommodation and food. And behind him was a heavily loaded cycle. He was supposedly from Russia and was cycling all the way from there passing through China, Mongolia and headed towards Nepal and Bangaladesh . Post that he didn’t have any plans. So we offered whatever help we could on the route and other stuffs as he was headed towards the route which we had taken to reach Tabo. A small conversation started and he introduced his family with a small photo he was carrying with him. His wife was cycling circumnavigating the globe the other way round. That’s puzzled us up a bit, the reason he gave instilled my faith in finding a right partner (Have I found or not is a different story altogether: p). They were to meet up somewhere in the Middle East and exchange stories about their experiences of going to different countries.





































Next on the Itenary was Dhankar, but unfortunately had to part with it. So Kaza being the next in the list is a base camp for most expeditions around. So, you can source basic essentials for the journey and most importantly FUEL. Its not a herculean task to find a proper accommodation around. The Good part about Kaza is that, it mainly compromises of travellers from various countries. So when you happen to meet someone, there is vital information transfer from both sides. When you are in Kaza it’s a sin not head to Key and Kibber. Key monastery in all its glory perched on a hill top is a sight to die for. The monks there are very friendly. One think I liked the most in most of the monasteries in this trip is that happened to meet a lot of people in the monastery who could actually speak fluent Kannada. Was taken aback by this gesture as I definitely didn’t expect this from them. Most monks in the Spiti ladakh region have supposedly been educated from Namdroling Monastery, Byalkuppe. They offered Herbal Tea along with explaining the heritage of Key monastery. I wouldn’t be lying if I told that the tea was the best I have had inn my entire life. It worked as a shotgun to the slowly creeping of AMS.



View from key Monastery
























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Thank you everybody for the appreciation Really sorry for the delay. been held up with lots of work and a couple of rides over the last few weekends. Will try to complete the log as early as possible.

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

looks like he is busy in some another exploration trip ..
hope we will get this log soon ..

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Eagerly waiting for the blog Phani...

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Nice log.. waiting for updates!

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Mesmerized!!! pour more...

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Was checking almost everyday for the update please do it fast, can't wait for long time

Re: 15 year old Itch, Scratched

Just get it started! Too much waitttttt already!