THE TRIP


Well It was a long awaited moment in my life, And I had been waiting for almost two years for this trip….

Last year I tried a lot , but couldn’t make it due to the dependency on someone elses office leave…
But this year the wait was taking on my nerves , and the preparations were on from almost three months before the scheduled departure …

The first preparation was certainly to gain momentum and friends , from the bikers online community, but ironically , I was unable to gain much support , possibly due to the timings of my trip , which was scheduled for the first week of june, and most of the people were either planning it for the second half of june or july or later…..

But then I got indulged in my exams and after they got over on the 22nd of may , I started to throw out my hands to any possible companions that I could get on the net…
And so I finally got the invitation , from a group on an internet forum, to join them , and exactly at the moment, even they were just two people, one was suresh ( from Hyderabad), and the other rajesh (from hisar , Haryana_)
But still it was the companions that bothered me at that moment, and not the numbers….. so I readily agreed to their plan , and upto some extent even their itinerary, because I just wanted to get their, no matter how…….

Finally rajesh called me up, and the trip was finalized for the 30th of may, and it was decided that we will keep some flexibility in the plan , to adjust each ones need….

Suresh was coming from Hyderabad, with his bike in the parcel( pulsar 200), and so he had left on the evening of 28th may, to reach delhi , in the early morning hours of 30th may…… and I was supposed to get him fuel, as the railway had taken all from his bike , before loading it on the train…

So finally it was done , and I was going………

I did a few basic preparations a few days before the trip….
Got the bike serviced
Got an electric air pump
A tubeless tyre puncture kit
Many electrical fuse and a clutch wire in spare
A few medicine, (including the diamox, a must for tackling the AMS)
Got two side steel hooks attached to the rear shockers of my bike (pulsar 220) to which i could tie the luggage.
Etc……

The most differentiating thing till now was that rajesh was coming on a ‘HERO HONDA GLAMOUR’…… and was to join me and suresh at ambala.


let me introduce, myself , and my partners ,to you before taking you my 'GRAND TRIP'.

i am , umair waheedy, pursuing my architecture degree , in delhi , actually i live here too.i was 21yrs at the time of the trip, and was riding my pulsar 220fi.




my partners, were,

a) suresh , a software engineer(if i am not mistaken..) from hyderabad, somewhere around 27-28yrs, on his pulsar 200.

&

b) rajesh, a networking something(actually i am weak with these terms) , at a university , in his hometown , hisar (haryana), he was the big brother , at 41yrs, and the guy with a great courage, to try this tour on a hh glamour.




so now, here it is.....



DAY 1: (30TH MAY, 2009)


Finally the day came, and rajesh called me up at 4:30am , and asked whether suresh and I were in touch or not, but by that time I was unable to contact him, as his phone was going switched off..
So rajesh told me to wait for him , and also informed that he was leaving then for ambala..

Finally it was at 5:00am that suresh called me up, and I asked him to wait for me outside the nizamuddin station, and I will meet him there..

Later I hurriedly tied my luggage, and was only able to leave by 6:15am, and met suresh at 6:30am , outside the nizamuddin station, near the sarai kale khan side.., gave him the fuel , and we instantly began further….

It was the most lovely feeling, that the trip was finally on…
Suresh was new to the city, actually it was his first visit to north india, so it was just while moving , that I tried to figure him out with some monuments of delhi… like the red fort ,which is visible from the ring road, etc..

He was following me, until we came on the karnal bypass or the NH1, after which we started moving along each other, and just after a few kms took a halt, as suresh had to get his tank filled…(I already had my tank filled a day before , with fuel worth rs 540)
But suresh was probably cheated at the station, as the person there filled his bike with 17.5 lts of fuel (we were doubtful about the capacity of the tank of a pulsar 200, but the person there showed such confidednce, that we decided that it was useless to waste our time there , and we decided to move further)

Later suresh told me that another guy from delhi , was coming with his friend, both on a bullet, and will meet us after karnal, so after karnal , we stopped at a dhaba, and had some tea, and called the person up, so that we could meet there… he came almost 15mins later, just to tell us that his friends bike was having some problems , and that they will halt at ambala today , to get his bike repaired , and move ahead the next day..

We bid him goodbye, and best of luck and started moving further, at a constant speed of 75-80kmph…

Finally we met rajesh after crossing the ambala city, and even though he insisted, we did not stop, as we had a target to reach manali the same day, so he started along with us,

although we had to stop after a while, at a bajaj service centre, before Chandigarh, as suresh’s bike was making some noise from the rear wheel.

It was simple , that chain lacked sufficient lubrication, and after just some oiling , we were again moving on…

Finally just after we entered the Chandigarh city, suresh got caught by the traffic police, as his number plate had a bit designer numbering, so it was rajesh , who knew the native language (Punjabi), who went for his rescue, and the matter was set, with a single 100 rupee note…

Later as rajesh was a bit aware of the route, we decide to take an inner route from the city, so that suresh does not get caught again, and in the confusion, went almost 3-4kms ahead on a wrong route, but decied to stop at a dhaba there, as none of us has had a proper breakfast , and the hunger was taking its toll….. it was almost 2pm by the time, and after almost a half an hour break, we decided to move further, took the correct road , and started moving further,

later before entering the mountains, we had to again stop at a point , to buy some rope, as my luggage was not properly tied , and was slipping away, which was not safe for the mountains, as it could skid the bike away..

later we moved and entered the grand himalyas, the feeling was great , as it was my first visit to the mountains on bike…

the feeling was great, but we didn’t stop and kept moving, because we had already taken many breaks during the day..

and then we finally stopped at the roadside mandir, which comes just before kullu, and is surrounded by many small dhabas, so we had our evening tea over there, and then again started our journey, and entered the kullu city by almost 8:30pm,


but it was at that point, that rajesh told us that he suffered from a harnea problem, and a recent bump in the road had caused him great damage, to further move on , and we had to stay in kullu for the day….

I and suresh were a bit confused, firstly because we wanted to achieve our goal for the day, but simultaneously we even had to care for our partner, after all that is what a journey is all about….

So we started persuading him , to take some pills , and somehow manage upto manali, but then it was the un availibility of rooms at the place we halted, that prompted him to move further, and it was just on entering the manali city (at around 10pm) , that we rented a room , for about 600rs, and instantaneously went to bed , after having the dinner in the room itself.


actually we didnt take much shots on day1...sorry...


Total disatnce done was almost 590kms…
And to my surprise my bike gave an average of about 49kmpl…




DAY 2: (31st may 2009)

reaching upto manali was not difficult , but moving ahead required some info..., although we had a map in hand , but never hesitated to ask the passerby's , about the route.



Well, we all woke up by almost 6:00am , as we all had to have a bath for the next ‘three days’,
and from our front window, we were able to get a great view of the Himalayas and the beas river, flowing just opposite the main road, it was truly a ‘magnificent view’, which we could not get the last night , when we checked in….

It was finally by 7:15 am that we were ready with all our luggage tied , and were ready to go …

Just after moving a bit further, we entered the city, where I remember , that I got fuel worth rs300 filled, and everybody else too got their tanks filled, and then just ahead of it , we stopped for the breakfast , I took the simple bread and omlette, while rajesh and suresh preferred the paranthas (I preffered a lighter meal for driving in the mountains, so I took less.)




Now , the time had come, and our first mountain pass was awaiting us….

So without wasting any more time we left the manali city by 8:am, and started ascending up towards the rhotang pass……., the journey was beautiful , and we stopped then and now, for taking a few shots, because the excitement and the trip were young now, and every this and that scene was really appealing……



So the climb for rhotang was basically easy , although it had a lot of u turns, and except a few pebbled turns , the rest of the road was fine (guess, due to the tourist popularity of rhotang.)

Well it was finally by 12:30 that we were at the rhotang top, we had a cup of tea up there, and although rajesh was willing to spend some more time there, we decided to move further ( because we had not yet finalized , that whether we wanted to reach leh in two or three days)






So we were just moving fast, as it finally depended on the total distance that we cover in this day, that whether leh was to be achieved in one more or two more days….

But then just after moving ahead and after getting cleared of the rhotang tourist traffic, we again halted , to capture the magnificient view, of the snow capped mountains, spread along a vast vista of the himalyas, the stop was brief,
and then we started with the decend from the rhotang towards the kolksar village, which lies just after the descend is over, there we stopped for some snacks and tea, but the main aim was to get rid of our cold and wet shoes……

(this was the biggest mistake for all the three of us, that we had no foot water protection, and hence from here onwards, we either wore sandals for the passes, which allowed our foot to get dry after we have crossed the passes, or we used to tie polybags over our socks , which were also not so effective. So conclusively our foot had to deal which the most cold during the whole of the trip)

Just after crossing kolksar, the roads were good for about 10- 12 kms, but then the play with metalled roads , or you can call them the pucca roads began, there was a constant interplay between the muddy, kuchcha and pucca roads…….

And there came in the amusement,

Just after crossing a small village, when the two of my fellow bikers had gone ahead of me, my bike slipped for the first time, while crossing a muddy patch….
(as it is said, that it is not the falls that count on this route, it is mostly their no.s and the their degree that counts),

but luckily for me , this was a very smooth one, as the bike basically just turned over on a side, while I easily managed to escape any bruise or hurt, (a.h), after which I got up and lift the bike, which stared after a few selfs…

then I had to hurry to catch up with my frns , who were waiting ahead on the road, and regretted a bit , for not being there, but it was o.k since it was not any major one (a.h)

again the ride started, and we kept taking small stops , either to catch up with each other , or to shoot photos…..
later at around 2: pm we entered tandi, where I got 10 lts of fuel, 5 in the petrol tank , and five in the petrol can……..(total worth rs 450)

finally it was at 3:30pm, that we reached keylong, and stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant, the lunch was o.k , and the rates were similar to those of any other roadside dhabas that you would find on the plains, but one thing that was good was that they even offered the menu of the plains, i.e: all the dals and dishes etc…

later we left the place by 4:30pm, and started moving further…

the roads had all along been playing the same interplay , and were no better ahead…

we managed to cross jispa by 5:00 pm, it was a quite beautiful place, and would refer, it to any one , who is planning to do the manali leh circuit in three days……

but as for us , we were not certain, so we decided to move further….

Just after about a 15kms from jispa , we saw the town of darcha, and as we descended towards it, just before its entrance, we were caught….

The bridge connecting the road to darcha , was broken , and the vehicles were crossing the river to come to and fro…
But then we were not certain , that whether our bikes could do it or not.., but there was no scope for turning back….
There were two small rivulets which we had to cross…..

And the water was 2-3ft at places, but the more dangerous thing was that it was freezing cold and flowing fast…….

So first suresh and then rajesh and last me, did both of them, one by one, although rajesh did tumbled a bit while crossing the second one , but (a.h) none of us had any falls….



But , as it had to be , we all had to dip our foot into it..

It was quite amazing, as the villagers had garthered around to watch us cross the river on bikes..

But it was just after crossing, that we went to a road side tea shop (leh dhaba ), and threw out the polythene bags , that we had tied on our foot, but were now filled with freezing water…….

Later we hired a stay for rs 100 per person, on that same shop, where there was a room behind , having multiple beds…..
After getting rid of the wet clothes, we again went to the river in the evening , and shot some great snaps, but then the temp was freezing, so we came back in just a few mins, and went inside our beds…….

Just then came in another duo of cousins, by around 7:30pm, they too were doing the same route, but they were coming from the Srinagar side, and that too on a Chevrolet spark from Gujarat (vadodra), and they were planning to move further , but again it was the river that made them anchor here…..

And later while talking too them , we got to know, that even they were from the same forum , from where , I had joined suresh and rajesh…
It was a really great coincindence, that two groups from the same forum, met and stayed under the same roof, and that too just because of one broken bridge…..

Later , rajesh went for the dinner , while I and suresh had a bowl of maggi , in the bed , and went to sleep by almost 9pm..


Total distance covered for the day was approx 150km
(manali -darcha)





DAY 3: ( 1st june, 2009)

Well , this day , we woke up early , by 5:30 am , as we were willing to fulfill suresh’s wish of reaching leh , the same day, although somewhere at the back of our mind, we knew that it was really very difficult…

Now, came in the interesting thing, their was no toilet…..

And as suresh was backing us to packup fast, we had no way to escape…’and so there I sat along the river bank, in the lap of the mountains……..’,BUTT believe me it was really tough to wash with the freezing water….

Well, after that, I rushed back to the room , and we were all packed up by 6:30am and ready to leave.
But by the time , I was packing up, suresh and rajesh had their breakfast, so it was decided, that as rajesh was moving slow, he should begin with the days journey and , suresh opted to wait for me, until I was done with the breakfast and then we were to catch rajesh later..

So it was merely a matter of 15mins, that even we were ready, and hence we left by 6:45 am….
But the roads were again bad, but still as suresh was moving fast , I managed to catch with him , and it was almost after 15 km, that better roads , came to our delight…

But just before we could zoom of on the good roads, I saw rajesh standing on the road side, and when we stopped there, we found that rajesh was standing near the deepaktal ( a small pond)…..

Just some complementary shots , and then we were again moving with the days journey , towards the baralacha pass.

The roads again started playing the offroading game, but thanks that they were yet dry..

Soon , just when we began with the ascend for the baralacha la, there came a good patch of road, and there I zoomed ahead of both my travel partners…….

And on a turn passed a kid waving me goodbye, there was a slight smile on my face too…..

And just then zooooooooooooom, I was there lying on the road,

And just then when I looked back, to check for rajesh , who was just behind me, there was another zoooooooooooooooooooooom, and even rajesh was lying on the road………………………….

All happened so fast that , I just could not realize , what had happened.

I somehow managed to get up , but then rajesh started panicing, so instead of looking after myself , I ran to lift him his bike.

He was fine , but then he shouted , that look for yourself, and then when I checked, I found that I had hurt myself, just below the left knee, there was little blood, and my jeans was all torn up from the place..

But then by that time even suresh was on the spot, so we yelled out at him to slow down, otherwise even he would have met the same consequences…

Actually there was solid frozen ice on the road (black ice), and it was so much hard , that it had turned transparent, and appeared just like water on the road, and this is where we made the mistake , we were just simply trying to cross a small patch of water on the road, but that was actually a patch of frozen ice, and so my bike, which was at a comparatively higher speed , just skid away……
Actually , when I saw it I found that we (me and my bike) have dragged for almost 6mts of the ice and on the dry road…although rajesh was lucky enough that he just had a fall , and his bike did not skid, because he was moving slow…

Well later I went to lift up my bike, and found that the left leg guard was all turned up , and touching the engine , and even the gear shift leg rest was gone …

I can still remember that I was laughing like a mad man, because I was already aware that falls are a part of this journey , and this was a good one that I had, which made me feel that yes, now my package is complete….

(It was only then that we could understand that which the shopkeeper where we stayed yesterday had told us , that it appears as if you are crossing water , but actually it is ice, and he also added that , if a pahadi driver drives , then he might stumble, but will never have a fall….)…

After all that suresh and rajesh helped me clean up my wound and , and bandage it..

And I with the help of a stone, again hammered my leg guard back to its position , and decided to use the pillions left foot rest , for the journey ahead…(actually i had no other option)

It was after a few selfs, that I had to use the bike’s starter, to start it , and then we were again on the move, but this time more cautious…

We could not have imagined , the pass was full of snow, but the ascend was clear of snow on the road , we halted for a few snaps , and we even met a group of four bulleteers on two bikes, who were from harayana..


but then just as we were nearing the pass, the snow started turning up , and it was not like the rhotang , where you would cross the snow , which is lying at the sides of the roads, here the snow was on the road, and that too hard snow….

The greatest difficulty of hard snow was, that neither could we accelerate on it , nor apply the brakes, because in any case the bike would skid, but the greater difficulty was that , we could not even rest our foot on it , because that would again slip away , giving way to a fall….

So we decided that the only solution was to cross at a slow speed, and have our legs stretched towards the road , in order to perform a balancing act…
So we started crossing the snow bound roads, and slowly my partners went ahead of me, but just then came another , longer snow crossing, and one of the bullets was ahead of me , on this crossing, but then suddenly the bullet skid with its pillion, and I somehow managed to stop on the snow, and then applied the stands and some how slipping on the snow, went towards then to help them lift the bike ( fortunately none of them was hurt),

then we manually shifted the bike to the other side of the road, where there was a water drain (because it is easier to drive in a water drain , than on snow , because there atleast the bike is in touch with the ground, and wont slip)..

but then when I went back to my bike and rolled the tyre, the bike just refused to move , as the rear tyre was slipping on the ice instead of moving ahead, so again this time the bulletteers came to assist me , and shifted my bike to the wet drain side of the road…

we some how started moving again, and were driving cautiously ..

there we crossed the baralacha top , and the bulletteers stopped there , but I kept moving , as I had to catch up with my partners who , had gone ahead , amidst all this drama…


later , an innova passed me and I started following it , because a car gives you a trail to follow…

but then the day was against us, and just then another zooooooooooooooooom……..

this time it was hard , harder on the mind…

it was again a snow crossing , but a long one, almost 15- 20 mts of road length was covered with hard snow and I was some where in between , when I had the fall…

I some how managed to get up, I was alone , my partners were ahead of me , and I turned around only to find snow, snow and snow….

I could also feel the breathlessness on the altitude of the pass, but then I had to give it a try , so I some how managed to lift up my bike on the snow, although it was slipping away,
And then just when I was taking the breathe of relief , swapppp…
The rear tyre of the bike had slipped into the roadside drain , which was about 10cms below the solid snow on the road ….

That was the time I felt the most helpless….

Because I knew that it was impossible for me to drag it out of there alone, so I just make it stand on the side stand , and started waiting for any vehicle to pass by, to which I could ask for help ( actually I had in my mind that the bulletteers were still behind , and would come sooner.)

Those were the 25mins of sheer loneliness, where I stood amidst snow , on snow, because of snow………..cannot express all the thoughts that passed by, but can atleast assure you that those were not of fear(a.h)..

But just after that heard the sound of the roring engines of the bullet from some far away point , and the moment brought some warmth in me, and just a few mins later , saw both the bullets coming together towards me,

But who knew that there was more excitement awaiting….

Just as I waived my hand to them to stop by, the bulletteer on the front applied the brakes , and some how managed to stop on the snow, but the second one could not balance his bike, and he again skidded away , fortunately his pillion jumped off , and managed to support him from falling away, and then all of us went to lift the bike…

So they decided that first they will cross through the icy path , and then will come to rescue my bike , so first they crossed the path stumblingly , and then came to my rescue….

Amazingly my same leg guard had turned again, so I had to again hammer it back…

But then I knew that I had seen no more bikers behind , so I decided to keep in beween the bullets…
The rest of the descend was also difficult , especially where a bridge was broken , and we had to cross atleast two foot of snow , on the alternative route…

Finally when the descend was over , I was able to see my partners waiting along the road , that is where me and the bulletteers went and stopped , because even they were exhausted of the pass…

There I got to know that even suresh had a fall, and he has instead lost his whole gear lever , it was broken , and he was also hurt a bit on the left thigh…..

There we took a moment of relief , the bulletteers left after a moment , but we halted for another 10 mins , and took a few snaps….after all we had to remember it…



Later rajesh bhai told the most humorous thing of the whole of the journey , he said that “ when I saw you fall (the first one), I thought that you had slipped due to the water on the road, and so I lifted both of my legs, to prevent them from getting wet , and so I had the fall too , because it was not water but ice………”

then suresh some how shifted his bike to the second gear , and the journey started further , we had planned to stop next at sarchu…

And as again the same , suresh went ahead of us , and we kept taking snaps and small stops to cover each other…
Later we reached sarchu by about 12:30 pm, got the bikes registered at the entrance (it is mandatory), and then further went ahead , to find suresh waiting for us at a roadside tea shop….


There we got rid of our wet polythene bags , which we had tied on our foot, and changed the socks….had tea…

At this pt., suresh was a bit upset, because he wanted us to move faster, but rajesh sir disagreed….

Somehow we managed to compromise , and began with the journey ahead by 12:45 pm…

Just a few kms from there , we got to the ghata loops, but there is an ascend , against our expectations, and it was only when we climbed up that we got a real view of the ghata loops….


(personally I did not find them so interesting , they appeared like any other mountain curve roads to me, but still they were a bit different)

Then we stopped to enquire about the distance and road to pang , and got to know that there two more passes , before we could reach pang , the next city , where we could stop…..

So we began ahead , and these were the nakeela and the lachungla passes, although we had to encounter snow and wet roads here too , but still they were comparatively nothing to the baralacha, also got stuck in a traffic jam , amidst heavy snow on both the sides , but some how managed to go through…..

And then there was finally a huge water crossing just before reaching pang , I didn’t even thought once before crossing it , (might be because of the eagerness to reach pang) and just smashed through it, to finally reach pang by 4:00 pm….

There were just a few tent s on either side , which serve as tea stalls and also provide accommodation at 150rs each…..

There I got to know from some people that suresh had left a few minutes ago , for leh ….

I sat there for a few minutes , and waited for rajesh sir as I had left him behind enroute to pang , and by the time I also had a cup of tea , and a maggi , as we didn’t had our lunch that day….

But then when rajesh sir came , he was just tired and refused to move further….
This was the moment of decision for me , that whether I had to join suresh or move on with rajesh sir…., so I left the final decision on a group of people from delhi , who were nine people , six travelling in an innova and three on bike, and had met me there……

Actually ahead of us was the moore plains (50 kms) , and then the tangla pass……which I thought was not safe to do alone , and that too in the evening , so I decided that if this group moved further , then I will go along with them , to join suresh , or else I will move with rajesh sir the next day……..

But then fortunately , even those people decided to stay that day, and then I decided that I will complete my further journey with rajesh sir itself….

As we were tired a lot , we went to bed by 7: pm, and it was even due to the slight degree of AMS that we were feeling at that time , mostly due to the low oxygen level at the place…..

I started gaining a bit of fever as well ,and so rajesh bhai covered me with two more blankets….
I took some pills including diamox , and went to sleep…………

Total distance covered was again approx:150kms from darcha to pang…..

to be continued.....