xBhp Photo with a twist

@MG: Good to hear from you after quite sometime!

Feels good to see an update from your side too...
Anyways nice pic.

RIDE SAFE...!!!

vow.. wonderful to see the first visual update.. Now am confirmed.. DK is really on a ride to Leh/Spiti..
Anyways.. DK looking really good in here.. Upload this for matrimonial. :P

Pojer babu ..

Update from DK and MG (Last night)

"400KM os riding in hills. Fat gayi literally. In Pathankot now"

Sorry guys but I really haven't been following this thread. I won't quote ALL the relevant posts for this response (there have been many including cynical ones from Satyen which I do not approve off ;-P) but I figured SOMEONE had to write about the advantages of being "unprepared" so that if someone DID want the thrill associated with an adventure trip full of surprises, they wouldn't be turned off with the "Please schedule your pee hours" nonsense thats being promoted on this thread as the only way to do things. So here goes:

Yes we did not plan every damn thing on our schedule but we did have rough guides. Yes we slept late, started the day late, but neverthless we completed the entire Mumbai-Srinagar-Leh-Manali-Mumbai stretch and I'll let that fact speak for itself. Moreover, our pictures, even though most of them our from my lowly iPhone will show that we indeed did see a LOT of the scenic beauty of our path. The only thing we missed was the first view of Kashmir valley, which incidently was missed on purpose so that we could catch up with the Pune guys in Srinagar - which I now believe was a waste of effort.

We f*** up our schedule on the way to Leh and were forced to stay in Lemayuru. It turned out to be the best night we had up until that point because we found a VERY comfortable hotel next to a monastery and GOOD food and a crazy bunch of people - both local and otherwise having fun at the hotel which made our time there VASTLY better. It also gave me, spidey and motor to sit down and talk and talk and talk and talk and DRINK! I'm not saying you guys did not do this. I'm saying, for us, that MISTAKE, led to the most fun filled nights we had up until that time. We had done a LOT of biking by then. We needed time to sit back and reflect and I for one have NO regrets. It got me, spidey and motor a LOT closer than we were when we started out.

We got to experience Sarchu for two days thanx to our decision to "play God" and head to Manali. Sarchu was COLD, it was windy, it was HORRIBLE from an environmental perspective. But we made friends with a bunch of Polish bikers, got to know about their lives, shared ours. I even sat with some locals in the night next to a fire and learnt more about their lives - something I would not have been able to do had we ridden through Sarchu - stopping only for a quick meal. It was one of those locals that helped Romeomike get a tempo later to get his bike out of there. Friends made, time well spent.

There was some word about our stupidy in going to Diskit without fuel. yep. we should have carried extra. we did fill up our tanks before leaving for Leh but I have a 12 litre tank which burns quickly in the terrain. But we were told we could get fuel in black in Diskit (and we did EXACTLY that). The only thing we did not account for was the fact that we hit Diskit on a Sunday which meant the markets were closed which in turn meant we could not do jugad with local entrepreneurial shop owners who could get us fuel in black. And even that "mistake" allowed us to sit and bond over maggie and stupid bollywood movies in Hunder. I had the good fortune of meeting a retired Air Force officer who was raving about his Pulsar 220 and the fact that he would have loved to do a similar trip except that people keep telling him he's too old. He said he'd do the trip next year for sure (cause apparently he would feel younger by then). he was the one who helped us get in touch with locals who could get us fuel on a Sunday not to mention APOLOGIZED to us cause he had a diesel car and couldn't give us fuel. Blew my mind.

I can recount MANY such incidents - and I will when I get down to blogging - experiences that came out simply because we decided to stay in one place, befriend locals, learn their ways.

Specifically to Aman - like you said, riding solo has its perils. If you are stuck somewhere with no help, there's a big price to pay. Having said that, I admire your courage to do this path solo. When we hit that road, I thought MANY times, how the f*** did Aman even attempt this solo. There's so much that could go wrong. Nevertheless, I do not think of you as being stupid. If anything, I'd think you're adventurous and that's a good thing in my books. Of course Satyen will say there's a thin line between being adventurous and being stupid, but I honestly believe that each one of us draws the line at a very different point. What might be stupid for him might be adventurous for me (like night riding on a dead battery). It's all relative. BUT, that's where I think you, Aman, are being hypocritical for blaming us of trying to play God by heading to Manali - as if to suggest that all the decisions YOU took were in the interests of your safety. Riding solo was NOT a safe decision. But you did it because you wanted to and I respect that. Mebbe you should respect OUR decision to do what we wanted to, regardless of the perils that might have awaited us instead of trying to make us look like fools on this forum. We aren't stupid. We knew the risks involved, but WE as a COLLECTIVE decided its what we wanted to do. I agree there's nothing wrong in being efficient. But there is NOTHING wrong in being INEFFICIENT for the sake of a richer experience. Try it sometime. You won't regret it.

Specifically to Vishwas. You can't schedule experience. You just have to experience the experience. I don't say your way is better than mine. If your way works for you, so be it. But don't try and prove to me your way is better than mine. My way works for me. Your way works for you. Respect each others way and don't ride together if you aren't compatible (which is exactly what we did). Its that simple. Simply because we ran out of fuel does not make us stupid. We did not account for it being a Sunday - it was a small omission that cost us a day - which we could afford to lose. It did not endanger us in any way and I think its passable. Further, to be honest, at no point in this trip did I know what date or day it was - which is a good thing in my books when I'm on vacation. The fact that we did not know it was a Sunday amused me no end. And infact even if we did account for it and said "It's ok, lets just go ahead and see what happens", I think its our right to do so and you shouldn't judge us on that basis. We like to play with fate, thats the way we chose to do things and will continue to do so. Furthermore, its our pig headedness to head to Sarchu and Manali despite the road being closed allowed us to experience something that I will forever remember - the joy of watching cars zig zagging their way to Sarchu from Manali in the distant mountains in the middle of the night indicating to us that the road was open and motorable. I was jumping with joy along with one local who desperately wanted to get to Keylong to get some supplies. It was an experience of freedom I have rarely experienced and I'm glad I did.

Satyen, your sarcasm is well received but the reason we did not listen to you was simply because we wanted to do things our way. It was a tour - we wanted to let fate take us where it wanted to. And fate did take us through a LOT of adventures - and with each others help and a LOT of help from the locals, we all made it back safe and sound. Yes things could have gone wrong. But, as someone who recently experienced a crash without gear on, you realize that things can go wrong no matter where you are. We did not take decisions based on our inability to comprehend the situation. We took those decisions simply because it sounded like fun and at best it would lead to adventure, at worst, inconveniences and a few days lost over trifle things. For the most part, experience suggests that our careless attitude led to adventure and a richer experience. I do not regret it and while your word of caution is and always will be appreciated (and demanded!) I refuse to listen to and follow most of it. I too like to play God. It's fun. You should try it ;-)

If you let the fear of "what if" stop you from doing things, then by God you're missing on many things in life. I'm glad that we didn't and I hope to God that we never stop. That's just my opinion. I do not expect you to share it.

Having a tentative schedule and following it to a cetain extend makes more sense to riders having definate timelines.

Conveying to another group that you don't intend to ride with them is called as courtesy. If your group didn't want to ride with us, no one had forced you to do so. We wasted a whole day in Srinagar just for your group to turn up.

Experiencing on your own schedule is a fantastic thing. Doing so because you ran out of fuel is surely not a smart thing to do. I am not judging anyone against anything. I have stated my opinons before and stand by them. You may or may not agree with them. As you have mentioned, I am entitled to my opinions.

ps. We did not schedule pee hours and everyone peed whenever he so wished. We also had couple of unscheduled halts but all were because we wished so and not because we were unable to continue.

I could say the same back to you. We rode overnight to Srinagar and missed on the scenic beauty simply because we wished to ride with you. YOU guys decide to take off in the morning knowing fairly well that we had ridden late in the night through tricky paths, pitch dark and ridiculous weather, trying to get to you'll and we needed the sleep! But you guys just took off the next day. So yes there were courtesy issues but not at our end. I don't think a few hours of waiting would have hurt anything and we could have ridden together. It's only once you guys took off from Srinagar did we decide to not even try to keep pace with you guys and do what we wanted to.

PS: The pee thing was just a joke. I did not think you scheduled your pee and never will have thoughts about anyone's pee - except my own and that too if I have a problem with it.

Yes you are entitled to your opinion as we all our. My problem is you are using our misgivings/issues to state that your way is RIGHT and ours is WRONG where is my point is there isn't a right or a wrong in this case - there is a "your way" and "my way". My way says "Lets take risks. So what if we f*** up. What's the worst that will happen? Lets see if we can get fuel in black. In the worst case we won't get it quickly and we will have to think on our feet to figure out how to get out of it." And that's EXACTLY what we did. We befriended locals and managed to get it on a Sunday. It was a fun and unique experience. But you won't find me saying "Oh look, Vishwas planned his fuel well. He didn't even run out of fuel. How boring. He should have spilt some so he could have some adventure like we did." That's just silly. You did things your way, we did it our way and NO YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT IT WASNT SMART because from where I stand it was a BRILLIANT thing to do.

Wow..Alankar babu..Back with bang.Nice write up mate.
Congrats for completing the Epic ride.

CHeers
Biru

Pathankot to Srinagar is not more than 10 hours ride.You were staying in Madhopur which is still nearer. Reaching Srinagar after 1 am makes the departure time later than 11 am in any scenario. Knowing fully well that you need to leave on the next day, departure time from Madhopur was wrong. When another group has wasted a whole day waiting for your group to reach, expecting that group to reach on time to leave on time next day is nothing wrong.

Saying that we just took off is absolutely incorrect. Inder tried to wake you guys up but no one answered to his knocking on door or calls so we had to leave. I also dropped a message to aman. Please confirm with him.

Where do you find me saying that your way is wrong? Like I said earlier, I have stated my opinions and I stand by them. I have never said that your way is wrong or your group should not have done certain things. If I have, please quote that post. I will immediately delete it.

There. That's you expressing a negative opinion on the sanity of OUR decision. Which as I have clarified was SANE as per our adventure guidelines and our way of doing things. Criticizing our way means you feel your way is superior/right and our way is wrong. Go ahead, delete it now.

Furthermore, I will re-iterate. You guys took off the next day. Sure we made mistakes in LEAVING at the wrong time and we did everything we could to rectify that error. Ideally I would have preferred to stay at Patni Top since it was SUPER beautiful but we decided to ride on the interests of the group. And anyone who has done any riding in ANY group will tell you, you dont PUNISH people in the group for making mistakes, you just inform them of the error, ensure that they do everything not to repeat it and move on together. In this case, the ideal thing to do would have been wait a few hours for us to wake up and ride with us. Its juvenille to say "Hey, you guys left at the WRONG hour yesterday, so you know what, for the remaining 20 days of the trip, I think we won't ride with you.". THAT is what I would call insane. Our intent was to get there and we did. Sure both groups had distinct styles, but if you guys had bothered sticking together instead of shooting off, we would have had time to adjust the dynamics of both groups and merge peacefully. You did not give the group that kind of time. Instead you just left!

On a separate non-confrontational note, this is to those that will tour after us - either on the same route or on different route. If ever you find yourself stuck in a location for issues beyond your control - bike repairs, waiting for someone, weather, no fuel, etc. - don't consider the day wasted. Consider it an opportunity to leave your gloves behind, take a slow, leisurely walk across the city/village, savour the local cuisine, strike a conversation with locals, learn about their ways of life, visit local popular not with tourists, but with locals - even if its just a chai ka tapri, live their life for a day. You get more out of the experience that way. More memories, more friends, more information, more happiness. Just my two cents. I've heard "We wasted a day because of XYZ reason" waayyyyy too many times and my skin crawls everytime I hear it. A lazy day on a tour is only wasted if you spend the day indoors watching TV.