Day 5:Jhakari-Powari-Peo-Kalpa.


Had decided to ride very slowly enjoy the mountains...

some vistas...

Near Jeori






Approching Reckong Peo



Our stop for the day@Kalpa



Took swigs of OMR and enjoyed a beautiful rainbow



Pano of kinner kailash



The hotel owner at Jhakari had informed that kunzum la was closed however we were overjoyed on hearing @Kalpa that it had been cleared

Day 6:

Kalpa-Powari-Nako:

Somehow saw a lake on the map near Nako and thought I had read abt it somewhere and wanted to visit it

Another day of lesuire ride till Nako

Nako is a town which is located on a cliff and takes forever to reach

All the way while riding till Nako I was thinking lake on a mountain so high must be interesting

Reached Nako,DJ got a room with a view



This was it...there was a sign board saying -> to the Nako lake...

Didnt see anything...me and DJ decided to climb to the top of a small hill where some flags were placed to have a good view ...didnt see anything

Posed




Realised on our way back that the little puddle you see in the pic must have been the Nako Lake



I was expecting some nice glacial lake with sparking blue water.Well the lake is 'touristy hoaxy dissapointment' of lifetime

@darth: I am loving the vistas. It's nice to see these photographs; want to go back to the Kinnaur valley so bad.

whoaaaaaaaaaaaa!! darth u @#$@#$#@, i am burning my a$$ here

crazzy pics man.. i am writing this to my to-ride list right now

more pics please..

great going Amit

The rainbow pic is awesome. Im heading there in June last week...infact i leave next week from Mumbai.. So excited. Please put in more pics, they are acting as guides for road conditions there currently.. :-)

Go Darth! Waiting for the rest of the pics,...

Brilliant stuff Darth..!!
the pix are freaging amazing man..!!!! Please bring on the rest

Awesome stuff..!!
Lovely pics.

really awesome pics darth, bring the rest soon. waiting for it

Nako-Sumodo-Gyu-Sumodo-Tabo-Kaza:

Started from Nako.Went to the helipad to click some pics.

Rode towards sumodo...





Stopped at chango for breakfast.Gentleman preparing 'noodals' for chowmein..Asked directions for mummy








At the sumodo checkpost the inspector taught us to spell Gyu from 'jew' to 'joo' to 'gaiyuu' to Gyu Went to Gyu to meet the famous naturally preserved mummy..



Visited Tabo monastory and the guide cum caretaker gave us a tour of the fanastic interiors.


Priceless paintings in the monastory.He said photography wasnt allowed and tubelights were never clicked.I told him about how it was similar to ajanta and how the system for lighting is at ajanta to save the paintings and photography without flash was permitted there..





He said that Tabo is called Ajanta of himachal.We had lunch at place which was queerly named ajanta dhaba or something.




The wide spiti river bed offerd us plenty of opportunities to click pics







By this time I had a severe sore throat from all the extremes of temperature at night/AC in hotel,chilled weather at himalayas not to mention the butter parathas we had.Immune system had gone zero.I coughed a lot and puked once right before entering Kaza.



Inquired at circuit house at Kaza,but we were asked to get permissions from ADC.Rode into Kaza and tanked up.Found a guest house right next to mon




Asked the guest house boy if there are any medical shops around.He said no medical shops only government hospital is there.While I asked DJ to stay in the hotel the guest house boy took me to hospital.Doctors were away so he requested a nurse to give me some medicines.She gave me strong antibotic,some paracetamol,lozenges and another medicine.I returned and took the evening dose.....

I decided to tip the guest house boy generously before leaving for his hospitality...

Roamed around in market hunting for chinese goods..got a nice switchblade knife to gift it to 'some friend' who helped me.Now that I have taken a liking for it Ill keep it for myself.

Some kids in market place




Had dinner and took the night dose.Dinner was early so had to take second sose early.This was a big mistake taking some strong medicines in a short span of 3-4 hours....

Still the throat irritation didnt go away.DJ came up with a theory of taking a capfull of neat rum and keeping it in mouth.I took a few caps but didnt understand what this theory of 'keep rum in mouth,gala garam ho jayega'...I had problems retaining it in rum in my mouth and ended gulping it...tried for a few times and ended being drunk

A tired body,weakened immune system,high altitude,two doses of strong antibiotics in short span and now a 'few' caps of neat OMR were a very very bad combination for next day which was going to be the toughest day of ride.

Sometimes we do stupid things that we know we shouldnt

Kaza-Losar-Kunzum-Chattru-Manali-Vashisht

First thing I did in the morning after waking up was puke.Surprisingly my throat was feeling better.Had a paratha.

Butterless paratha didnt taste good.Well I puked again:vom::vom:

We decided to move on.


Suddenly the snow covered mountains were all over the place and all of them had a eerie cloud cover which was fcking scary

It was freezing cold when we reached Losar at 4k meters.Entered a dhaba and asked for stove.Warmed hand/gloves.Wolfed down some maggie.Somehow it tasted good.Brought some glucose biscuits and chocalate bars for energy for contingency incase I puked out the maggie again.Suprisingly maggie gave a nice warm feeling.I gulped down even the water from watery maggie to make sure I didnt leave anything.



Moved on to Kunzum.Crossed it carefully making sure we got enough traction on tires..





Celebrated after reaching top and made some new lama friends:grin:



Didnt have difficulty getting down from the pass....had decided to stop at Batal...had seen chottadhara board at losar.



Getting down from losar there were snow covered mountains ,surrounded by scary clouds.Seriously didnt look a place to be fooling around..Crossed batal saw couple of dhabas,not to mention 'The shelter'


Were surrounded by icy walls at times 15-20 feet high at times.



some pathetic freezy water puddle crossings from all the melted snow.....


Chottadhara happened to be nothing more abandoned PWD hut.

I knocked,blew horn....no body came out of the door.With the harsh surroundings I guess none of us would have been comfortable staying there.

Next stopped at chattru.Warmed our hands using a stove at oine of the dhabas.Drank tea.It was abt 4:00 till now....three hours more of daylight...we should easily cross rothang and would be in manali was the calculation done.

Crossed rothang.Roads till marhi werent that good.After marhi it was almost a two lane racetrack which we both realised and were in manali in no time...Roads from manali till marhi have improved considerable compared to last year.Didnt encounter a single pot hole.

On reaching manali we hit traffic and abandoned plans to find a hotel near the mall road and decided to climb and reach vashisht.Stayed up at one of those cheap guest houses near the temple.It stank of cow dung.

Had a nice dinner at nearby cafe and crashed into bed.