So long, Keylong...

With 2 days of uncertainty passing by, we were reluctant to stay in keylong any longer. I was already 6 days behind schedule and my leaves were running out. I had to do something.

My friend arrived from the accident spot to where we were, & I should say that he was pretty badly hurt in spite of the riding gear he was wearing. Having said that, if not for the gear, he might not have made it (after examining the damage on the riding jacket , helmet & boots, things could have been pretty bad)

This gave me the jitters, so it was ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time) , may it be storm, rain or snow. Things suddenly turned positive the third day. I guess, no#3 is the charm. We managed to settle the cops, the relatives of the elderly woman, get our self's out of the "Hotel arrest" and even get the keys of the confiscated motorcycle. The only thing that was pending in our list was to get the 'accident motorcycle' back from  Kokhsar check post. I was lazy that afternoon. So my friends were on the job to get the bike back from the check post. 

Tomorrow we leave to Pang. It was going to be a grueling 185 kms ride ahead crossing 3 high altitude passes. That night I went to sleep earlier than normal after a killer moon-lit dinner of roti, dal, rice and eggs. After a good night's sleep, I was awake as per plans and was going to load my bags on the bike. I am lazy, but these guys take it to another level .  I was riding with 2 people who were as lazy as a "fatass on a couch with a beer". In fact one of them was just that. 

I was shocked to see that one of them had breathing problems and he wanted to go to the hospital (the same fella who had crashed earlier ). It was 6 30 AM. Here's a view of keylong general hospital at 6 45 AM with no people...

While my friend was getting some supplementary oxygen and morphine (just kidding), I had to entertain myself to ensure I dint get bored, So I was reading random things put up in the hospital ..

It was 7 30ish, and I was getting a little uncomfortable dressed up like an astronaut in a government general hospital. While the doc wanted us to stay till 10 am to get a X ray done (just to be sure, if there were no broken ribs ), My friend wanted to head back to the room, thanks to morphine. 

As selfish as this may seem, I told both of them that I had to leave without them, while one of them was still sleeping and the other trippin hard on the pain killers from that early morning dose. 

So this is where we split. I ride alone to leh from here..I am back to being the "lone crusader in a dangerous world" , and nothing could stop me. Not even me...

The beautiful lahul and spiti valley in the morning..

In the Check post at after Jispa

The mountains and I

Lovely tarmac in the middle of nowhere..

Riding a roadless road..

The bike that deserves a round of applause. She made me proud by effortlessly over taking 500s, like it was her birthright... on and off roads. Thanks to her lean diet of royal enfield's for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

End of Post...An out of focus flower. Peace.

More Delays

I was way behind schedule with the 3 night halt in Manali. We had to really start munching miles. We would start our epic ride today on the legendary Leh-Manali highway.

This was our route map..

With my leg fully operational again , we began to ride early in the AM. This to me is the quintessential mecca of all road trips on a motorcycle, which involves crossing five high altitude passes in a span of 2 to 3 days. ("la" means pass)

On our way up top to Rothang, we saw heaps of people in cars doing the same road trip. To do these very roads on a motorcycle, its like a new trip altogether. On the motorcycle its just different. Its more intense since you are completely exposed to the elements. The sheer thrill of pitching man&machine against the elements and riding so high that after day 1, you are often higher than the maximum permissible ceiling for commercial skydiving, which is 15000 ft. I cannot explain that sensation with words. One thing was sure, I was gonna come back .. again and again, because this was never gonna get boring. EVER.

With that said, we rode Manali - Rohtang - Kokhsar. Here we stopped for some quick dal and rice and were on our way to Tandi, the last fuel station to gas up. I remember waiting here forever. The reason was, the fellow dirt bike rider (on the stock impulse) was not within our vicinity.  After talking to a couple of locals we were told that a motorcycle looking identical to ours had met with a road accident and the casualties were taken to the Hospital in Keylong. This was not good. But we weren't sure till one of the passer by mentioned a "red riding jacket & blue water bottle". It was definitely him.

We rushed to Keylong and found out from the local police that he had collided with an elderly woman on the highway little after where we stopped for lunch. We had to stay in Keylong till we could sort this out with the cops and the relatives of the elderly woman.

Here's a glimpse of Keylong from the town, where we had to stay for 3 more days.

The scenery tends to change once the Lahul and Spiti Valley gets engulfed by rain clouds ..

In spite of the awesome scenery, things were not great at the moment. The Cops had us in a "Hotel Arrest" situation and confiscated the keys of one of the two motorcycles. Yep, you can conclude that we were a little bit stuck with the whole situation. Not having cell phone signal was the least of our worries.

But the cool thing about rock bottom is, the only way out is UP.

Parvati

It was a beautiful morning in Manali.

It was warmer than I expected & It was a nice, bright sunny day. This was the good news. The bad news was, we did not get permits to climb Rothang till Wednesday due to scheduled road maintenance. So we decided that we shall ride some trails that day.

more bad news, our trail ended here..

I took a small fall in                                                   ^                                        this place. But nothing that needed me to rush to the hospital. In fact, the footage is on video and should be on YouTube soon.

It felt terrific to ride the dirt bikes without the church & kitchen sink tied to the back. So we decided to take a detour and head to Parvati Valley. From the confluence of the Parvati River with the River Beas, the Parvati Valley runs eastwards, through a steep-sided valley from the town of Bhuntar, which was 40 kms from where we were. Kasol (Our destination) was roughly another 40 kms from there. It was already mid after noon and coming back the same day was unlikely, but that was the plan.

We chilled in this river bed for a while...

We reached Kasol by evening and decided that we would not ride in the night. We stayed at an "Alpine" hotel by the banks of the Great Parvati. We did not need any music that night. The place had its own sound track. I was also very excited about a small trail which a local had showed me which lead to the "old bridge" over the river. I wanted to show the trail to my fellow dirt biker and it was already dark by then. Being what I am, I fell again. This time there was some damage to the leg causing mild / medium inflammation which ensured that I couldn't walk well for the next couple of days.

There was absolutely no damage to the motorcycle whatsoever.

The next day, with a slight limp, I went to explore the extended banks of the river to find this..

The water was flowing so fast, that the little drops hitting the rocks formed another thin layer of 'cloud like' water.

Apparently there was a meadow nearby where Shiva is said to have meditated for 3000 years !  From Kasol, the road passes through the Sikh and Hindu pilgrimage town of Manikaran. There were loads of Hindu and Sikh pilgrims as some believe that these waters have sacred healing properties.

PS: GROW MORE

After breakfast, we headed back to base in Manali. That night we had to pack all the garbage back as we leave tomorrow early in the AM.

         "You need to wake up early in the morning, sometimes even before the sun. Its worth it...because you know what lies beyond the fog is all-ways something that your gonna love...somehow, we wish we thought we were lost, you know like in the stupid movies..and then we found out that behind the mountains there is a desert, and once you cross this desert, there is another mountain ..so on & so on.." - From the Three Kings..

Plains to Mountains

The excitement was immense. I couldn't sleep well during the night. Because, tomorrow we were gonna ship the bikes to Chandigarh and start riding that very weekend.

We got scammed a little by the parcel service guys, but that was oki. Finally, the bikes were all packed and ready for the mountain madness. There was one problem though. The train was delayed by like a crazy 14 hrs. So weren't sure if we can stick to our schedule. I was not going along with my motorcycle as I couldn't squeeze in those extra 2 days of leave. So I fly to Chandigarh to reach the same day the train arrives.

It was a Saturday, the 27th of July. I reached Chandigarh sometime mid after noon. After making a few phone calls, I got to know that the boys will arrive early evening. It made sense for that siesta. Rested well, I went to receive the motorcycle from the train station and I should say that it went pretty smoothly. All gassed up, the machines were ready to roll. It was an early night and we leave for the mountains tomorrow. We would ride briefly through The Punjab, and enter Himachal Pradesh. The plan was to halt in Manali that night, get the passes for Rhotang La, etc blah.

The breakfast in Punjab was overwhelming. Grumpy, after a heavy breakfast we had to ride through boring  highways. We took it seriously easy that day. It took us almost 12 hrs to reach Manali. Mostly because we were chillin like Hippies. We stopped EVERYWHERE. There was this one time we stopped for a short break, got on the bikes and stopped again because I saw a snake. and there goes. We take another break.

That's us entering Kullu district en-route to Manali.

Lush greenery that followed..

A special mention to the creepy tunnel. A 3-km-long tunnel, built on Chandigarh-Manali national highway at Aut, which is the only gateway to Kullu-Manali is sheer madness. Its a scary experience as the entire tunnel is wet and dripping with mountain water and the sodium vapor lights in the tunnel just dint help. After the creeps, you reach the great river Beas..

Buzzing through the Beas...

From here, The town of Manali was 40 kms. We reached there at about 7.30ish, but there was sun light and looked like this from the place we got our permits.

Tomorrow we climb Big and it was a Sunday well spent. 

The Art of sucking at Planning

Dear Bad Planner (and those with a potential to suck at it) - If there is one thing you should know, its the fact that there is nothing in your control.

Now that the Leh machine was ready to roll, it was pretty simple from here. Or at least that's what I thought.

This was our magical super awesome worlds best itinerary, Or a.k.a "The Plan" (Which is borrowed BTW and not my own idea). We ship out our bikes in the DD Exp. and we start riding from Chandigarh.

Day 0 - Reach Manali, get the permits ...Blah Blah, 300kms

Day 1, Manali – Rohtang la – Kokhsar – Tandi – Keylong – Jispa – Darcha – Baralacha La – Bharatpur – Sarchu, 230kms

Day 2, Sarchu – Gata Loops – Nakee La – Lachulung La – Pang – More Plains – Tanglang La – Upshi – Karu – Leh, 260kms: A hard day of riding while covering three high altitude passes; Nakee La 15,547ft, Lachulung La 16,616ft and third highest pass, Tanglang La at an altitude of 17,582ft.

Day 3, Leh – Thiksey – Leh

Day 4, Leh – Phyang – Khardung La – Khardung – Khalsar – Diskit – Hunder, 110kms: Conquering the worlds highest Motorable road at 18,380ft

Day 5, Hunder – Diskit – Sumur – Panamik – Sumur – Khalsar – Khardung – Khardung La – Phyang – Leh, 200kms

Day 6, Leh – Shey – Karu – Shakti – Chang La – Tanksey – Lukung – Spangmik – Pangong Tso, 170kms

Day 7, Pangong Tso – Phobrang – Marsimik La – Phobrang – Pangong Tso: Ride to the worlds highest Motorable pass.

Day 8, Pangong Tso – Lukung – Tanksey – Chang La – Shakti – Karu – Shey – Leh, 170kms

Day 9, 10, 11 - Climb a mountain (preferably Stok Kangri 6100 Mts)

Day 12, Leh – Nimmu – Lamayuru – Khaltse – Kargil, 293kms

Day 13, Kargil – Sanko – Parakachik – Rangdum (Suru Valley) – Panzi La – Padum (Zanskar Valley), 245kms

Day 14 – 13, Zanskar Valley: Exploring the Zanskar Valley and visit numerous Buddhist Gompas Zanskar Valley is famous for.

Day 15, Padum – Panzi La – Rangdum – Parakachik – Sanko – Kargil, 245kms

Day 16, Kargil – Drass – Zoji La – Sonamarg – Srinagar, 205kms through to the Kashmir valley

Day 17, Srinagar – Banihal – Udhampur – Jammu, 300kms

Day 18/Day 19, Jammu – Pathankot – Jalandhar – Ludhiana – Ambala – Delhi, 590kms

This looked freaking awesome (at least on paper). We were going to ride almost 3400 kms in 18 days, averaging almost 180 - 200 kms of tough riding every single day. Then somewhere in the middle of this I wanted to climb Stok Kangri.

I hate to burst the bubble now. None of this happened. In-fact, the 2 other people who were supposed to accompany me split. I had to ride alone, had a couple of falls,  lost my spare fuel and got even sent back in some places because of "Pakistan issues". Like I said before, nothing is in your control. But here's the cool part of the story. I Did climb a 5000 mt Mountain, I went white water rafting in the mighty Indus , Crossed the mighty Zanskar in a DIY rope bridge, stayed in villages that are accessible only by feet, Went to a local farm and plucked my own fresh apricots. Met people who mattered. It was all worth it at the end of the day.

At the end of the adventure, I was unhappy that I did not have enough time to deviate from my plan (as I did, which you will read about in the future posts) . So, Time is what you need (a lot of it) and not a "Plan".

Blitzkrieg

War-footing was the agenda. I had gotten all crazy that turned to mad, but now it was time to get over it. With all the misery haunting me one side, there were some serious advancements worth talking about.  2 of my friends decided that they will be a part of this adventure. The coolest part was both of them struck a Uber deal with Hero and got 2 brand new bikes. Now I had company. I was no longer the "lone crusader in a dangerous world". One of them even decided to lend his bike for taking measurements ( for things like the extra rail for carrying luggage, fuel can ..etc ). We chopped the M80's rear rail and made some minor mods to make this

The loading area at the rear says that the Max load is 7 Kilograms. Monkey Crap. With hindsight, I can tell you that it can take the load of a complete person (preferably a midget weighing 80 - 100 Lbs). Short and sweet. It fits the bill and does the job well.

Meanwhile in Chaos-land, the megaphone was complete...Hooray !

One of the 2 brand new bikes was going to be the exact same specification as the one I was building. So he had to make an exhaust system too. To celebrate our misery, we had a party that day. His motorcycle came in handy as well. As things were getting delayed, I had to completely strip it down to start the paint job in parallel. So the bike was not available to take measurements for the exhaust as it was nearing completion. My friend was kind & patient enough to lend his bike for making 2 complete systems. Here's shanker ( The tinker who makes exhaust systems in a winker ) doing what he does best.

It was a sunday, and we had to parcel the bikes to Chandigarh on Wednesday by train. My house smelt like a paint shop that day.

With just little bit of electrical work pending, and a fully done exhaust (thanks to shanker)

It was a job well done ...and we were ready to roll.

Leh Machine# 1

Leh Machine# 2 & 3

Make that trumpet blow

Initially this was simply a matter of making a larger diameter header & I had 2 Options. Dominated by straight pipes and “megaphone”, My engineer (Who is totally awesome BTW and probably the greatest) decided megaphone.

Making an exhaust was priority. Its very important that it works.In any IC engine, after combustion has taken place in an engine the exhaust gases have to have somewhere to go. In a motorcycle we aim the gases out the exhaust port and into the exhaust pipe. On four stroke racing bikes that pipe could be a long straight pipe or a short header pipe and a megaphone, which crudely looks something like this..

Akrapovic would make something like this (May be in titanium if you have $$$)

As motorcycle engines and chassis have become more advanced, so do have the exhausts. Its a multi-million dollar market out there. From the times Tubes used to be cut with a hack-saw and bent by hand over a torch. Today, CNC cut-off saws cut pipe to length while multi-level CNC tube benders shape pipes to exacting tolerances. But I lived in India. So all we had was tubes, hack-saws and gas welding equipment. Pig Iron replaced my titanium and carbon-steel dreams.

With so much of dilly-dallying, Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them. It was Chaos. My only consolation was this dude from Delhi. He had been prepping his impulse with a similar mod. My Engineer had completed his exhaust. So, I was thinking...What the crap, he just has to make one more.

Now comes the frightening part. The motorcycle entered the garage in the year 2012 and the work's not done yet.