When your parents start pressurizing you to settle down, you start thinking of all the wild things which you should do asap. And first thing that I had to do was a bike trip to Laddakh. So, I started that thread of Laddakh trip after talking to Himanshu (one of the most enthusiastic bikers I have ever met in my life!) and took in loop Pandeyji, Ankit, Sarwan and asked Tanu (my buddy from my native place) to join in. Time decided was 12-Aug to 25-Aug as that would take care of few public holidays as well.
But has it ever been so smooth? Finally it was left to Tanu and myself to go ahead on this trip and we decided to give it a shot. So, I called Ankit to book a bike for us and take care of all the logistics. And then we started on 12-Aug.
Day 1: Plan was to reach Manali (550 Kms from Delhi) by end of the day. But whole night driving took its toll on us by 6 in the morning and we took 5 hours rest at Ambala. When we restarted from Ambala, we were greeted by persistent rains. So, we took it slowly and kept moving towards our destination. In between, I kept wondering if we are making a mistake by not going in a group? But that question was answered when, at a dhaba, we met a guy going alone on his 100cc bike (and we were skeptical about our Pulsar 150cc!). Well, you start ascending after just 40-50 Kms of Chandigarh and then you really feel like going on a trip. But because of rains, it was clear we would not reach Manali by end of the day, so we decided to drive till 10 and see where we are. We reached Sundernagar (140 KMs before Manali) by 9 and then came the first adventure for us: a bridge between SunderNagar and Manali had collapsed! But then someone told us to take a village route which can take us to Mandi (110 KMs before Manali) and we could spend night there. So we decided to go via unimaginable route and reached Mandi by 11:30PM. But guess what? Another surprise! River Beas was flowing over the bridge between Mandi and Manali, so many people did not reach Manali at all and were staying in Mandi itself, which explained why so many people were roaming at that hour on the roads of Mandi. They were not roaming, they were searching for an accommodation. After an hour of search by myself, it was decided that we will sleep in front of a shop in the night. Then i thought if this is the worst, nothing more can happen. I went to a Dhaba wallah and asked him for some place to go (these guys have good contacts btw). He refused initially but then told me to go to a place a little far from the main town. We went to that suggested place and found one Sardarji at the reception. I asked him in punjabi " Sardarji, assi toh fass gaye si. Sannu raat guzarne waaste twadda sahara chahiye". He said politely that he don't have a single place and he has made some temporary arrangement in the Varandah where people were sleeping on the beds. I exclaimed: "woh hi dedo ji" as if someone has offered me a suite in Taj. But anyway it was better than sleeping in front of a shop. Thanks to Sardarji!
Day 2: The trailer of our trip was very clear from the day 1 (nothing is going to happen as per the plan). I woke up in the morning with the murmurs of bridge still under the river, landslide, and worst was when i heard that 4 bikers died because of a landslide! Well, on enquiring further, only first murmur proved wrong (big incentive!) and the news was that road to Manali was opened now. We started from Mandi asap and then reached Manali by 3:00PM. The way to Manali is very beautiful. You have mountain on one side and river Baes on other! We went straight to a mechanic and got our Bike a little serviced and by the time our bike was ready, it was already 5:00PM. So, we decided to go till Marhi (40 KMs ahead of Manali) and stay there at night. And we did reach Marhi by 6:30PM and took a room straight away. Here only i experienced what they mean when they say the winds could blow you off your feet! It was freezing like anything.
Day 3: Woke up to a chilly morning but refreshed mind and body! It was raining persistently but we decided to go ahead and cross the Rohtang pass (15 Kms up from Marhi) which was the favorite tourist spot for all the Manali visitors (It was en route to Rohtang only when I witnessed the only snowfall of my life last year). So we started with new resolve but guess what? It was one horrendous jam!! Every vehicle of the world was stuck on the way which had muddy road (if you call it a road in the first place) with mud as high as 2 feet. I asked Tanu to go ahead with the bike alone (as that was the only option) and I started walking. I must have walked for 6-7 Kms and we finally managed to reach Rohtang (a distance of mere 15 KMs) in next 4 hours! We had now almost lost a day and a half! Rohtang is not a place from where you can just pass. You got to stop and admire that beauty! And we obliged too. We fed our bellies with Maggi (50 Rs per plate!) and did some photography. Now, the plan was to reach Sarchu (220 KMs from Manali) by the evening. The funny thing was that we did not meet our plan on a single day but that never stopped us from making plans! And rains did not stop on this day too which limited our speed. Roads (if any) are worst in this part. And then because of a landslide, we again had to take a diversion over the mountains to cross "Paagal Naala" near Koksar. Somehow, by 5 in the evening, we reached that spot which i have seen so many times on internet: Last Petrol Pump before Leh! It was impossible for us to reach Sarchu that day, so we decided to stay put where we are: at Keylong (110 KMs from Manali). We took one room in a hotel and took shower with hot water. This was the most demanding day of the trip as there were bumpy roads, rains throughout and a bag on your back! We met two guys from Bangalore and i casually asked them: "whats the plan tomorrow?". One of them said : "Don't know, we are stuck here from last 4 days". OMG!! And then we heard that roads are closed from last 4 days and then I thought we are not so lucky that it'll open tomorrow. And here only i met one Irish guy, Roy, who has been on his 7th trip to India and was cycling all the way to Leh from Shimla but now had decided to go back to Shimla. Had a long chat with him on many topics. Also met one more enthusiast Sardarji.
Day 4: We had decided last night only, come what may, we are going to start at 6 in the morning. And we got ready by 6:00AM. But had to unpack again when we saw many vehicles coming back as there was a big landslide. Well, this was getting too much! We roamed around till 10 and then met 2 other guys who were on a scorpio and then they pumped us up. They said go till the landslide point and decide for your self. And that is what we did. We two, two guys from Bangalore, one sardarji and those two guys on Scorpio started at around 11 30. And guess what? We crossed that "Landslide" point without any difficulty. When we reached "Darchha" (30 KMs from Keylong), we saw vehicle parked here and there. I thought, one more jam is there. But it was not a jam. Police were allowing you to go ahead only after you sign a bond. I went straight to the police station thinking that it's not a big deal. But believe me, you will start shivering when you'll write on any paper this line : " I'm responsible for any incident that happens going forward and I'm going ahead at my own risk". Well, the scenery on the way is so beautiful that we had to stop every now and then to capture those moments. Though roads are bumpy and you start feeling a bit uncomfortable (we were now at around 15000 feet above sea level) because of lack of oxygen but who cared about all these things when you are in heaven? I was wondering what lays ahead. Can it get more beautiful? I was thinking this when came the final blow. Our bike got punctured. But we were prepared. We got the puncture kit out and repaired it, somehow, in next one hour. It was 4:00PM. But while putting the tube inside the tyre, tube got two more punctures! We redid the whole exercise and fixed that too but it still didn't work. It was 5:00 PM now. The other guys were getting late because of us and we could hear thunderstorms also. It was then we decided to go back and get the tube changed and return back. We saw one Army truck going backwards and they offered us the lift till wherever we want. But knew that now we have lost it. We were tired like anything and Tanu was having a little fever. I thought we can deal with bike not being 100% fit but not with any one of us getting ill. We did not find any puncture shop on the way and had to come back from where we started: Keylong. A bumpy ride on the back of an Army truck is something which you should never do. This day killed our spirits. We had already lost 3 days now and we did not have a clue of hows the weather up there. And we didn't know how much time it'll take to come back: returning back from the same way would be suicidal and the only other option was Kargli-Srinagar highway which normally takes a day longer. Keeping all these things in mind, we decided to get our bike fixed and return back. We have had enough adventure of our own by now.
We needed at least 12 days more, if weather behaves, to finish off our trip, if we still wished to go ahead. But it was not possible for us anymore. Fatigue and delay has broken us completely. And nothing ever goes as planned on a trip where you are dependent on only one thing: weather. So we turned our bike back and then it took us 3 more days to return back. I was a little disappointed and was consoling myself all the time. But our decision to return back proved lucky as our bike again got punctured on the way to Rohtang. And Just after Rohtang, there was a landslide jam which gave us three options: stay there and die freezing, stay there and die hungry or go ahead and die by rocks. We chose the last one and triumphed unscathed!
Well, our trip was shortened (we covered only 1600 Kms against the planned 2500+ KMs) due to the reasons beyond our control but I'll cherish this trip my whole life. When we started, i was feeling "Are we fools to go on such a trip?" but when we finished it i was feeling "We were fools not to do this earlier". I know I cant do justice to this trip in my blog. You can see the pics just to get an idea of what we have witnessed.
PS: What a coincidence that my 50th post is a description of this trip!
