Almost Ladakh - End of the journey

This time we got rooms on the other side of the river on Naggar road. The hotel (Beas View) and has decent rooms for the price offered, but the HPTDC Beas Manali still wins only for it's balcony. The food at the hotel is very good. We woke up late on the 11th and spent the day chilling out in Manali ... checking email, shopping, and generally walked around the bazaar area.

The sun was out in Manali after quite a few days, and we thought it would be good weather for paragliding. We checked out in the local adventure stores, but (wary after the experience with Shankar) were not satisfied with the price and the time-in-air they were offering. So we scratched the plan.

We spent a long time shopping in the Tibet Emporium on Mall road. The place has a very beautiful collection of traditional Tibetan wear, Tibet flavored T-shirts, Thankas (Colorfully embroidered wall hangings with a Buddhist significance), and other Tibetan artefacts. The store might be seen as expensive by some, but the quality of stuff on offer is excellent. And the general friendly disposition of the store staff definitely scores points! I'm not a total fan of the Tibetan non-violent movement against the Chinese, but the heart does go out for them! In any case, I will desist from voicing my political opinions here.

After this was a lunch session at you guessed it ... Khyber. I got totally sloshed on Himsberg 9000 (Himachal's answer to Calrsberg?) and I faintly remember everyone having a good laugh at my expense. This is a good beer, and strong too. In fact, it's probably the best-tasting strong beer I have had till date. Anyway, I had to take a good 2 km walk to get the beer out of my head! Evening was another affair at the hotel with Old Monk and room service food.

Abby and Kavi had tickets on Jagson Airlines from Bhuntar to Delhi for the 12:30 PM flight on 12th. So off they went in a taxi at 09:00 AM to catch their flight. The rest of us were travelling by the local bus to Delhi to catch our flight on the morning of 13th (To get to Bombay just in time to catch Abby's engagement ceremony). The calculations were not all correct and they ended up reaching the airport late, but not to worry, the flight was late as well. They did have a delightful (??) experience at Bhuntar and on the Jagson flight, but that would be best described by one of them. I'll try to get someone to write up a bit on that ...

The rest of us meanwhile thought we should go return the burner without the gas stove. Considering that we returned some part of the said object, we should get a part of our deposit back! The guy at the store was a weird type - slower than a sloth bear when he moved, and a permanent frown on his otherwise expressionless face. Only, he was not prepared for what we hit him with :). The look on his face when we told him we "misplaced" the cylinder was kickass. Mr. Sloth had the last laugh though ... he got out a rate card which priced the cylinder at twice the deposit we had left with him! And we ended up paying another 900 bucks. :-D

After checking out of the hotel, lunch was had at a place called Chopstix across the taxi stand on Mall road. Place serves brilliant oriental food and KF beer. Stuffed with Momos and fried rice, we got on the bus for an uncomfortable 15 hour ride all the way to Delhi. Back at ISBT Delhi, we caught a Metro train to Dwarka, and from there, a combination of rickshaw, bus, and a weird neither-a-bus-nor-a-van vehicle to get to the airport. Breakfast at Airport Hotel (expensive place, but serves good food), and then the flight back to home to end a memorable trip. Hopefully, we will all be able to go and finish the task next year.

Here's a few hints that I hope will be helpful to anyone who decides to undertake this journey.

1. Make sure you do not carry too much luggage ... It's a pain. Make do with the minimum required things, but have enough warm / waterproof clothes to beat the weather. It's best to invest some money in getting functional clothes that are not very bulky.
2. Pack for unexpected rains. So you do not wake up to find your stuff wet.
3. Do not carry too many loose items like camera bags and such. Try to get it all in one backpack. We know because of the amount of stuff we lost this time!
4. In our case, the bikes made all the difference. To generalize, check and double check all vendors and equipment.
5. AMS is serious business and could happen to anyone. It could well screw up your entire trip. So take all precautions.
6. Enjoy yourself ... even if you are having a little trouble. :-)

As I'm writing this, I got a call from my good friend Perumal ... from Leh. He's done the journey on his own bike (which he rail-transported from Bangalore to Delhi). The weather and conditions this year have been really bad, and he's really had to rough it to make it to Leh ... and the return journey still remains! Congrats Peru ... and best-o-luck to me for my next attempt! Cheers!!!

Almost Ladakh - Ride and Roll

Day 8 started in beautiful riding conditions. We made it a point this time to have the camera handy, so that Kavi (riding pillion) could pick up some cool action photographs. We made good time getting to Keylong and the only incident was in crossing a stream just before Keylong when I goofed up and put Kavi down. She was not badly hurt though, and a couple of local chaps helped me lift the bike up, but ... let's just say ... she did not find it funny!!! ;-)

We had breakfast in a local eatery in the bazaar in Keylong. Meanwhile, we got ChuniLal to take a look at Bhatti's Enfield which seemed to have a problem with the kick. ChuniLal could not fix it ... but fortunately it was not a show stopper and we continued. We had full tanks and 3 spare fuel cans when we left Manali. We lost 2 of the cans at Rohtang when we left the bad bike there for the night. To add to that, we lost fuel from the bikes when they were riding in the trucks and would not sit straight. So we decided not to take te chance and fill up a little bit in Tandi. This done, we moved on. The ride was uneventful most of the way, and the scenery was beautiful. This was infinitely more enjoyable than the truck ride.

We took quite a few stops for pictures before a stop for tea at Sissu. Post this was the worst section of the road, upto Koksar. There was some work being done to fix the road, but this only made it worse. On our onward ride, this part of the road was wet because of the overnight rain. This time, the road was dry and dusty. We had to stop quite a few times just because trucks would go past blowing dust into our eyes! Eventually we reached Koksar, where we took a break to wash up and get something to eat before the last and most difficult part of the ride.

Abby was having a problem now ... his bike's silencer had gone kaput and was loud enough to keep the whole district awake! The solution ... some cotton in the ears :). This did lead to an interesting incident with the local police when Abby started his bike. The conversation went something like this ...

Local police (on bike parked some 20 mts away, waving hands irritatedly!): Bandh kar ...
Abby (still revving, to keep the engine from dying): Kya? Sunai nahi de raha!
LP (Growing irritation): Bike bandh kar.
Abby (Speaking in gestures now): Sunai nahi de raha!
LP (Grrr ...): Bike bandh kar.
Abby (Cotton in his ears): Sunai nahi de raha. Ek minute, main udhar aata hoon. Vrrooom ...

... The next instant, Abby was next to LP who (obviously worried about losing his eardrums) decided to not pursue the matter anymore and left the place themselves!

After Koksar, the weather was a little overcast and it was enjoyable till we were getting close to the top, when it started to get cold again. The gas stove was tied onto Bhatti's bike, and somewhere along the way it came loose. The cylinder fell off the bike and Bhatti carried on with only the burner. Chavan and me came up behind and saw the cylinder lying in middle of the road. Since it was open and leaking gas, we decided to just leave it there and carry on (The funny part was when we went to return the burner ... the expression on his face when we told him we had "misplaced" the cylinder!).

By 04:00 PM, we were at jinx point (also known to the world as Rohtang pass), where Zappy's bike decided to die again ... the battery once more! Tried some jump-starting, but soon realised that it would not last. We got ourselves some food at Rohtang and decided to just roll the bike downhill for the remaining 50 odd kms upto Manali. The kicker was when the local guy in Rohtang took one look at the bikes and figured that they were from Shankar's garage. The guy obviously had a reputation for giving out bad bikes ... but us inexperienced daft lot did not have the sense to get the bikes checked from another place, or even to verify Shankar's credentials! Anyway ... no sense complaining about that now! Leh was a faraway dream until next year ... and we had enjoyed the trip anyway ... :-)

Stomachs full ... "70, Rajput regiment" was on it's way. 2 bikes rode in front of the bad one warning for traffic and 2 bikes rode in the back (people ready to get down and push if there was an upslope)! This configuration went fine till we got tired of pushing (It was strenuous business). Then Zappy came up with the brilliant idea of pushing the bad Enfield with the front tyre of a good one. This was a lot easier although a little more dangerous, but danger was not the first thing on our minds now!

Around 07:30 PM we reached the end of our ride. We had decided to confront Shankar and did, but after a little bit of arguing decided that it was not worth spoiling our evening arguing with the jerks. We got our deposit back and left. The most exciting part of the trip was now over, and we went to the hotel room in Manali to get ourselves some drinks and relax.

Almost Ladakh - Deep freeze

The final vote was to go on upto Jispa before the real climb upto Baralacha-La (4890 mts) starts. Jispa is 25 kms from Keylong and I had read that it was a beautiful place to camp out. The idea was to setup camp at Jispa if we liked the place, or otherwise to start riding back to Manali the same day. A little more confident about the bikes after the service (although ChuniLal made it perfectly clear that the bikes were trash, we knew we did not have to go too far ... hence the confidence. Leh, even Sarchu - the border between Ladakh and Himachal - was out of the question. So the most we would ride was another 200 kms.), we were enjoying the ride now. There was one particularly beautiful spot on the route, where we stopped to take some pics.

We went past Jispa and another 6 kms to Darcha where the road crosses the river Bhaga and goes on up the mountains towards Baralacha-La. It was already 04:00 PM, and we decided to break for lunch. There are a few stalls here where you can get some grub. None of the places looked very inviting, and we chose one at random. The food was not exceptional, and we just had something to fill our stomachs. The same stalls also provide cheap accommodation i.e. bed and blanket. After Darcha (3360 mts) is a 45 km climb to Baralacha-La, beyond which is Sarchu, where the road crosses over into Ladakh. Given the condition of the bikes and our constraints on time, we could not manage that part of the journey and decided to turn back from where we were. The night halt would be Jispa, where we would pitch camp.When we've planned for months to get to a place, and finally have to give up on it because of reasons that were actually well within our control, that's a really disappointing thought. In one way, the whole trip was a failure.

The other way of looking at it ... We've had a great time upto now, even though there was a lot of pain involved. So might as well continue having a great time. Not many people ever come this far, and we still have the satisfaction of trying. And what's more ... we're gonna do this again next year and go all the way!

Anyway ... we got back to Jispa and were looking at our options for spending the night. Hotel Ibex is set in a pretty location just by the highway. It's overpriced for the amenities it provides, but there's no competition to drive down the price! Right next to it is a set of tents which are also let out for Rs.300 per person per night. Bed and blankets are available. For Rs.50 a tent, you have the option of pitching your own. We decided on this option.

Hotel Ibex charges Rs.500 per person for a white water rafting session in the Bhaga river. Although we had decided not to take the hotel, we did not want to miss the chance to try this out when it was so readily available! So we decided to come back from the rafting trip and then pitch the tents. All except Abby, who was still sulking a bit about the lost items and decided to give it a pass (He still insists that it was really the thought of getting drenched in the cold water while he felt a cold coming along. It is a fact that his undies hadn't yet got a chance to dry after the drenching in Koksar, but I still don't buy this :-D ). The trip lasted some 45 mins, 8 kms from Darcha to right in front of the hotel in Jispa.

At Darcha we got on into our lifevests. While we waited for the raft to be ready, we checked out the water. 'Freezing' would probably be a mild word. The thought did cross my mind as to whether it was really worth it, but chickening out is not my thing, especially when it could mean that the rest would take my case for the remainder of the trip! We were given some simple instructions by our man who told us what we do at each direction the man at the back shouted out (He made it sound complex by teaching us instructions like 'Left Forward, Right Backward' ... or something on those lines, but the only ones finally used were 'Forward' and 'Relax'). A Mr. Ranjith led the way in a kayak, with the added responsibility of picking up anybody who spilled overboard (This man started off with a couple of somersaults himself, really bringing us to doubt his credentials with regards to saving someone else's life!).

All said and done, the bone-chilling cold lasted only the first few minutes. Once you start rowing hard, the body generates enough heat for the temperature to not bother you. Except when you try to feel your legs - which being locked in position - really cannot be felt at all! We enjoyed every bit of the ride ... especially because Zappy kept relaying all the instructions from back to front loud enough for all of Keylong to hear it, "Forward ... Forward ... Forward ..."!

By the time we got off the raft, we were just too cold to try and do any tent pitching, resulting in Hotel Ibex making a nice sum of money. Abby, who was chatting with the guy from the hotel figured out that this was a common thing ... most people who take the raft end up taking rooms, a neat scheme I think!

Our calendar now left us just one day to do the 150 kms to Manali, so we decided to sleep early and wake up early the next morning and leave. And the real surprise came next morning ... when we actually managed to wake up, pack, and leave the place by 08:00 AM!!!

Almost Ladakh - 3 days, 115 kms, help at last ...

We had left all our stuff outside when we went to sleep. There was no real fear of anyone picking up our stuff or of rains. But unusually strong rains in the night made sure that we woke up in the morning with most of our stuff soaked!

Luckily, the sun was out in the morning and we spent half the morning drying the wet stuff. Chavan meanwhile was still fighting AMS and was sitting motionless on the rocks. He only moved to change his position when his ass got sore :-D!

Eventually we managed to haul our asses up onto the road, where we flagged down a truck. We went through the usual round of bargaining before settling for 800 rupees (That was the socialist in me ... the others were shooting for lesser!). 2 enfields went up into the back of the truck with the luggage. Chavan and Zaheer rode in the back of the truck trying to keep the bikes straight, until Zaheer hit his head somewhere when the truck ran over a huge bump! The leaking petrol did not help him, and very soon I had to trade places with him! Chavan had had enough too and decided to ride in the cab. I gathered there was no point me trying to keep the bikes straight or anything. They were hopelessly locked in position by the handles, so I just sat back and enjoyed the view (My decision to wear a helmet was vindicated when I got a really nasty blow on the head as the truck rattled over a bad patch of road!). This was another beautiful ride following the river all the way upto Tandi, crossing the river at that point. This is the point where the Chandra river meets the Bhaga river to form the Chenab. Keylong is 6 kms from Tandi. On the road to Leh, Tandi is also the last fuel stop before getting to Leh.

We reached Keylong soon enough and found our man. ChuniLal works in the garage on the main road to Leh before the Keylong bazaar on the highway. We unloaded the 5 bikes and left them in his hands explaining all the issues. He assured us that the bikes would be ready the next morning for us to carry on with our journey. Yogesh is another mechanic in Keylong, and is apparently an expert with Enfields, but we did not find him at the time.

By the time we got to Hotel Snowland, it was already 04:00 PM. We all cleaned up (shower and hot water after 2 days!) and went out to lunch. First round was at a local place in the market where we got excellent mutton Momos and mutton Thukpa. We were chatting with the lady who ran the place, and she told us a little bit about life in Keylong. Come winter, the population of the town becomes half of that in tourist season. All access is blocked by the snow and the town survives on stocked supplies. All economic activity stops and all the townfolk do is to relax and have whatever good time they can have in the weather.

A more elaborate lunch (!!? At 06:00 PM) was had later at Hotel Geyspa, a nice hotel with good food, a good ambience and a much more elaborate menu. Lunch done, we found the local 'theka' and bought a bottle of Old Monk again. Back in the room, we had a couple of drinks before going off to sleep peacefully.

Next day morning, we went up to the garage and picked up the bikes. At Snowland, we packed everything up and got ready to leave. That's when Abby found his ski jacket missing! The total lost items value now crossing 15000 rupees (The list reads ... 1 air ticket, 1 Rayban sunglasses, 1 ski jacket, 1 binoculars), there was a sulky mood going around. It was already clear that we did not have enough time / machines to get to Ladakh, but now we were contemplating returning to Manali the same day and heading back home earlier than scheduled.

A little while later, we were on our way to Jispa, further on the road to Leh ... :-)

Almost Ladakh - Self help is the best help?

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is something that can affect the fittest of folks. It occurs because the bodies of people from the plains are not accustomed to the rarer atmosphere at altitudes above 2500 mts. The earliest symptoms are headache, nausea, disorientation, fatigue. If ignored, the symptoms can worsen and at it's worst, AMS is fatal. The most common medication (preventive also) is Diamox, but is not a total solution. The only real preventive measure is to ascend slowly beyond 2500 mts. The night halts should be at small increments in altitude (500 mts), and it is best to spend some time to acclimatize at each increment in altitude. And once a person has AMS, the only real cure is to descend from the altitude. At 3800 mts, Rohtang is not a place to spend the night after Manali (1800 mts), but we were left with no choice!

We woke up to pleasant weather in Rohtang, that is, all of us but Chavan. Chavan woke up with a woozy head, and was too tired to get out of bed. It was a task even getting up and going to take a leak. When he finally settled down someplace, the only sign of life was when he looked up to check what we were doing. We had to get our asses out of Rohtang now, before this guy got any worse!

The rain had stopped, giving us a fair chance of going at the bikes. First, the Enfield , which was left overnight where it gave way. Abby and me got a piece of strong metal wire from our local friends and went up to fix it. An hour or so later, we had gotten a temporary brake yoke installed ... Not the best, but enough, we figured, to get to a mechanic (which was hopefully Koksar - 15 kms away, or otherwise Keylong - 70 kms away). Second, the Yamaha with the stuck accelerator. This was a trickier operation with none of us ever having actually replaced an accelarator cable before.

We started off confidently noting exactly what we were taking apart. Meanwhile, a local chap who was around and 'seemed' to know a little bit about the bike's internals came around to help us. After an hour it was plain that the help was totally unwanted ... He had already screwed up the part where the accelarator cable got into the carburetor. And we had not even observed at the time he was taking it apart! The only way to fix this? Take the good Yamaha apart, confirm exactly how the parts are put together, and then replicate it on the bad bike. Another hour of hard work, and the result ... 2 bad Yamahas!!! So much for the engineering brains! By this time it was getting to be noon, and we decided to load the bad bikes up onto a truck and take them upto someplace with a mechanic. We stopped a truck soon enough, and loaded up the 2 Yams and the shaky-brakes Enfield.

For 300 rupees, we got a really bumpy ride down to Koksar. The guy drove like a maniac on steroids (With the roads as they were, I could not help wondering if he had a death wish!), while Abby, me, and another helpful passenger wrestled with the bikes to try keep them in one piece. Kavi and Chavan rode in the cab with the driver. Whenever we could catch a breath because of an oncoming vehicle on the narrow road, we managed to soak in the scenery. The weather had simmered down as expected - the sun was shining bright, visibility was high and the sky was a deep blue, stunning altogether.

Pretty soon we were in Koksar, only to find that there was no mechanic available there. Our next option, Keylong, 55 kms away. Meanwhile Zappy and Bhatti were riding the 2 good bikes down from Rohtang. While we waited for them to reach, we decided to use the time and try to fix the Yams anyway. Systematically this time, in better weather and less pressure, we made much better progress. In some time, we saw an Enfield coming along ... not the one we were looking for, but it got us a message from our friends. Apparently, we had one more problem bike! In a bit, they were with us, Zappy with his engine off and rolling the bike along. It had just stopped breathing somewhere along the way! We had very smartly got the tools along with us in the truck, leaving them no option but to get rolling ... thankfully, it was all downhill!

Things were looking good for the Yams meanwhile. Both were usable (with a little bit of nylon cord in right places :-D). Confidence high, we examined Zappy's Enfield. We soon found the problem. A bad battery / alternator - the battery was dead and needed charging. With the battery from Bhatti's bike, we jump-started Zappy's bike. A little bit of revving and we looked like we could all move! Confidence was at it's peak now ... we even helped a local lad with his bike (Stupid chap could not himself figure out that his fuel was running on reserve :-D)!

Although it was getting late, we decided to make the dash to Keylong. The road followed the right bank of the Chandra river in the valley, which is really the only inhabitable part. There is terraced cultivation and a few settlements along here. The left bank is uninhabitable and rises very steep to the top, where there is snow even in the summer months! We were very peacefully soaking in the scenery and riding along when 5 kms from Koksar, Zappy's bike died again! We realised now that something was seriously wrong with the battery / alternator and the battery was not charging while the engine was running. Whatever distance we had covered from Koksar was the charge built up from the work done at Koksar.

Another repair session started. Then someone had the bright idea of switching the battery with the one from Bhatti's bike. It seemed a smart thing to do, so we tried it ... but very soon we smelt something burning in Bhatti's bike. It was time for Chavan to come out with his gem for the trip ... "Bullet mein to burning smell aata hi hai!!!" (I can guarantee it's not any obscure symptom of AMS that made Chavan say that :-D).

Well, that was the end of the day's ride. We deliberated the options (camping / someone going ahead to Keylong to get a mechanic), and finally decided to camp on the river bank. Was a good decision. We had a wonderful evening sitting on the rocks by the river, chatting and sipping Old Monk. In a clear starry sky, I saw the most awesone shooting star I have ever seen in my life, and later, an amazing moonrise coming out through the clouds over the mountains. I'll remember it as the most spectacular campsite ever!

For company, we had a bunch of Buddhist monks camping close by. They were on a 4 month pilgrimage following the river on foot upto Keylong. They just walked a few 100 mts everyday and setup camp.

Looking back on the day, I can't tell if it was a good idea to try fix the bikes ourselves. But it was a good experience, and although it was a lot of pain and bother, it was all good fun in the end.