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 ... :-)
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 ... :-)
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