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!!!