Return to Ladakh - Introducing Anand

Our time - A euphemism for extremely unreliable time estimates / extremely unreliable timekeeping (Source - the official Ladakh 2009 trip dictionary).

If you don't sleep at night, waking up early ceases to be a problem. But once you wake up, you still need to pack up the tents, clean up the campsite, and cold start the bullets in the thin air! When we finally got going at 7 "our time", we were 2 hours behind the scheduled time of 7 hours IST.

Chavan was already ill. Abby having not gotten his quality sleep was grouchy. And to top it, there was the rain; not a downpour or anything, but that steady persistent drizzle that gets under your skin. Suddenly, no one wanted to take photo breaks or smoke; all that we wanted to do was ride non stop till we found better weather, hopefully beyond the next pass. We wished!

Just past Nakila, we ran into a herd of grazing Ibex. That was our first stop for the day, and even that lasted only long enough to get a few photographs.

But knowing our history, it was time for something to go wrong :) Abby was complaining all along of his engine dying in idle, and just after Nakila it stopped again; and refused to start! Brute force kicking would never have worked, and it did not. As luck would have it, just when we were running out of ideas, we saw this lone rider come up from behind us. And he turned out to be just the person we needed.

Anand Ethirajulu, on his solo trip, had enough knowledge of bullets to help us fix the broken bike. It wasn't a major fault - just a change of the fuel mixture to adjust for the rarefied air - but left to ourselves, we probably wouldn't have got it right for at least another hour. It took us a few kilometers, some experimentation with the settings, and fixing a bad fuel supply tube before we could really get going again.

The rain had let up by then, but the sky was still overcast threatening to open up any time. We pushed on though, and did the remaining 25 kms to Pang in quick time. The landscape had changed meanwhile; we were riding through a valley with an ultra clear river flowing next to us. Everything around had gotten more stark, more dry, more rough, and nature was doing overtime in it's modern artist role; creating strange and varied formations out of the rocks.

Just before Pang is a small checkpost where you have to register your vehicle and riders. It's manned by a friendly policeman who has no clue what the weather is outside his tent. If you do have questions about the weather, you'd be better off asking someone else!

Pang itself is a small tent colony where you can get some grub and bedding for the night. They've got a cool socialist scheme going - even though there's fierce competition between tents for the food business, the proceeds from the accommodation business are distributed evenly between all the tent owners. Viva la revolucion!

Return to Ladakh - Deep freeze

The plan, day 3 - Leave at 0800 hours and ride the 200 kms to Pang. Take the ride easy; with more breaks and more photographs; soak in the view; chill out even while making the distance.

As things transpired, we got up in the morning, sat around chatting, had a heavy breakfast at the hotel, and when we finally got rolling, the time was closer to 10. Thankfully, we had already fueled up the night before, including picking up our spare cans of fuel; otherwise, we might have ended up doing only 30 kms that day!

The roads were pretty good and we made Darcha in under 2 hours, photo and smoke breaks included. Darcha is the point where the Bhaga and Barai rivers meet, and is the starting point for a lot of treks into the Zanskar valley. The ride was pretty uneventful except the one time when Chavan decided to switch gears. Suddenly, from riding easy in third spot, he was racing out in front of everyone else. For a moment, he seemed possessed. Till he decided to stop for 10 minutes to let an oncoming truck do the 50 meters between them and pass; the moment was over.

After a chai (or two, in the case of Manoj) at one of the many tea stalls in Darcha, we hit the road again. The road overall was awesome, except for the one water crossing, with the coldest water that we had yet encountered. We finally stopped for lunch at Zing Zing Bar, which is a total of 3 tents run by Nepalis; serving chai, maggi, and dal chaval. I doubt there would be a cooler named place in India (with the possible exception of Chutia, Assam; although some would dispute the use of the word cool in this case ;-)).

The Nepali dude at Zing Zing Bar decided Kavi was "strong" because she was wearing just a pair of trousers and a t-shirt in that weather, while the rest of us were all covered up in multiple layers! Well ... she obviously wasn't strong enough to do the striptease later on Baralacha La ... like a couple of us did! :) By the way ... any likeness to Somali pirates is purely incidental. For the record, there have been no reported sightings of Somali pirates anywhere in Ladakh.

Just before Baralacha la is the serene Suraj Tal lake; memorable to Kavi as the place where she touched snow for the first time. Baralacha La was the highest pass that we had yet done on the trip. Standing at the highest point on the road, all around are rolling hills checkered black and white with stone and snow. To the right is a stupa with thousands of prayer flags. The small hill to the left is covered in chorten (Stones piled to resemble a stupa; a symbol of thanks from travelers for their continued safety).

We hung around for sometime, even getting abused by a passing truck driver for parking our bikes in the middle of the road. Not true really, but he was probably just getting back at us for having blocked him in a bad patch of road on the up slope. He went sliding down some 10 meters before he regained traction there!

The road down from Baralacha is as bad as the road up to it is good. The landscape starts to get stark around here with hues of brown all around; loose rock and mud, landslides, and the like. The road meanders down about 30 kms before finally reaching Sarchu, occasion for a small celebration as we had finally hit J&K state, and Ladakh ... 3 years after we first set out!

Sarchu is where we see the Tsarap Chu river, strangely beautiful in the way nature has carved the gorge down from the grassy plains to the river. Look carefully, and you could see nature carving faces in the mountains around (No! I was not high on anything at this point. :-))

It did not look like we had a lot of daylight left. The sun was going down fast, leaving us no chance of getting to Pang for the night. We stopped after going only as far as daylight and terrain permitted us. It took us the better part of the available daylight time to set up the new tent, which we had to figure out how to put up (The damn packaging did not even have a picture of the thing for us to use as reference)!


Chavan was already showing signs of illness - a mix of food poisoning and AMS - and his sleeping bag was wet (A result of his new river crossing strategy - "floor it"). So it's 4 sleeping bags, 5 people, and biting cold - perfect recipe for a sleepless night. Abby probably had the worst of it as Kavi seemed more adept at tugging at the sleeping bag in her sleep, but we all had a pretty bad night although wrapped in full riding gear!

The best part of the day was just before though - the night sky lit up with a million shining lights. I remember nights spent at INS Shivaji in Lonavla that could compete, but I'm sure even that would be a distant second to this sky. It was the perfect place to camp ... if only we had been more prepared for the cold.

Return to Ladakh - The first hiccup

19-Jul-2009 0500 hrs our time. We were up alright, but nowhere close to getting on our way. It took us over a couple of hours to get everything packed, fixed up on the bikes, redistribute the bags to get the weight distribution right, and get on our way. And this was with the bungee cords. If this had been the last trip, the same exercise with regular nylon cords would have taken us twice the time!

If you are headed for Rohtang, there's a good reason why you should be leaving early. Come morning, and hordes of tourists hit the road for Rohtang. Most of them just go up there, click a few Patel snaps, ride a pony, throw snowballs at each other, and head back along the same road to Manali. There's also all the trucks that leave Manali to get across the pass to Lahaul & Spiti, or to Ladakh. On a regular road that would be fine, but the road to Rohtang (especially past Marhi) is just a slush pit in most places!

So we left late allowing all these guys to go up ahead of us, and the result was we ran into a HUGE traffic jam just up above Marhi. The traffic was standstill and enterprising locals were already there selling tea and bhutta. If you are stuck in a traffic jam though, a bike is the best thing to be on. We managed to sneak through between most of the vehicles, till we came to the problem spot. It was just one hairpin bend, but the road was only slush, about a foot deep. One of every 3 vehicles was getting stuck, and then there'd be all the pushing and revving to get it unstuck.

We thought we could go through, but the couple of cops present would have none of it! Everytime one of us tried to start our bike and get through, we'd hear this guy screaming abuses at us! Eventually though, with some effort, we managed to sneak past the cop, only to find out that Manoj's bike died on him and would now refuse to start! That feeling of disappointment rose up in my guts again. We tried a while but saw it wasn't working, so we called Anu for help. Anu remote diagnosed the problem to be a dead battery, and said he'd be there in a couple of hours with a replacement. So Kavi, Chavan, and me waited, while the other two headed further up to refill our water supplies.

I had a headache and was feeling a little woozy. Most likely symptoms of AMS, but I suspect it also had a lot to do with the situation and the disappointment. In retrospect I was jumping the gun, but at that point, I almost felt like it was a lost cause, like we might need to head back and try again the next day, or maybe try again the next year!

Nothing like that happened though. Anu came and replaced the battery, and we got started up and on our way. Kavi who was already drooling over the 'hot Anu', now also had him as her knight in shining armor and savior of her trip. We did not hear the end of it over the next few days! Half an hour got us to Rohtang, and after a quick snack of Maggi and chai, we hit the road again.

The roads are considerably better past Rohtang, and the traffic is almost nil. The road is pretty decently maintained, and the stretch between Khoksar and Sissu is especially good. Beautifully laid tarmac snaking along the river bank made this some of the best riding on the trip. We passed our campsite from the last trip and headed straight for Keylong, where we intended to stay the night. There was some bad roads, but as we realized over the trip - if you get past Rohtang, you've pretty much made it! We fueled up at Tandi (our last fuel source before Leh), and got to Keylong by nightfall with only enough energy left to crash at the Tashi Deleg.

Sight of the day: A couple of Himalayan eagles soaring above us while we were waiting for Anu to come. Even in the state that I was in, the eagles brought a smile to me. Pure grace and beauty!

Return to Ladakh - The starcast

I was still reminiscing about Thailand, when it was time to begin preparing for the mother of all trips - the repeat to Ladakh, with the hope that this one would end better. The last one, although highly eventful and remembered fondly, ended with us unable to reach even halfway to our destination! 3 years down, this was our chance to make up for the failure.

The first guy to pack his bags and be ready for the trip was Zappy of course, but turned out he was the one who did not finally make it. The last person we thought would come was Chavan, but he managed to make it here just in time! In between was a mile long mail trail of planning, persuading, begging, and general bull$#!t. When at last we met at Delhi airport, there were 5 of us.


The usual suspects ...
1. The Terminator a.k.a Abby
2. High Command a.k.a Kavi
3. Dhakka Start a.k.a Chavan
4. Macho Man a.k.a Aj (that's me)

... And introducing ...
5. Bullet Baba a.k.a Manoj (I just made that up ... we did not have anything for Manoj on the trip!)

The drive from Delhi to Chandigadh is a super drab affair. Till we got to dinner, the after-a-long-time talk kept us awake. But after a paratha heavy dinner, there wasn't anything anyone could do to keep from falling asleep, especially with Abby going on about how he had not slept in 2 days! Except for Chavan, who was on keep-the-driver-awake detail, the rest of us just dozed off after dinner. Abby and me even managed to redesign the last seat and convert it into a makeshift bedroom for ourselves. I can't say it was the most comfortable bed I've slept in, but it sure was better than sitting up the whole night!

Morning saw us entering Himachal and seeing some rains. The landscape is a lot more interesting here in the mountains, but the lack of rains this year was apparent in the dry lake bed in Bilaspur. I remembered looking down out of the airplane the previous day and seeing the brown all over, very uncharacteristic for this late in the monsoon season!

We soon stopped for breakfast, again Bunty's decision, as were most stops on the whole drive! There were times when he almost made us feel like we were a bunch of hitchhikers he had picked up somewhere along the way! After a crappy breakfast, we started on the final leg of our trip. By the time we got to Manali, we had already finalized our shopping list and bike spares checklist, and had assigned duties to everyone. We had just one half day in Manali to get all the arrangements done, and we were going to have to be quick!

It did seem a tough ask, but somehow we managed to get everything done (in spite of some difficulties with missing driving licenses, total ignorance of Enfield bullets, and extreme negativity from some of the team). The guys at Anu Motors were extremely helpful helping us get all the rides and riders ready for the trip the next day. Abby and Chavan practically learnt to ride in that one afternoon!

By the time we had finished our dinner at Manali (with old monk for good luck), we were actually raring to set out. Wake up time 0430 hours and ETD 0500 hrs.

The musician from Myanmar

A bunch of Burmese folk live in Railay. They work in tourist places around the village. They probably get paid a pittance for working in sub standard conditions. They live cramped into tiny makeshift tin sheet single rooms that can barely keep the rain out. But they get together in the evening, pass around cups of cheap whisky, light a few cigarettes, and sing a few songs.

Ao Ong is the star. He plays the guitar like nobody's business. His friends join in the singing on and off, and they all have a jolly good time. When I stopped at the door to listen, they let me sit in the circle. I guess all of us were curious!

I don't speak a word of Burmese, and Ao Ong could barely manage a dozen words in English, so communication was mostly restricted to hand signals and monosyllables. But the lack of a common language was just a minor irritant in having a good time enjoying the music and each other's company.

It did not take me long to realise that he was playing Clapton, John Denver, Metallica, the usual suspects, except that all the songs were in Burmese. The guys were glad they found someone to sing the original English words for them, and there is noone who can dispute that I could give John Denver a run for his money that night (at least, noone who can dispute it in English :) ). A couple of swigs of the whisky, and I was in prime form. Shantanu joined in a little bit and and I was glad for the reinforced vocals.

They had the Burmese version of every song in our favorite list. They even had one for the Hindi 'Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye'! And even if he did not know the song, it took Ao Ong only one hearing to figure out how to play it while we sang. We rocked the town that night... till the neighbours sent someone to shut us up! Unfortunately, not everyone has the taste to appreciate good music!

Sitting in a group of strangers singing songs and talking to each other without a common language, that evening we went away knowing that people are all the same everywhere. And there's no reason for our differences to stop us from being friends.

Easy pussy

Thailand's known for it's sex tourism. One of the primary reasons for a lot of people going to Thailand is the cheap and easy sex. The ill-repute is a real pity though ... it's an awesome place even without the sex!

Here's Prashant getting his easy pussy... :)

Railay's a haven for cats ... and surprisingly low on dogs! I saw only one during my entire 8 day stay! Maybe it's the seafood the cats love? Our Nepalese tailor friend had another reason for it ... the predominantly muslim population of Railay ... Muslims have a preference for cats over dogs.

Welcome to Thailand

Thailand happened suddenly. Prashant told me about the plan sometime in May, and I immediately decided to go. He'd done all the research, decided where to go (the primary idea being rock climbing), and all I had to do was show up. Not totally in control like I usually prefer it, but well, I'm not the rock climber ... atleast not yet! Shantanu, even less of a climber than I am was also recruited; more for the idea of the beaches than the climbing, I suspect!

Deja-vous! Walking out of Krabi airport, I see Kerala ... and I see America. The landscape and weather are exactly like Kerala, and the roads and Japanese cars look just like America. The shuttle bus takes us to Railay pier in Ao Nong town, and very soon I'm waiting at the restaurant for 6 other people to show up so I can take a long-tail boat to my destination. The setting is perfect ... The sky is blue as blue sky can be, the water is turquoise as turquoise water (Correct me if I am wrong. I can only identify 8 colors, and turquoise is not one of them!) can be, the food is awesome, the people are friendly, and the waitress is pretty!


Talking about pretty waitresses, I soon realise that ALL the other waitresses at the place were at some point waiters!!! Remember all those things that people told you or you read on the internet about Thailand's famous ladyboys? Well, I'm not sure if my waitress was one ... but I decided to not ask questions, answers to which could potentially be a dampener to my spirits.

Coming into Railay, the view of the beach is one of the prettiest sights that you can see. Limestone cliffs jut out of the sea everywhere, more cliffs mark out the limits of the beaches, and there's a sparse crowd that's having a great time out there. There's restaurants / shacks on the beach, people in kayaks, fishing boats. Everything to make for a perfect holiday.


We find our way to Diamond Cave resort, which is on the bay side of Railay. It's a really cozy place, neat rooms with air conditioning, fridge, television, a balcony, and at 1200 baht a night ... a complete bargain. Off season travel is the best! A comparable hotel room at any tourist destination in India would easily cost twice as much. It's no wonder people flock to Thailand!


Prashant and Sharad are waiting for us to get there ... It's time to go climbing! My Thailand adventure is looking good already!

Doing a 'Chavan'

The good news is Uncle had a 300mm lens for me. Only hitch ... it's in Bangalore. As always though ... good luck shines, and Kumar happened to be on a visit to Bangalore, so he would be carrying my 300 for me on his way back to Valsad. All I had to do was pick it up at Kalyan at 09:40 PM. Easy enough task to do ... but I ended up 'doing a Chavan' on that one!

Doing a 'Chavan' requires that special level of absent-mindedness and bad planning that comes to very few souls (Chavan himself being one, and now me)! The legendary Chavan once missed a flight because he calculated "2000 hours" to be 10:00 PM. Another time, he made us wait a night at the airport because he got the timezones wrong and would actually only be landing 24 hours later. A third time, him and me collaborated to miss a flight, because I thought divine intervention would bring a "no-traffic-blocks-day" to Bangalore (Yes, my optimism knows no bounds!!!).

So I'm in the office at 8:00 PM, and I think, "9:40 is a long way off ... 20 minutes to Mulund / Thane in a rickshaw, and 30 minutes drive with Shantanu upto Kalyan station. Hmmm ... What was that? You wanna grab a beer? Well .. I guess I have the time." So Shraddha, Avinash, and me get to Pop Tate's and get a table when I start thinking "Hey ... maybe this is too close ... got to rush!" Shantanu calls to check where I am ... and I get the "Whattannidiot!" tone from him. That's when I decide to leave. It's 08:20 and I still have an hour and 20 minutes to get to Kalyan.

Why the roundabout route you ask? Why not just take a local train to Kalyan? Well ... I'm not much of a local train person ... too crowded for me. I'd probably never even get in! Plus, Shantanu had some new music in the car for me to sample.

"Rickshaw! ... Rickshaw!" ... no response. First signs this ... I've never had to wait more than a few seconds to get a rick at Pop Tate's! I start walking, and couple of hundred metres towards Vikhroli depot, I flag one down. 08:25.
"Mulund check-naka?" ... Nod of the head and I get in.

08:35. Gandhinagar. So far so good. Signal's turned green twice, and not too much movement. Not unusual for this signal, but it's usually clear past this. So chill. Third green light .. and I see it's not really clear! Does not look good!

08:40. Gandhinagar.

08:45. 30 meters past the signal. Still Gandhinagar.

08:50. We're finally clear. Someone chose the wrong time, and the "wrong-est" spot for an accident. 50 meters either way, and the traffic would not be this bad!

09:00. Nahur / Airoli flyover. We're supposed to be taking the left below this bridge and heading to Mulund(W). But it seems like my rickshaw man has other ideas. I check. He confirms that it's straight we go ... Well ok. maybe that other route through Mulund(East) is faster!

09:01. Halfway up the flyover. Point of no return. "Sir ... you want to go to East / West?". I could have smashed his head with a sledgehammer, but I did not have one handy ... so I let it pass. "Check-naka = Mulund(West)". I give him a minor lesson in Mumbai's geography, with as much sledgehammer as I can deliver in my tone of voice (which, my friends tell me, is not much). And we take that other route through Mulund(East).

09:13. Mulund check-naka. I pay the man and run across the check-naka to find Shantanu. He's waiting.

09:17. Shanto (Bangladeshi rock band) is playing something in Bangla, and we're off to Kalyan. Switch to Avial a little while later. Aadu Paambe. Is awesome stuff!!! Smiles all around.

09:35. The turn-off to Kalyan from the highway. 7kms to go. 10 mins before the train leaves Kalyan station ... Kumar calls to confirm it's running on time.

09:42. Very close to the station. The train has not pulled in yet, and I see hope.

09:45. Still not reached the station. Stupid traffic, pedestrians, animals. Kumar is waiting on the platform with the bag in his hand.

09:48. Flyover ahead. Now that's something we should not have been seeing! Wait a minute ... it looks familiar. Hmmm ... hmmm ... Damn! And then another Damn! We've overshot the station by a km or so!!! We're just turning around when Kumar calls to tell us that the train's leaving ... and there goes any chance of me using that lens in Thailand!

We did think about going out to the Bhiwandi hookah place for a bit, but realised that we had already taken the wrong turn and were heading back towards home! Probably a good thing considering the events of the evening. Tomorrow already looks like a better day ...