It's a bright sunny day. Not many clouds in the sky. I stare at mountains quite far away. Some snow can be spotted on top of their peaks. The wind is piercing through gaps near the helmets visor giving my face the feel of its chill surrounding. I glance over the gigantic rocks on my right. There is no sign of vegetation. I settle my eyes back on the broken road. Ahead is another bend leading to the top of the mountain & taking me even higher. Climb is getting steeper. I down shift & open the throttle further. Engine responds with a reluctant grunt. Still a long way to go.
This broken mountain road is getting tougher and tougher. My motorcycle is struggling to climb. Oxygen level has dropped at this altitude and it is not sufficient to burn the fuel completely. My own condition is not very different. This height has taken its toll and a feeling of unrest has started developing in my head some time back. It is getting stronger as I move up each foot. At this time, first reaction of human body is to try to pump more & more oxygen by breathing faster. This is what I am doing now. My head has also started aching badly. Looks like AMS has finally taken over me. Some kind of repetitive irritating sound is coming from somewhere. I can feel pain. Pain is not good.. its intolerable..
Blackout.. . . . .
I don’t know where I am but that sound can still be heard. I slowly try to open my eyes to find that I'm lying on a bed. The place looks familiar. But where is the sound coming from?
Before the Sunrise
Day Zero
September 1: Pune-Mumbai-Delhi-Mandi
According to the plan all of 12 riders were going to assemble at Manali on 2nd Sep. Delhi & Gaziabad based people rode from their homes. Knowing that I got fewer days, I wanted to spend most of them in Ladakh & Kashmir. So I had shipped the bike till Mandi which is 110 Km before Manali.
At 10:15 in the morning, I was in the flight to Delhi. Being my first on-board experience, the take-off felt awesome. Reached Delhi at 2:30 PM. Delhi is super hot even at this time of the year. I was literally sweating when I reached my friends place near ISBT. In the evening at 8:30 I left for Manali. Escaping that pressure cooker was such a relief.
I was envy of Delhi people as they are so close to The Great Himalayas. When I came to know how badly they miss the rainfall, I concluded that Pune is better!
Day One
September 2: Mandi-Manali
Distance Covered 110 km
"Hi. I’m Bhuwan Singh. From Jaipur”, He removed his helmet and stretched his hand for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you”, Me.
We reached Manali around 5 in the evening. Most of the people were already there in the hotel. Yogesh, Nilesh & Umesh arrived very late around 11 in the night. I was excited as tomorrow was the first day of the group ride. My first take on the Land of Lamas.
Moment of the Day: In the HRTC bus my co passenger was a German guy. We stuck upon a conversation which eventually turned towards Bollywood. I was surprised to know that he didn’t knew Big B but Shaharukh Khan - “Some Kaan fella…”, his words. He said he doesn’t really like to watch all that drama Indian movies show and their music as well. Ok, I passed him my earphones and played couple of A R Rehman songs. He listened to them carefully. “Hey, this is good. It’s different!”, he said. He liked them immediately. A R Rehman rocks!
Day 2,3,4,5
September 5: Pang-Tanglang La-Leh
September 6: Leh
Distance covered: 485 km
Image Source: www.thebrightstuff.com/mapManaliLeh.htm
Day Two
September 3. It was a special day for me. Not just because it was first day of the ride, it was my birthday too. We left Manali around 9:30 AM. Target was to reach Sarchu (255 km). The road from Manali towards Rohtang La passes through green, misty, steep mountains. Rohtang is a famous tourist spot so mini buses and truck create a heavy traffic over their. It was my first experience to climb such a steep mountain pass.
With such traffic and thick fog, it was not am easy climb. I was wondering if road to Rohtang is like this then how difficult it would be to once we start the actual Rohtang pass. When we reached Rohtang, I saw everybody in the group were lining up their bikes. They started taking photographs as well. I couldn’t understand it initially. Then I saw a board indicating that it is the Rohtang top. Then I realized my mistake. The road that we left behind was the actual Rohtang pass! ..and all I thought that Rohtang pass will start from the Rohtang village only!I fell behind the group after Rohtang as I couldn’t maintain more than 20-30Kph due to the rubble on the road which was under construction. That was the first time I realized how painful it is to ride a bike which is not meant for offroading. In the afternoon when I reached Tandi, the last filling station before Leh. I found that the entire group was waiting for me for almost half an hour!
It was around 5:30 PM when we finally decided to take a halt at Darcha as it was not possible to cross Barlacha La before sunset to reach Sarchu. It means we needed an extra day to reach Leh.
We called it a day as we reached Pang. I & Nilesh stayed with Motographer & his friend Ananth. There I met Mr. Vodka (that’s his nickname!) who was cycling all the way from Manali. He was the first Indian I saw on a bicycle doing this route. Hats off.
Pang is at 13900 feet and very cold. To feel that, take a walk for few seconds outside the tent in the night and you start shivering and breathing like anything. That was the toughest night I spent on the Manali-Leh route. I got headache as well. It was clearly a sign of AMS. I couldn’t sleep the whole night.
Day Four
I woke up in the morning to find that headache has almost vanished. Thankfully, my body got enough rest to be able to the ride properly. Ahead of Pang is a wonderful piece of land called Moorey Plains. A flat land stretched over 25 Km and surrounded by Mountains. You find that land covered by grass cum bushes. They spread flat on the ground so that they could stand continuous speedy winds of that area. Tiny sand tornados also show up there frequently. We took a dirt track which was running towards the mountains nearby. After crossing that flat terrain we took on to Tanglang La which takes you to astonishing 17500 feet! It is the highest point on Manali-Leh route and is the second highest motorable road in the world. Before I could reach its highest point, I took a wrong decision to pass around a water crossing and my bike got stuck up in round shaped stones surrounding it. After only I made several tiring attempts I could pull the bike back over the stone right behind the rear wheel. That was the time when I realized what it means to be at 17000 feet.
Cross Tanglang La and you enter the Valley of Ladakh. You are welcomed by beautiful small villages surrounded by yellow Barley & potato fields. Road hence forth is well tarred and super smooth. We crossed villages like Rumutse, Upshi, Karu. Karu is one of the a base camp of Indian army. I heard from somebody that in 1965 war, Chinese army managed to reach till this point. It was difficult to believe considering is well inside Indian Territory and there are steep mountain ranges to cross before it could be reached.
In Leh, we had to search for a hotel for quite some time which could proved parking space of 11 bikes. We finally found a hotel called Sun-n-Sand. Obviously not part of Sun-n-Sand hotel series that we find in metros. A bath with warm water after almost 3-4 days felt like heaven!
Eating breakfast in Leh:
Left side of the table (from left): Sparsh, DJ, Eric, Yogesh, Deepan
Right side of the table (from left): Bhuwan, Umesh, Suyash, Manik
Not in picture: Shamik (photographer), Dharam, Nilesh
Day Five
The Rest Day:We spent next day in the city washing & servicing bikes, arranging permits for next part of the ride. I had to get carburetor & air filter cleaned to restore the torque at low revs. Tomorrow was an important day as we had to take on the highest motorable road in the world – Khardung La.
Part II - Leh-Nubra Valley-Leh
Other Links:
Part III - Leh-Pangong Tso-Leh
Part IV - Leh To Srinagar
A Journey To The Heaven: Flickr Photo Collection.
I realized that the familiar place was my home. Once again I was dreaming about the same thing and it was the damn cell phone alarm which interrupted my sleep. Being a little worried about AMS, it used peep into every second dream that I had about this trip even days before it actually begun. I glanced at the watch. It was 4 in the morning. I could find just an hours sleep after I finished packing. The cab driver was going to call me at 4:30. Laughing at the silly dream, I splashed some water over my face.
At 4:30 I was heading all the way to the Mumbai airport thinking that tomorrow at the same time I would be in a bus passing through the beautiful valley of Himachal.
Day Zero
September 1: Pune-Mumbai-Delhi-Mandi
According to the plan all of 12 riders were going to assemble at Manali on 2nd Sep. Delhi & Gaziabad based people rode from their homes. Knowing that I got fewer days, I wanted to spend most of them in Ladakh & Kashmir. So I had shipped the bike till Mandi which is 110 Km before Manali.
At 10:15 in the morning, I was in the flight to Delhi. Being my first on-board experience, the take-off felt awesome. Reached Delhi at 2:30 PM. Delhi is super hot even at this time of the year. I was literally sweating when I reached my friends place near ISBT. In the evening at 8:30 I left for Manali. Escaping that pressure cooker was such a relief.
I was envy of Delhi people as they are so close to The Great Himalayas. When I came to know how badly they miss the rainfall, I concluded that Pune is better!
Day One
September 2: Mandi-Manali
Distance Covered 110 km
Got down at Mandi at 9 in the morning. Collecting the bike, unpacking it, loading it with luggage,withdrawing cash etc. took some time. Around 12:30 I was back on the highway but this time on my Avvy. Whole route passes alongside the Beas river. Amazed by the massive steep mountains of Kullu range, whenever I used to kill the engine for a break, first thing I was hearing was the sound of Beas's white water.
In the afternoon, in my rear view mirror I saw a huge guy on Thunderbird flashing headlight at me. I couldn’t identify who he was. Anyways, I pulled over.
“Are you Suyash?” he.
"Yes” Me. (How the hell he knows that?)"Hi. I’m Bhuwan Singh. From Jaipur”, He removed his helmet and stretched his hand for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you”, Me.
Then I remembered what Nilesh told me yesterday. Nilesh- A fellow rider from Pune, mentioned that he would be starting from Delhi with Bhuwan Singh who was riding from Jaipur. Now, where the heck was he? Bhuwan told me that Nilesh has to remain in Delhi as he had some problem with his bike during transportation. We shook hands and moved ahead.
On the way we stopped at a river side restaurant almost hidden from the main road. I had very little food since morning so I ordered for late lunch. River was flowing right beside the table where we sat. The water was so cold that I couldn’t stand in it for more than 4-5 seconds!We reached Manali around 5 in the evening. Most of the people were already there in the hotel. Yogesh, Nilesh & Umesh arrived very late around 11 in the night. I was excited as tomorrow was the first day of the group ride. My first take on the Land of Lamas.
Moment of the Day: In the HRTC bus my co passenger was a German guy. We stuck upon a conversation which eventually turned towards Bollywood. I was surprised to know that he didn’t knew Big B but Shaharukh Khan - “Some Kaan fella…”, his words. He said he doesn’t really like to watch all that drama Indian movies show and their music as well. Ok, I passed him my earphones and played couple of A R Rehman songs. He listened to them carefully. “Hey, this is good. It’s different!”, he said. He liked them immediately. A R Rehman rocks!
Day 2,3,4,5
September 3: Manali-Rohtang-Darcha
September 4: Darcha-Baralacha La-Sarchu-PangSeptember 5: Pang-Tanglang La-Leh
September 6: Leh
Distance covered: 485 km
Image Source: www.thebrightstuff.com/mapManaliLeh.htm
Day Two
September 3. It was a special day for me. Not just because it was first day of the ride, it was my birthday too. We left Manali around 9:30 AM. Target was to reach Sarchu (255 km). The road from Manali towards Rohtang La passes through green, misty, steep mountains. Rohtang is a famous tourist spot so mini buses and truck create a heavy traffic over their. It was my first experience to climb such a steep mountain pass.
With such traffic and thick fog, it was not am easy climb. I was wondering if road to Rohtang is like this then how difficult it would be to once we start the actual Rohtang pass. When we reached Rohtang, I saw everybody in the group were lining up their bikes. They started taking photographs as well. I couldn’t understand it initially. Then I saw a board indicating that it is the Rohtang top. Then I realized my mistake. The road that we left behind was the actual Rohtang pass! ..and all I thought that Rohtang pass will start from the Rohtang village only!It was around 5:30 PM when we finally decided to take a halt at Darcha as it was not possible to cross Barlacha La before sunset to reach Sarchu. It means we needed an extra day to reach Leh.
Day Three
I woke up early and came out of the tent. This is how the sky looked. First sunrise of the ride.
According to yesterday's plan that we discussed over dinner, Nilesh & I left Darcha around 8:00 in the morning to take lead as we were slowest amongst the group. On the way near Deepak Tal I saw a Tent setup by somebody with his dirt racing type motorcycle parked nearby. Bugger chose such a fantastic place for camping. He was a Greek traveler. I had a chat with him. He told me that he quit his job to take 10 months of vacation traveling Afghanistan, Pakistan & India on that dirt bike! I remembered all those efforts I had put in, all those promises I had to make to my manager to get just 11 days off!
Baralacha La -16500 feet is the place where most of the bikers hit by Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) due to lack of oxygen. I was afraid that my nightmare may come true here. We were advised by Yogesh to drink lots of water to remain hydrated. This is a good way of minimizing your chance of getting a headache at such height. Thankfully I didn’t had any problems there. No AMS and I was happy.We stopped at Sarchu for Lunch. Having chocolates on the way as my breakfast, Maggie seemed to be the most delicious dish on the menu. Sarchu is popular night halt on Manali-Leh route (if done in two days). Soon after Sarchu we crossed a board which says “Welcome to the Heaven”. It means we were entering the state of Jammu & Kashmir, the Ladakh part of it. Most of the road near Sarchu passes through plains- A welcome break from repetitive mountain roads. On the way ahead whole group stopped to help someone who had a puncture. He was Karthik J, nickname Motographer. A rider & brilliant photographer. We are flickr friends & met here for the first time. Read about his part of the story.I woke up early and came out of the tent. This is how the sky looked. First sunrise of the ride.
According to yesterday's plan that we discussed over dinner, Nilesh & I left Darcha around 8:00 in the morning to take lead as we were slowest amongst the group. On the way near Deepak Tal I saw a Tent setup by somebody with his dirt racing type motorcycle parked nearby. Bugger chose such a fantastic place for camping. He was a Greek traveler. I had a chat with him. He told me that he quit his job to take 10 months of vacation traveling Afghanistan, Pakistan & India on that dirt bike! I remembered all those efforts I had put in, all those promises I had to make to my manager to get just 11 days off!We called it a day as we reached Pang. I & Nilesh stayed with Motographer & his friend Ananth. There I met Mr. Vodka (that’s his nickname!) who was cycling all the way from Manali. He was the first Indian I saw on a bicycle doing this route. Hats off.
Pang is at 13900 feet and very cold. To feel that, take a walk for few seconds outside the tent in the night and you start shivering and breathing like anything. That was the toughest night I spent on the Manali-Leh route. I got headache as well. It was clearly a sign of AMS. I couldn’t sleep the whole night.
Day Four
I woke up in the morning to find that headache has almost vanished. Thankfully, my body got enough rest to be able to the ride properly. Ahead of Pang is a wonderful piece of land called Moorey Plains. A flat land stretched over 25 Km and surrounded by Mountains. You find that land covered by grass cum bushes. They spread flat on the ground so that they could stand continuous speedy winds of that area. Tiny sand tornados also show up there frequently. We took a dirt track which was running towards the mountains nearby. After crossing that flat terrain we took on to Tanglang La which takes you to astonishing 17500 feet! It is the highest point on Manali-Leh route and is the second highest motorable road in the world. Before I could reach its highest point, I took a wrong decision to pass around a water crossing and my bike got stuck up in round shaped stones surrounding it. After only I made several tiring attempts I could pull the bike back over the stone right behind the rear wheel. That was the time when I realized what it means to be at 17000 feet.
Cross Tanglang La and you enter the Valley of Ladakh. You are welcomed by beautiful small villages surrounded by yellow Barley & potato fields. Road hence forth is well tarred and super smooth. We crossed villages like Rumutse, Upshi, Karu. Karu is one of the a base camp of Indian army. I heard from somebody that in 1965 war, Chinese army managed to reach till this point. It was difficult to believe considering is well inside Indian Territory and there are steep mountain ranges to cross before it could be reached.
In Leh, we had to search for a hotel for quite some time which could proved parking space of 11 bikes. We finally found a hotel called Sun-n-Sand. Obviously not part of Sun-n-Sand hotel series that we find in metros. A bath with warm water after almost 3-4 days felt like heaven!
Eating breakfast in Leh:
Left side of the table (from left): Sparsh, DJ, Eric, Yogesh, Deepan
Right side of the table (from left): Bhuwan, Umesh, Suyash, Manik
Not in picture: Shamik (photographer), Dharam, Nilesh
Day Five
The Rest Day:We spent next day in the city washing & servicing bikes, arranging permits for next part of the ride. I had to get carburetor & air filter cleaned to restore the torque at low revs. Tomorrow was an important day as we had to take on the highest motorable road in the world – Khardung La.
Part II - Leh-Nubra Valley-Leh
Other Links:
Part III - Leh-Pangong Tso-Leh
Part IV - Leh To Srinagar
A Journey To The Heaven: Flickr Photo Collection.
