14 of us…with varied professions but one mission….Manali – Leh - Jammu Bike Safari !!!
The Journey Begins….
2nd July... 2.00 am…we had to take bath which would last for 2 days as we were gonna reach Delhi on 3rd July. We reached Pune station by 3.30 am to know that our train was 1 hour late than the scheduled departure of 4.15 am. We were 8 of us with a luggage of 32 bags. We somehow managed to load our luggage in the train and waved off a long good bye to pune but we never knew we would miss it so much. After that all that I remember in the journey is..zzzzzzzz…lunch…sleep….dinner…sleep…zzzzzzz
Day 1: DELHI
3rd July….6.30 am….24 bags….8 people….we were at Delhi station…looking out for taxis which would take us to Paharganj. We were dead hungry when we checked in at one of the regular style hotels at Paharganj as we just wanted to keep our luggage there for some hours. We quickly grabbed some breakfast, freshened ourselves and were out in the scorching sun to look out for the famous BulletWala Galli at Karol Baug. But the main attraction to be out in Delhi was the Metros….and believe me it was fun to travel in it…we walked down a few kms from the station to find the so called famous Bulletwala Galli but were a few lanes away from it when we found a awesome food joint. We pounced on the Lassi, Dahi Wada, Jal Jeera, Fallooda and many more yummm stuff. Our feast was over and we again had to be out in the sweltering sun to find our destination. We picked up a lot of stuff from that Bulletwala Galli like Balcalava Caps, Thunderbird seat, riding gloves and lots of bike spare parts. Our next motive was to find Kake-da-hotel in Connaught Place. It serves awesome non veg food but one should not expect ambience. We had a bus to catch at 5.30 pm from Palika Palace for Manali where we were gonna meet our rest gang of 4. Our rest 2 riders were to reach manali directly by bikes…so in all we were 14 of us.
Day 2: MANALI
4th July….8.00 am….32 bags….12 people…we at Manali bus stop…again waiting for taxis to take us to the hotel. Contrasting to Delhi, Manali welcomed us with pleasant climate. We had to collect our bikes which we were in Manali a week before us…as they had come by courier. It took us very long for the whole process…and we landed up at the most beautiful place in Manali for evening snacks instead of lunch. Il Forna..an Italian Pizza joint, situated on a hilltop showcases the serene beauty of Manali. Lovely ambience, pretty chef, Pizza overflowing with the topping…makes it a perfect place to be when you are in Manali. Later we visited Hidimba temple and a monastery which is located in the market place which was followed by a couple of hours of local shopping in the Manali market.
Day 3: MANALI - TANDI
5th July…8.00am…everyone super excited for their first ride…with riding gears on…to hit the Manali-Leh highway, cross the Rohtang Pass and reach Tandi with the day’s target of 141km. We loaded our back up vehicle with our luggage and bikes with ourselves on them. On our way we diverted to have a look at the Solang Valley which is 14Km from Manali, but due to rains we couldn’t enjoy the scenic beauty of the place. We stopped for lunch at Rohtang la Pass. Rohtang Pass is at an altitude 13,051 ft ,its a high mountain pass on the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas. It connects the Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh, India.The roads till here were in better shape…since after this we had to experience the muddy patches till Koksar where we stopped for Tea. Koksar is situated by the side of River Chandra. River Chandra and River Bhaga meet at Tandi to give birth to what is called as Chenab in J&K. In between, Dhiraj had stopped near one of the critical patches to check if the whole group crosses the dirt track, where a truck dashed his bike and damaged it. So our first bike was in the back up vehicle on the very first day at Koksar. We managed to reach Tandi by 8 and with rains following us everywhere.
Day 4: TANDI – KEYLONG – JISPA – ZING ZING BAR
6th July…7.00am…everyone at the breakfast table…learned from our earlier day’s travel…we decided to leave early today. Dhiraj had already left early in the morning for Keylong to get his bike repaired. Fingers crossed…we wanted the bike to be in our rally again and by God’s grace we got it repaired.. We refilled our bikes at the last Filling station in Himachal and clicked snaps with the famous signboard that says..”Next Filling Station 365 kms ahead”. We were experiencing 10 degree temp with freezing cold winds for the very first time….so we shopped some woolen clothing at Keylong and proceeded further for our way to Sarchu. We were already running very late…and decided to take minimum breaks as possible. We halted for lunch at Darcha…and galloped some maggi and bread omelets. Further on our way we got badly stuck at one stream which was on a turn in the ghat and in a land slide prone area. With all these constraints we managed to get only 7 of our bikes safely out of the stream. Devdutt got stuck in the stream with his Thunderbird loosing its balance. We somehow managed to get him out of the stream but our second patient was ready to get admitted in the back up vehicle. The bike chain had lost its place and we couldn’t fix the problem there. We crossed 2 more streams like these on our way ahead but by then everyone had got the trick to get their bikes out in first shot. It was 5 and we were at Zing Zing bar…the temp had gone down and we were all feeling the chilled snowfall. We started our way towards the Baralacha La, the temp was dropping down on every turn that we took, the snowfall increasing and the frozen mountains boasting their hugeness. As we were reaching the top, the snow was on the roads, we couldn’t see beyond 15 feet, bikes had stopped working, hands were freezing, and we were told to return back as the roads had got blocked because of truck traffic. We were just a few kms away from Baralacha la and really didn’t want to do the back journey but nothing could be done against Mother Nature and we somehow managed to reach Zing Zing bar. We were all freezed to death..and didn’t knew how we were gonna survive the whole night in wet 10’x 10’ tent, at -5 degrees temp, with wet mattresses and when it was still drizzling. By then we all were mentally and physically broke but our will power to reach Leh was so strong that it kept us alive till the next dawn which was fortunately at 5.00 am in those terrains.
Day 5: ZING ZING BAR – JISPA
7th July …5.00am…all 14 of us were alive…but to our surprise the rains had converted to snowfall. Dhiraj, Ishaan and Kunchuk (our Helper come Driver for Back up vehicle) made their way from Zing Zing Bar to Jispa..to check for accommodation since weather conditions had become worse from the earlier day and Baralacha la was supposed to be closed at least for that day. We all managed to get back to Jispa by the Hotel car and almost slept the whole day. But we had to leave our bikes at Zing Zing Bar, at a great risk with the weather changing its mood every hour. We were hoping that we would leave the next day..but weather was not on our side. In fact, we got to hear about some avalanche slides and roadblocks that evening. By then even Rohtang La had got closed due to heavy snowfall. So roads on either way had got blocked.
Day 6: JISPA
8th July…8.00am…I woke up only to know that it was open and the sky had got cleared with sun peeping out from behind the mountains. Jispa is a beautiful village in Lahaul and Spiti valley along the Bhaga River. Our Hotel was located in such a way that any window would open to view the scenic beauty of the valley. We loaded ourselves into our backup vehicle and left for the Thakur’s Mud fort by 11.00am. It was situated on a hill top. It was a beautiful old structure building where we clicked lots and lots of pictures which we couldn’t do for last 5 days due to rains. By now, it was 3 days that we had not called at home and we knew that everyone back there in Pune and Thane would be in a panic state. So Dhiraj and Devdutt would stop every car heading towards Manali, handover couple of numbers and money and request them to call in Pune once they get range. In the evening we visited a monastery in Jispa and decided to sleep early as we were planning to leave early the next day..so as to target Leh which was 290 kms.
Day 7: JISPA - PANG
9th July…5.00am..our luggage was loaded and we were ready to leave for Zing Zing bar by car and a few of us by our back up vehicle. We reached the place where we had spent the threatening night at 7.00am. We saw our bikes and were glad to know that they were safe. 7 of them started at one shot but one bullet was in a mood to trouble us that day. We spent couple of hours trying to fix the problem, but were helpless and had to put it in the back up vehicle. We started ascend towards the Baralacha again at 9.00am which was way later than we had planned. Baralacha la, at 16,040 ft is a high mountain pass in Zanskar range, connecting Lahaul district in Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, situated along the Leh-Manali highway. On our way we crossed Sarchu - 21 Gata Loops – Nakee La – Lungalacha La - but couldn’t enjoy anything at the fullest because we had targeted to reach Leh by day end. Gata Loops is a succession of 21 hairpin bends taking you from 13780 ft to 15302 ft. After riding the longest and muddiest patch which wouldn’t end till you lost your patience we reached Pang around 4.00am and we had still 180kms to go to reach Leh…. Tanglang La, the second highest motorable Pass was still on our way to Leh. We didn’t knew…what to do…if we would stop here that means…one more day gets added to our lost days in Leh. But going ahead was a big risk, as we were not aware about the roads which would take us to Leh. We spent that night in Pang…helplessly…thinking about how much we were missing on…by not moving ahead..
Day 8: PANG - LEH
10th July..7.00am…yes this was the day when nothing would stop us from being in Leh. Just after 10kms we were on the Moorey Plains. The Plains are for about 40 kms straight at 14,763 ft. and are part of Great Tibetan Chamathang plateau. Just about after 2 hours we were riding on the mountains of the second highest motorable pass – The Tanglang La when one of our bikes just didn’t wanted to reach the top. Chetan was trying hard to make it to the top but it was way too far. Since one of our bikes was already in the back up vehicle we couldn’t afford to put this one too. Somehow he managed to reach the top and later he was the first one to ride down the hill. We enjoyed snowfall at its extremes right from snow walls to snow flakes at both the Passes, Baralacha and Tanglang la. We waited for lunch at Rumtse which was just 80Kms before Leh. The roads had started getting better as we were approaching the city. One thing that struck us all was a public phone…we all were super excited. We actually formed a queue for making calls. One could see the happiness on the face as we spoke at home. On the way, we stopped at the famous Thiksey Monastery. It’s situated at 12,000 ft, is a 12-storey complex, noted for its images and mural paintings of Buddhist art displayed variously in its stupas, statues, thangkas, wall paintings and swords. We also shopped at the souvenir shop but would suggest as of my experience that one should shop only at the local market at cheaper rates. We checked in at the Oriental Guest House around 6.00pm. With no strength left we decided to meet only for the dinner and call off for the day. Finally we were in Leh…
Day 9: LEH – PANGONG TSO
11th July…8.00am…everyone was ready to have the yummiest thing in the Oriental guest house…a variety of breakfast menus…Italian…continental…Spanish…and many more..and they were all so good. We were to get the permit for Pangong Tso by 2.00 pm..so we decided to utilize the time for shopping and Leh site seeing. Others ahd to get their bikes repaired…so they were looking out for mechanics. Leh is one place where you should get all the bike problems fixed..bcoz you will not find mechanics for about 100kms on either of the sides…neither Leh-Manali or Leh-Jammu. Shopping was good fun in Leh…The typical Wall Hangings..Buddha Statues…Prayer Wheels…Silver Jewellery…were the major buys…but by bargaining for at least half of the cost they ask for. We were back at the hotel to know that we had got the permit of staying at Pangong Tso…but the only hitch was that we were gonna travel by private cars and not by bikes… L The roads were good…so we were to reach Pangong by 9.00 pm that is 6 hours from Leh. We crossed the Chang La at 17,800 ft which is the third highest motorable road in the world. It is named after the sadhu Changla Baba, to whom the Pass temple is dedicated. There were few streams…which were really difficult ones to cross and the biggest fear was the Pagla Nalluh..its a stream…which is just some 10kms before Pangong Tso…but carries away the whole vehicle…if the water level is high...and that’s why the name ‘Pagla Nalluh’. The army has constructed a bridge over the Pagla Nalluh but cannot assure till when the bridge would sustain the force of the Nalluh. At 8.45pm…we all were at the most beautiful, serene and heavenly place on earth…the Pangong Tso.
Day 10: PANGONG TSO – KHARDUNG LA – LEH
12th July…5.00am..everyone was awake to see the vivid colours of Pangong as the first light of sun struck the beautiful lake. It is a fantastic experience to see the lake at different times of the day. Silver…orange…yellow…bluish…and then blue….we could actually notice the difference in the shades of the serene water. Its beautiful…that’s all I can describe about the place. It is the largest salt water lake in Asia situated at an altitude of about 14,300 ft. It is 134 km (83 mi) long and extends from India to China. 60% of the length of the lake lies in China. The lake is 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its broadest point. During winter, the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water. Moon rise and sun rise by the lake side are beautiful views. We saw the navy boat which went every morning for patrolling and polluting the pure waters of Pangong. Later we visited the spot where the 3 Idiots shoot had taken place….I wish we had our bikes..so that we all could enjoy riding on the narrow strip with Pangong Lake on both sides. We left at around 9.00 am to target Khardung La by 4.00 pm. Earlier we were to ride on our bikes to both the spots…but our delayed journey to Leh made us helpless and we had to hire a car for Pangong Lake and Khardung La visit. Khardung La, the pass on the Ladakh Range lies north of Leh and is the gateway to the Shyok and Nubra valleys. Built in 1976, it was opened to motor vehicles in 1988 and has since seen many automobile, motorbike and mountain biking expeditions. Khardung La at 17,582ft is widely, but incorrectly, believed to be the world's highest motorable pass. We reached there at around 4.30…but its difficult to be there for more than 15 min…as at such an high altitude one feels breathless. So we left immediately and were back in Leh by evening. We were happy…after all odds we had made it to Leh…seen almost everything…the Pangong, Khardung La, Thiksey and Leh city. But our next challenge was waiting for us…Srinagar….with curfew and firing still on since last 5 days…
Day 11: LEH – MULBEKH
13th July…7.00am…again after a yummy breakfast at the Oriental guest house…we loaded our bags in the backup vehicle and ourselves on the bikes. We were all set for our journey towards Srinagar. Mulbekh was 41km before Kargil and we were gonna have our night stay in a campsite over there. Our target was 200km for the day…which was easier as it was a highway and we could speed up. Lamayuru was the attraction of the day. Lamayuru is one of the largest and oldest gompas in Ladakh. Lamayuru is also called the Moonland View for the fantastic moonscapes it offers. We also crossed Fotu La and Namika La on our way…but don’t know how we missed the Magnetic hill. None of us noticed the board…neither had we felt the gravity hill…may be we were too fast. For a change we reached early at the campsite…which gave us full scope for photography and bird watching.
Day 12: MULBEKH – SRINAGAR
14th July..7.00am..we were ready to leave the campsite…on our way we were to visit the Kargil War memorial and then cross the most heard and awaited Zoji La Pass. We reached at around 11.00 at the Kargil war memorial. We visited Vijay Smarak to pay a tribute to soldiers who laid their lives for us in Kargil War in 1999. Enroute we had a magnificent view of Kargil war Famous Peaks (Tiger Hill, Tololing). The road after Kargil follows closely along the Line Of Control between India and Pakistan, and signs along the road remind travellers that they are "under enemy observation". Believe me…the boards are really scary…and the worst is you don’t know which side is the LOC. Zoji la Pass is a one way road and is open only for 4 hours for either of the sides. Zoji La, at 11,578 ft from sea level, is the last mountain pass on the road from Ladakh to India’s infamous north-western part, Kashmir. After Zoji La the scenery changes from Ladakh's barren and brown to Kashmir's green forests. We were made to stop till 3.00pm at the foothills of the Zoji La pass. It opened with rains accompanying us as usual. But the worst was still to come…we had crossed the pass but were made to stop at one of the dusty turns for the military convoy to pass the ghats which had started from the other end of Zoji la. It was so dusty…that we could hardly see the vehicle in front of us and risky since it was a narrow road barely spaced for two vehicles to cross. However our 6 bikes managed to cross the convoy and reached the other end of Zoji La foothills where the Amarnath Yatra starts. But our backup vehicle and 2 other bikes got stuck in the convoy traffic. It was already too late for us since we had another 85kms to reach Srinagar and it was 7.30pm when the rest 2 bikes had made their way from the heavy traffic. We started our journey with heavy hearts towards Srinagar since the curfew was still on and we were to reach the place at a very odd time. To worsen the situation 4 of the bikes took other route and the rest 4 took another. I was 10.00pm when we reached some highway diversion to Srinagar. We were trying to get in touch with the other group who were waiting for us at the Hajratbal Darga in the city. Luckily we had a localite with us who had come to pick us up at Sonmarg. He took all of us from the narrow city lanes avoiding the main streets. Continuous Police patrolling was scaring us. Finally at 11.00pm we were in the houseboats. They were so beautiful that we almost forget the whole days stress and got engaged in the beauty of it. To surprise us all…we had a four-course dinner, which was a speciality of Kashmir.
Day 13: SRINAGAR – PATNITOP
15th July…7.00am…and I was awake in my bed to know that I had many Houseboat shopkeepers waiting for me out. Shopping time….and I was super duper excited!!! Jewellery, Leather Bags, Kashmiri Dresses, Accessories, and lot more had already placed themselves in the main hall. After 2 hours of shopping we went for the most exciting thing to be done in Kashmir….the Shikara ride…it was so romantic to be in the Nagin lake with the early morning mist all over the beautiful lotus lake. We departed for Patni top around 12.30 pm when the curfew was still on with a rally of 1 Back up vehicle followed by one swift and then 8 bikes. People were peeping out of ther closed housed and half open shops to see us on roads as we were trying our best to move out of Srinagar as soon as possible. It was dead scary to be out on the roads of Srinagar with only armed cops around. This continued not only till we left Srinagar city but also way ahead for some 25 km. Around 3.00 pm we stopped for lunch when we had come out of the trauma of Srinagar curfew and the armed military. The road being good, we reached Patnitop around 7.00pm….and had no plans to leave the next morning before 11.00 as we had to cover only some 100 km and the road was equally good. Patnitop is a lovely hill station, with fog and mist all around.
Day 14: PATNITOP – JAMMU
16th July…10.00 am….we knew the trip was coming to an dend and we all actually didn’t wanted it to happen. We reached Jammu around 2.00pm . The bikers went ahead to the courier place to get the bikes courired and we started looking for a food joint. While eating pani puri and dosa at the Jammu food joint…we were remembering Vaishali SPDP, Badshahi Misal, Purepur Kolhapur and many other yummy food joints. Finally the moment had come closer, we had to depart. We had to leave for our train to Delhi and the others had to take up a train to Amritsar.
The last 15 days were the most challenging and unforgettable days we had ever spent. We all were broke emotionally or physically at some point of time in those 15 days and the others had supported to overcome those moments. The bonding that we had built amongst each other cant be described in words.
Finally we had done it….the most exciting thing we all wanted to ever do…Manali – Leh- Jammu Bike Safari….even after facing all odds….sleeping at -5 degree temp….riding in -15 degree temp…..walking in the ice cold waters….snowfalls at all the passes that we crossed…..crossing the deadly streams….and many more such unusual things which we would never do normally.
