Himalayan Motorcycle Expedition 2006

The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there
- Robert M. Prisig

Riders
Jayan S R (aka JSR), Sojish, Gopakumar (GK)

Machines
JSR – Royal Enfield Bullet Machismo 2005 with minor modification for the trip ceat secura sports front tire 3.25 - 19, and Goldie free flow exhaust system.
GK – Royal Enfield Bullet STD 350 2005 stock.
Sojish – Hero Honda Karizma 2002 stock

Ride Itinerary
Delhi -> Pthankot -> Srinagar -> Kargil -> Leh
Leh -> Nubra -> Panamik -> Hunder and back to Leh
Leh -> Pangong Tso -> Spngmik and back to Leh
Leh -> Manali -> Sarchu -> Chandigarh -> Delhi

Total Distance: 3500Kmts
Number of Days: 18

One starts to enjoy and love the mountains from the second trip. The first trip to Leh is always filled with surprises amazement and wilderness. The second trip is like you expect things and you know how the weather behaves and you can expect how the next hairpin bend is banked, you know how AMS feels….

My first trip was amazing in every sense, suffered fatigue and AMS, one day completely blacked off at Pang. I don’t even remember how many hrs I slept at Pang. But I did make lot of friends on the way and they remember me even today :-)

At 1pm Aug 5 2006, we are still stuck in Delhi’s maddening traffic, somehow we managed to get out of Delhi and reached Panipat for lunch at a decent dhaba. Our night halt was planned at Pthankot or Samba that was little ambitious to ride around close to 500kmts. We were all blasting we were at 100+Kmph most of the time on the 4 lane GT Karnal road. We were riding in formation myself, sojish and GK..

Just 25 Kmts from Ambala suddenly GK was missing from my rear view, we slowed down and finally stopped and called him. bad news. he said his bike just stopped and he hear lot of clatter after starting it again.. Boom I had a suspicion that did it seize. Or something really bad has happened to his engine. We checked the manual for the nearest RE service station and Ambala had one. Those guys there are really fast and were eager to fix the bike and let us continue the ride in fact some of the guys there was a part of Himalayan Odyssey backup team. They stopped there other work and changed the cylinder block and pistons in just half an hr. We are back on the roads but were riding slow, and scrapped our plans to reach Pthankot and decided to ride till 11:00pm and stop where ever we reach by that time, and we reached Ludhiyana at 12:30 since I got a flat tire on the way at 11:00pm.

That was once incident packed day 1 which will demoralize most of the first time riders and put one down, but we were strong to get along with the ride now slow and steady.

We planned to do Ludhiyana to Udhampur and it was a breeze with no major hiccups, we reached Udhampur by evening 6pm, Udhampur is a small town on the mountains. We found some good and cheap accommodation for a night and some good beer. We were so lucky that the day we reached Udhampur rains have stopped :) it was raining since the past 10 days in Udhampur.

We started from Udhampur early in the morning to Srinagar, This was too an action packed day, caught another puncture off 180kmts from Srinagar, it took us an hr to fix the puncture. As we started to ride the mountains we were stopped by 2 other bikers Max and Torson they got a flat tire, stopped there talked to them shared biking stories etc. after getting the flat rectified Oh where is the fscking wheel nut ???? damm we lost it.. Great what else do you need on a mountain top. Max left to the near village to find a wheel nut and we started to ride again towards Srinagar.

Met Max and Torson at Srinagar and we hired a house boat on Dal Lake for a day in Srinagar. We needed some rest too after 3 days of riding. Next day we were just fooling around in the house boat doing nothing. The House Boat guys asks “Aapko yaha kuch dekhna nahai hai?? Yahin pade rahoge?”

Day 6 we were ready to ride. Started off early and reached Kargil with enough sun light to spare :-) Srinagar Kargil ride was awesome lots of mountains, The greens fading away to brown and grey mountains. We saw the Tiger Hills where the Kargil war occurred, met some of the Army folks. (Indian Army We salute you!!!) and lots of memorials [we stopped and spend some time at most of the memorials. and paid out respect to the men who lost there yesterdays for our today] We just passed through Drass, Drass is a very small mountain village in fact Drass is the the Second coldest inhabited place in the World, minimum temperature recorded is -60 is 1995.

Kargil – Leh was the one of the best Leg of the Ride, myself and sojish were ripping to glory on the mountains. The roads were good! On the last leg to Leh we were almost always in the 90 – 110 kmph range. Sojish too got the feel of the mountain roads. So We were ripping. Sojish is more of a traveler rather a Biker, but myself I am a hard core biker who can fix bikes and like to get my hands dirty and I love to travel yes but the seeing places/ride is like 40/60 for me. But somehow the Himalayan mountains caught somewhere inside me that is the reason why I am here the second time. We stopped at some 45kmts to Leh and was waiting for GK to catch up. We spend some time there enjoying the Himalayan planes and surrounding mountains. Not a single green (I love that) and all shades of Grey. Took some photos and left to Leh.

I was really happy to see the amazement and wildness in the faces of Sojish and GK that we made it to Leh. We stopped again at the first sight of the BRO boards saying “Welcome to Leh”. We were all so happy and had the sense of achievement of reaching Leh after the action packed ride. GK was till nursing his dislocated knee, but he was feeling better after he saw the welcome board.

Reached Leh and I had mixed emotions because I see Airtel hoardings on the way, 2 lane roads, hmm the place is getting modernized… but I loved the old leh which I visited in 2003. Narrow roads a very small town. BTW our roaming did not work, we went to the AirTel office to inquire they said that it is a new Cell circle and roaming do not work. I know exactly why it did not work being in wireless telecom business 2 years gave me enough gyyan :) So we did not argue with them. I was happy though because my roaming did not work.

Checked in at Sidharthat guest house, he is my old friend from the last visit, shared some riding stories and his, how is business grew in the past 3 years. I really love the simple life of the people in Leh. (below is the view of Leh town from Santhi Stupa)
Next day was a rest day in Leh, We explored Leh did some shopping bought some souvenirs from Tibetan market. Rode to shanti stupa. Shanti Stupa is a nice little monument on a mountain which has a complete view of the Leh valley.

Nubra Valley and Hunder Desert
Our next destination was Nubra valley. Nubra valley is an amazing place, Sand dunes bactrian camels surrounded by snow capped mountains, can you believe that? It was a surpise to Sojish, I really loved the look at Sojish’s face when he first saw the sand dunes. Nubra region comprises of the valley and the Shyok rivers, both above and below there confluence. The two rivers meander lazily in this broad and fertile valley, often you see shifting channels in the sandy bed flowing North west to join Indus in Baltistan.

The altitude if this valley is at around 10,000ft/3050m, This valley expands to both the river banks at Hunder and Panamik.

The challenge reaching Nubra is crossing Khardung La(The highest motorable road in the World some groups argue that MLa is the highest but it is not motorable), at 18,380ft/5600m The weather was great when we reached Khardung it was all snowed and freezing wind chill was high, since we were all acclimatized we did not have AMS, but I had a slight heavy head because of the rarified air. The view from Khardung La is just awesome one can see all the way over the Indus valley and the Zanskar range.

Some gyyan on Nubra

Nubra means green. This lovely and fertile valley was originally part of the trade route between Tibet and Turkstan. It was the envy of the rulers of Turkistan who tried to capture it several times. With the best climate in Ladakh, fruits like apples, apricots walnuts are abundant here, also ample grain and mustard.

We stayed in Sumur, Sumur is so small there is only one hotel. We stayed there it was very basic but clean and homely. The guy asked me “Aap kya khaoge?” I told him Namkeen Chai, Ladhaki roti aur makkan(butter). He was surprised aap namkeen chai loge? Phir to sahi hai :-)

Namkeen Chai – (Salt Tea) brew made from some herbs and yak butter.

There was no power at that place, I asked the guy there. Bhai, yeh bijili kab aayaga? I was surprised with his answer, “Sirji, ek mahine se yahan bijiji nahi hai.. pata nahi kab aajega” LOL..

Next day morning we head to explore Nubra, went to Hunder and the sand dunes explored places, took a camel ride in the sand dunes. And we left to Leh, climbing Khardung La from the Nubra side is tougher than from the Leh side, because here the curves are more steep and long sweeping ones.

Worse part was it started to hail at the time when we started, temperatures were like in the -10 degs with pretty good wind chill. That ride was really unforgettable my secura soprts were good, but Sojish was skidding sliding all the way and fingers were paining because of the extreme cold. We made it to Leh sound and safe.

Pangong Tso (Hollow Lake)
Tso means Lake in Tibetan and pronounced as ‘so’
Our Next destination is the world famous Pangong Tso. Pangong Tso is 140kmts long salt water high altitude lake at 14,500ft/4420m. It is also called as the land locked sea. 40Kmts of Pangong is in India and rest angles into Tibet. This is a military area and permits are necessary to visit this place. Tourists are not allowed beyond Spangmik village that lies 7kmts from the head of the Lake.

The major challenge to reach Pangong Tso is the the mighty Chang La (Chang La is the third highest mountain pass in the world) situated at 17800ft/5425m ChangLa is always snowed and freezing as this day when we crossed it. There is a major nala( stream) to cross en route. If one is brave enough then you can cross it or else you can detour some 6kmts where you find a small bridge to cross, and we did that, I didn’t want me and my bull to be washed away by the fury of Indus.

This time Pangong Tso was not in its full glory because of the cloudy weather, usually one could find the lake resembling a clear sheet of glass perfectly reflecting the glory of the mountains. Actually the mood of the Pangong Tso changes dramatically every now and then. This time it was more of a Turquoise green in the evening and early morning it was bluish.

We decided to ride on the banks of Pangong Tso to Spangmik and camp there No paved roads to Spangmik that was awesome, just ride on the banks of Pangong Tso. We reached Spangmik I had an impression that it was a village, but no just 4 to 5 houses. We stayed at a Shepard’s house. I was touched by the simplicity of the life those guys lead, there have there own small wheat field and lots of sheep, what else do you need to live? Bread butter and meat


Spangmik has no electricity no water supply (drinking water is from courtesy the snow capped mountains) Indian Army has a small school which has till class 9th, after that the children go to Leh to peruse higher studies, and to most of the kids I spoke had had only one dream to join the Indian Army. I could see the glitter in there eyes and the determination to join the Army I admire those kids…

We spend lots of time at Spangmik the next day talking to them and trying to explain from where we come from. And also tried to explain how large the sea is. Those people have never seen the sea or planes. I promised them to send pictures of the sea and the city.

Rode back to Leh and and reached by evening. Rested well had some beer and bid adieu to the people we made friends with and promised to see them next year.

Leh - Sarchu - Manali - Delhi
Our next leg of the journey was the return trip to Delhi via Manali. The route was the usaual one which I have traveled twice Leh – Sarchu – Manali – Delhi. This route is doable in 3 days and we did the same.

Early morning wake up and all set to go, then Sojish realizes that the ATM has run out of cash. And these days they don’t give money of Indian credit cards. Fortunately I had some $25 with me. We went and changed it to Rs and we tanked up. Leh Sarchu ride we were taking it easy started eary from Leh and myself and Sojish were again in blast mode, we blasted till Upshi for some 50Kmts. After than Tanlang La, Baracha La, Lachung La was all a breeze. Stopped to quick snaps and rode. More Plains is all washed away this time, routed on more plains some good offroading and we reached Pang.

Pang tent camps were fun, which was the place where we were hit by AMS last time. I was drinking tea and having some Maggie then I hear a voice from behind, “App pahahe bhi yahan par aaye na, aur mere tent pe rahe thee.” I was amazed to know that they still remember me. I then went to there tent had some namkeen chai and talked about things that I was doing these years and they shared there stories. [BTW Sojish has a different version of this story, which is more interesting. LOL]

After Pang we are going to hit Sarchu by evening according to plan, we start off from there to Sarchu. Sarchu is in Himachal Pradesh and that is where we leave J&K and enter HP. Sarchu is beautiful in its own, Rocky Mountains and lonely place to give you a perfect eerie feeling (as Sojish says) but I don’t feel eerie but I just love the Rocky Mountains and reminds me of Tolkien’s Rocky Mountains.

We have planned to stay at Sarchu’s HP tourism tent camp, and when we reached Sarchu there was no tent camp this time by HP tourism. I thought to myself ‘Great now ride 30 more Kmts of mountains in the night to reach the next tent camp’ It was already 7pm by that time and was getting dark. There is no other option either camp or ride 30kmts, camping was not easy because we did not have food and It was very windy and cold. So we decided to ride to a place near to zing zing bar (that is the next place where we can get some tent accomodation)

Crossing streams at night is tough and scary at times. We somehow made it to the next tent camp at Kathmandu Café [I remember this place very well, and know the people there] Do you believe this? Tesring even remember my name after 3 years, and we had only met once. That was really touching. Had namkeen tea some Maggie and slept off in the windy night. This place is actually on a mountain pass (Baralacha La) and quiet high at an altitude close to 4800mts. (Here is a pic of Kathmandu Cafe and my friends, these are the nicest people I met!)
Woke up next morning and treked to a near by mountain for the nature’s call. Bread and fried eggs for breakfast and started off to ride to Manali. Roads were lunar at many places stretching to more than 50 kmts. I got fedup after some time stood on the footrest and blasted offroad.

Checked in a Beas hotel, and next day ride to Chandigarh, met some old friends in chandigarh. Chandigarh Delhi ride was mundane, I hate plains :-) reached Delhi by afternoon, shipped the bikes and flew in kingfisher the next day to Bangalore.

Reached office the next day and started the mundane work again. This weekend I spend most of the time doing laundry cleaning my riding boots and jackets. I am eagerly waiting for my bike…

That was one hell of a ride I loved every moment of it, every puncture every mountain and all the valleys. Maybe next time we will make it again to mountains Leh, Zanskar, Spiti or maybe Nepal and Katmandu to meet Tesring, since He has invited me to his place in Nepal, and I bet I will have a very warm welcome there...

Day by day trip log at : jsrleh2006.blogspot.com
Some more pics at: jsrleh2006.fotopic.net

tchau.
Happy riding!