Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 1 & 2

Tring tring ... It's my phone. It's 4 in the morning. It's still dark outside, only a faint light of a street lamp enters the room through the tinted glass of the window. It's silent except the noise of the ceiling fan, a dog barks outside, the laptop's blue light blinks every 2 second telling me it's in sleep mode. The room is still scatterred from the packing last night. The bag looks very small for going to ladakh but it has all the things I need. I take the bag and move out silently leaving the door unlocked, they would understand I have left.
I meet Akarsh at 5 in Delhi and start off with a target to reach Manali by evening.
My joblessness doesn't allow me to ride the bike. I am giving the bike on sort of rent for the trip to avoid the petrol and bike's expenses, however this means I get a chance to see the beauty of the valley without worrying about the driving, not a good tradeoff though if you are a motorcyclist.
I meet Akarsh, Abhi, Ruchir and start riding. We have the Indian tricolor on our bikes and seem to be attracting lot of attention.
The roads are good and after a long exhausting ride we reach Naggar (near Manali, where we stop at a friend's place) by night 8. We eat some dinner and are off to sleep.
The next day is also spent in Naggar relishing some local food and a small trip to Manali in the afternoon to buy some essentials for the trip.
Manali has a general purposelesness hung heavy in it's atmosphere. It's crammed, new and ugly.
I am under impression this is going to be a cake walk, only to have a face off with reality later.