FW: Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 11

Today with lot of apprehensions we start for Srinagar.

On the way we pay our homage to the braves at the Kargil war museum and witness the tiger hill and the war zone.
Crossing zojila we see the base camp of amarnath yatra and get allured by the free food and get drifted towards the parking.
We eat free lunch amidst Anup Jalota, Hari Om Sharan and Jagjit Singh and other confectioners, all of them simultaneously droning out from several different cassete players and load speakers. At one occasion I hear a devotional remix of the song ''choli ke peechey kya hai''.

As we return, a news awaits us, we are now part of the yatri crowd and can't leave without the army convoy and nobody knows when the next convoy will leave.

Agitated to the core we try convincing the CRPF, Army and the JK police but our requests fall on deaf ears and we come to know there is a 'shoot at sight' order issued in Srinagar and hence they are not allowing anyone cross it.

Unwillingly we convince ourself to stay here at the base camp until the next convoy leaves, it rains the whole day and we are confined to the small tent we have rented out.
The only fun comes from the free food and delicasies that are offered to the yatris, of which we are one now.
In evening, warming myself by an open tandoor, a yatri starts to chat with me, he complains about the high rates of the tents here which are managed by muslims(as this place has muslim local population). Automatically the topic changes from expensive tents to muslims and later from muslims to VHP and later from VHP to killing all muslims. These so called yatris, wear rudraksh, chant ram-ram, visit temples, abhor meat and alcohol but conceal murder in their heart. I wanted to ask him if he knew that the amarnath shrine was found by a muslim, but I stop myself.

We relish on free delicasies like jalebi, pakodis, poori, ras malai, aloo tikki, moong daal halwa and barfi and sleep under the blaring noise of Anuradha Podwal, Anup Jalota and all other T-Series folks.

FW: Rode to heaven ... Throuag hell-Day 10

Yesterday's adventure was too much on the body and I am also sufferring from flu. I am surviving on paracetamols and combiflams since last 2 days, thankfully the body is strong enough to take the roughness.
We have to decide which route to take to get back to Delhi, some say take the route via Manali but the road is bad and continous rains have caused frequent landslides and overflowing rivers, the streams we had crossed must have swollen into full fledged rivers by now.
Others say we take the srinagar route to see the beauty that side but then srinagar is on curfew.
We decide to take the Srinagar route, god knows for what reason.
For today we reach Kargil and stay there.

Riding dry for the first time seems blissful. Crossing the moonland like
Landscape we reach kargil by the evening and stay at a lodge.
Dinner on Akarsh's suggestion is at a maniac sardar's dhaba. A strange guy, he is an army retired, taunts you on everything, you sit down to eat and he says 'don't face that side'. You pick the glass and he says, use the other hand, you start to eat and he says 'did you wash hand', you wash hand and he says, wash it for minimum 20 seconds, you push your chair and he says 'you have blocked the pathway', you lift the water jug and he says....the list is never ending. We were briefed about this by Akarsh earlier and hence were having fun looking at each other.

FW: Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 9

We get up fresh and head towards pangong tso, a 125 kilometers long saltwater lake in the himalayas which spreads from India to Tibet to China. It is a clear symbol of natures craftmanship.

Virgin crystal blue water like a veil on a gorgeous fairy's face, with clouds hanging in sky like small angels of the fairy, tall mountains guard the fairy from everyone and slowly the lover sun, fighting against the mountains, starts slowly to gaze at the fairy's face, sun's rays hit the surface and reflect and the fairy as if blushing and shying from the sun's rays the changes colours from orange in early morning to greenish turquoize to deep blue and then for a few hours they remain as one, as a witness to this eternal love a seagull flies past and sits and pecks at a stone on the bank.
Again, no amount of words can describe the beauty of this lake.
We spend a few hours at the lakeside and drive back to Leh and spend the night here.
At night I wonder how the lake would look like on a full moon night and resolve to spend a night next year at the lake. I am sure fairies descend at night here and dance and make merry.

FW: Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 8

A few birds chirp outside my tent and as I come out, I see butterflies all around, red one's, green one's, the customary yellow with black patches,small one's, big one's ....ahhhh jannat....(aahhh heaven)....
We plan to go to pangong tso today ...the famous lake with its pristine blue waters. The map on Lonely Planet book says we have to cross khardungla and go towards Leh and then head towards changla and to pangong tso but a trekking map says there is an alternate route via Agam and Wari la, which will save us 100 kms. Upon enquiring from army we get to know that the road was built but has been washed away by river shyok. We ask army if they would help us in crossing it and are informed of dire consequences.

Anyways, determined as we were, we plan to take that route no matter what. We are six and can handle anything. Thanks to the indian mentality,'fati bhi hogi to friends ke beech mein nahi dikhatey hain ki fati hai'.

As soon as we start towards Agam we realise what we have decided to get into, no roads and no habitation for kilometers together. nobody, including vultures would know if we died here. There are no signs of roads at many patches and there are free flowing water streams everywhere, some of them are easy to cross like potholes and some are so huge and furious we all have to hold one bike at a time with full strength and cross while keeping ourself stable and forgetting about suffering hypothermia or severe cold feet.
Crossing these water streams, finding our way just by maps and crossing another horrfying high altitude pass Wari la where even the army has abandoned it's post due to the weather and less oxygen we reach a village Shakti from where we are told pangong tso is about 85 kms. After the gruelling and almost killing ride (or call suicide attempt) we reach Tangste about 40 kilometers from pangone tso.
We spend the night here as the sun has set.
Reflecting on the day I realize I should be thankful for being safe and a major thank shall go to Chavi(my bike) for sustaining through.

Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 7

Recovering from the altitude sickness but suffering from flu now, today we leave for khardungla and nubra valley.
Eating a quick breakfast we started towards khardungla which is the highest motorable road in the world, its at 18700 feet above sea level. At this level the oxygen is so scarce the motorcycle like a bullet has difficulty negotiating the steep climb in first gear. I fiddle with the carburator to let in more air in the engine. With full throttle and quarter clutch, burning the clutch plates we somehow manage to touch. khardungla and congratulate ourself for the torture finally being over. But was it??? Downhill was even more torture.
Sitting behind Abhishek and falling twice, once in water and once on rubble, we reach at the bottom hill of khardung la.
Surviving solely on paracetamols we continue riding through amazingly beautiful and slowly changing landscape. From snow clad mountains we descend towards river bed plains and get into giant red colour canyons and again into river bed greenery and as if out of 'aliice in wonderland' enter desert, desert like real rajasthan desert in the mid of himalayas, from yaks, the traditional animal changes to double humped black camels.
By night 8 we are at Khalsar in the Nubra valley. One bike has gone missing but we are able to find it after a little effort.
We stay at tirith camp, the most beautiful camping site I have ever seen in my life. A little expensive but right out of heaven, our tent is surrounded by exotic wild flowers of the himalayas and the camp is surrounded by snow clad mountains which shimmer gold at sunrise. The area where we dine is a small canopy of trees and apricots and apples fall from the trees. So many of them that people here don't bother to pick them, I pick plenty of them and eat till I am satisfied.
At night we all jumble up and share jokes and I take my last paracetamol for the day and am off to sleep.

Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 6

Reaching Leh we meet the 6th member of the group, Goldy, who has taken a flight to Leh due to the social pressure from his family considerate of the dangers involved in a motorcycling trip.
Goldy is an amazing guy with great sense of humour, you just love his company and his wit comes alongwith his caring nature. Just looking at this guy makes you smile, dressed in a green pullover and a denim jeans, he is a slightly plump, red cheeked guy similar to Vinay Pathak (a little more plump) from the movie 'khosla ka ghosla', a shy smile, hairstyle of Amir Khan (a little more hairy) from taarey zameen par and torso like Abhishek Bacchan(a little more in inches).

We plan to get the bikes serviced today for the days ahead. Sadly there is a strike due to hike in petrol prices and we have to push the trip to the mechanic to evening. With time in hand now we take a leisure walk to the shanti stupa, a time capsule with sealed scriptures for the future generations.
Back from stupa we head to the mechanic back on the road towards manali, I became extra carefull while overtakiing busses, I didn't want someones lunch over me as I had seen happening with a fellow rider.
With the bikes fixed, we head back to the hotel room and sleep.
Today was just a laid back day.

Rode to heaven ... Through hell-Day 5

With severe headache I get up and start the bike and move on. Again at this place we ran out of money and begged from a fellow group a 1000 rupees to pay for the accomodation.
The day has been most easy compared to the journey so far. Just a easy ride and by afternoon we were at Leh.
The road was good and the scenary just out of heaven. The scenary changes slowly from plains to hills to canyons around, the sky looks pure blue with pure white clouds scattered around. The land is barren but the soil has so many colours in it, from dark red it changes to shiny silver hinting the presence of mica in it, to purple like brinjal to brown to black to sometimes greenish....amazing work by god.... No amount of words can describe the beauty here. It can only be felt by one, specially by those who have for some time left behind the frantic hankering for wealth, fame, status and all other adman's fantasies and are unabashed in their love for life, travel and nature.
Occasionally one comes across villages, small old houses with slopy roofs, trees encircling the boundry, the courtyard shining bright orange with corn kept to dry outside, chinese looking faces, yaks, cows, shepherds, women carrying firewood on their backs, children with sunburnt cheeks playing alongside the roads, wheat fields, such laid back life, they have nothing to do with the outside world, they are self 'content', they have nothing but still everything...they are so different than us, we the up-market crowd in our Levis t-shirts, Woodland shoes, Wrangler jeans, Jockey briefcases.

I am especially touched by the Gaddis, the local shepherds. Their nomadism bemuses me. These short, colourfully dressed, benign-looking shepherds are on their way to home and just 4-5 months, they will be out again, winters in the valley, summers in the high passes and this has been their routine for centuries, embodying an old forgotten idea of content. Leading a simple and 'Happy' life.

Leh on the contrary is like any other hill station in India. It has nothing to be written about and I am definately not hurting my thumb punching details about this place on my cell phone writing this blog. No wonder almost every traveller uses this place just as a transit point to the places nearby.
Oh yes... I haven't told you... all this while I wasn't riding the bike but sitting behind a lunatic speedster named Akarsh(I hope he is reading this)....I have reached Leh in one piece and no amount of self congratulation seems enough for this.