journey through heaven - part one

8/7/2019 Journey Through Heaven - Part One

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A Journey

Through the HeavenSteep Mountain Passes,

Dusty Dirt Tracks,

One Faithful Motorcycle,

17,000 feet,

17 Days,

& A Will To Discover …

My motorcycle ride through Himachal, Ladakh & Kashmir by SUYASH SONAW

suyashps.blogspot.



The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there

— Robert M. Pirsig

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/401.Robert_M_Pirsig

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/401.Robert_M_Pirsig



It's a bright sunny day with almost clear blue sky.

I can barely see some white clouds floating around.

I make an attempt to gaze far away

While trying to keep motorcycle off the edge of the valley. I can see some snow shining on top of those far away mountains.

I will soon reach there, I hope.

Wind is piercing through small gaps around my helmet’s visor

offering me chilling taste of surrounding.

Weather is getting colder as I climb.

I curiously glance over the steep wall of gigantic rocks on my right

Ummm.. still no sign of vegetation.

I bring myself back to the road and to next bend taking me even higher.

Here altitude rises much quicker than you can imagine

Climb is also getting steeper. I down shift & open the throttle further.

Engine responds with a reluctant grunt.

I can understand that. I am not feeling good either.



At these heights oxygen is rare. My motorcycle is already struggling to climb.

She is tired and so I am.

A feeling of unrest has started developing in my head as oxygen level is dropping steadily.

Uneasiness is now getting stronger as I move up turn by turn, foot by foot.

My heart is trying to pump more & more oxygen by making me breathe faster.

This is what I am doing now. Rather I have no choice but to speed up breathing.

Now my head has also started aching badly. This is AMS!

Looks like I AM STRUCK BY AMS!

But what is this irritating repetitive sound? Where is it coming from?

I can just feel the pain.

Pain is not good... sometimes intolerable…

Blackout.

● ● ●



Part One

Lofty Himachal



Before the Sunrise

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 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!

Part One

A Journey Through The Heaven - 6- suyashps.blogspot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_mountain



http://www.bcmtouring.com/ladakh-2007/the-itinerary



http://www.bcmtouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=584








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?”

"Yes” (How the hell he knows that?) "Hi. I’m Bhuwan Singh. From Jaipur”. He revealed his face

probably noticing puzzled look on my face and then stretched his

arm a handshake.

"Nice to meet you”

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.

Part One

A Journey Through The Heaven -7 - suyashps.blogspot.



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

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!

Part One




Part Two

Land of Lamas



Day 2,3,4,5

September 3: Manali-Rohtang-Darcha

September 4: Darcha-Baralacha La-Sarchu-Pang

September 5: Pang-Tanglang La-Leh

September 6: Leh

Distance covered: 485 km

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 wereached Rohtang, I saw everybody in the group were lining up

their bikes. They started taking photographs as well. I couldn’t

Part Two

A Journey Through The Heaven -9 - suyashps.blogspot.c



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. Inthe 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.

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

Part Two


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DaDDHN05Hqg/RxiEEnTfXNI/AAAAAAAAAJM/EqKNfqW2e9c/s1600-h/mapHimalayaManaliLeh.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1421/1437837558_912e38a8ab_o.jpg



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 hadput 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 .

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

Part Two


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kartz/1431621639/in/set-72157602095823063/








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.

A Journey Through The Heaven -13 - suyashps.blogspot.co

Part Two

P t T



Cross TanglangLa and you enter the Valley of Ladakh. Youare 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 mountainranges 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!

Part Two


Part Two



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 Two


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DaDDHN05Hqg/RxiJCHTfXOI/AAAAAAAAAJU/LJtg76ulnyY/s1600-h/eating-breakfast-in-leh.JPG

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DaDDHN05Hqg/RxiJCHTfXOI/AAAAAAAAAJU/LJtg76ulnyY/s1600-h/eating-breakfast-in-leh.JPG

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1068/1437155017_4e453aafc6_b.jpg

journey through heaven - part one

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