Diamox and Old Monk (was: Losing Virginity, In Style (Teasers))

Hi

After the ride in the snowy mountains, I decided to blog is as a day-to-day account. Created a new blog. If you have time, you read through it DIAMOX AND OLD MONK

Me and my friend Rohon finished our 2 week trip to the mountains yesterday.
We finally covered the distances like this
Delhi - Manali - Leh - K-top - Leh - Kargil - Srinagar - Patnitop - Pathankot - Faridkot - Bhatinda - Ambala - Chandigarh - Dehradun - Rishikesh - Auli - Joshimath - Rishikesh - Delhi.

Total Distance Covered ~ 3,800 kms.
The Trip saw some twists and turns, changes itinerary, breakdowns, riding in sub zero temperatures, riding to the top of the world (while it was all snowed out).

Schedules and Itineraries changed with weather conditions. Nubra had to be called off, so too ChangaLa + Pangong Tso. revised plan of hitting Jaisalmer also changed owing to the increasing temps in the plains. Plans to hit Malari on 12 Oct. had to be aborted owing to lousy Eicher Road Atlas' wrong route (will explain in detail later)

As for the Title of this post, this is how virginities were lost:
For the new Bull:
On 1 October, she lost her virginity to highways, covering 636 kms on the Delhi - Manali Stretch
On 4 October, she lost her virginity to Leh
On 5 October, she lost her virginity to the top of the world. Conquered Khardungla buried under 2-3 inches of snow.
On 10 October, she lost her virginity to mid trip breakdowns, she had to be hauled up on a pick up truck to the RE workshop in pathankot :( (this is some thing i hope she didn't like too much, and would love to stay away from mid trip b/downs as much as possible)

For me:
I lost my virginity to Leh and the top of the World
I lost my virginity to white water rafting :P at Rishikesh.

Here are some of teasers from the Ride

Early Morning, October 3: 17 kms before Baralacha La:




Same Morning. Slept on a clear night (with surrounding shades of green). Woke up to White morning.



Conquered Khardung La (18380 ft) while the road lay buried under inches of snow.

Narkanda - Hatu, July 2007

It all started on the wrong foot. With only 2 people (out of 12 confirmed till the day before) finally making it to the morning of 14 July at AIIMS. Kamlesh rode from Gurgaon and he was already 30 odd down on the trip meter when i met him at 3.45 AM on a thundering night. The 30 minute shower was good enough to drench us completely. The slippery surface left me kissing the back of an Indica 10 kms into the ride, No harm done, we carried on. It kept drizzling while we crawled to the Delhi Bye-pass in an hour. Quick Chai and Sutta break, and we headed on NH1.

Nicely covering places, the first butt break came near Sonepat in an hours time. Heavy winds and constant drizzle kept us company. Soon after, at 7.30, took a leak-break which turned into a freak break. A short circuit wiring (apparently in the indicator cables) spread all over the wiring leaving white smoke coming out of the battery compartment first, the head assemble after that, and finally near the ignition switch. The ignition was gone, no spark in the spark plug, meant trouble, all electricals were down. Without realising the spark was gone, tried to disconnect all not-so-important component and restore the ignitions, no luck but. We were 15 kms ahead of Karnal now. Desperate calls back to Delhi to find an Bajaj Dealer in Karnal/ Kurukshetra. Deciding to move on, Shri Krishna Bajaj at Kurukshetra was the destination. Managed to load the bike up a 3 wheeler goods carrier, which took us to the showroom/ service centre 18 kms away in 30 minutes. With no pro-biking support here, the skilled mechanic, had to open up the seat and the tank to trace the burnt wiring from terminal to terminal. Finally the guy gave direct lines thru to the spark plug, the head lamp and the tail light and we were good to go. Kick start, key not required, headlamp and tail light on auto-on mode. Finally headed out of the service station at 12.30 and stopped at the first Dhaba near Kurukshetra for Dal Makhani, Shahi Paneer and Tandoori Rotis.

Then on there werent too many issues. But having lost 5 hours in restoring the electricals, we were way off the target to reach hatu by evening. Hatu seemed distant and dark to us. Riding hard thru Kalka to Shimla, finally managed to reach Shimla ~ 6 PM. Enroute, we got company with Navnit riding solo on his 25 day old P200 from Mumbai to Spiti to Leh. Picked up supplies at Kufri, still hopeful of making it to Hatu, the 3 of us headed up to Narkanda. With the weather getting colder by the minute, touched down at Narkanda at 9.15 PM. Finally deciding to call it a day here, my back was really really sore. The hard riding thru Shimla-Narkanda with frequent rough patches took their toll on the back. We would retire in Narkanda at the HHPWD Guest house. Dinner followed by OM and bakar, we finally slept at midnight.

The morning was hazy and dull. With a chill in the air, we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed up 9 kms to Hatu Peak. The Never-ending-road is a myth. The road stops right here only a metre away from the valley. Spent a blissful hour at the peak clicking pics amidst the clouds and mules.

Hatu, the highest altitude i've ever attained lived up to its name completely. Worth the pain, worth the climb, worth everything.

The return was marked with Navnit carrying on to Spiti, while Kamlesh and I descended down to Shimla. With no further issues and Lunch at Kufri, Delhi was a mere formality. With the back still tingling from the previous day's grueling ride up, came down at an easy pace till Kalka. Kalka to Ambala took an hour, Ambala to Delhi (home) another 3.

Still nursing the sore back. Looking at options.

Pics are here.

Shimla, Feb. 2007

North India saw a turn of weather and this february has been the coldest one for years...to the extent that the Hill Station of Shimla recorded the highest february snowfall in the last 99 years. For the last two weeks, Shimla (and the higher areas of Himachal) had been buried under one foot of snow. Made a perfect reason to hit the Station.

I'd been wanting to cover up bits of himachal since my Jaisalmer Trip, to complete a triangle rides to Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Himachal for sometime..Ideally I wanted to cover Kinnaur but due to the heavy snowfall kinnaur has been completely cut-off by road.

Rohon was to accompany me for the ride. Saurabh got stuck at work and couldn't get his bike ready for the ride. Rohon would also spend Friday, 16 Feb night at my place to get an early start the next morning.

Day 1, Saturday Feb 17, 2007: Delhi - Panipat - Ambala - Kalka - Shimla

Our day started at 0345. We woke up after a 2.30 hrs sleep and got ready to hit the raods in 15 minutes time. At 0408 we were on our way. A quick fuel stop at Alipur and we headed into the Foggy night. Piloted by an Indica and Zen we rode for some 60 odd kms before taking a breather close to panipat at 0525. Odo: 65..a dearth of cigarettes encouraged me to get a bundle of bidi which would last me the entire trip.

The Fog got denser a we crept through, This time it would be a 17 tonne truck to escort us for the next 30 kms. and then a perfectly synchronised ride with an Innova and Scorpio. The four of us kept close to each other for the next 60 kms, everyone complementing each other...the scorpio and the innova taking leads in tandem and the two of us stayed 30 m behind them @ constant 70-90 kph. The visibility varied between 25-100m all throughout, but we were safely escorted till our second stop for tea a little before Ambala. The milk man riding the rajdoot was too entertaining...and asked us if we were "firangi"...Arrival Time: 0715, Odo: 180

From Shimla Februa...

We started off again after chilling for half hour, realising that our rain protective gear we bought the day before was coming to good use. The Fog and the mist started condensing on our suits. The Carabin Rain Suits also protected us from the severe cold, kept the winds out very well..good buy...worth a 1000 bucks i must say.

Anyways, after brachin off NH1 at Ambala we were slowed down by the city traffic in Chandigarh, Panchkula and the under construction NH 22. Nothing great in this leg. Mostly boring and we took our stop at Kalka just before starting our incline to Shimla for fuel and Tea. Arrival: 0905, Odo: 255.

The beautiful Himalayan Twisties treated us well..except for a few lanslides, the roads were lovely and inviting. Beautiful surface, excellent surroundings and high spirits :-) made the perfect recipe to make it memorable. As we approached Shimla, there was hardly any signs of snow on the roads or surroundings and we were starting lose our spirits. Felt as if all the snow had melted before our arrival. Finally arrived in Shimla at 1135, Odo: 346 kms

Its just so amazing, just as we entered Shimla city the colours changed from green to white. Felt as if it was a "no entry" to snow before Shimla. After a lot of speculation and two agents taking us for a walk in Shimla city in search of a cheap hotel we finally settled for one on the mall fro 450 bucks. What we learned here was that the Shimla Narkanda highway was under a feet of snow and no vehicle could go beyond kufri. and a two wheeler cant even get to Kufri. Our eyes lit up by these remarks and our target was to get as far as physically possible and enjoy the snow before it melts.

After riding for hardly 12 kms towards Kufri, we realised only 4 wheelers could go beyond. Too much black ice, water and snow making it extremely dangerous to ride further. Anyways it was only a matter of a few hundered meters and all 4 wheelers wouldnt go further either.

This is what we got...I would just let the pics do the talking

From Shimla Februa...

From Shimla Februa...

From Shimla Februa...

From Shimla Februa...

From Shimla Februa...

From Shimla Februa...

The climb down from Kufri were the toughest 12 kms of my life...Took us 45 minutes to ride down with all the ice on the roads...slowly but steadily we made our way down to shimla, still overwhelmed by the 2 hours we spent in the snow.

From Shimla Februa...

The Evening was to be total chillaxing time at the Mall...bought food, drinks, snacks and walked around the mall and ridge for a good 2 hours

From Shimla Februa...

Day 2, Sunday Feb 18, 2007: Shimla - Kalka - Karnal - Panipat - Delhi

Nothing of too much consequence on this day. except for a couple of videos i shot while riding in the twisties..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RBZIk3-rIM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-bhqt83org



Day Stats.

Total distance : 336 Kms
Total Time on the Road : 7:45 Hours.

TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED IN THE TRIP 710 Kms.

Complete Photoset
http://picasaweb.google.com/DEL430/ShimlaFebruary2007