Biased Monk

Ride: Leh to Drass

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:13:00 -0700

Wow, months pass by so quickly! Anyway, catching up from our plan to leave Leh yesterday (3 June 2010)… we were ready to roll on the morning of 4th June. Our main concern was the worsening weather, the impending doom if clouds gave way for cold rains or worse, snow! We did not stop for photographing till we were sure that we were well outside the danger zone. Photographed this somewhere near Lamayuru, a good 100 km from Leh. Correction from Navendu: "This is Indus & Zanskar confluence near Nimmu, around 30km's from Leh."

What a beautiful sight it was! Two big rivers joining forces… one crystal clear and another, bringing eroded soil from higher mountains… signaling that it had rained heavily somewhere upstream.

Winding, twisting roads… hugging the mighty mountains for dear life; the travelers hoping the roads held tight. We had climbed down this road, from Fotu La a few days ago, at night… between 8 to 10 pm. And as we climbed up now, we were realizing what a dangerous road it was that we had not seen in entirety that night.

The monster of a road. Unpaved. Little or no railings/ protection on sides. Slopes that would make any engine gasp for breath and curves that could kill.

As we climbed up, a group of tourers on even more Royal Enfields was riding towards Leh. Without a word, with just waves of hands we exchanged good wishes, and rode on.

Rising up… you pass through the same patch of the mountain, just higher every time, but to gain the altitude of 50 to 100 feet, one has to drive a few kilometers around the mountains.

Beauty everywhere. The color of the river and that of the road are as we saw them. Unusual.

Signs of life started cropping up. The mountains were mostly lifeless till now. Small shrubs started appearing everywhere!

Landscape carved purely by elements. No human intervention. No creatures of the wild. Just land, sun and water. Water's marks left in soft soil.

And it wasn't a small landscape!

From left: Navendu, Yogesh, Shrenik, Sumedh. Obviously, waiting for the photographer to catch up :-P

As the rest of the gang rode ahead, Navendu and I stayed back for clicking more photographs. We were also sure we could catch up ;)

Riding on the edge! I call it "Surewheel Drive"… like cars have fourwheel drive ;)

Yes, it is derived from mountain goat's surefooted trots.

Such cute little creatures… but they made my heart skip a beat as they jumped along the edges while their owner shooed them on.

We would soon be out of Ladakh region, and these houses would disappear… so photographed a few more while looking back on the landscape that we had fallen in love with.

Small fields, and a frozen waterfall.

The whole landscape was so pretty and photogenic!

The frozen waterfall.

A family works on their little patch of cultivable land.

Wild flowers, so many of them! But not an easy food for the cattle. Just look at those sharp thorns.

Last of Ladakh.

A chai break. Landscape was still barren and dry.

More of the magical landscapes, worn by nature's relentless battery of rain, snow and sun.

I photographed this especially for the green line in the center, going from left bottom corner to behind the hill… that's a small canal taking water from a stream and providing the residents in the small settlement in front with fresh water.

As the day was receding, Navendu and I stopped one last time for a photo shoot. Met two guys from Maharashtra, after they stopped seeing the "MH" series license plates on our bikes. Had a chat, and then rode on.

Just before Kargil, we *had* to stop again for a shoot… perfect opportunity for a HDR photograph! This one is made from three RAWs exposed 2 stops apart. And then we rode on all the way to Drass… the same 60 kilometers that took us a whole day while coming was done within rest of the evening when long shadows had started appearing.

*phew* What a long ride! We needed rest. Badly.

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Experience: Lazy Boys in Leh

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:30:00 -0800

After getting back at Leh on 2nd June, we were wondering when to head to Khardung La, the highest motorable road in the world. Reports of snow were making us uncomfortable, we had already endured enough snow - to the point of hands starting to turn blue, so at least I was not going to take the risk of heading to the most desolate roads when everyone else was refraining.

We had a huge argument over what to do. We had split into two groups with two members each, half of us wanted to go to Khardung no matter what, half of us wanted to back out. Surprisingly, I was on the 'back out' side. I don't know why, but I did not want to take that risk, even if it meant I might never go there again… and miss Khardung by less than 100 kilometers.

Also, I had talked to a few friends on 2nd and got heads-up on this interesting piece of information: a common friend, an avid biker was in Leh too! So our plan was to chill (literally and figuratively) in Leh and meet up with the friend. Also, we decided to talk to him about our differences in opinion - since he had been to Leh and Khardung a few times before.

Yogesh (left) and Shrenik sorting through our luggage.

The gloves that be bought in Kargil that saved our skins in rain.

Who does this pair of socks belong to? (Shrenik, wondering about the big problems)

The guesthouse.

Finally in the mood to take a ride, well… hunger got us moving ;-)

Wading through construction junk…

Yogesh (who had been engaged and would get married soon)… getting familiar with what is to come :-P

Of course, the kids were a cute and quiet bunch… :-)

Bye bye!

Time to ride around Leh!

Caught up with the mystery man… Navendu Singh ( http://navendus.net ) [ photo credit: Shrenik]

Monks walking by the road (and in contrast, guy wearing skull and bones bandana riding past them ;-) [ that's me, photo credit: Shrenik]

Note the closed shops, there was a protest going on that day, so most of the places were closed.

The weather did not look promising.

Clouds were gathering, and within minutes, it started to rain! We barely escaped the rain as we got into an open restaurant.

[from left] Shrenik, Yogesh, Sumedh, Navendu

Had a good meal, talked about experiences - I knew Navendu since a few years, but he was meeting rest of the gang for first time, so the excitement to hear his stories of bike rides was high!
Quick mention: He was on this trip to celebrate 10 years with his Suzuki Fireo motorcycle (he owns more than one ;-)

Finally, we asked him if we should go to Khardung La, he took his time and responded with "I've been here before, but I've never seen such bad weather any time. You've probably endured more than what most bikers do." Going to Khardung when Leh itself was so cold was foolish. Also, Navendu was feeling unwell and he was planning on riding back, if possible with us. We decided to leave for homeward journey the next day. Manali route was still blocked, so we'd have to ride all the way to Srinagar and then down to Jammu.

Route plans were forming in our heads already… but we had to get back to our guest house and pack the scattered luggage!

Some hotel, on the way back to our guest house. We had to wait for half an hour after our lunch for the skies to stop pouring, and this part of the city was relatively dry!

Of course, what we did after that oh-so-tiring-lunch-ride… [yogesh]

Yours truly, dreaming of… well, let's just say something nice ;-) [ photo credit: Shrenik or Sumedh, kaun tha be?]

A lot of our mess needed to be sorted still.

Shrenik did a good job ;-)

And that was about it. We went out at night, had more momos and thukpa soup and came back and slept :-P

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Panorama: The Guesthouse at Leh

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:49:08 -0800

Yogesh on left, Sumedh and Shrenik on right.

Notice the reinforced cement concrete structure for the new building on left and unbaked mud bricks. These bricks were partly responsible for the wide spread destruction during the cloudburst and floods barely a month after we returned from Leh.

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Ride: Chang La to Leh

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:53:00 -0800

The guys painting signs by roadside were nice chaps… but this was nasty… I wasn't about to "fall" for their trick!

Oh shit, they meant this… right after that left-hander!!

The curves were risky! Femmé fatalé style ;-)

Cradled in the valley between these treacherous mountains was a settlement of farmers.

Lush green patches dotted with white houses.

Looked up as slight shade covered us… beautiful iridescent clouds.

One of the handiwork of the same guys painting these signs. A heart warming message just when we felt we were far away from home.

More fields… I love how none of the fields have straight bunds or fences, they all take natural curves along with topography of the land. Makes for a pleasing sight.

And reminders of our insignificance… stones this big had recently made their way down, more could be ready to play "knock knock" with us!

Woohoo! Oh wait, that's Sakti at 5 km. Leh is another 50km away :-P

Woah! What a pleasure to ride on straight road!

Signs of life, ironically… these are reminders of death, tombs of people.

Look! A bird! After trying to photograph these birds for a while, and always having them vanish behind a rock or bushes… finally found a brave one!

A monastery and settlement around it.

Back in the civilization we're used to… lots of cars, restaurants and people! We were still half an hour away from Leh.

But we were cold and hungry, time for what other than momos!

Shrenik didn't get vegetarian momos, so had to make-do with regular meal.

That's me… thinking of something while looking at a chunk of chocolate. What was on my mind now eludes me :-P We were all feeling a bit busted.

That's Shrenik

here's Yogesh

And Sumedh, who could still manage a good smile after the ride.

We rode out towards Leh after the snack, now saw lots of trucks carrying different kinds of supplies to remote towns.

Another nicely located monastery.

Carvings on a rock in Shey.

Shrenik's motorcycle suffered a flat tire after Shey, we were in the middle of nowhere. Tried pumping air into it, hoping it would go a little farther… we realized it was losing air faster than any of us could pump in. Finally, I gave my bike to Shrenik, put the saddle bag and tank bag on the Bajaj XCD. Thankfully we were carrying less stuff to ChangLa, half our luggage was in the guest house in Leh - so this was manageable. And finally, took out the nail, pushed in the valve and I rode the bike, sitting on the tank - to put less weight on rear wheel and get us to a puncture shop faster - it was a painful experience, because the body needs to be pulled up in an uncomfortable position, but it saves the tire and tube from damage. A few kilometers down, we found a place and got it fixed.

While Shrenik was getting the bike fixed, I was chatting with Phunsuk, he works as a tourist guide. We talked about a broad range of topics, ranging from how we think this is paradise but the locals don't really see it. He's a Tibetian, had tears in his eyes when he talked about visiting the Indo-China border… "It's the closest I've been to my home in years." I invited him to visit rest of our country… told him what it was like in Puné, Mumbai… places I know. Left with a lot of thoughts going on in my mind.

Finally we made it to Leh. Night had taken over and we needed to hunt the next restaurant where we wanted to enjoy the same dish we were ordering in all other places…

Thukpa Noodle Soup

And momos! (opted for fried momos this time)

Went back to the guest house and dozed off to happy thoughts.

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Ride: Tsoltak to Chang La

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:13:45 -0800

I barely photographed from Tangtse to just before reaching the mountain climb of Chang La because I had lagged behind the rest of the gang while waiting at every turn to photograph the landscapes! So let's begin the photographic journey from where I started the camera again… at military camp called Tsoltak.

This place is lifeless except for the cheerful soldiers who were more than happy to see us again! ( Last time we passed through we had shared home-made sweets with the obviously homesick soldiers.)

Today they had a surprise for us — they offered us hot soup, and said that they had been waiting for us to return. What a warm welcome in the freezing land! We were first reluctant to exhaust their supplies, but they reminded us… there's never dearth of bravery in hearts or soup for tired souls with the Indian Army. Wow!

I heard strange sounds while taking a turn and caught a glimpse of two large yellowish-brown creatures playing and rolling between rocks as I rode past. I stopped and looked back, but they vanished. For a second I questioned my sanity… because my brain thought I had seen bear cubs. "Of course there are no bears here!" Then what the heck were those? Was I hallucinating due to acute mountain sickness? Wait, am I implying I'm unfit to ride? And then I saw another! A marmot (known as Pheya in local language)… this little beast was at a distance, so getting a good picture was quite a challenge. But this is what I managed ;-) Spotted a whole bunch of marmots after making this photo, but they just ran away as soon as I stopped. Wildlife photography needs patience, days, weeks of it. I had seconds.

Roads were not going from bad to worse. There was water flowing over the asphalt, if there was any asphalt left. Signs weren't getting any better either… this one here looked like this:

Fun fun :-P

Spot the bike! Yes, we definitely felt the insignificance of our existence in this vast and hostile landscape.

Ooh! Slush, and well rounded pebbles and ice-cold water and snow all on what part we would call the road!

And all around us! As our fingers froze, we were hoping to get out of here soon. But ChangLa, the highest point was still far away… our climb had just begun!

Somewhere beyond the horizon lay the highest point for crossing over to the other side!

Sun had turned fluffy snow to icicles in some places. They glittered as we rode past.

After a lot of riding… we were here! Spent a few minutes to have the hot green tea served by Indian Army to all travelers and rode out to avoid any chances of AMS.

Ah! Perfect time to realize… we had climbed ChangLa, but that also meant we had to climb _down_ the other side, snow wasn't going to leave our side any time soon!

So much snow, so little road!

Yes, this was the adventure we had signed up for ;-) Testing out physical and mental limits. My gloves were cold and slightly wet, but my spirits were on fire… looking for more things to photograph.

The frame showed hope… I could see the road climbing below the snow line somewhere ahead!

Finally, some warmth! (and whole lot of riding around rims of mountains)

Also said hello and thanks to the friendly guys who paint all the useful and some cheesy boards by the roadside.

We were climbing down further… Leh had to be close by.

Try spotting the bike in this frame ;-)

And we rode on. (yes, I managed to catch up these guys after taking the previous photo from other side of valley ;-)

The freezing snow was only to be seen in the rear view mirror!

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Ride: Chang Thang to Tangtse

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:27:27 -0800

Endless roads greeted us everywhere! It was as if this journey was never meant to end. For as long as eyes could see, there was still a little bit more left to go.

Ride On!

We criss-crossed across the valley and over the river. And every time we crossed over a bridge, we slowed down a little to enjoy the greenery… a color that was missing in the landscapes around us.

Civilization! Seeing houses and fields was another delight! That and twisties on the road :-D

Curious kids. (Photo by Sumedh/Yogesh… kaun tha batao!)

Picture perfect landscapes everywhere! This is truly the land of "point and shoot"!

As the river slowly makes its way through the valley in a serpentine curved fashion, the road keeps a poker face and passes straight alongside ;-)

The meandering river. One could sit here and spend hours just absorbing the sight.

Almost like glass, the water reflecting mountains behind.

Horses grazing by the side, from a tourists perspective, this is perfect life.

From the other side.

Somebody's cute pony :-D

Need for Feed!

Some more horses grazing about the river bed.

Now this is something you don't expect in the middle of the road, but 'round here, it is a necessity. Special crossings made for rubble and snow to pass through without ripping off tarmac. Here, nature is respected and treated higher than humans, there isn't much choice anyway!

Making our way through a small pass. Notice those painted rocks lining the side? I was wondering who had done this…

Got to see them working hard. Absolute backbreaking task! Yelled "Julley!" to all, got awesome chorus as response! Lovely people :-D

More civilization! And at some distance, a reminder that all this warm and fuzzy feeling was soon to disappear!

Approaching the police check post at Tangtse (seen just above the yellow board in center)

This is where we have to check-in and check-out with permits taken at Leh.

Shrenik walks back pissed at something… probably was asked for more documents ;-)

Sumedh and Yogesh look on as Shrenik fills air in his bike's rear wheel. It was losing pressure every few hours and our concern was crossing Chang La without having to pump that thin high altitude air into the tyre… because that would certainly take all air out of us in the process!

Tourists cars going towards Pangong Tso. They had just crossed Chang La, and some of them were unwilling to let go of their shawls and jackets and car's protection… stay put inside while staring at the four crazy guys preparing to head into snow clad mountains on motorcycles.

Ahh… that sight of distant snow again! We had completed nearly two thirds of the journey. That treacherous one third still waiting for us…

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Ride: Pangong Tso to Chang Thang

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:15:00 -0800

Plenty of guest houses near the beginning of Pangong Tso.

We had barely slept few hours, thankfully the guesthouse we stayed in was warm enough.

Staying in tent would had frozen us overnight!

Morning was rather pleasant with the sun greeting us with abundant warmth, and breakfast of hot Maggi and omlette with kurkuré on top :-D

We lazily packed up and were ready to go.

An obligatory shot with motorcycle and the lake :-D

Bid goodbye to Pangong Tso, parting from such beauty usually brings thoughts like "Will I ever get to be here again?", "How would I ever forget?"… we had barely been here for a day, yet I was in love with the surroundings; however hostile they may be.

Shrenik and Sumedh rode up to me to check what I was doing alone. My trance was broken, but I started the journey back with a smile. This probably was the farthest I had ever been from home… and by all means, I wanted to ride back home on my motorcycle all the way.

I kept singing in my helmet, such lovely sights! Even the barren mountains had an allure to them.

Ensuring we went and returned safely, big BRO was always with us. Border Roads Organization does a great job of maintaining roads in conditions you wouldn't want to be stuck in. These signboards are also a great morale boost when you start feeling lonely on the road and warning signs when you are over enthusiastic. Lots of wit and humor is sprinkled across the highways. We noticed some signboards like "Be gentle on my curves" when climbing mountains and "This is a highway, not a runway" when riding through flat valleys.

Of course, what people imagine when told about Ladakh are mud tracks like this, you do ride over them every once in a while, but most are good asphalt roads now. The changes in road type was most welcome by us, we were getting to off-road a bit, then cruise a little, then hug the curves on mountains a little!

Pagal Nala once again, this used to be a major water crossing, one that needed perfect timing to escape snow melt. Now we just ride over it.

Riding in the hills beside the sands.

Of course, it wasn't all nice, the road was covered with gravel, sand and pieces of rock; we could not lose focus for even a moment.

And when that wasn't enough, the road wound down into the valley and into the white sands!

Finally we were seeing signs of life, a few dried shrubs.

GREEN!

The lake again… there was some grass around here. Rode ahead remembering there were lush grazing grounds somewhere just behind another mountain…

And soon enough were were here! As the river gently meandered through the valley, it created this fertile pasture.

I stopped for a while. By now Shrenik, Sumedh and Yogesh had gone ahead as I was stopping at too many places for photographing. All the stops were worth it :-)

Spotted a herd of horses grazing away happily. The warmth was lovely after a chilling night. Seeing live animals was heartwarming too! Riding around here made me think a lot about the people I care for, because there's absolutely nobody here to distract you. There's no escaping your thoughts.

As I stood there, alone, soaking up the warmth… I gazed to the top of a mountain.

Snow.

Cold snow.

SHIT! I still had to catch up with buddies and we were to cross over via Chang La. We were headed straight into the coldest patch of this ride…

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Experience: Exploring Pangong Tso - part 2

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:24:36 -0800

As we took this turn, we were surprised to see that the sun was still brightly shining on this part… the taller mountains were far away and Sun's angle was enough to still shine through!

The lake kept dazzling us with its colors all the while.

And so we came back to the gulls…

And they welcomed us with such warmth!

It was almost overwhelming…

Then they flew away…

We noticed signs of life in the water… of human life… remains of signs of human life. It was sad.

Apart from this, the water was crystal clear.

A beautiful sight indeed!

Another shrub! This one too lifeless…

More gulls enjoyed the last sun rays

I enjoyed shooting the birds as they aren't very afraid, so I could get close enough.

As the sun went down, they gathered in what seemed like a parade position, all facing the same direction… into the wind!

Wind was so strong, that if any of them turned, their feathers would get messed up! That explained their parade.

We had asked for some food to be cooked, all they had was the famous Maggi instant noodles. I let the birds be and went into the tent when the gang called out that food was ready.

Enjoyed a steaming hot meal in the cold winds.

I couldn't believe that the tent was strong enough to last another minute in the kind of winds that we were seeing. But it stayed put!

Shadows in this part too finally started crawling up the opposite mountains, we knew the extended time was up finally.

Booked a guest house instead of a tent because everyone was fully exhausted and nobody wanted to risk sleeping in the wind, and possible rain (we remembered the ride from Drass to Kargil and curbed the enthusiasm to try the tents)

The Sun made it's last appearance in the pictures for the day.

Night was beautiful! Clear, unpolluted, filled with uncountable stars! There were so many stars, the moonless sky still lit up against the black mountains!

Just a slice of the ski had so many stars! And two meteors shot past the sky during this photo… see if you can spot them ;-)

We slept in peace. And woke up refreshed the next day.

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Experience: Exploring Pangong Tso - part 1

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:40:48 -0800

We were finally here! Pangong Tso, a peculiar lake where water flows in but does not flow out… only way the water leaves the lake is by evaporation… leaving the lake salty. Technically this is known as Endorheic basin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangong_Tso

Pangong Tso is on the actual line of control between India and China. So security is tight and one can see Military security around the area. Now though I didn't photograph the people, I did manage this ;-)

We stopped by at the shop run by army and bought ourselves some "kurkure". That's Sumedh on left and Shrenik on right.

Sumedh, for some reason likes to keep his helmet on all the time. We wonder why!

We spotted a few dogs walking around the area, I called out, one responded and came running towards us.

The dog was a pretty cute one, floppy ears and all… it was fun playing with him, finding a friend thousands of kilometers away from home :-)

And we rode onwards to the legendary Pangong Tso lake, a moment we had all been waiting for… to stand by its waters and gaze into the mesmerizing blue depths.

We had company, of brown headed gulls floating and flying around us.

Pretty but very noisy birds!

There's NO vegetation around this lake. It's so barren, but surprisingly beautiful that you aren't sure how to feel about it.

Closest to vegetation came a single lump of dried grass at one corner.

There aren't any fish in the lake either — or so we were told. But there are these brown headed gulls… merrily bobbing up and down with the gentle waves.

We had only a few hours to explore, soon the sun was behind the tall mountains and shadows started growing at exponential speeds. The strong winds were now growing painfully cold.

And despite the winds nearly knocking us off our feet, the water on Pangong Tso seemed pretty calm.

We rode a bit ahead, but missed a turn and realized that our average speed on the gravel path by lake's side was not going to get us where we were headed before dark…

So we turned back and went back to the beginning of the lake, where we knew we had access to tents/ guest houses and food.

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Chang Thang to Pangong Tso

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:20:20 -0700

We were riding from Leh to Pangong Tso, had just crossed Chang La and climbed down into the Chang Thang plateau. This place is among the worst places to live, harsh summers, storms and freezing colds. It is a cold desert. Something we're not used to seeing. Very barren, the green pastures were over.

I was photographing just about everything… the horses were pretty shy of lens.(shot this with left hand, while riding the bike)… I had become quite good with shooting with my dSLR with left hand… including using the zoom! Empty roads meant I could take a little risk. However, quick note: I've been riding two wheels since before I learned how to add 2+2… don't try this. You can kill yourself with one mistake. Anyway, back to the shy horse ;-)

The road was mostly very good, with patches of concrete gutters cutting across the road… marking glacial paths.

We thoroughly enjoyed the twisties and curves on the road along the valley

A lake in the middle of the cold desert…

White sands lured me into stopping and making more photos. What lovely sights!

Looked ahead… the desert was disappearing into rocky terrain…

Eagerly Shrenik, Sumedh, Yogesh and I rode into the unknown… "उस पहाड के पीछे"

Winds started blowing as evening made its presence felt. Ghosts of travelers came to life, riding as sand on the winds and guiding our wheels along the roads. Was a mesmerizing sight and feeling. Each of us felt as if the sand was alive! I guess staying out of our comfort zones this long was getting to us now ;-)

Road was no more than a thin strip of tar still spared by advancing sands

We lost the sands to altitude in a while. Riding became easier.

The concrete gutters weren't gone though… some had water flowing over them

Soon we were at the notorious "Paagal Naala", a difficult water crossing… and to our disappointment and surprise, there was a bridge over it!

The crossing that defined this journey was no more a challenge.

A glimpse of Pangong Tso!

More could be seen… the blue water was enchanting even from this distance! Another kilometer to go…

Down the winding road

I had fallen back to photograph the bikes on this road, winds were getting stronger and colder. Felt too much dust in air so looked back and saw a huge cloud of dust approaching!

Quickly packed the camera and accelerated down the curves till I finally saw the guys waiting for me half a kilometer ahead.

Rode together for another minute, and we were treated to the most beautiful sight we had seen in a while…

We had arrived!

Chang La and Chang Thang were conquered! We had a few hours to explore Pangong Tso :-)

(continued…)

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Ride: Leh to ChangLa and beyond…

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:58:36 -0700

So everyone had had their rest for the night and we were ready to head out of Leh.

A few kilometers out of Leh we were greeted by a signboard that said ChangLa was 43km away and PangongTso was 113km

The climb to ChangLa was very gradual. Long straight tar roads with abrupt hairpin turns at their end.

I had been shooting with my mobile till now, took out the dSLR and found an interesting plant to begin the day's shoot. It had flowers with deep violet sepals and purple petals.

We had stopped for a break at one turn… was fun to see signs from both sides at the same time. Notice the gravel on the roads… understeer one turn, panic break and you'll be flying off the edge in no time :-P

Even though the sun was shining brightly, cold winds from the mountains warned us early of what was to come. We prepared by wearing balaclava / scarves over our faces. The cold wind can quickly sap the moisture out and leave skin dry and cracked. (From left: Sumedh, Shrenik, Yogesh)

A little ahead, we were riding in snow.All of us first thought we had reached ChangLa from all the time that we were riding. But realized that this place wasn't dangerous enough to be world's third highest pass!

Looking at the other side we could see how the road gradually came from a dry hill into snow, raising us up above the mean sea level every kilometer we rode.

Here's a closer view of one interesting climb…

Of course, the adventure was yet to begin! It's when you see carcasses of unsuccessful animals… or vehicles, that you know you're in the place where you want to be!

Braving the slippery strip of mud that we'll call "road" for now, we reached ChangLa in one piece. We were carrying lot less luggage today, more than half was at the guesthouse back in Leh.

Spotted a bunch of dogs. Such furry and cute creatures!

On our way down, I stopped to check temperature. It was two below zero. Yes, -2°C, that too in a part that I felt comfortable enough to stop and check. Was certainly colder on top. The cold air had made icicles on my bike's mudguard!

Met up with a group of soldiers at their camp. They were most friendly! Told us how some of them have been posted here since one and half years and are counting last six months before they return home. We made a small gesture to help their homesickness… shared the mithai/sweets Shrenik's parents had made at home and given to us. It changed the mood of the discussion and the rapport we had with them. For us and them, away from families and friends, it was as if we found long lost friends once again!

We were in for a surprise as we pushed on… a beautiful valley lay ahead

Crazy curves!

The valley kept getting beautiful!

We could see a few dots at a distance in pastures… getting closer revealed some wild horses. For scale of the mountain and rocks, look at the bikers on the road ;-)

Finally! A beautiful, serene… perfect frame of wild Ladakh!

I'll stop the post here and continue rest of the journey in another post…

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Shey Palace and Thiksay Monastery

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:13:21 -0700

In evening, Sumedh and I went out to see Shey palace and Thiksay monastery. Though we were a tad bit late to visit the monastery, we did get to photograph the palace. Here it is…

Entrance to the main door, which was locked.

Hand plastered walls

Steps

Here’s one of my favorite photos, a three frame HDR of prayer wheels at the palace and surroundings.

Another fav is an HDR that I shot against the light:

Here’s the temple (on right)

And some chortens by the side, lit beautifully by evening sun.

On our way back, we stumbled upon these two gentlemen who were carrying manuscripts of religious texts that they said were hundreds of years old.

From Shey palace, we headed on to Thiksay monastery, it had closed for the day.

However, we managed to get in for a while and look around…

This art was decorating the main entrance

After the amazing visual treat, we returned to the guest house again and spent some time relaxing.

Yes, that’s (little over half of) our luggage ;-)

Later that night, guess what we had…

Thukpa soup

And momos!

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Shanti stupa

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:09:54 -0700

Feeling a bit lazy after the grueling ride that we had been through, we decided to visit the closest place - Shanti Stupa first.

Another idea was to take only two motorcycles now, I was sitting pillion behind Shrenik so that I could do more “drive-by shooting” ;-)

It helped a bit, as we saw some interesting sights on the way. A beautiful hotel…

And some nice Royal Enfield Bullets parked outside another hotel

We were welcomed to the hill on which Shanti Stupa is situated

A short climb afterwards, we were there. Colorful prayer flags were fluttering in the wind

As flames calmly kept burning, protected from the wind

Artisans and laborers were busy building up and beautifying premises of the Stupa

The Shanti Stupa

Man and God, creating beauty together…

Ladakhi people

Leh city as seen from the Stupa

Leh Palace, from behind

After this, we had lunch, again the same thukpa soup and momos… and came back to the guest house for rest.

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Morning at Leh

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:58:00 -0700

We had requested the guesthouse owner for a Ladakhi breakfast upon checking in yesterday evening. Our lazy morning was highlighted by special Ladakhi bread and omlette.

One thing to note: we drank warm water everywhere. Cold water was a big no-no since ambient temperatures were not more than 10-15°C in the day… back at home, those temperatures are extreme winter!

While we sat there, this man introduced himself and showed us his mug, a souvenir from KhardungLa, world’s highest motorable road.

And while I had started missing my two cats, I found one at the guesthouse!

Next three photos were clicked by Shrenik… shows clearly how our beards had grown since the day we started off from Puné, all clean shaven.

Here is Shrenik, checking up on his bike.

While the guest house owner’s family had a snack with people building their new rooms.

A cute kid…

After lounging around, we decided to head out and look around the city.

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Ride: Khaltse to Leh

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:40:00 -0700

Time to get some wind in our helmets!

Took a merry long time to pack up as it was sunny and we had a short distance to cover. Finally, we were on our way…

And munched on some yummy twisties!

As we approached towns and villages, the barren land suddenly turned green.

We were greeted by enthusiastic kids giving us side fives ;-)

This sight made me stop.

A rose bush twice my height and in full bloom.

Hundreds, no thousands of five-petal roses!

And we were back on the road again… crossing creaking metal-wood bridges shared by fully loaded trucks.

And at times unable to believe roads so good could ever exist!

Of course, with the sun now out… we had to be careful not to go any darker!

Unbelievable roads through equally unbelievably beautiful scenery

What seemed like middle of a rocky desert was much closer to being chilled…

And an obligatory people + nature shoot.

The roads less travelled, so less that **run! There’s half a dozen girls cycling hurtling down the road at breakneck speeds!**

I was shooting a panorama then, hence missed photographing them.

And then after long twisting roads… we saw a stretch of really good tarmac. Of course, we ripped. A good 100+ kmph.

And like all good things, the beautiful highway turned into just about tolerable road. (Hey, another traveler!)

And it kept getting worse…

Until there were no roads at all!

So I started photographing the architecture instead of the highway ;-) Beautiful houses everywhere. Even the smallest ones are crafted with love for art and beauty.

As Leh came closer and our hands wanted to twist the throttle a little bit more… Border Roads Organization surprised us with this!

On the way we saw the mighty Indus river, mellowed down by summer.

And the first live yak!

Checked into a nice guest house called “Zik zik”

Within minutes, we made a mess out of the neatly kept place!

Rest of the day was spent lazying around the guest house, walking around the city and just chilling in general.

And finally… finally, we ordered a mutton Thukpa!

(Funny tho, we were told they have bigger noodles, but wherever we ate this same dish, the noodles seemed just the usual “hakka noodles” we get here) hmm… anyway, I enjoyed Ladakhi food thoroughly! There were many more times we’d eat just the thukpa soup and momos ;-)

We were finally here! The dream of visiting Leh on motorcycles was complete! (Almost, of course!)

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Experience: Stay at Khaltse

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:21:14 -0700

The travel from Kargil onwards had turned into a great ride with sunshine warming our hearts and minds. After being nearly frozen while riding from Dass to Kargil, the sun was welcome more than ever! We had reached Khaltse, a small town at well beyond sleeping time. Luckily we found a small restaurant open, asked for a guest house and found one nearby… the owners were awake too! First thing, we settled in then had dal-rice and eggs.

We inquired if thukpa soup was available, sadly it wasn’t at that time. It had to wait another day.

After arranging bed and dinner, everyone was looking forward to offloading the processed food we were carrying inside ourselves! Uh… yes, that part was still to be finished. Shrenik was the first one to get the culture shock ;-) He was in a hurry, nearly ran out and in moments, ran back to the room with a worried look he declared “I can’t do this!”

Apparently, the local toilets are pretty uninviting. A fact we were all to find out and come to terms with. Anyway, a separate post on that is already drafted… ;-)

So the sun rose again next morning, so did we rise and shine. Met the house owner’s kids, a very friendly bunch. One of them is a Lama. We played a bit, chatted for a while…

In some time they were all over our stuff!

(Yes, that’s Yogesh trying to wear a kid’s tiny cap…)

We were joined by their grandmother who asked if we wanted to buy dried apricots. She gave us a handful of the tasty fruits each… of course we were buying a whole kilogram each! Don’t ask how we managed to add another four kilograms on our already overloaded motorcycles.

And a pic of the kids…

Mommy and her doll…

After the shoot, we were invited for a chai with the family. Spent a good half an hour talking about each other’s cultures and how the Ladakhi people make a living when none of them have “jobs” as such. It’s us… the tourists and travelers who bring in the money. The dry fruits are a major trade for this family. Saw the men were busy making wooden windows and door frames for extension of their house. Women and young children farming along side the husbands and fathers. What a hardworking people!

I have much respect for them… especially because wherever we went in Ladakh, we saw women taking care of business and money while men were sweating it out in workshops and farms. Kudos! You got that figured out pretty good!

We were to leave soon, Leh was just under a hundred kilometers away!

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Kargil to Khaltse

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:58:52 -0700

So, we reached Kargil all drenched and cold… shivering, were kept waiting hours for dinner, and what do we see on waking up? A BRIGHT morning! Yes! This was exactly what we needed to gather the morale that was lying slightly scattered and ride out.

What did we do instead? Who would have guessed!

Then we went shopping for gum boots and rubber gloves. Because last night’s experience with leather gloves chilling the life out of our hands was enough thrill.

Soon we packed up and were ready to roll. Our regular shoes, still wet needed drying. Sleeping bags provided the right spot…

Soon enough we started seeing signs of a different culture. Kashmir is predominantly Muslim, Ladakh is mostly Buddhist. We knew we had entered the “Land of Buddha” when monasteries perched on mountain tops started making appearances.

Road conditions varied from “awesome road!” to “road? where?” all the way. However one thing stayed constant: the beautiful scenery. Lush green mountainsides gave way to barren landscapes that somehow retained the enchanting qualities.

Scores of “Chorten”s, memorials and temples dotted the roadside.

We rode on… the sky was looking good so far.

And the wheels kept turning…

Until…

After that quick reminder of what the weather here is capable of, we did a reality check:

Not too cold, so we stopped by for a less rushed shoot.

Weathered down by years of sun, snow and rain… the rocky peaks now resembled dunes.

However not all were about to give up…

Snow on the mountain tops resembled sugar topping ;-)

There really isn’t much to talk about this part of the journey other than this: the villages were really pretty… and clean. Cleaner and well laid out than what we saw in Kashmir.

Of course, this was an exception: ruins of a town/fort so high up, just “going home” would be an expedition of sorts!

While I was riding around on my own mobile fort.

The above photo was at Boddhkharbu, we rode on to FotuLa after that. The sun was about to set and it did sink in as we reached the highest point of the pass.

Following photo has be “artificially” brightened up to show details, it was very dark by now:

Climbing down the pass was quite an adventure. It soon became so dark that we could see nothing more than what our headlights showed. No moon, not a village in sight. It was pitch dark with only twinkling stars hanging in sky.

Now we were advised on not riding at night in Kashmir area for threat from militants. Nobody told us that Ladakh did not need militants to scare night riders… the terrain was enough! We’d ride a few hundred meters on a nearly straight road, and then the road would vanish! Peering through the darkness, I could then see it was sharply turning to right, while climbing down a few meters at the same time. Next turn would be left. Then right. And just to surprise me when I expected next one to be left, road would wind around a big rock and take another right turn.

Yogesh was riding Bajaj XCD around here, now he’s been riding bikes in city and this journey was among his first ones outside city, on harsh roads, in pitch dark. He had nearly slipped twice when I braked hard and he couldn’t stop in time… panic braked and skid over gravel. Yogesh was maintaining a little too much distance. I was leading the group, Shrenik was on the sweep with Sumedh as pillion and Yogesh was in the middle. Our average speed was not more than 15 kilometers per hour!

I was getting frustrated as I knew I could easily ride above 30kmph… fatigue was setting in and yet poor ol’ Yogesh, scared of rear-ending my bike was so far behind, I had no choice but to ride very slow.

Finally, I asked him to let Sumedh ride, and immediately our speed jumped to 25kmph!

Lesson learned: do not ride in dark with people who have less riding experience. It is intimidating for them and frustrating for you. Also, if you are the one less experienced, let someone else ride if that’s a choice.

I hold no hard feelings against anyone… we were all learning on our way and we made it a point to use the knowledge gained to make rest of our journey better. We (jokingly) banned Yogesh from riding in dark. He (seriously) felt bad, but agreed. But in the long run, it was good for all of us. So, thanks Yogesh!

We finally reached Kaltse by 10:30ish, had dinner at a dhaba and found a cozy guesthouse to spend the night.

Sumedh, Yogesh and Shrenik urged me to continue night photography… I was tired and reluctant. So Shrenik brought my camera and pushed me on. Made at least one interesting shot ;-)

That was it for the day!

Oh BTW, Yogesh got married on three days back… he claims he may never be able to ride so far again. I think he’s going to go places much more interesting with his new pillion ;-) Wishing Yogesh and Sarita great time together!

Note: Khaltse is also spelled as Khalsi, Khalsti and Khalse. Pronounced as Khall-see.

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Ride: Drass to Kargil + Experience: Kargil

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:56:26 -0700

NOTE: I lost the memory card from my camera that contained all photographs from Drass to Kargil. All photographs used here are from Yogesh’s phone–camera. Thanks Yogesh!

So you know already we had planned on visiting Ladakh and Kashmir in summer… and we were here, in summer. So what one expects in summer is warm climate, right? We almost got soaked in rain yesterday… which we thought was freak weather. Oh boy, we were so wrong!

Drass had decided to force me into changing my threshold of “freak”. By a factor I had never imagined.

We woke up to snowfall.

I woke up with a “WTF” of epic proportions! It couldn’t possibly snow at this time of the year! We asked if it was normal, the hotel owner was in similar state of confusion. It never snows during these months, he said.

Global Weirding of climate is very real. From a very wide POV, it is “global warming”, however for smaller weather systems, the effects are chaotic… hence my preferred term “global weirding”. Back at home, we had nearly insane monsoons after over a decade in what is now declared a drought prone area. In Kashmir, and especially Drass, everyone we talked to insisted that the snowfall is odd. Indeed, we have screwed with the only planet we have to live. Someday it will be time for payback.

Vehicles arriving from ZojiLa were covered in the cold white powder that magically turned to water the instant you touched it. I wondered it Schrödinger’s cat was made of ice. Nevermind.

There was snow slowly gathering on the ground and snow creeping down from the roof.

Tourists were arriving frozen out of their wits. It was a funny sight to see women in summer attire walk out in snow, completely baffled and shivering while men were too confused and frozen to do anything worthwhile — they just wandered about aimlessly.

Only exception were the local men and women, they all were walking with a purpose… fast, long strides on a slippery road that would make me walk like a japanese woman wearing restrictive kimono. Ok, clear that imagination out of your head.

We gave up hopes to ride this day. “Maybe tomorrow.” Was the best we could come up with. It snowed even more. Transforming the landscape into something entirely different. This was the first snowfall I had experienced in person. Wow!

It was almost noon by now, and we wondered when it would stop snowing. Nobody was ready to give even a hint. “You never know, it could clear up in an hour or go on for a week.”

Soon enough the news came in: ZojiLa was declared closed. All vehicles were being turned back.

The hotel owner, feeling slightly greedy, thanks to hordes of tourists pouring in decided that if we wanted to stay for another day, the rates would be doubled, else we had to vacate at 12. Awesome! We finally took the decision that we were wanting to make, but were hesitating due to availability of comfort. Ride on. Into the snow.

Our bikes were dressed for the occasion…

10-15 kicks later, my “Bagheera” came to life, roared a bit and settled for a nice purr. Such a soothing sound! Only a real cat can outdo this beast. Which reminded me of my pets back at home, slight homesickness followed. Made a phone call, chatted with Mom, told her we were going to ride in snow, on slippery roads and unknown territory. She was excited, told me to take lots of photos (I did, and eventually lost the same damn SD card.) It definitely helps when your family is supportive of your adventures!

NOTE: there are not photographs of the trip from Drass to Kargil. You will have to make do with my words and your imagination!

Anyway… we spent some time to pack and load the bikes, and rode out into the snow. Within five kilometers, our hands were cold. The riding gloves that we bought were hardly any match for snow. We pushed each other to continue riding and not give up just yet. Kargil was barely 60km away. My head calculated “60 km = 60 minutes” for plains and “60 km = 120 minutes” for mountains according to what I had learned so far. We expected to be in Kargil for evening tea.

We covered 20km in snow… on a road that was slippery on the plain surface left between large potholes. Whatever romantic ideas I had of riding in snow were destroyed here. Crushed into infinitesimal particles. It was so dark that I wondered if it was evening already! I removed my gloves to check, and what we feared was happening… hands were turning bluish. Very wet and very cold is definitely a bad idea. Fortunately, we had bought gum-boots in Drass the previous night, so feet were in a better condition than hands. Moreover, they had _some_ radiating heat next to the engine. Hands, on the other… hand, were out in cold, the first parts of our bodies to reach out, into the cold unknown territory.

Shrenik obviously panicked (yes you did!) and wanted to either turn back or find a place to stay immediately. We agreed and started looking for any settlement. Another 10km later, we made our way into a small town, greeted a bunch of locals waiting for a bus and asked if there was any hotel or a guest house. None. “This is a very small town, tourists don’t stop here.”

We stopped near a house and asked if there was place to stay. They hesitated to say yes. We changed the request: place to sit and warm our hands for half an hour as we were freezing. They very kindly let us in, welcomed as if we had known each other for many years. Made us sit right in front of their stove and offered us salted tea, a peculiar beverage in Kashmir. Brought out some food and almost forced us to eat while we insisted on being happy with the chai!

It was a pretty house, well kept… a family of five. The man is an English and Urdu teacher in village school. His wife, a daughter and two sons. Everyone joined in the conversation. We talked about our land and customs, they educated us about theirs. If I wasn’t all frozen, I would had recorded it all.

We talked for a while, and realized after a good chat that we had been sitting for over an hour. Thanked the family, took a group photo (which too was lost BTW) and dressed up for the remaining ride. We were quite warm by now, but our jackets and shoes were still cold. And to make matters worse, my jacket was fully drenched from inside. How does a 100% waterproof jacket get so wet from inside, when properly zipped up is something that I am yet to ask the owner of Pro-Biker in Pune. Let’s see if he has an explanation for that and the knee guard that keeps losing screws. And the glove that tore itself while I was wearing it.

Mr. Abbas Ali, the man who helped us out assured us there wouldn’t be snow ahead, only cold rain. He insisted we stay over at his friend’s place instead of continuing. On our way out he also showed us why they hesitated in letting us stay: ceiling was leaking in all rooms of their house and only the kitchen was still dry. They were gracious to let us in and showered so much hospitality on us! We had made up our mind by now, ride on.

It was nearly 5pm when we left their place. Kargil was another 30 km.

We reached in Kargil at 9pm. I was FULLY wet, from neck to toe. Helmet saved the head. But I was very cold and shivering. Yogesh and Shrenik headed out to look for hotels while me and Sumedh waited at a crossroad. Rates were exhorbitant compared to everywhere else. Oh, and they were lacking essential services like hot water and room heater too. So we went looking for a guesthouse that would at least not rip us off while giving similar (lack of) services. Realized the guest house people were charging on par with hotel guys. Hmm… what to do?

So after some debate, we decided to take two rooms at a hotel for four of us, and order some hot food. In the meanwhile, me and Sumedh had ordered three hot mutton soups at a roadside stall. He was just sitting under an umbrella with a big can and some bowls. It was definitely tasty and good for my shivering, but the goodness factor wore off the minute we asked how much we were expected to pay. For a small bowl of soup from a roadside stall, where you don’t even have a place to sit, you would expect somewhere like 20-30 INR. A total for three people whould be well under 100 INR. This bugger claimed that each mutton ball was 30 bucks and he had served us 4 each in advance. We were shocked and angry. He was asking for some 350 INR!

We fought him off, but since the soup had helped too… we agreed among ourselves to give him 200. He must have had a smug laugh at the hopeless idiot tourists later. I wondered how could such a cheat survive in a big tourist place like Kargil.

We checked into a hotel, again… no consideration for lowering rates (which everyone else, everywhere else did) and to top it, there were barely any amenities. I took out my clothes to see clothes still wet (from Sonamarg) shoved on top of my dry clothes… everything was cold and wet. I took Yogesh’s jacket which was dry and Shrenik’s spare shorts and got under the “rajai”. It was colder than me! Shivering returned and stayed for half an hour. We ordered the quickest food: four plates of maggi “2 minute” noodles.

Half an hour later, we reminded them that it was 10pm, we were hungry and waiting for the food.

Shrenik and Yogesh went down to make a call home, but all PCOs were closed, landlines were not working so the hotel manager gave them his mobile phone to send SMS.

I asked them to tell my mother that “I have reached Kargil safely, feeling cold so sleeping, will contact later.” On phone. Shrenik sent something on the lines of “We are at Kargil, call as soon as you see this” from the fellow’s phone. First rule of communication: do NOT create panic especially when there is no need. Anyway, mom called and the manager sent his phone to our room so we could talk.

An hour later another reminder for food.

One and half hour later, I went down to see what the problem was. The hotel manager replied with the same thing he was saying… “Don’t worry, it will be there in just five minutes.”

I did raise my voice a little because we were desperately hungry and waiting since one and half hour for a damned bowl of maggi! We had not had any lunch, only half a roti and chai in between and a small bowl of soup in Kargil, but it was not enough to compensate what we had been through. The manager, definitely drunk yelled at us and threatened to throw us out of the hotel… even wondered out loud if we were terrorists and if we had misused his phone… threatened to call the police. I backed off and explained that I was not angry… I was desperate for some food, something I had asked for 90 minutes ago. Something that takes 5 minutes to make and serve. His buddies/colleagues took him aside and sent us back to our rooms.

Another 45 minutes later, food arrived.

While we were eating the manager came in and apologized, I accepted his apologies because we did not want any further issues till morning.

Next day, we bought rubber gloves and some dried apricots. While shopping, we also realized everything was overpriced… you had to bargain, and begin bargain at one third of the quoted price to come close to realistic number.

I had not seen any city till now where so many rude and greedy citizens. I hate to generalize, but whoever I met in Kargil contributed to the impression that makes me say this: never give any business to this city. Skip it, stay at Drass or Khaltse/Khalsi instead. Less chances of you getting fleeced and even if they do, at least they are polite and helpful after they pocket your money.

That’s all for now! Thanks for bearing with the “word-heavy” post ;-)

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Ride: Nilagrath to Drass

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:54:04 -0700

We slept late last night, Sonamarg and Nilagrath have much to enjoy and see… only if you slow down, take a walk and enjoy the peace and quiet. From a car or bike, it is nothing more than a blur on the way ahead. We were glad we were stopped by the guards from going on to ZojiLa yesterday. We woke up early, to be greeted by a beautiful sight:

People were on their way to places…

Breakfast was a cuppa chai and some biscuits…

Of course, it took us quite some time to pack up and load the bikes. Weather had decided to play dodge with us by the time… uh oh!

That sight we saw was more than terrifying. It meant that we should expect severe rain or snow high up in ZojiLa. Absolutely not a good sign. Some people warned us against going ahead in such weather. You can’t challenge locals, or military personnel who have spent a lot more time facing the dangers. We stayed put till noon.

Yes, we were getting bored but more than that we were anxious to pass through. Another day wasted would mean trouble for further plans. I decided to talk to the gate guard instead of soldiers and shopkeepers. He was surprised we were still here. Get out of here if you want to cross over. NOW!

“If you wait, be prepared to wait for another two or three days. Maybe… just maybe it may clear up tomorrow, but if it snows, abandon all hopes! You have a lot of trucks going in the same direction as you… they will help if you have trouble. Right now, just leave.”

I ran back to the room. Within minutes we were on our way.

Just as we were climbing a steep turn, my bike’s engine died. No amount of kicking was working. The neutral indicator light was not working. Nor was the brake light or indicators. I feared the worst… battery had given up its ghost. But trusting God, knowing I wouldn’t be left without hope, I turned off ignition and disconnected all visible wires to check for a short circuit. Checked the fuse. It was blown. Good! Battery must have been saved.

Put in a spare fuse, it blew as soon as I turned on the ignition. Ah ha! A short circuit. Wait… had I not pulled out all the wires before? Shit! Unplugged the phone charger right near the battery. Put in the last spare fuse. Turned on ignition. *poof* … profanity followed.

Sumedh suggested I unplug the horns. I thought I had done so already. Still looked again and found one wire — detached from the plug but sticking to the exhaust pipe… the insulation had melted away, bare copper sticking out. BINGO!

Asked Yogesh and Shrenik to dig out insulation tape from the toolkit and proceeded to plug in all the other wires, fixed the insulation on the horn and realized I had moved it downward just while leaving from Nilagrath, so the wire was touching the exhaust pipe all this while — this was my own doing. It was fine till we were riding more or less easy road. As soon as we got on the steep roads, engine heated up, melting the insulation and shorting the whole circuit.

Kept all the tools back, breathed a massive sigh of relief and rode onwards. Within minutes, we were going to experience the most dangerous road we had ridden so far…

My first reaction was not of fear or terror… but a very respectful intimidation. Mother Nature was in a foul mood, we were cold and starting to get wet from the constant drizzle. Visibility was fine if we kept our speeds less than 20kmph, it was dark… much darker than the photos show. (I need that incident light meter next time!)

More than the rains and darkness, what terrorized us more was lack of any… I mean *any* sort of protection on the edges. It wasn’t like the fall was insignificant. Perhaps only superheroes drove here. I remembered words of one soldier we had met a little while ago — “it is madness to ride a motorcycle here, in this weather”. Yes, indeed it was madness!

We had little or no room when oncoming traffic came through. The best option was to move close to the mountain and make way. In some parts there wasn’t enough room for even on whole vehicle. They drove partly on the landslide and partly on thin air. Well, that’s what it looked like! Well, maybe they all had magic carpets or something.

One lone man was walking along… with a shovel in his hand. Could be some serial killer from an urban legend. I dismissed it realizing there was no urban area anywhere close, so urban legends couldn’t exist here ;-) He was just a worker maintaining the road, or whatever was left of it. Removing stones that had fallen from above. Thanks to many people like him, the journey was more than adventure but less than suicidal.

On this road with no place to run or hide or even stop the vehicle for a break, we came upon a large space that was already taken by a group of truckers. Their engine had gone kaput and were waiting for next truck in their fleet to arrive to get some spares.

I love this photograph… these rough men look as if they’ve landed straight out of some hollywood “end of the world” movie ;-)

While we were climbing the “ghaat” (mountain road, in Marathi) all we saw was dangerous roads, intimidating mountains and dark ominous clouds. When we looked below, for the first time… the valley invited us to enjoy the beauty we had missed all along!

When we crossed the pass onto the other side, we were in for another surprise. Lots of heavy machines were busy making roads with cement interlocking blocks.

The man supervising work was delighted to talk, they had recently completed a 2 kilometer stretch a little ahead. However, he warned, we had a little rough part before the good road.

Yeah right. A little cross-the-freezing-water-flowing-over-round-rocks-that-are-rounder-than-basketballs kinda rough part.

Did I mention the walls of ice on both sides? Oh it feels just as cozy as sitting in a big freezer ;-)

Just how tall were these walls? Pretty tall in some places. Here’s one truck for scale…

Yes, that was the only way. Only one vehicle at a time. You stop just before the narrow lane begins and honk to see if anyone else is driving there already. If you get no reply, you’re free to go.

Photo by: Yogesh

After the walls of snow and ice receded, flowing roads greeted us.

After many long and testing minutes, that really felt like hours, we took a break.

Also spotted some birds I had not seen before.

And of course awe-inspiring scenery…

We rode on.

Through wet roads and wild curves.

Roads and rivers go hand-in-hand near the valleys. I had started loving scenes like this more and more. Oh and you have two dots of motorcycles for scale ;-)

Wild horses chomped on wild grass as we wildly rode by. *chuckle*

Yes, those were my thoughts and words while photographing this frame. Insane roads and insane beauty make you kind-of insane.

The drizzle was trying to turn into rain… we rode hard and managed to reach Drass by evening.

By the time we got into a hotel it was raining heavily. Clouds covered all mountains. Visibility was reducing drastically and we were glad to have stopped for the day.

Here, I spotted familiar little tweeters…

And an exotic beauty too ;-)

Shrenik was less than thrilled about the rain…

Yogesh and Sumedh had no business left.

And that’s how the day ended. We had many many cups of chai to keep us warm. Lots of non-veggie food (except Shrenik, who is strictly vegetarian). A few boiled eggs and mutton curry. Slept well and woke up to a different landscape.

Stay tuned. Next post won’t take this long!

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Wallpapers: ZojiLa and Sonamarg

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:53:00 -0700

Beautiful view of Sonamarg valley from ZojiLa.

River, Glacier and Highway while passing through Sonamarg.

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