Ladakh 2011: Day Four

Day Three was the day I fell in love, yet again! with the same old mystic! with the swerves and sways, and the signboards telling me that the cat has nine lives, but I have only one, so I better get a good grip on my bike's brakes.

However, day was not only about falling in love. It was about struggling like lovers. It was also about a lot of decision making, and understanding yet again that destiny does have a hand. We were thrown off our program, and schedules like flies on a wagon wheel.

One of our men got left behind riding slowly. We never realized that our man is so far behind that he would go off to sleep parking his bike under a tree. He had a troubled stomach. We did not see him around and about and naturally, got worried.

We rode back close to 22 Kilometers, to see magnificent scene: our man lying down under a tree with the bike parked around.

Now, they may have a heart of 350cc, but they come with their mood swings. His lady decided to choke her kickstart, and tangle her organs up - the auto-start motor got stuck with the engine gears, and jammed the kick. We looked at her, and she gave us nothing - not even a single clue. We decided to get dirty, and got her on to the surgeon's table. A surgeon guided by instinct and old love for the angry lady.

We opened up the hooks, and saw her insides. Like most complex cases, we chose surgery, and removed the autostart system altogether. The kick was free now but she wasn't the smoothly starting autostart anymore.

We gathered our spirits back, and rode to Srinagar. We reached here only late in the evening around 10 pm last night.

Well, this morning looks shiny, bright, and full of beautiful kashmiris. An old friend is here to greet us and help us in any manner we can. We are staying in a houseboat and calling it a day today. We will go shopping. We will visit the carpet factories. We will also visit the paper machet workshops. We will pick up stuff for our loved ones back home, and praying hard. We will indulge ourselves boating in the Shikara, and we will pray, send our salutes to the nature.


........................ it is evening, and we have done every little thing we planned. It is a great day today. We will move on again tomorrow morning.

Good night a.k.a. Shabba Khair!

Team Ladakh 2011
Houseboat, Srinagar, Meter: same old 900 kilometers

Ladakh 2011: Day Three

Ladies and Gentlemen!

An old rider once told me, "Son! it is not the first day and trust me lad! it is not the second either. It's the damn third one when you fall in love." and could he be more correct!!!!! All I wana do is share what is going on in my mind. Here goes a salute to the lands I am riding :

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream My shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again Sure as the dust that floats high and true, when movin through kashmir. Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when Im down... Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well Im down, so down Ooh, my baby, ooooh, my baby, let me take you there Let me take you there. let me take you there

We rode and the mountains roared in base voices. The wind kept us in meditative pose. I am so thrilled, and overwhelmed with the beauty that I cannot write much.

Let us just pray to the universe! Peace!

Team Ladakh 2011
Srinagar: 900 kilometer on the meter

Ladakh 2011: Day Two

Probably the best sleep in months!

Yes, the last line was my explanation to why we did not leave up early at 0800 as mentioned in the last post!

Well... that's called flexibility for a change.

The ride when I look back at the day, has not been so smooth as I had imagined it would be. It has been .. ummm.. yes... tough.... and .... adventurous.

We are done another couple of Hundred Kilometers, and we are not at the station we planned to halt at. We are in a small place called SAMBA, which is about a Hundred Kilometers before Udhampur, our planned stop.

HOWEVER!

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. We are thumping hard, this second day. Gods were either in an extremely funny mood, or they did not like the subtle arroagance of the riders of the machine. They sent some fragments our way, and our bullets roared even louder, spat some fire, and kept us on road. However, our bodies did give way to some of the attack. One of our man is down today with stomach trouble; man is vomiting everything he is eating. If he doesn't eat, heat is going to get him soon.

No, he is not going to end up an aspirer. Man's got stamina; man's got zeal; and above all, man's got the medical team stationed back in Delhi to take our call and advise at the smallest of our calls. We reported situtation to base camp in Delhi, and they told us what exactly to do. We did the same. Man looks good. Those tablets have worked, and he will thump alright....

Well, to be honest, we have been going rather good on the bikes. Two little problems - a bolt from the engine got lost from one of them, and on another one, the kick jammed. Little problems! Really, the bullet enfield is like open source code. Open up easily; debug easily; shut back easily; integrate easily; thump your way to glory!

I am promising pictures when I return. Till then, make do with whatever you have.

Cheers,
Team Ladakh 2011
Samba, about a 600 km on the meter!

Ladakh 2011: Day One

So, let us see where we are, and how we fared on the first day!

First things first, our babies are fine, and we are thankful to them, for they keep us alive through the hardships, winds, and the heat. We report no punctures, no engine failures, and we don't report anything from the list of Thousand Things That can Go Wrong in the First Thousand Kilometers. We love our ladies, they are not 28 inches at waist, but they are 350cc at the hearts.

The day started up early at 0500 hrs. Mother nature blessed us with as pleasant a start as she could. It was windy, silghly chilly, and there was moisture in the air - perfect riding conditions on the first day of a cross country ride!

We had paranthas at a roadside dhaba, and loved it. We kept stopping by sweet shops, and at various places we wanted to explore. That's the fun part of riding sane, riding the hindustan motorcycling way. We stop. We don't claim macho, and we love and respect what we pass by.

A fellow rider from Swtizerland, has taken a special liking to our very own biscuit brand. He has gobbled up three packets of Parle-G already.

The winds grew a bit too powerful during the afternoon, and our bikes were being pushed sideways. That's about when the crossroads hit us. We checked our maps, and realized that if we followed the signs, and the normal way people ride, we would do a 665 kilometers instead of the 455 that we planned for the day. Now, since this is Hindustan riding, we looked for that cheat code that is built in all our rides. I will admit that we were not exactly sure of how to reduce the odd 200 kilometers extra on us. So, we rubbed our lamps and appeared a genie... a man with turban on a good head, which rested on broad shoulders and a good heart. Now, he looked at our ladies and was taken immediately. He told us to ride slow, and not miss that key shortcut to reduce our 200 kilometers. We found it and here we are.

The day done, a good hard day of good hard riding. Some cramps, slight catches in muscles, slight ruffles in our hair, and a big bad sunburn on both my arms. Whoever asked me to take the SPF 30 sunscreen. First replacement tomorrow: A hard nut sunscreen, the highest this town will give us.

So, we started on a wing and a prayer, and here we are with some light grub, and lots of beer. Basecamp called, and we reported all okay.

Time to dive down deep! We fly again at 0800 hours.

Signing off, 
Team Ladakh 2011
Ludhiana, 465 kilometers, Happy and thumping

Ladakh 2011: Day Zero OR The Night Before

Thank you, Thank you world, Thank you people, Thank you supporters, Thank you those who encouraged us, and Thank you those who tried but could not make it this time. The moment has come. We launch the rockets tomorrow.

There were many requests, and many aspirations, and many many people who wanted to come along could not. Out of them, again, many said that they wanted to know everything we will do, and everywhere we will roam.

So, for all the supporters of the I've set up this routine where I will try my best to convey daily, to the basecamp how has life been for us. The team at basecamp have access to my inner organs, and will update accordingly on this blog.

I will miss not sending the pics along, but will definitely try to do it whenever I can.

So far so good! Here we go buddies!

{()}

||||***#####****||||

((()))

|||

|||

|||

_________________________________________________________________________

There is definitely a log of adrenalin rush. I am excited about a lot of things. The ride brings along so much. I am excited about thumping all the way to the holiest shrines of the religion of motorcycling but that is not all. I am excited about the team that is riding with me. I am excited about meeting up old friends who I met aquaintances with, as a lone rider, back when I did my last tour.

I try to sleep, but my body is failing me. I call up my sis, who is a doc, and she tells me this is normal for people before the moment of truth arrives. Did she train for being  a doc or a priest?

So, I leave the bed, and hold on to my pack of cigarette. Take a lady out and we dance. I wonder how my cigarette brands have changed over the years. I try to remember some of the best smokes I have had. They turn out to be around my various motorcycle escapades, including the one with villagers in interiors of Rajasthan, sitting under a truck, narrating ghost stories.

I find myself drawn to the mountain curves that I will navigate in the coming days, and I think PEACE.

We leave at 0500 hrs tomorrow. The day will be hectic, and a bit tough on the first time riders. We aim to cover around half a Thousand Kilometers.

Wish me luck! Wish me peace! Wish me symbiosis with the universe!
Wish the world peace! Wish the hills long life! Wish the evil away!

We launch Now!
Ladakh 2011 begins!