Eleven Days, 3000kms at the Roof of the World
Eleven Days, 3000kms at the Roof of the World
Cold freezing winds blew over my face, travelling through impeccable natural wonder; pierced by black Asphalt roads and off-beaten tracks for eleven days over three thousand kilometers through the winding roads, long and dark tunnels, road guarded by white snow on both sides, and through the highest of passes on the Himalayas, through a sand storm hundred kilometers before the world’s second highest pass on my mere 150 cc, air cooled, single cylinder, 14bhp powered motorcycle.
No, I am not narrating the dream I had while sleeping but the adventure I was through without sleeping while riding through the a magical place in the world located at the extreme and hostile borders of India. You would have guessed it by now the “Roof of the world”- Ladakh and “Heaven Valley”-Kashmir Valley.
Everyone would agree that dreams are the ignition key for any achievement or adventure, so was mine. I had always dreamt of driving to the Roof of world crossing the world’s highest motorable road at Khardung La one of the oldest pass through the ancient silk route through which Marco Polo had travelled and then through a string of world’s second, third highest passes the Tanglang La, Chang La, Lachulung La, Baralacha La.
It all started from Sep 18, 2009 our journey from Chennai and lasted sixteen days, till we reached back home. Two of us, me and my cousin Sriram (thank God that he had some adventure spirit) had decided to take our individual 150 CC motorcycles from Chennai to Delhi by train and then drive on from there rather than hiring the unreliable, fuel guzzling monster, pre-independence piece of engineering the so called Royal Enfield Bullet. I guess the Bullet riders never understand the fact why the steam powered engines are not under usage in trains nowadays. Thankfully I and my cousin did.
The road trip lasted eleven days out of the sixteen days and we spent three days in Delhi and the rest idle encapsulated in a blue capsule (AC coach in the train).
The Start from Home Sweet Home
Drama and frenzy even before the adventure started. We had to be at Chennai railway station two hours before departure to load our bikes in the brake van as per the nice government officials, both I and Sriram remembered the train reserved as Tamil Nadu Express departing from Chennai to New Delhi at 10 in the night.
It was 5 PM and I was about to finish packing. High voltage hit us, my uncle saw the ticket and asked us “Why are you packing so late, your train is at 6.30 PM and your train is the Grand Trunk Express not the Tamil Nadu Express”. Never felt such high voltage in my life even when I got hit by 440 Volts DC in my electrical lab during my college days. We had already passed the two hour deadline to reach the railway station. Immediately stuffed the remaining things lying around into the 50 litre rucksack and then threw the rucksacks, jerkins, shoes, foot pump, and spare tubes into the car and started from home. Didn’t even say a proper goodbye to anyone. Me and my cousin rode like maniacs, pretty much like Carrie Ann Moss (Trinity) from The Matrix Reloaded bike chase sequence to the Chennai Railway station which is 11 kms from home and reached in 15 minutes. Guess that had to be a speed record in the city. Sriram came in two minutes later. Rushed to the luggage office, bribed the entry gate police. Booked the bikes with the help of a porter. He promised that he could load one bike Grand trunk Express and another in Tamil Nadu Express later.
Then a lorry full of smelling fish came in and they stared loading it in the brake van, there was no way we could load even one bike in the Grand Trunk Express. We then had to bribe the Govt. officials with 500 bucks per bike and the official promised to load them in Tamil Nadu express. With some hope we came back to the car park, repacked the things properly and found that I had missed the knife and Sriram had missed his sandals. Missing out those things wouldn't be a problem, considering the fact that the trip was about to be a fiasco, without even boarding the trains.
We then boarded the train with lot of uncertainty.
It was 9.45 PM and Sriram started calling his father (my uncle). He was desperately trying to load the bike, and bribed the officials again with 200 bucks per bike but in vain. Our faces were dimmer than zero watts bulb. The fishes spoiling it again. I hated fishes now more than ever before being a vegetarian.
Frenzy...
19-Sep
The whole day went lull. Played hangman for some time and were lying idly most of time, uncertain whether our dream would turn into reality. It was 5.45 PM and we started calling back to Chennai, with the mobile phone signal playing hide and seek with us now. The tension was building up just the crescendo in the movie Dark Knight when the Joker comes. It starts before the joker appears and the crescendo reaches the peak when the Joker is causing mayhem and chaos. My uncle had come with his friend Prashant to the railway station. They said they were trying very hard to get the at least one bike in the Grand Trunk. It was power cut in our faces and then the mobile signal was lost. Oh my god, it was a frenzy out there. We would have needed a RPM meter to read our heart beat, and it would have cut-off our heart. The signal came back at 6.45 PM, by now the train would have started from Chennai. It was do or die, I just said to Sriram that if the bikes aren’t loaded today, then we have to cancel our trip as there wouldn’t be sufficient time to return back to Delhi from Leh. Sriram called his father and his face lighted up, I got the signal; the bike was loaded finally but it was just my bike that was loaded. For the time being we did not need the RPM meter to measure our heart beat. Any how we knew we would be needing it around 10 PM when the Tamil Nadu express starts. Took few deep breaths to reduce our heart beat. Ate the sick roti from the railway pantry which added the stomach too, to the list of hyper functioning and malfunctioning parts in our body due to the high action frenzy.
It was 9.30 PM, Joker from Dark knight returned, the crescendo started in my white and grey cells. Called back to Chennai, they asked to keep down the phone, they were talking hard to the govt. officials. Called back twice at 9.45 PM, no answer. We needed the RPM meter back to measure our heart beats. News came in at 10.10 PM; Sriram’s black pulsar was also loaded.
Oh Yeah!! The adventure is on, but delayed by a day. We started re-planning and scheduling things and decided to cut our one day white water rafting program in the Zanskar River.
Saying thanks to my Uncle and his friend Prashant certainly wouldn’t be enough. They had rejuvenated our trip of a life time.
Time for first Indian adventurer’s Top Tip:
Never try loading your bike in the Indian railways in the proper way.
The rest you would know (Go through a private luggage carrier in the same train that you travel, it’s a whole big separate coach)
The RPM meters weren’t of any use now, as we started cooling down. Phew! What a ride even before we started. We weren’t being cynics, we took it positive, and all the bad things had to happen have happened in the last two day and hoped they are done.
Not being able to anneal the enormous heat and tension, we closed our eyes and lied flat on our berths and relaxed. After some time when I saw through the window, Mr. Sun was about to come out, the whole night seemed to have passed in few minutes. Sriram was looking fresh and had a huge grin on face that went form his left ear to the right; both of us were happy and were confident of doing the 3000 kilometers through the roof of the world successfully.
Enter Delhi !! Day Zero - 20-Sep-2009 (Page 2)
Cold freezing winds blew over my face, travelling through impeccable natural wonder; pierced by black Asphalt roads and off-beaten tracks for eleven days over three thousand kilometers through the winding roads, long and dark tunnels, road guarded by white snow on both sides, and through the highest of passes on the Himalayas, through a sand storm hundred kilometers before the world’s second highest pass on my mere 150 cc, air cooled, single cylinder, 14bhp powered motorcycle.
No, I am not narrating the dream I had while sleeping but the adventure I was through without sleeping while riding through the a magical place in the world located at the extreme and hostile borders of India. You would have guessed it by now the “Roof of the world”- Ladakh and “Heaven Valley”-Kashmir Valley.
Everyone would agree that dreams are the ignition key for any achievement or adventure, so was mine. I had always dreamt of driving to the Roof of world crossing the world’s highest motorable road at Khardung La one of the oldest pass through the ancient silk route through which Marco Polo had travelled and then through a string of world’s second, third highest passes the Tanglang La, Chang La, Lachulung La, Baralacha La.
It all started from Sep 18, 2009 our journey from Chennai and lasted sixteen days, till we reached back home. Two of us, me and my cousin Sriram (thank God that he had some adventure spirit) had decided to take our individual 150 CC motorcycles from Chennai to Delhi by train and then drive on from there rather than hiring the unreliable, fuel guzzling monster, pre-independence piece of engineering the so called Royal Enfield Bullet. I guess the Bullet riders never understand the fact why the steam powered engines are not under usage in trains nowadays. Thankfully I and my cousin did.
The road trip lasted eleven days out of the sixteen days and we spent three days in Delhi and the rest idle encapsulated in a blue capsule (AC coach in the train).
The Start from Home Sweet Home
Drama and frenzy even before the adventure started. We had to be at Chennai railway station two hours before departure to load our bikes in the brake van as per the nice government officials, both I and Sriram remembered the train reserved as Tamil Nadu Express departing from Chennai to New Delhi at 10 in the night.
It was 5 PM and I was about to finish packing. High voltage hit us, my uncle saw the ticket and asked us “Why are you packing so late, your train is at 6.30 PM and your train is the Grand Trunk Express not the Tamil Nadu Express”. Never felt such high voltage in my life even when I got hit by 440 Volts DC in my electrical lab during my college days. We had already passed the two hour deadline to reach the railway station. Immediately stuffed the remaining things lying around into the 50 litre rucksack and then threw the rucksacks, jerkins, shoes, foot pump, and spare tubes into the car and started from home. Didn’t even say a proper goodbye to anyone. Me and my cousin rode like maniacs, pretty much like Carrie Ann Moss (Trinity) from The Matrix Reloaded bike chase sequence to the Chennai Railway station which is 11 kms from home and reached in 15 minutes. Guess that had to be a speed record in the city. Sriram came in two minutes later. Rushed to the luggage office, bribed the entry gate police. Booked the bikes with the help of a porter. He promised that he could load one bike Grand trunk Express and another in Tamil Nadu Express later.
Then a lorry full of smelling fish came in and they stared loading it in the brake van, there was no way we could load even one bike in the Grand Trunk Express. We then had to bribe the Govt. officials with 500 bucks per bike and the official promised to load them in Tamil Nadu express. With some hope we came back to the car park, repacked the things properly and found that I had missed the knife and Sriram had missed his sandals. Missing out those things wouldn't be a problem, considering the fact that the trip was about to be a fiasco, without even boarding the trains.
We then boarded the train with lot of uncertainty.
It was 9.45 PM and Sriram started calling his father (my uncle). He was desperately trying to load the bike, and bribed the officials again with 200 bucks per bike but in vain. Our faces were dimmer than zero watts bulb. The fishes spoiling it again. I hated fishes now more than ever before being a vegetarian.
Frenzy...
19-Sep
The whole day went lull. Played hangman for some time and were lying idly most of time, uncertain whether our dream would turn into reality. It was 5.45 PM and we started calling back to Chennai, with the mobile phone signal playing hide and seek with us now. The tension was building up just the crescendo in the movie Dark Knight when the Joker comes. It starts before the joker appears and the crescendo reaches the peak when the Joker is causing mayhem and chaos. My uncle had come with his friend Prashant to the railway station. They said they were trying very hard to get the at least one bike in the Grand Trunk. It was power cut in our faces and then the mobile signal was lost. Oh my god, it was a frenzy out there. We would have needed a RPM meter to read our heart beat, and it would have cut-off our heart. The signal came back at 6.45 PM, by now the train would have started from Chennai. It was do or die, I just said to Sriram that if the bikes aren’t loaded today, then we have to cancel our trip as there wouldn’t be sufficient time to return back to Delhi from Leh. Sriram called his father and his face lighted up, I got the signal; the bike was loaded finally but it was just my bike that was loaded. For the time being we did not need the RPM meter to measure our heart beat. Any how we knew we would be needing it around 10 PM when the Tamil Nadu express starts. Took few deep breaths to reduce our heart beat. Ate the sick roti from the railway pantry which added the stomach too, to the list of hyper functioning and malfunctioning parts in our body due to the high action frenzy.
It was 9.30 PM, Joker from Dark knight returned, the crescendo started in my white and grey cells. Called back to Chennai, they asked to keep down the phone, they were talking hard to the govt. officials. Called back twice at 9.45 PM, no answer. We needed the RPM meter back to measure our heart beats. News came in at 10.10 PM; Sriram’s black pulsar was also loaded.
Oh Yeah!! The adventure is on, but delayed by a day. We started re-planning and scheduling things and decided to cut our one day white water rafting program in the Zanskar River.
Saying thanks to my Uncle and his friend Prashant certainly wouldn’t be enough. They had rejuvenated our trip of a life time.
Time for first Indian adventurer’s Top Tip:
Never try loading your bike in the Indian railways in the proper way.
The rest you would know (Go through a private luggage carrier in the same train that you travel, it’s a whole big separate coach)
The RPM meters weren’t of any use now, as we started cooling down. Phew! What a ride even before we started. We weren’t being cynics, we took it positive, and all the bad things had to happen have happened in the last two day and hoped they are done.
Not being able to anneal the enormous heat and tension, we closed our eyes and lied flat on our berths and relaxed. After some time when I saw through the window, Mr. Sun was about to come out, the whole night seemed to have passed in few minutes. Sriram was looking fresh and had a huge grin on face that went form his left ear to the right; both of us were happy and were confident of doing the 3000 kilometers through the roof of the world successfully.
Enter Delhi !! Day Zero - 20-Sep-2009 (Page 2)