Spitifying 2017 - Fulfilling The Dreams

Anya always sleeps in the window seat :( >>

This is what I might sing up to this :

I know, we’re gonna get it, get it together and float; We’re gonna get it, get it together and go; Up, and up, and up >>

Landing at Chandigarh [ IXC ], luggage receive time and a guy approaches Gaurav asking "yaar tu vahi hai na jo Delhi airport pe haagne ke liye line mein ruka tha?". We were like, whoa, what an intro man ( claps claps claps ). This joke started the trip and was still that worth to laugh anytime till the end of the trip. Airport to ISBT to Simla was an insane crazy journey with the PRTC bus. Damn those drivers take the crap out of you after Parwanoo to Simla. 130km, 6 hours journey. I M A G I N E.

PRTC - Live Young, Live Free. I Thought I Will Die Young >>

So me, Sujit, Kavya, Purvesh got down at Kachighati as rented bikes were to be received here while Gaurav and Anya went ahead to old bus stand for our bikes.

Rented Bikes >>

Every 15 min Anya used to call me and ask when will I reach Cart road, I was like more 15 min. Hehehe. It took a lot of time to receive the rented bikes and the ride from Kachighati to Simla old bus stand was the most fun in the whole trip. almost 60 - 70 degree road gradient. Who keeps such inclinations ? No other option in Simla. The 350 RE easily grasped that climb. Somehow we reached old bus stand and i found that all our bikes, jackets and helmets are wet. Had to bear with the situation. Top-up our fuel tanks and left from Simla.

Tonight's destination was Theog. A small village 30km away from Simla. We left Simla around 8PM hoping to reach there within an hour. Along with dinner and few road explorations it took 2.5 hours to reach Hangout HomeStay near Theog. Curvy roads were awesome, the night ghat ride, tunnels were just fabulous. We chose Theog as we wanted something away from Simla as we needed only a night stay and Simla was costly.

Reached Narkanda within an hour, nothing seemed liked to be that worth here such that people take special halts here ( at least during off-season ). We left to Hatu Peak, our first tourist spot in the trip. Of course we have to behave like tourists too. It's not just a ride for which we came like 3000km away from home :P Narkanda 8890 feet to Hatu Peak 11000 feet [ Highest Point in Simla District ] in just precisely 7km, first sudden height gain. The roads to Hatu Peak were steep and vertical climbs couldn't let bike on 3rd gear while it was constantly over 6k RPM [ 125cc ] on lower gears. The road is difficult to use and only one car can climb at a time. At the top of the peak is a small wooden temple called Hatu temple. The temple looks beautiful at that height, awesome location with continuous wind blowing there. According to local belief the famous Hatu Mata temple is the temple of ‘Mandodari’ wife of ‘Ravana’. People come in great number on the first Sunday of Jyeshtha to pay ritual here. Goat sacrifice is still in practice near the temple.There is an ancient stove like formation of rocks nearby the temple. Locals believe that it was used by the Pandavas brothers to cook their food during their Agyaat Vaas.

The Hatu Peak gives a great view into the valley with all maple tree forest and apple orchid.

After visiting the temple we left from Hatu towards Sarahan again via Narkanda.

Breakfast Halt at the base of Hatu >>

Apple, Apricots and Cherries are nice to buy here. We had bought a box of cherries as emergency food supply for the trip. Riding through the green valley of Himalayas we were enjoying the good tar roads, ghats, banking bikes, cold breeze and what not to mention. Soon one of the RE started to smell like hot rod and realised something's fishy. Found out that the Classic 350 had no engine oil in it ( almost negligible ). Luckily we saw a fuel station after few kms and did an oil top up.

Me In Some Action >>

Traditional House Structures of the Pahadi People >>

What We Love The Most >>

A noon coffee break at Rampur-Bushahr, just an hour away from our today's destination we firmed our minds to skip Sarahan and go somewhere ahead of it. Depending on my knowledge we agreed upon reaching and staying at Karcham. Through the amazing Kinnaur gate and rock cut roadways we reached Karcham and amazed to see that Karcham has a military base and the Karcham Dam only. Damn, there's no place to stay. Few hotels were dirty, locals didn't suggest any hotel or homestay. Grab those bananas, fill up the empty stomach and head for Sangla.

Our Photographer >>

The huge view of the impregnable like fortified Karcham Dam was impressive. Highly infra-structured the area was, riding through the dam area was something new and the explicit view of dam, no words to describe.

Well, reached Kupa, 2km before Sangla, found one nice hotel. Forgot the name but it was the first one in Kupa. Good people, clean rooms what else needed.

Dinner Place >>

Dinner at Sangla and came back to room. Good Night.

Check in was at 12PM. So we left at 11AM and had a bumpy ride till Rakcham for 20km. Checked in, had lunch at hotel and we set off for Chitkul, the last village in Sangla - Baspa Valley.

Currently it's the last, within 2 years roads will be open till Dungri marking the last village on that route and later years it road will be joining Gangotri. The construction is in progress as per Indian Army at Chitkul Post & BRO. This checkpost was 60km off-road away from China Border. Clicked pics, had a very nice talk with the army soldiers at the checkpost.

Skidding on the Himalayan mud >>

Time to enter the Baspa, LOL, not into the Baspa river, but just near the river, very close to the river :) The river had a very great flow, won't say mighty, I will save this word for some future use. Photo session is a must, came out all the SLRs we had and clicking starts.

And the Photographer inside me became alive >>

I miss my hair now >>

Cobra Lilly >>

Who wont like such Mondays >>

Soon it started raining and hastily we ran towards the checkpost for shelter. Helter Skelter we found a small bunker and went inside to keep ourselves dry.

60km Away from Tibet >>

Few minutes later, like 20 or so, rain stopped, didn't exactly but was drizzling. C'mon, we ride in heavy rains what can a drizzle do and had to reach hotel before the weather gets worse, we left. Adieu the good army people there and the ride to hotel starts. It was half an hour later that we realized that we are freezing. It was difficult to move our hands, skin turning black, frozen. So this is when you ride in the Himalayan drizzle. Guessing the rain water pouring to be around 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, maybe. The sand there was quite magical. Even after so much rain, it dried off very quickly.

Helped a BRO guy to drop him at his contractor's office at Rakchham and the first thing we needed to do after reaching hotel was just remove those wet clothes, gloves, everything on body, wear new, dry, warm ones, gulped a shot of raw apple-apricot local liquor and I was totally charged up with heat. Now no cold could even touch me B-) Spent the evening in the verandah of the hotel enjoying the beauty of mountains, cloud, fog, coffee and a smoke;

CloudTravel, TimeLapse >>

Helping BRO Workers >>

View From Hotel >>

Its 06:30 PM Evening, still bright sun >>

Perfect Evening. Dinner, bonfire and fun ended that night because Anya got crazy over the fire and started putting all kind of available materials to created a huge fire, later I joined too.

Finally the owner shooed us away from the bonfire into our room saying it's closing time. Off to sleep. Zzzzz.

Even Dogs have problem in looking at the screen instead the lens >>

Yepp, Its eyes are open >>

Today's schedule Peo - Kalpa - Nako, I was like yeah it can of course be done. Ok lets see. So we let again on that bumpy ride from Apple Pie, Rakcham till Karcham Dam. Finally my SJCam [ poor man's GoPro ? :-\ ] came in action for the first time in this trip, one on my handlebar ( because I don't like helmet and I didn't want to wear it ) and the other one on Anya's helmet.

It was my good luck to see the beautiful Karcham Dam again for the second time, that huge dam, those beautifully paved roads, fully fenced hydro power plant.

And yeah, the off road starts again. I was really not in a mood for off-road.

Somehow with lots of dust and boredom we reached Powari for some fuel top up. Previously, Rampur was our first fuel top up ( Lol, my bike consumed only 2.2L from Simla to Rampur ).

Somwhere between Sangla and Karchham >>

The road to Reckong Peo starts as an offroute from the highway and the good roads start. Sudden height gain, the Simla and Hatu kinda roads, fun to ride and here the cops stop me just before Peo. I thought it was normal checking and there won't be any issues, well later I came to know I was being stopped for not wearing helmet. Tried to convince the cops but in vain. They were honest and dedicated cops, so I loved them. Anyway me and my bro Sujit were charged 300 INR each as no helmet offense challan and believe me I never ever removed my helmet henceforth in my trip :P One mistake was enough, hehhe.

Following the road and some GPS help we reached the end of road somewhere in Kalpa valley, asked for guidance towards Suicide Point and the people pointed towards a very small road which was not even available on Google Maps. You can find the road on maps till Kinner Kailash Cottage, Hotel Golden Apple Kalpa. After Golden Apple there's a U-Turn, don't take it, find a small pathway straight to hotel Old Monk ( Road to Old Monk is not shown on Maps, but can be seen a little on Satellite version ). Continue on this road for next couple of km till you come across the famous Suicide Point. There's no any sign board denoting that this is the suicide point. All you gotta do is keep fresh images in mind and locate the place. it's over a small right blind turn and the road further is L shaped towards left and deep valley beneath with the view of Sutlej river and the highway can be seen too. The only rock patch and the end of the road near cliff and stupid names written on that rock. Yeah, that's Suicide Point at Kalpa.

Worth to sit on that rock with legs hanging down in the valley and looking down the valley gives you a feel that you are about to leap.

During my last year's Ladakh, I had a happy feeling that I wanted to die of thirst somewhere at Tso Kar or jump into the valley along with my bike near Pang Ghats while descending from Moore Plains but this time nothing such happened. The valleys were rather fiercely here than the Ladakh ones. The Ladakh valleys were kind of magnet to me, it attracted me towards itself where the Himachal valleys scared the shit out of me. Coming back to Suicide Point, honking here was also fun, the echo man, loved to hear it. Repetitive echoes. The road continues down till Tapri was a great shortcut for Suicide Point skipping Peo, but was closed due to landslide down there. After a lot of clicking and photo shoots it was time to leave as we wanted to reach Nako the same day. Back to Peo base again and the to the same off road routine again. This ride proved to be a hell off-road.

Roads were bad till Skibba. We had late lunch at Skibba because we couldn't find damn parking at Peo. Bittu Dhaba is a nice place to eat and a good and kinda last good eatery till Nako. Just after crossing the river was the last Kinnaur Police checkpost and the best roads start from here. Skibba to Nako ( Chango ) was supposed to be one of the smoothest ride. Had a nice talk with the Police, he was much fond with Pune and ahead we go.

Skibba was in the valley and now climbing up till Malling was a tedious task but good roads supported us. We were just climbing up for another 80km or so.

What unexpected we faced >>

Kids love chocolates a lot >>

Off roads >>

Rescuing Puppy >>

Who knew I had to go here >>

such a neat and accurate flow, good if humans can learn something from water >>

It was night, we were already late on our schedule. Nako was just a 7 km ahead and we decided we gave up on finding a good place to stay [ Valley View Hotel ] where the guy [ Tashi ] offered us a big room with 700/- INR for total 6 of us counting as the cheapest & good place to stay in our whole trip.

We already crossed a Delhi based solo rider on the oldest Honda Unicorn model and who knew that we would be staying together in the same hotel? A trekker, a biker, fun guy was he when it comes to exploring places. Anya gave a shot for night photography as the sky view was good enough for star / constellation photography.

I don't know why, but I was really freezing that night even in my riding jacket. So thought that a smoke and the apple-apricot liquor will charge me up, I went outside, was too chilling, had a drag and a sip, I even ended up in finishing up the full glass but in vain. I ran back straight inside the restaurant of the hotel. Anya himself knows how was he sustaining that cold night breeze, maybe he was too busy with his camera to even feel the cold. Post dinner, everybody into their blankets.

Day 5 : 21st June 2017 -

5AM, as usual, sun rays on my face through the open window, it was time to get up. Beautiful the view was. No wonder the hotel was named as "Valley View". We reached at night, so couldn't even imagine what would be like a day here.

But as per itinerary, we had to leave Nako. We skipped Nako lake as it wasn't that worth to visit inside the village. Finally the ascending ended at Malling. Malling has a small military camp and one of the huge Malling Naalah on this route surprisingly had very very less water. Accepted this as a sign of good luck and I started descending alone with full speed once again till Chango.

Some Offroads >>

Had to deal with a stupid car driver here though, but was anyway still fun to survive the challenges where the idiotic driving of that car driver could have almost killed me.

One thing I would like to mention is about the bullet bike gangs, they are so irritating man.

At Chango, we all got together and continued our journey. Also met the Delhi rider again, he shared some things he saw at Nako. Soon we reached Sumdo post, Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur district border it was. It was a military checkpost, fine. Had to make an entry at the post, fine. Was under serious CCTV surveillance, fine. But man, I was at gun point of some M4 kinda looking rifle while entering the check post office. Now this was a new experience for me. I saw that those guys take CCTV very seriously. He was constantly observing the live footage of who is doing what each second. Done with the entry, those gates opened and we left ahead. Amazing feel that was. Didn't know why so strict at a district border crossing, such was not even the case at Sarchu while crossing J&K - Himachal state border.

Further, a few km ahead, to the right is a big entrance for Gue village. We went in to have a look at the 750 year old mummy. Just a new thing, saw a mummy for first time in life, the monastery was under construction.

But then after talking to the military guys here, whoa, came to know that we were 13km away from China border. Chinese army comes on a mountain in front of the monastery to tease the Indian army. And now I get why the Sumdo checkpost was so heavy with artillery. It was too awesome to hear stories of army guys. Sure they have a lot of stories to share. Later one of them told that there's a shortcut by crossing the river which gives about 9km to China border. And that's the point when I said to him "yeah, the road to Kaurik ( must be nearer to border ) goes from Sumdo, so it's covered by military", but his next answer was shocking, that all Chinese security posts and border checkposts are visible from Kaurik peak. I wish I could visit Kaurik alas it's not open for civilians.

China Border 9km away, Gue >>

Panorama of China Border >>

Apart from travelling, exploring, personal achievements of biking, my other intentions of visiting Himalayas is to keep the locals and the Indian Military happy, make them smile and see their genuine smile which is though rare in daily world with all sort of creepy people around you.

Camouflage >>

It was noon already and destination was still far away with bad and pathetic roads. I read that Nako to Kaza is the best tar paved road in the whole Spiti circuit journey, but I didn't see anything such. Not in my luck, I guess.

When best friends' bikes are also best friends >>

Count of people start increasing as their is lot of localization around Kaza and Tabo. We had lunch at Tabo at Trojan Guest House & Restaurant.

I always wanted to see a live landslide, seen many videos. But while going to Kaza, today, a very small stone fall off from maybe the top, it gained a high speed and the way it smashed the road jumping into the valley really scared me. Analysis, that tiny stone, that huge noise made me realize how dangerous a landslide can be. The Delhi guy met again and he shared what he saw at Mane. He just went there to see some old local friend. He suggested us to visit the Dhankhar Monastery which again unfortunately we skipped. He was like 'Waah, aap sirf road pe aawara ghuum rahe ho'. [ Roaming on the roads like a vagabond ].

Some scenes on Tabo - Kaza road >>

Fresh water, icy cold, glacier melted stream >>

Humongous Spiti River Spreading Between The Road and the Mountain >>

We started seeing people again on the road, once again a BRO worker lady asked for lift, but couldn't help as I had my luggage on rear seat. When I said sorry to her she was even more sweeter, 'koi na'. She was so slim that she actually got fit on my cousin's RE rear seat along with luggage.

We dropped her at next village and further there were kids who, damn they come in between to share a waving hand or a thumbs up or even a handshake. Someday someone is going to fall while urgent braking on those off-roads. But cuter those kids are, I don't mind waiting aside and chit chat with them.

Evening we reached Kaza and found Hotel Nyingma [ Spiti Expedition ] nearby, just 100m off the NH and parallel to NH. Very good rooms, clean, all facilities along with WiFi were available at cheaper rates.

Well, it was time to check what was itching in my shoe and I found a tiny thorn. Anya helped pulling it out as even touching the thorn was giving me tremendous pain.

While the rest were having fun, all I was worried about backing up my SJCam videos somewhere as I was going out of memory. Well, I was gonna carry my laptop along with me so I can backup any pics / size consuming videos on my lappy but a great personality [ Shweta ] told me that who takes a laptop on bike ride and offered me her portable hard disk with lots of free space in it which refused to get connect to any Android we had via OTG. It insisted to format before use. Hence I started filling up all videos on my mobile. Anya's cam had only 8GB memory card. My mobile had almost 15GBs of videos plus my own pictures and videos shot on my cell. And this is when Anya declares that his phone is 64GB. :-| Now we started dumping much in his phone. After all this transferring scene, had a shower [ First tee shirt changed here :-P ] and slept at 6.30PM. Sujit explored Kaza, others had fun and dinner at the hotel restaurant while I was sleeping and dreaming about ChandraTaal.

Kaza Monastery >>

Day 6 : 22nd June 2017 -

Big day today. Key - Kibber - Losar.

Top up our tanks and fuel cans. The pump workers left that petrol station as self service and Purvesh was at task to fill up fuel in everybody's bikes and cans.

World's Highest Retail Outlet & Fuel Pump >>

After visiting Key Monastery people said there that there is nothing at Kibber and we get another reason to skip on stuff :-/ Key Monastery was fabulous, wish I could spend more time here. Very silent and peaceful here. All monks were busy in their holy activities, doing on their own without getting distracted from the tourists.

Post breakfast at Key we headed for Losar with no any place to visit on the way.

Scenes Meanwile >>

Scary incident happened that, a cow, furious, was just staring at me. I stopped. I got a feel that it just wanted to ram onto me. Slowly slowly I went ahead, it started running, I followed, and it decided to hide so that it can pounce on me? What? Maybe. I don't know. I grabbed the throttle, rode fast and it gave up on running behind me. Pursuit Won.

Later in the ghats saw a lone local with bike. He was not going anywhere, just stopping some random places. I have heard much about such stuff and he was suspicious too, a lot, like he was finding someone to rob. He thought I was solo, but Sujit was just a km behind me. I waited for him and advised to stick together. That guy again waited at some random place. I went ahead and waited for him to come but he didn't.

There was some huge barren land and a beautiful valley nearby the road. I got off the bike and went out there to explore.

Till then I thought that guy might come and I will wait for my friends too as I was leading way too ahead of them. Enjoyed that place and soon after 20 minutes or so all my friends came and I asked about did they see any guy standing there all alone? Anya said yes. I think my doubt was right. We left that place as we were getting late. Funny thing happened was that a fuel can just popped out of Sujit's RE fuel carriage and nobody noticed that. Strange though.

Some Self Time Apart From Ride >>

I always love off road >>

Everybody knows that I love shortcuts and off-roads, similarly I took one to climb up the roads [ not from the pic above, I got no no video or photo for this one, unfortunately ] and got stuck. Tried coming back but who's ready to back off ? Na Na Na.. Got off from the bike, and accelerated till the top, also Gaurav helped me out in pushing the bike upwards. Further I never took off-roads to climb up :-P

In Hansa village, some creepy animal crossed the road very fast behind a small stupid bird. It startled my eyes, I slowed down my bike, put it on clutch to avoid the exhaust sound. That animal had caught the bird and was eating it and that was an amazing spotting of red fox. There were no any sign boards of red fox nearby, all were put up in areas near Kaza - Kibber, but here in the village I found it. Clicked a distorted, digitally zoomed image to its max level on my cell phone.

Had to click, My Bro loves them >>

5PM Eve, Trying to beat the sun but suddenly its insane cold too >>

Himalayan Bridges >>

And we reached Losar, Samsong Guest House. Single big room accommodating all 6 of us comfortably. First immediate task was that 2 of our can leaked. One we used in all bikes and for the other one the hotel owner gave us a replacement can. Superb bread omelette they had. Ate a couple of them. It was very chilly evening, called my family, my close friends, did some shopping, got some big flags to put up in my house. By the time it was night, we all in beds. But soon we did a stunt of going out, spend some time in the cold dark night and came back.

I bet this is Sirius, the only one visible in the pic [ Caught up on Phone ] >>

Again, great talk with the hotel owners. They also have their tents at ChandraTaal, but they were fully occupied plus we had booking at Jamaica. So no worries. We were already leading one day ahead of our plan. Actually 2 days, but managed one extra day at Sangla ( Apple Pie ).

My space to sleep >>

Day 7 : 23rd June 2017 -

Biggest day of my journey, the only place that took me so far away from my home is here now. We started off from Losar and immediately a check post arrived, did the regular entry stuff and that's when like a ritual, my speedometer cable has to come up with an issue. It just popped out from the connection, too lazy to fit it, kept it as it is the whole trip. Odo stuck at 703km reading. And the off roading starts which won't take the name of ending till Rohtang ( Gramphu ). We had prepared our mind for this.

Losar to Kunzum Top : Roads >>

Doing so soon we reached Kunzum La. Got no feel that we were climbing Kunzum La. Actually it's steep from Manali side, from Kaza it's just fine. Reaching Kunzum Top was meh, I mean after doing so much nothing special to describe about Losar to Kunzum.

Some selfie action at Himachal's K-Top >>

Kunzum Mata Temple >>

Kunzum Top Panorama >>

We visited Kunzum Mata Temple, it was written there that please make a round about ( pradikshina / parikrama with vehicle ) the temple before going ahead, people believe in that temple a lot ( must have some history ), saw even daily commuters and truckers doing like this.

I already saw a shortcut from Kunzum top to Kunzum base, it was starting right from Kunzum Mata Mandir till the base of Kunzum La. But couldn't find it anywhere. I forced a little to explore and go front there but in vain. Halted there for a while and left ahead as we had to reach ChandraTaal before noon at any cost.

During descent of Kunzum La, I found that road, and here is the condition of the road >>

Ahead we went and saw snow alongside of the road. No matter how many times I say that I am not that interested in snow or that it is not fun as it looks in TV, well, hell yeah; It is damn fun and I still anyway go into the snow, get myself all wet, make snow balls and hit others. Did the same this time too :D :P

After all this fun, we went for ChandraTaal, I didn't even expect that there will be naala here. There were 2, huge ones, flowing madly at 11AM. Imagine what how they will be in the evening.

ChandraTaal Roads >>

Reached Jamaica to find out that all tents were fully occupied. My booking was of next day and I reached one day earlier. So we dumped our luggage at Jamaica and went to lake as he assured that till evening he will do some arrangements for us. Took our bikes over that 3km hill climb till the parking. After that it was a 2km hike till the lake.

Gratify your eyes with the first view of the 14500 feet altitude crater lake, The Moon Lake "ChandraTaal".

It wasn't blue, but still beautiful. Enjoyed the weather and the scene till we waited for next hour for the lake to turn blue. Suddenly it was all blue, the sky and the water, where the water on land meets the infinite sky.

There we met a group who reached ChandraTaal at midnight and crossed the heavily flowing naalas in the dark.

After some enjoyment, I entered inside the lake for a dip. I will tell some stuff on this and let the photos and videos speak about all of the remaining experience. It was 2PM nearby, only Sujit was ready to join me into the cold water. The lake was 3 to 5 metre long at shallow level and then sudden depth ( don't know how deep ). So as per my studies by seeing many videos that was the point to dip in and come out. Just dip and come out, no stunts, no swimming. We entered the water and standing on the cliff like structure inside the water with no any idea what must be inside, how much deep it is or how will I feel once I am under water. Video was on and we jumped in, I was inside, It was all blue and clear water. The water seemed very deep as all I can see was just blue colored water with no bottom and darkness far away and I realized that I wasn't able to swim due to frozen body. Still somehow I managed to come at the level of water just to put my face outside to get some air as I was out of breath. The water was pulling me towards the bottom and my frozen body was not able to react towards it, what helped was only my mental strength which gave a little power to come at the shore. Floating seemed little difficult in the water, really couldn't figure it out why. I was nearly glad that I am fine and standing on my legs in the water at the shallow area but when my friends told that I lost my hair band and it is few meters behind me. Grabbed all the courage I had, went there and back to the shore, came out gasping, thinking never to go in.

But as many know me, I love to perform some breathtaking stunts :P and this will make me go again inside deep some other day. Pangong Tso, Zanskar during Chadar Trek and Gurudongmar are some of the next aim to dip in.

The tents we love >>

The tent in our budget >>

Forgot to tell that ChandraTaal offers magnificent view at night. While temperature drops below zero degree Celsius even during pre-winter, the sky is filled with countless stars & offers spectacular Milky Way kinda view. This night was the coldest of all ( among the damn cold ones ( Sangla, Nako, Losar, ChandraTaal ), had few drinks, enjoyed songs, sung a lot of songs. I think I won't be stopping to talk about the whole 20 hours I spent here. Met Hardik here, he was solo and a nice guy, we let him join our group for the rest of the eve and night.

Talked a lot, he actually came on foot from the Batal - ChandraTaal junction, 19km around and marked as his first trek in the Himalaya. Check out for Hardik's journey.

We all had a nice talk, tasty dinner in the tent, some night photography and slept at 11PM.

Mistakes we did while sleeping :

1. The tent was on small slope, our heads were on the sloping down side

2. All luggage we kept inside the tents ( Should keep outside, it's totally safe there )

Time for some visuals now.

Sorry to start with this, but its hell funny >>

Me, waiting for the water turn blue >>

Some happy faces when it got blue >>

hell, he loves this pose so much >>

Trying to get some action onto the lens >>

Even the sheeps need blue to survive >>

Le me, with some underwater blue stuff, I'm just video recording >>

Holy Dip, ChandraTaal >>

Stars at ChandraTaal >>

Jamaica came, met me, he was like, you guys are still here, you should be doing your breakfast and leave as early as possible to avoid all waterfalls and naalas on the Batalk - Gramphu road. Me and Kavya had the early breakfast, and here we come to know from the tissue paper that this tent belongs to Nyingma Guest House, the place we stayed at Kaza. This guy was his brother. We left ChandraTaal at 9AM. Totally ready to face off-road, waterfalls and naalas. Crossed like an infinite series of naalas, captured almost 50 on camera.

Hell of 50km it was, had a break at Chhatru ( Kunzum Dhaba ), rode through walls of ice, a scenic view. Me and Sujit, first thought that the road is blocked, he said to wait for other guys and think what to do. I said follow me, and we went ahead. Fortunate enough to pass through the walls of ice.

Well, this is ice too >>

But the fortunate ones are here >>

Reached Gramphu finding no place to stay, we descended towards Koksar.

Difference between Gramphu - Kaza road and Leh - Manali Highway >>

All memories started flashing back , the off roads of last year's Koksar. Again lucky, that all roads were built up. Found a Punjabi hotel, it had rooms too, first hotel in Koksar from Gramphu side. Big room, 150/- per head; 7 beds, we 6 people. Room was ours. Tomorrow a big day to cross Rohtang. Why big day? Something very good to do ? Naah, it's just that it was weekend and people come to Rohtang, the fucking traffic jam.

In My Dreams; I wanna grow old with you, I wanna die lying in here your arms. Love for the Himalayas >>

Same spot where I waited for almost an hour last year, for my guys to find me >> [ Long story in short, 2nd half of Day 13 here ]

But it was fun to climb down the mountain, not on the road, but from finding off road tracks which would connect an upper level road to a lower level road. We had a rest day in Manali.

My favorite place >>

And fav stuff >>

Next day did nothing, had lots of good food, Trout fish, mall road etc and next day visited Hidimba Temple, Vashisht Temple & Hot Water Springs and Jogini Falls. Jogini Falls was an easy trek and worth it. 1400m trek to base of Jogini and a little bit of high climb upto 3500m to top of Jogini.

Jogini Trek starts like this through Basisht village >>

Great Hike >>

A flower ? >>

Double layered Masala Papad, Raj Dhaba, Aleo, Manali >>

Manali, 3 Nights, 3 Dinners, 3 Fishes >>

Next day hit Kasol, the Israel of India and the drugs hub. Though we had a funny incident and I am just fond of quoting it for my fellow riders, my companions; If anybody is getting cranky or tryna hit the nerves a dialogue started that "Baala la bhuuk laagli ahe". Simply meant that the baby is hungry, will be normal in no time. Ugh, not so funny for others, but it was quite a moment of fun we had for half of the trip.

It was just at the last moment. We decided to give it a try to search there directly. Manali to Kasol was a superb ride, saw 3 accidents on that dangerous roads. More good the road quality, more accident prone the area becomes. Getting back to the trip, we found a good room, had lunch and left for Manikaran. Had aims to cover a 2 day Kasol - Manikaran trip to one day. Visited Manikaran market, Ram Mandir, Gurudwara. Had langar in the Gurudwara.

Hot water springs, temperature : 84 to 94°C / 183 to 201 °F

The One 'Khadi Murti' [Standing Statue ] of Lord Mahadev >>

Now I saw and I know now why it is called "ANGRY PARVATI" [ Read the story in the next photo, worth it ].

The mythological story of Manikaran village >>

Parvati river has such a heavy flow, river is kinda narrow but water gushes through it like hell. I think it's a death guaranteed spot from Manikaran bridge and I am not at all suggesting to make it a suicide point, not at all, it is a religious place.

Others went ahead up to Tosh while me and Sujit headed back to Kasol. Roamed in Kasol market, gathered some info about some drugs and all stuff, but I don't do drugs, hehe, lol. Got back to room by evening while others had dinner in Kasol later and came back at night. The view was beautiful 24 x 7 & a lot noisy due to Parvati river, flash a little light in the pitch dark, it's still good, the fog, mountain & river.

The amount of mosquitoes is large, there were like more than 100 in the bathroom ( above 50 I counted ). One can see a cloud like thing over the river, well, it's neither cloud nor fog, they are water droplets jumping above the river as the water flow dashes the rocks at the river bed. Scenic it was.

Done, 2 day trip in one day. Malana was a trek, bike does not reach that place, cancelled it and decided to head for home.

The one with the scary night >>

Rented bike people went to Simla, while us the usual gang of owned bikes, me, Anya and Gaurav with the ups and downs of the roads, a hectic and super boring ride climbing up the Swarghat to find the amazing view in complete fog and the plains from Kiratpur Sahib to Chandigarh.

Took little efforts and found an AC room in Chandigarh just at 800 for 3 people. Stayed there 3 days and did nothing. Well we hit Chandigarh & just lit like we do in our own city. Go to malls, pubs etc.

Traditional Buffet at Elante Mall, tasty food at cheaper rates >>

The teeny tiniest pizza ever had ( even smaller than pan pizza/pizza mania ) >>

When I try to clean the bathroom and cut myself >>

Met Hari here, and I respect him for his 28 hours of ride from Dras to Chandigarh via Jammu - Pathankot. Check his Instagram [ iamthehari ] for his amazing trip and photos. See off our bikes for transport and return Pune.

Speed of Flight >>

Back to real life >>

Just getting back to Himalayas before I end the blog >>

I thank my family & best friends for the support they always give to me for my rides, because of whom I could make the trip !!

Till then; gracias a todos; liebe dich; さようなら; à la prochaine

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Azee Shady ( Abhijeet )

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