Travel Diary

So the idea for us was to cross 15 high altitude motor-able passes of the Himalayan mountain range on bikes. Please keep in mind that we are not professionals or very frequent riders, because they have a lot of discipline going. We had some if not much of that discipline or at least, we decided on it before leaving. That we would spend our nights in tents, cook our own food and document the travel on video. We pretty much adhered to all of the above.

We left from Noida on the 14th of August, 2017. It was supposed to be a month long trip on 2 bikes, Thunderbird and Avenger. We had all our luggage, food, tents, mattress and rucksacks on the bike. For one of the riders this kind of travel was new, and the bike weighed more than double with the stuff tied to it. You can imagine what a nightmare it must have been for him :)

So anyway..we could only leave Noida after loading the bike approximately late morning. It was a sunny day. We had just left our society building and had to look for a mechanic as the fuel was leaking from one of the bikes. It must have been almost afternoon when we could leave Delhi behind towards Jammu.

We rode all day and camped on an empty ground next to a road side dhaba. We were hungry so we ordered chicken. There went another discipline in the bin. We relished the bird full till our necks.

Since we had slept late after a days tiring ride and we ate like there was no tomorrow, we got up late too. So we started when the sun was strong again. This was our new unsaid agreed upon new discipline for the remaining trip. We slept leisurely and started late (there are certain downsides to this I must say).

As the days on the road went by, our (group of 4) dynamics started to take an intense shape, the trip which started as a fun vacation turned into hardcore travel. We were speaking among ourselves only when it was really needed. The discussions became specific. And some hard feelings started to crop up about the commercials of the trip. This must have been after the 3rd day. I believe this is how most intense travels are. It confronts us with the side of us and others that is not very pretty or just is surprising.

I have been a solo traveler mostly, I know about this dynamics between people when traveling for longer duration's in groups, but had not been exposed to it very often. Solo traveling even gives you the ability to be alone even when surrounded by people. That sure came in handy. Nonetheless, traveling is best under any circumstances :)

Most of our days were occupied with riding during the 2 weeks we were on the road. I realized that the continues sound of the Royal Enfield, which at other times could be quite annoying, worked as sound of guided meditation. It created a trance like state of the mind. The thoughts were clear and focused. The body was more or less in one position for long hours of the day. The sleep was deep. I wish if we could just go on with the trip that was planned at the start but unfortunately we had to cut it short by half. We exhausted our funds. There was a conflict of interest withing the group. And we had been riding for 10days.

We had planned to cross 15 passes of J&K, Spiti, Himanchal and Ladhak. We could only ride across 3 or was it 4! We took the Padari pass which connects Jammu Valley to Chamba Valley in Himanchal Pradesh. Then we rode on the worlds most difficult motor-able pass, the Sach pass at above 4000m. This connects Chamba Valley to Spiti. And Rohtang, the windy pass. It took us 7 or 8 days to reach Manali I can not recall exacly. We didn't have a problem with the longer time we took compared to more frequent riders. We had enough to absorb on the road and during our travel, of ourselves, of others and of strangers.

I believe traveling means to step out of that comfort zone we have developed in our daily lives and experience life from other perspectives than our own. There is a clear distinction between traveling and touring.