Day 2, Chandigarh-Manali

I had survived a deluge of SMS's from the well meaning Jojo, 6-8 months of easy living and Beers making me feel so drowsy that I finally got up only at 7.00 {with barely 3 hours of sleep}, packing up and lugging down all the stuff took another 30 minutes or so, and then I was finally headed out of Chandigarh towards Manali and the heavenly Himalayas. Of course, I forget to say this, I probably had my last bath in a long while here, a nice leisurely affair, thanks to the great room service.

The way out to Manali was pretty simple, I just followed Jojo's instructions from the last night and soon I was out of Chandigarh, stopping 60 kms out for a leisurely breakfast of Punjabi Samosas and somewhere there itself I bought around a Kilo of garlic, getting ready for the climb up to Manali.

This is an awesome stretch indeed, the Chandigarh Manali road, soon I was in the Shivaliks, marvelling at the densely wooded hills all around, the greenery, the light and the dappled patterns on the road giving me the usual highs. I stopped by somewhere near the Nangal project to drink in the beauty of waters that were very evidently from snow-melt, aquamarine in a shade that the camera has failed to capture. And as I have always done, I also paused to strike a conversation with a road-side lemon-soda pop waala, popping two cloves of garlic into me while he prepared a Lassi glass size concoction of the fizzy brew.

Back on the road, with little traffic to contend with, I am intent on belting up the ghats and then the back wheel starts wobbling. I am too tired to stop and re-arrange the luggage or anything like that, so I ride along, cutting down the speed whenever the back-wheel indicates its got a mind of its own and of course stopping all along the way to try my hand at capturing watercolours that I will never attempt to paint.

Soon I am mid-way to Manali and suddenly the road ascends up with a vengeanance and I am like, man-oh-man where was I riding all this while, when there are roads like this in my own country? The best part about riding on the Chandigarh Manali road is not just the road with its lovely curves, but of course the greenery and the spectacular streams, brooks, rivers and waterfalls all around. It really took all my discipline for me to continue on, I just wanted to stop by and sit and start meditating at any number of places along the way.

I stopped for lunch at a small wayside hotel, specifically asking for Rotis, Daal and Sabji. As usual on the road, it was a lovely lunch, the food tasting awesome and everybody smiling at me and asking a thousand questions and of course warning me that there will be landslides after Manali.

Hereafter, I lost all track of time, it was already 3.00 or so when I left the hotel, I should have ridden non-stop to cover the last 100 kms, but then the vistas were out of this world, especially when the road ahead was straight, the clouds playing hide and seek with some lofty peak while I tried my best at doing some high-quality lensing.

And then I was in the Kullu Valley, a fact announced by the roadside Apple "laagers" where headscarved {and apple-cheeked} women, bonny children and pale-faced men would smile at me when I slow down and wave, and there was the gurgling Beas on the right. And of course, this being the age of that is , there were any number of Hoardings, Glowsigns and whatnot devoted to advertising "Rohtang Mineral Water", all reminding me that I was reaching a place famous for its proximity to snow.

I had to stop again because the back wheel was wobbling, I suspect a puncture, stop and get the air checked, wait for 5 mins and it doesn't deflate, reckon it will last anyway till Manali and finally ride the last 30 odd kms through pitch dark, splashing through a couple of water puddles for added fun.

I had smsd Jojo for help regarding acco and he was precise with his directions about the hotel, so I did not have to ride out to Old Manali after all, managing to get a nice room bang at the very entrance to Manali itself. So finally, at arond 7.30 in the evening on Day Two, I was in Manali, just 40 odd kms from Rohtang, and what's more there had been no rain the whole day. Isn't life just beautiful?

Day 1, Delhi - Chandigarh

The initial plan for this day was to ride out and reach Manali by nightfall. However, I was also keen on meeting the RoadSurvivors at Chandigarh. As it is I managed to leave Sibu's place in Ghaziabad by around 9.00 AM, then got buffeted around in Delhi traffic, so when I stopped for a water and Chai and cigarette break somewhere on GT Road (N.H. No.1) near Karnal, it was already around 11.00 or so.

So now, I was like, I will take it as it goes. While my tea was getting ready, I saw a white Maruti cross my parked bike, slow down and reverse back and then somebody enters the same tea stall as me, buys a pack of Classic Milds, glugs down some mineral water and turns to me and asks,

"Your bike, man?"

Me, I say, "Yes, that's my bike", "Hi, I am Anand".

And then the gent says, "Hi, I am Vikas".

Oh well, I forget, he was also like, "Ladakh, now?"

To which all I could say was, "Man, I am riding with no expectations, I have a month of leave and I have some money to ride, I hope I can pull it off!"

Turned out that Vikas had ridden to Spiti and Ladakh a number of times and he hurriedly scratched out a route for me to go to Leh via Spiti. And then made me promise to call him on my way back to Hyderabad (I am sure he was like, lets see if this guy can make both Spiti and Ladakh in this season), checked out my bike, advised me to buy the jerrycans and PVC sheets at Manali and then we both hit the road.

So, back I am on GT Road, this is where even Maruti 800's are driven with the accelerator pressed to the floor, I open the throttle wide and then the bike starts wobbling. I curse the carrier, I curse the extra load I am carrying, slow down and try to figure out the reason for the wobble, stop, remove all the luggage and tie it back again, reassuring myself that no shop-keeper can balance the weight better than me.

The wobble seems to have petered out, so I belt for a bit again, enjoying the Eucalyptus fenced road and looking out for fields of "Sarson Da Saag" and then a Qualis appears in my rear-view mirror growing bigger and bigger by the minute. Before I can say R A C E, however, the driver and the passengers are all gesticulating at me and while I slow down and they slow down, I manage to understand from them that my Sleeping Bag had fallen somewhere behind me and that somebody is getting it over for me.

Wow!

Then a White Maruti Van draws up,the doors slide open and a Sardarji passes me my Sleeping bag. Everybody looks at me, smiling pleasantly, while I tie the bag back, punch it a couple of times and get onto the bike again.

The last thing I say is, "Shukriya Paaji".

There is no racing anymore, and while riding, I am wondering, have all of these guys been to Ladakh? I mean, they never asked me where I am from, and where I am headed?

Aman had called me when I was swapping solo riding experiences with Vikas, it was like, Jassi was expecting me at Chandigarh at around lunch time. So, the moment I pull into a Dhaaba for lunch, around 2.00 O'clock, I sms Jassi, apologizing for the delay. His reply was "No problems, enjoy the road and let me know when you reach here. Ride Safe!"

Lunch of course was mind-blowing. The Tadka Daal had more Raajma in it then whole Moong, plus there was a plate of salad on the house and Rotis were just 3 bucks apiece. I am no stranger to Tadka Daal and Tandoori Roti on the highways, but I must say this was probably the only time that I have come close to tasting something that the Paajis around Rourkela and Jharsuguda used to literally force on me (aah, the Orissa days).

I wanted a Beer too, but then, Chandigarh was just 150 kms away and by this time, I had reckoned that I will party there anyway.

The last stretch to Chandigarh was absolutely mind-blowing, I would belt for a while and then the bike would wobble, I would slow down and then feel like stopping to take a snap of the verdant golden fields all around, then go on again at 80kmph, promising myself that I will stop 5 kms or so after; well, for most of my riding years on this bike, that's been the story anyway and I did say "mind-blowing" at the beginning of this sentence. Seriously speaking though, this is one real awesome stretch, the one between Delhi and Chandigarh, especially when you have left the Karnal stretch behind you, four wheelers do go a bit too fast here, but then as my experience with the nice Paajis who retrieved my sleeping bag proved, they are equally hip about time when they see a biker.

Around 30 odd kms from Chandigarh, I had another Chhai break-cum-research-stop (had basically slowed down to pat down the luggage on the carrier and then realized, I could do with a pee break) and again it was nostalgia time, the Chhai came the way it did when I had it in my Rourkela (ICSE) days, sweet, light and tasting the way it does when the Chhai powder is more Chhai masala and less Chhai powder.

Finally, I was somewhere in Chandigarh or the suburbs, I had been riding slow for sometime now, expecting to be flagged down (Jassi had indicated he will be there), I stop besides a chowk from where there is the turnoff to Shimla, try calling Jassi, try looking out for a Bullet and then ride again.

And then the cellphone buzzes. I pick the phone up, the call dies on me. I ride on again, the phone buzzes again. This time, I can pick it up, I hear a lady's voice on the other end, in amazingly accented English, she introduces herself and I tell her where I am, I explain I was looking out for a call from Jassi, she directs me to ride on and that they will intercept me.

And then, a car comes alongside, the smiles on the faces looking out indicate that these are the Road Survivors, I look out for the first roundabout and go left and park.

Turns out that I had met Simi and Dushyant, then a Blue Thunderbird joins us all, so I finally meet the great Jassi. Dushyant was a bit like, why are you headed out now, at this time in the year? So, I give him my usual spiel and he smiles.

Then (after a couple of snaps from me), Jassi takes me around in Chandigarh to help me get a hotel room. We go to a lovely hotel where the rooms cost 600 odd bucks, I reckon it is beyond my budget, then we go to some Panchayat Samiti kind of lodging, find that the whole place is already full, we go somewhere else, I realise I will be too far away from the parked bike, when it comes to unpacking and packing my stuff (while I was measuring the distance from the parking to the room, Jassi was checking out some Phirang babe). Its anyway getting late and I have to change my front tyre, so me and Jassi decide to go to the first hotel we had been too (It anyway had a lovely bar), I get a third floor room, we drop the luggage off and we go get the tyre changed.

Finally, the tyre is changed and I test the bike for a wobble, find none and get happier by every metre it takes the front wheel to get parked at the hotel. And then, once we are at the hotel, by degrees the boys from the Road Survivors drop by.

Kanwar first, Manish next, Jojo (after we all have said Cheers, twice), thereafter.

This was one bill I wanted to pick up, but being the Cola drinker he is, Jojo insisted that it was split all around. After a big bill was raised and paid for, we all went out to dinner to some place Jojo suggested (as usual when I am riding in a place I don't know with people I can trust, I was tailing, and I must still say, I have never seen someone take a roundabout the way I saw the famous Kanwar do) and need I say, the food was awesome?

Well, Punjabis do love to drink and eat, so once again a big bill was raised and paid for, then we all come out, Jojo asks me this and that, I just wanted some more cash on me, considering I did not know of any more ATM's hereafter, so we all start out. And then we all are flummoxed about smiling Jassi's spokes breaking away (or did this happen when we all had stopped there to eat?). Way back to my hotel, Kanwar does his own patented act of drawing a concentric circle around every roundabout on the way, again and again, and I am also like, R A C E, but Jassi is also there and he looks back and smiles, so I am happy as usual, we get to the hotel, the usual "Ride Safe's" are exchanged and then I get to my room.

The hotel room itself is too comfortable and I am now getting premonitions of my worst solo ride ever (to Chattisgarh, when AP10R8691 was stopping every 7-10 kms), so I sit down with the maps, then realise there is a TV, put the TV on, blip channels and am again mindblown.

Funny country we live in, I left Hyderabad ruing the fact that it was raining in the north and when in the north, I get to know that most of Hyderabad is getting flooded.

By the time I check that I have everything I need (I counted the cash I had on me, twice or thrice) and managed to get a better grip of the situation back home in the flooded Deccan, it was 3.00 AM, finally i crash and before I could realise that I had slept, I start getting Jojo's sms's.