Graduation Day in Biking!!

Day 7 and 8: Khardung La and Diskit 10th and 11th July 2014

Ladalkh is Mecca of riders and Khardung La is Kabba for them. Every rider wishes to ride through this pass at least once in his life. And why not…. The qualification of being amongst the team who rode their bikes on world’s highest motorable road is enough for one’s pride!

The rest day in Leh was gloomy. There was no ride, so we had nothing to do. Oxygen level was really low in Leh. Group buddies including me suffered. However everyone complained a different symptom. For me it was anxiety. Why I was anxious?... due to low oxygen level or due to 1-7 defeat of favourite Brazil by Germans, I don’t know. I was awake in wee hours watching my favourite team’s match and the outcome was humiliation and anxiety!!  Result…. Low oxygen in my room… ;-)

Bike repairing, purchase of essentials like gum-boots and, getters were the tasks having top priority on this rest day!

Some of us found “Nirvana” and “relaxed” themselves with its “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” type ambiance.

We had a small tour to “Kalchakra”, the annual religious ritual of Buddhism. To my surprise, there was a fire and the monks were chanting hymns like vedic chants. Don’t know how much people understand…. Isn’t it a common factor in all religions? Devotees from all over the world including small countries like Bulgaria, Georgia, Thailand too were amongst the devotees. We wandered in the camp wondering what to do and clicked photographs with beautiful volunteers. Actually this was the only interesting thing which was worth a mention. However natives from nearby villages attended the event with utmost devotion. They actually closed their daily livelihood activities to devote themselves to Kalchakra..!

The next day, ride towards Khardung La…  We began a ride towards! The serpentine roads were challenging and low oxygen level made bikes misfire. By the time, Kshitij and me introduced ourselves as street-singers to our group and openly sang “Deewana Hua Badal” and other songs without any fear of criticism…. Mania has been turned on!!! This continued further till the end of the ride and later on many joined us!! The group has been converted into a Band…! Credit ours!!!

To ride at 18380 feet above sea level is an achievement. This achievement resulted in the photo-session at Khardung La top. Photos were viral in social medial and (we thought) we were heroes!
Diskit was our next destination. What a place it was. It is being called as “Cold Desert of Asia”.  For me it was like Mother Gothel’s abode in Rapunzel’s story!!! No other words really suit!!! Nature has done witchcraft here…. Heavenly though!!

Snow-caps on the mountains, water bodies, desert with smooth sand, green oasis all are in a single frame. And camels with two humps… rare species of mammals were there to carry us.
To our pleasant surprise, we were greeted in Diskit with “Jai Maharashtra”. The Manager cum chef of hotel was one Narendra Marne alias Vithal, native of Pune. To manage a business at China Border by a Punekar was really matter of pride. He cooked all Marathi cuisines including Chicken Kolhapuri for us.

We spent the evening with the two hump camels riding on them on silver sand. What made memorable was the night on the Diskit sands. Some of us slipped out of hotel around 10pm and wandered on the serpentine roads with our headlights and moonlight only…no helmets, no safety gears! We were again on the sand and there was a Mehfil of Gaana and Masti. Shining silver sand, glowing mountains due to moonlight, pristine peaceful night and your singing friends… what a treat it was!!! To a person like me who never mix up easily, it really was…!

What we explored there was amazing…. Thamake’s witty remarks, Nikhils “saying” (not singing) of songs in prose (not in poetry),.......... I can still hear Deepak’s Marathi songs, Rajurkar Sir’s poem, Bachchan songs by Kshitij,...................Gaurang and Ketki’s enthusiastic singing.

Rajeshree’s “ Gunja sa hai koi Iktara” was really mesmerizing…

I pray to the moments to come again … at least once.

Mulbekh to Leh the dreamcity...

Day 5 and 6: Mulbek to Leh and stay in Leh (8th and 9th July 2014)

Paris, Shanghai, Kabul, Beirut, Damascus, Prague, Venice, Istanbul, Cairo, Moscow, Lhasa, Leh …!!! These are the cities where I always wished to visit. All of them invite you for different reason. Want to reserve a period of life to visit there and stay…! Don’t know when it would come true but Leh is one of them and it was just 140 KM away…

The ride which began from Mulbek introduced us not only with the nature, but also with the structures and culture of Ladakh. I always failed to understand why the natives don’t build the house on the plane ground though it is available… why they always go to find hill slopes? How they manage to park their vehicles…(if they have)? Besides these queries, the homes are awfully constructed and beautifully painted..!

The road to Leh was deserted, zigzag. The curves again…. the universal truth of beautiful curves! These curves always obsessed me through photographs of these landscapes. And now here I am… riding on them..
Buddhism conferred many virtues upon mankind. Apart from them according to me, the most important gift is the carvings, the caves the beautiful statues! Mammoth Buddha statues and beautiful caves and the culture engraved within is the priceless gift of this religion. From Bamiyaan (Afghanistan) to our North East states and from Ajanta Caves to Ladakh monasteries the superstructures created by Buddha devotees left their souvenirs in the mountains.

On our way was Lamayuru monastery. It was my first time to visit any monastery. The bell, beautiful pictures on the wall and the bell, and especially the peace, calm atmosphere doesn’t allow you to leave. You really get tied with this place. Simply you can’t believe that you are at a religious place. You observe a serene and pristine tranquility…
Atheists like me also bow before this supernatural tranquility and dedication of the carving and painting hands.

Lamayuru is a small village often visited by foreign tourists due to this monastery. Many of them inquired about our tour and as usual we were happy to explain our matter of pride!

In Ladakh, you eat Maggie for breakfast, you eat Maggie for lunch and if you are not the lucky one, you will end the day eating Maggie in the Dinner. Thanks to our team leaders who knew each and every food joint here (don’t know how they knew), we were able to taste local delicacies. En route we had tasted delicious Tibetan cuisines, like thukpa… I lost the names of other cuisines, as they were very difficult to pronounce and remember but the cuisines pampered our taste buds!

By the time, we really had got used to the roads and climate of Ladakh. We travelled around 140-160KM and literally crossed not less than 50-60 mountains. Here you actually walk (ride) in the clouds. As it was our first day under clear blue sky and multi-coloured hills photography was in full swing. There were rivers with different colour and shade, mountain with and without snow caps, the dry deserts, green oasis within every object here is thoroughly beautified by nature.

Any Tom, Dick and Harry with his mobile camera can click a landscape like professional here. And we carried artist and professional photographers with us. Actually I was unaware about this fact at that time, otherwise I would have been a model for their photography. Group buddies Nikhil, Ameya, Gaurav, Dhaval, Rajurkar Sir clicked some amazing photos…

After lunch and lonely drive, some of our friends visited Gurudwara on Leh- Nimu road. Gurudwara Pather Sahib was built in 1517 to commemorate Guru Nanakdev’s visit. Again my atheist soul denied to visit and I missed the opportunity of tasting Langar!

We were travelling along the banks of Indus (Sindhu) and Zanskar. At Nimu these lifelines of Ladakh meet each other. The frame meeting two rivers with two different colour-shades of water diluting their oneness with each other was really marvelous. And moreover you feel short of words when you watch this miracle of nature from nature’s galleria which is 13000 feet above!

Magnetic Hill was our next attraction. Various websites are flooded with the films of Magnetic Hill. Honestly I didn’t believe in the stories and films wherein bikes climb upwards without starting engines or in a neutral gear. Now we were geared up for a demo. To our (particularly my) surprise, the name “Magnetic Hill” was not outcome of any legend. It was official… Army has painted “MAGNETIC HILL” on the slope of the hill.
We were amongst the enthusiast and lined up to climb. And frankly speaking…. We had the division, rather confusion of opinions. We still have… My bike declined to climb without normal acceleration. So the ride upwards was normal for me. However many of us realized the jerk, and according to them their bike got pulled.
Magnetism was there or not was not my point of attention. The place was moonland. And we were like astronauts, landed on the moonland. Going upwards on the Magnetic Hill was not a tough job. However turning 200KG bullet through 2 feet sinking sand on a 60 degree slope invites sweat in cold. Many of us succumbed and many of us fell down with bikes. Here nobody could help another. …no comradeship!! You are your own. You lie down, your bike lied down beside you both are half sunk in the sand and now you have to get up, lift your bike, start it, turn it and come down….. It was really a tough job!! Somehow I managed it all and escaped from the moonland!

Leh, the dream city is a town situated on different levels. This colourful town was waiting for our thump (our feeling)!! Actually Leh was geared up to welcome tourists (not us) visiting for holy “Kalchakra” festival which is an annual Buddhist ritual…a religious fete! We heard that Hollywood personalities like Richard Gere (Pretty Woman) were supposed to be there…
Market road, the Champs-Elysees of Leh was our abode here. Yaa, Leh, I am here……!!!!
Hotel Khangree welcomed us. The next day, there was no ride… holiday!!!
We relaxed ourselves in the evening!!!