Day 7
We were up by 5 and we decided to go to Shanti(Peace) Stupa to see the sunrise. Once we reached there we realized why its called Shanti Stupa it was really peaceful and had breathtaking view.

Shanti stupa is located on the hilltop at Changspa, The Stupa was constructed by a Japanese Buddhist organization, known as 'The Japanese for World Peace'. The aim behind the construction of the stupa was to commemorate 2500 years of Buddhism and to promote World Peace. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama inaugurated the Shanti Stupa in the year 1985.

We wanted to see sunrise from there and it was really amazing, so peaceful and relaxing I was overwhelmed with emotions I really felt myself connected it was an awesome experience, For a moment I got carried away but I was back in no time. We stayed at the stupa for some time and then decided to continue our Journey. we stopped for refuelling and then I realized the Mechanics used wrong handlebar and my console was kinda open so we decided to stop at Mechanic shop again. So for the first few days Gio's bike had problems and now its mine there was not even a single day when we didn't had any problems. So we stopped at the mechanic shop which was closed. To kill the time Gio came up with an excellent idea CARDS!!! we played it for some time and then the mechanics arrived I got my bike fixed and then we headed for tso-morriri we stopped at upshi for brunch and then left for Tso-Morriri. I Thought its gonna be a short ride but it took us a while to reach our destination. The road was empty no trucks and there were villages after every 20 -25 kilometeres. Trust me I felt like i was in wonderland. I always imagined beautiful places like this never ever thought that they really existed life was so simple out there small housed with farms around them and a river I jsut couldn't stop admiring the beauty that also in the middle of a cold desert.

After few hours of ride through the mountains we hit the moore plains and as expected no roads there so out of compulsion we started off-roading and the real fun began Gio was enjoying each and every moment there and he rode very well infact he was doing better then me the last 20 -25 kms were fun pure off-roading we reached Tso morirri by 3:30 or maybe 4. Once we were there I was blown away by the beauty of this place.We decided to stay in tented accommodation, we took our bikes and were out for a ride around the lake. We also met another Swiss her name was Susana a nice person so now we were three :), the ride was awesome, we returned to out tents after the sunset, had some coffee talked for a while and then we were off to sleep. Ending one of the most amazing days and planning the next ride to Tso-KAr.

Day 8

We left Tso-morriri around 8, on our way back we skipped a turn and were kinda lost on top of it every1 we talked to didn't knew where Tso-kar is so we decided to turn back and after some time we reached the pot from where we were supposed to take a turn, It took us good 2-3 hours to reach the lake and the roads were nothing but dirt trails at some points roads were under construction so hopefully in two or three years from now there will be roads. Again since we were on Moore plains riding was fun but we had a new problem now, Fuel!!!so we decided to turn off the engine while going downhill and it was kinda crazy but fun. After reaching Tso Kar we had our lunch and then pushed off for Jispa. Once we reached Pang we bought fuel at a whopping price of Rs.70 = $1.59 per liter. and then we continued our journey. ON our way it rained which affected our speed and also me I was wearing Dirt gloves not meant for rain or cold weather so my hands were numb. We stopped to regain our strength and my hands once it stopped raining we were out again

We reached Sarchu at 5 and decided not to stop there, and ended up at some place which is around 40 km from Jispa (we missed the hot shower again) so it was Day two without shower and again in tent. Our host was a cool dood so we had a good time that night we played cards for more than 3 hours and then dozed off to start a Brand new day. Before going to sleep I realized that how happy I was best part I was not following any schedule was just heading towards my goal without any expectations.. now thats LIFE

Day 9

Next morning we were out again crossing Jispa. We stopped at Keylong to get my bikes chain oiled and then finally we reached TAndi!!!!! Gas station although I had enough fuel till Manali but still I decided to get more fuel last fuelling for the trip, after TAndi we had only one more pass to cross but things were different now the roads were good most of the time but at some patched we had mud on the road sooooo it was a pain in the @#$ after some time I realized that my Exhaust is exhausted and in few minutes exhaust was on the road practically
Gio tied the exhaust on his bike and we continued. Before we started our ascend to Rohtang we came across Bunny and Nitinjit with four other bikers from XBHP (Its India's biggest riding club) so we chatted for a minute and then moved on. ascend to Rohtang was again a pain mostly because of the mud on the road wooh it was crazy. Anyways we stopped after Rohtang for food and then aging we were out for Manali. We stopped at Kullu for the Night. FINALLY WE HAD HOT SHOWER !!!! WOOHOOO that night we went out for dinner had average food and then I watched television while Gio slept then finally I decided to go off to sleep around 1.

Day 10

It was a slow morning and I also Realized it’s our last day :( and out of blue I started to feel bad. We left around 11 and were in Chandigarh by 4. After 10 days I had burger it was sooooooooooooo nicee we rested in Chandigarh for an hour. I lived in Chandigarh so it was very nice to be back there. This time we took Chd Ambala highway and to my surprise it was four laned so I was happy but still we were slow because each and every jerk was driving on high beam. Once we crossed Ambala things and our speed changed and in no time we were in panipat where we had to stop for some rest. Then again we were on our way back home we reached U59 at around 3 in the morning ending the most memorable and adventurous trip of our life.

Best thing about this trip:

Fellow rider : Gio. Although it was his first trip but he rode like a pro. His enthusiasm was one of the main reason why I decided to go by myself. Moreover he was game for everything so he really enjoyed the trip without whining like a baby. He is best riding buddy I ever had, hopefully if things go well our next road trip will be more adventurous and longer than this one.

The route : I have only one word for the rousts AWESOME !!!! although the roads were bad at most of the places but still ride till leh was fun !!! from high speed NH1 to off roading at Moore plains and muddy roads of Himachal each and every bend or curve was fun. Best part change in Landscape we crossed cities, Villages, hills, Mountains and rivers. After every 100 kilometers the landscape changed so you were never bored of riding it was not monotonous. For a change we enjoyed bad roads!!!!

Tso Morriri : This lake is untouched pure nature best part it was not commercialized. I don't have much to say but yeah if you really wanna rediscover yourself you should go there.

People : People in the mountains might not be very sophisticated or rich but their friendliness and simplicity is unmatchable. My attitude totally changed after seeing their tough but simple lifestyle and at a point of time I started to Envy them. It’s a valley in the middle of a cold desert !!! in other words Oasis of this cold desert!!! A proof to strengthen my belief then the hardest approach makes the fruit sweeter we can fly to Ladakh but I won't get a chance to meet the nice people reroute who live the tough life to make sure that the traveler don't suffer.

Music : Gio's mp3 player was the main source of music there however we also had some people playing traditional Tibetan music the most peaceful thing I've ever heard I didn't understand even a single word but it was peaceful !!! I really miss it.

Worst things:

Roads : Till Manali we went through hell dirt is good but mud really gets on my nerve!! the worst sign on throughout our journey was four laneing in progress inconvenience is regretted!!

My accident : It was very disappointing why on earth a rock had to fall right in front of my bike !!! this accident wasted an hour of our time while we were in Leh, but I was glad that nothing happened to me.

ME (I'm writing this on Gio's behalf): Every day I'll talk about this thing for atleast an hour, I know bro it was painful but I just couldn't help myself

To sum it up I just wanna say that this roadtrip opened my eyes and I can see clearly now!!!!!

Day 4

we left for our next destination I was thinking of reaching Leh however I was wrong again. It was a pleasent start and withing an hours drive we decided to stop for Breakfast there we doscovered th e cheapest accomodation available : TENTS they charge 50 buks per person per night and its pretty decent only problem no shower and loo is kinda scaery otherwise its nice coz the Hosts/owner are very friendly and caring so its a very good deal provided u have to compromized on privacy and shower for a night its the best option available. Affter breakfast we trued helping two guys to fix the flat tyre of their bike in the end the other biker had to go to pang to get the nike fixed. We reached Sarchu around 10 -11 and were in pang by 4 we were thinking of having lunch and then pushing off however we decided to stay. I was also kind of tiered so resting sounded like a very good idea. I started to feel uncomfortable so I drank lots of water but it was of no use l puked everythign out and by night I was a mess so I was taken to the doctor (Pang happens to be worlds Highest Army Transit camp) I was given Oxygen and some medicine (I puked the pills so I was got an injection). Then I was able to sleep the that night I was only on choclate and water.

Day 5

Next morning we left pang around 9 am and to aviod puking I didn't eat anyhting. We reached more plains in lees then an hours time and i was felling good so enjoyed the ride for the next twp hours however after that I started to feel weak but still I enjoyed the breathtaking view of More plains it was AWESOME just can't expalain it in words. Gio's bike was also perfoming better then before so we were havinga good time. Once we crossed the plains thing started to get ugly as my weakness was messing me up I had to stop for water and choclates by the time we reached Tanglang la I was haf dead I don't remeber how we reached Rumsi but I after eating some maggie I was revived. After Rumsy Ride was fun and we were in Leh by 4 and checked into our hotel by 5:00 me and Gio decided to go to the marked whereas Pratas(out fellow rider) and his wife wanted to stay and relax we dicided to have dinner together so were spposed to meet in the evening. While exploring the City I enjoyed the streetside Kebab they were awesome!!!! and then we bought some souvoneirs. After that it was time to EAT!! I was desperate to eat soemthing good so we went to the best Tibetan Food joint and I was so excited that I ended p ordering food for 3 ppl after mutton momos I was full however i got rest of the food packed the I ate the egg noodles next morning. After dinner we went back to Hotel and talked for some time and then we were off to sleep.

Day 6

This was the day when we were on our way to the worlds highest motorable road (on paper) we got our permissions by 11 and then we pushed for kahdung- la by 12 reached kahrding la by 2 and were back around 4. road to Khardung la was very nice but last 10 kilometers were in a bad shape. After a small shoot we decided to go back. Because of some stupid @$$ I met with an accident, As theny decided to Drop a rock in front of my bike not his fault it was just my luck it really damaged my bike the handle was gone it took me some time to get over it. However I didn't let the accident spoil my ride it was fun and I was pretty fast while coming back I'm glad my shockers were not bent. Once we reached out hotel we changed and went to the Mechanic left my bike there and were out to check the leh palace and couple of Gompha (Buddhist temple). Leh palace was empty but the view was Amazing we stopped there for sometime and then we pushed off for the Gomphas. After that we went to the mechanic and collected my bike. were back to hotel and then went for dinner this time we decided to go for Italian. It was a bad move we ordered Lasagne without any pasta it was more like roti with cheese and chicken. anyhow after the food we went back home and were ready for the most amazing place!!! Tso - Morriri

Day 1(16th Aug)
SO we were all set and by midnight we started our journey around 3:30 stopped at our frnds place for food(and protection of Scarab and Rakhi ) and were out by 5:00.. the ride was smooth till Ambala our first pit stop!! It started to rain after we reached Ambala so we had to stop there and i also wanted to get Gios bike repaired there so we ended spending 6 hours in Ambala and there we also had our lunch. I don't know what happened to Gio but he wanted to got some sticker job done so we were all set on piped up rides. Finally we were out of ambala and we took rajpura road instead of normal ambala chandigarh Highway. We entered Chandigarh refueled and moved on to our destination by evening we entered HImachal whereas we were supposed to be in Manali by 6-7 in the evening but thats cool we covered more then 80 -90 kilometers which was not that pleasant there were few patches where we had to stop for a while coz there were 2-3 kilometer long traffic jams due to landsliding so our boots were covered with mud and we reached Bilaspur by 8:00. Our hotel was nice so we just cleaned up everything took a shower and headed for food. Bilaspur is a small town so everything was closed by 10 the only place where we can get food was the bus stand and our royal dinner was nothing but chips and Biscuits ..we cam back and had a good night sleep.


Day 2(17th AUg)
We got up arounf 8 or 9 and hit the roads by 11 not too far from Bilasour we had to stop for Gio as he had a flat fron tyre so I had to get a mechanic to fix it. After that we saw a couple riding towards MAnali so we chased them and finally overtook them I don't know why I wanted to follow them coz we didn't stopped to talk we jsut overtook them, the view was breathtaking and it was getting greener and better I am from northeast and lived most of my life in Army camps(which are always green) so I felt like coming home it was nice and soo peaceful. We reached kullu around 4 and were on time .. I was pretty happy about it after crossin kullu there was a small Nalah(something like a stream but Gio calls them River) I crossed it without any problem but Gio's bike stopped midway so some water got into his spark plug so his bike refused to start next thing I know Gio kicking his guts out ot restart the bike I aslo tried we put the choke as well but nothing worked so after 10 minutes ordeal I decided to get a mechanic who was couple of Kilometers away so I wnet up came down got the spark plug changed and we were on the roads again we reached Manali around 6-7 and I realized Gio was not that happy with his bike and was kinda demotivated but after we reached Manali things got better Gio took me out for DInner and I bought by Windproof JAcket as well. So Night at Manali was good

Day 3(18th Aug)
We were planning ot leave early but the hotel guys were not able to wake us up on time so we titrated around 8. I tried withdrawing some cash but the ATM was not working WHAT A START on top of it Gio's tyre was flat again but it was a good thing coz the puncture was serious thing there was piece of nail inside the Tyre and it could have been a bigger problem later thanks to the puncture guy who fixed it we also met that couple we overtook last day they were looking for Company I was like wow i wanted to be whit these guys and they walked up to us so now we've got three bikes which is a very good thing. I was glad that we were not on schedule and suddenly i was stuck with this idea forget everything and just ride u're on vacation bozo enjoy it don't race and then I started to enjoy it coz thats what the purpose of this whole trip is I want to happy and carefree again so jsut do things in the way you want... and we started the real journey first 50 kilometers were a,amazingly beautiful the road till Rohtang la was mesmerizing i was stunned by the beauty we stopped at 2-3 places for some pics and then fianlly we reached our first pit stop for the Day Rohtang la its 51 KM from Manali, and is a high mountain pass that connects the Kullu Valley with the Lahul and Spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh. It is suggested by some linguists that the name rohtang is a Persian word meaning pile of dead bodies. we were there for an hour had out lunch it was kinda foggy but still It was not that hard to realize that this place is more like an amusement I could see the commercialization of that spot. We decided to move on and I guess by 2 we were out of Rohtang la and then the real jorney began suddenly the landscape changes and we were in Lahul and Spiti in some time we crossed Keylong it was gettign dark so we decided to find a resting spot tried to stay at a camp bt ended up in Jispa we stayed in a hotel best part about that hotel was HOT SHOWER !!!!! best thing ever really charged us for the next day

I"ve decided to write logs of all my roatrips soo I'll be starting off with the most recent one where I got Leh.id..

The Riders
Its was me an Giovanni Odoni, My roomie and a very close friend.Lets have a brief intro of bothe of us

Giovanni(CBZ):
Its his first bike trip ever and has a very little riding experience maybe couple of hundred kilometers till date, However he is a Mountain Biker so riding on Mountains won't be a problem for him. He is a fun guy adventure lover and super duper excited about this roadtrip


Javed(P200)
ITs my Second trip on hills I've been to Abott mount and pancheshvar before and have an experience of more then 8000 touring kilometeres (now its around 11000 kms). I'm riding for the past 2-3 years so I was very happy and excited about this trip.





Destination:

Ladakh ("land of high passes") is a region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the area. Historically, the region included the Baltistan (Baltiyul) valleys, the Indus Valley, the remote Zangskar, Lahaul and Spiti to the south, Ngari including the Rudok region and Guge in the east, Aksai Chin in the east, and Nubra valleys to the north over Khardung La in the Ladakh mountain range. Contemporary Ladakh borders Tibet to the east, the Lahaul and Spiti to the south, the Vale of Kashmir, Jammu and Baltiyul regions to the west, and the trans–Kunlun territory of East Turkistan in Central Asia on the other side of the Kunlun range across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. Running southwest to northeast, the Altyn Tagh converges with the Kunlun range in Kashmir which runs southeast to northwest forming a "V" shape which converges at Pulu. The geographical divide between Ladakh in the highlands of Kashmir and the Tibetan Plateau commences in the vicinity of Pulu and continues southwards along the intricate maze of ridges situated east of Rudok, wherein are situated Aling Kangri and Mavang Kangri and culminates in the vicinity of Mayum La.

Why Ladakh

Well Ladakh is each and every riders dream destination, Maybe because of kahrdung-la (worlds highest motorable pass). I heard a lot about this place so and I knew that its a remote are so it'll be fun. But it was not only an adventure trip for me but also a spiritual journey to rediscover my own self. I was sick and tiered of my monotonous life so (it was my hiddend agenda) I also wanted to know what I really wanted out of my life.

The Trip

Our plan was to start from Delhi early morning on 15th August and reach Manali on 16th day then Pang on 17th and finally Leh on 18th after that Pangong So or some lake and back to Delhi by 25th however it turned out to be something Totally different.

Planning and Acquiring Equipment

We were planning to rent a bike for Gio however we realized that its gonna be a super expensive affair so we decided to go for one of our friends bike and get it fixed although it was a better deal but still everything has its pros and cons. the bike went all the way but on mountains she was kinda slow buit still we enjoyed a lot and have lots of sweet moemories attached to it . Once the bike were decided we started to hunt for the equipment. We had nothing wiht us so we had to but everything starting from the tankbags, saddlebags and spares.
decided to go for local saddlebags as we needed it only for one time and I didn't had enough cash for Cramsters so keeping the budget in hand we decided to buy saddle bags which can be used only once. I bought a tankbag and then some more useful stuff like

Bunjee Cords
Spare Tubes
Puncture Kit
Foot Pump
Spare Visor
Spares like - Accelerator & brake cable, Foot pegs, Brake and Clutch levers etc
First Aid kit - Forgot to get diamox and really regretted it later

Once we had everything we decided to test Gio's bike so we were our on NH8 to test his machine she was clocking around 100 kmph and was doing great so I was glad that the bike was in a good shape. There was a small incident which made Gio realize that 80 kmph is safe and also the basics of Overtaking.

then it was time to double check the riding gear.. I was palnning for this trip since Jan 2008 so i got everything starting from Gloves to Boots.. I also got Balaclava for myself and the best part I had two pair of everything and I never knew why I bought stuff in pair but now it was clear that I was destined to ride with Gio and I was shopping for him as well so we were all good for the trip.

D-day
On 14th night I decided to stay back coz it was not a very good idea to leave right after shift coz I won't be able to travel beyond Chadigarh so we stayed back on 14 by 15th our landlords servant damaged Gio's bike soo we had to get his bike fixed on 15th which is the independence day so all the service centers were closed on that day. In the end we got a quick fix by a local welder it was temporary but was strong enough for us to give the courage to start the journey on the same night.