Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

The times have remained crazy ... So here is one more from the attic --- This was published in year 2006 on the 60kph (group I ride with) website: Earlier Published as : "Sun and Sand - Murud Alibagh With 60kph" This is the story of my trip to Murud and Alibag with 8 others in year 2006. The narrative may not have captured everything of the trip. Just like that lot of pictures that the camera's lenses cannot capture, for the mind's eye sees more than it can narrate. Also, the story barely tells you what a terribly good time we had. But it is more or less in totality the impressions of my bike ride. It is about the ride where my bike clocked 10,000km. It is also about the ride which made me change my clutch plate the third time ... It is now more than two weeks that I got my 500cc bike from Noida to Mumbai. I am dying to take her out on a long ride. One ride for half a day to Lonavala is exciting and fun, but not enough. So when Gaurav calls me on a Friday and says th...

The times are crazy. I have had hardly any time to clean the bike, forget about riding it. I feel guilty and depressed, and claustrophobic. The one outlet that I have - writing these blog posts - also takes some time to bake the posts, make them brown to perfection. So I decided to take the easy road - recycle and reuse. Here is one I found in my attic ... one of the earlier published posts (appeared on RE website earlier under Imran's name):. Happy Holi! ... Hope you will enjoy this as much as the recent ones: Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad - Chail Kufri Shimla Here's to the third absolutely crazy madcap bike ride of the three Nomads. This time, the distance is the greatest ever. The terrain we scaled is equally great in beauty and the fun, unimaginable... There's nothing like unplanned trips. Correction, there's nothing like trips planned for one thing and which materialize into something totally different. This is about a trip planned to Mussoorie, which went right ou...

Surviving Colombo - Kandy - Bentota ----------------------------------------------------- ------ The sun is getting rather too much for my eyes through these windowpanes even as I sit in the waiting lounge at the Negambo Airport, about 45km from Colombo - officially Sri Lanka's largest airport - waiting to take my flight out to New Delhi. So I have put my shades on and that is how I am writing this to you. I suppose that this is reason good enough for any oversights and faux pax that may continue to remain in this post, like the last few fish that remain in the nets after one has unlo aded the lot on the deck of the trailer. I have been hibernating for too long on this blog site. The reason is not the lack of substance, no sir, in fact my nomadic lifestyle is as intact as ever and gives me enough fodder for thought. I have been in between vacations, and travels - Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Indore, Saat taal (twice), even outside the country to Bangkok and Pattaya (second time). But it was...

I have not been able to move further after day 5. But the dictaphone is still there, and with it the memories of the expedition. I will try and complete the 15 days in a while from now. Meanwhile, publishing some of the Leh photos ... Just to ensure that I am alive along with this blog. Will be adding some more posts soon. Here is the first glimpse of snow: 1 km before Rohtang Pass. Then the second one is a special photo taken at Anu's garage in Manali: The third one is the magnificent Sarchu valley. I will add some more in time. This just takes way too long ... Best - Shreekant 10 May 2008

Ladakh 6. DAY 5 – August 08, 2007 Wed Bharatput City – Killing Sarai (Sarchu Sarai) – Sarchu – {Gata Loops} – Nakeela – Lachlung La – Kangla Jal – Pang – Moray Plains – Tanglang La – Rumtse – Miru – Upshi – Karu – Leh By the time it is 6am and the tent owner comes to wake us up, we are already awake with pounding headaches that the height, the rare oxygen, the cold and disturbed sleep have given us for free. We pack as quickly as possible in our condition (actually in record 20mins) and head towards the river. Thankfully there is truth in the locals’ statement and the flow is very small. It is still an effort, but we manage to drag our bikes through without much incident. The downward climb from here on towards the Sarchu valley is eerie – the landscape resembles that on Mars. There is no sign of civilization except the road we are on, that too is broken in most places. We are glad we did not attempt this last evening – when it was already dusky. We climb down this bumpy and often scar...

Ladakh 5. DAY 4 – August 07, 2007 Tue Marhi – Rohtang La – Koksar – Tandi – Keylong – Stringi – [Udaipur] – Jispa – Darcha – Patsio – Zingzingbar – Baralacha Pass – Bharatpur City By 6am, it is bright and sunny, which is a phenomenon common across all high-altitude mountain areas. The memories of the wet, dark and chilly night is behind us. Baddy has gone back from this place as he has to reach Delhi in a couple of days. We pack and start off. We have miles to go before we sleep today. The climb to Rohtang La looks like cakewalk in the fresh morning Sun. Most of the snow has melted and the road is manageable, albeit curvy and bumpy in parts. We reach Rohtang top in good time, and celebrate our first pass with some cake I have packed from back home. We start climbing down the other side towards Koksar. The road has great surface and is largely downhill. So we switch off the engines and roll down, giving tough competition to the bicycle gang. We see a plaque for Spiti valley towards the ...

Ladakh 4. DAY 3 – August 06, 2007 Mon Manali – Rohtang La – back to Marhi The day opens very late – as late as 9am for us. Must be the trout curry and the exhaustion of the earlier day, but we simply can’t get out of the excellent fluffy beds. Not that we are complaining though. By the time we pack, have a royal breakfast (120 bucks for an English breakfast, complete with fruit juice, omelets and coffee) and leave, it is almost 10:30am. We cross the bridge and go to the other side of Manali, go to the petrol pump on the way, fill petrol and then take the right, which leads to Vashishth. Vashishth, known for hot water springs, is also famous in the biking community because it has Anu’s garage. Anu is arguably the best mechanic in the area – and by area I mean a circle with a radius of at least 500km. Not even in Leh would you have good mechanics, so show your bike to Anu. And that is exactly how you do it. You just show him the bike. He does not repair bikes because that’s his job. He ...