Love is a thing, well, its kind of like quicksand:
The more you are in it, the deeper you sink.
And when it hits you, you've just got to fall.

This was bound to happen. It must have a been gods will to let another one of his lads to fall in love with his greatest creation..... the himalayas. Cant really describe the true experience but anyhow i'm taking a shot at it. I really had to hand it out to mani for secretly storing his Leh pictures on office PCs. Watching them was like watching something straight out of movie. One man, one machine and one destination. And there i was; stung; deeply.

Day 1

It had to be done asap so I had decided to go to shimla on my motorcycle. Packed and strapped the bags, my bike, asked a couple of guys (Dhruv, Gautam) to join in and kicked off the trip on a hot july morning in 2005. This was going to be my first ever affair with Himalayas and i was sure that this is going to be one up and down and twisting and turning relationship. First phase of this lazy trip would take us to a friends place in Chandigarh. Sore butts were cured by soft bed. Stats of the first day :-

Distance travelled - A mere 250 Kms
Stoppage time - Enough to watch mughal-e-azam twice.
What did we eat - Small flies, an odd bug that flew in, and yes, those greasy McDonanld burgers.
Potential Accident chances - Didnt count after 6.
Best moment of the day - Two of my friends picking nose like synchronised water swimmers.

Photos

Day 2

A hot water bath and a 10 hour sleep can do wonders. Though one of us (not me) thought otherwise and avoided that causing to be avoided later on by others. This was the day we met around 20 others bikers from punjab. This was going to be an invasion of chandigarh. It again was a sunlit day. How i wished god to turn it a bit low. Anyhow, after meeting and making new friends it was time to move. Loads of shadeshakes and hugs later we decided to start moving to Shimla. Three of us from delhi came prepared to go to shimla but i guess the others had plans too. A few guys decided to join in. And there we were, moving through city traffic and reach Indian most popular hill station "Shimla". About 1 hour of riding in the mountains and stopping every now and then to take pictures and just sit check out the views, brought us to a much awaited delicious lunch. Eating that lunch there with other biker friends with our motorcycle parked outside and people checking us out, boy i cant tell how good that felt. But i guess some of the guys ate too much coz they couldnt continue climbing and decided to go back to chandigarh. This was getting a bit stereotype "Punjabi puttar kiske, khaye piye khiske" (No pun intended). Like any drama unfolds and ends, there emerges a hero. In our case, it had to be the waiter. He served 15 hungry bikers as quick as possible. My heartiest thanks to him. This group has been depreciating at an alarming rate. From about 20 in chandigarh it was only 10 enroute' to Shimla after lunch. And the bigger surprise, only three of us came packed with clothes and the other four literally depended on us. Oh god have some pity, not the underwears. With brain filled with weird thoughts and stomach filled with butter chicken (the ideal biker food) we moved to Shimla. Reached it in time for samosas and tea at this small dhaba. Somebody decided to show a circle burnout on a busy shimla road. Pretty logical and completely supported by us brainees. Took off from there and a few more decided to get back to chandigarh. I didnt care. I was too tired and too sleepy. It had been almost 8 hours riding in the mountains. Somehow somebody had the sense to get a hotel room. And guess what, some more stunts followed us at the htoel front. From burnouts to stoppies. Yeah, we served them good. Some photoes were taken. Weird photoes if you ask me. Then came to time to finally enter our dramatic rooms, have some rest and move out to get food and check out the city of shimla. Stats of the second day :-

Distance travelled - A mere 130
Stoppage time - About the same time it takes to grow paddy.
What did we eat - Butter chicken, naan, samose.
Potential Accident chances - None.
Best moment of the day - Smart girls asking us if we were from MTV Roadies.

Photos

Day 3

This was going to be one action packed day. Woke up early next morning but didnt get ready quickly though because the cold weather was stopping us from coming out of blankets. The group leader (amar) decided that we should go to Narkanda and Hatu Peak. Well, we were game. Topped our bikes, got a few things fixed on bikes from a local mech and rode away. Passing the famous girls college in Shimla being cheered on smart, young, lovely girls. That was most motivational. Moved on, kept moving, and kept moving to have our breakfast at this small town called theog. Waved past a few foreigners riding their bullets uphill. By this time the climate had started getting overcast. Black cloud, a few drops were starting to fall. Started off quickly to reach fagu, which by far has been the best ever place i have been to. Completely covered in fog, and located on top of big mountain. This place truly is heavenly. The roads in and out of this place are covered good and parallel with budding flowers, small kids and more fog. This place really was out of this world. I still regret not stopping there. But the group kept moving up the mountain. By this time i had realised that clutch plates of my bike were giving way. This shamefully occured to me when a beaten up bajaj chetak overtook me in gear one. But i wasnt going to cry my self to pity there i waited for the day to end. Till this time the weather has started getting worse. It was like God playing Dumb and dumber with us. Duh !! I heard my inner voice saying, keep riding dude, keep riding. But the truth was it was my friend on his RE thunderbird saying that me. For a moment i thought, easy for you to say you 350 cc motorcycle riding jerk with new CLUTCH PLATES. No battles were lost though, i was still moving along just fine with a odd dumb joke to keep me wondering what it meant and by the time i realised, we had reached the foothills of Hatu Peak. This 9.5 km raod is only motorable upto 5 km, rest i think it is motorcyclable. May be im wrong because we could never scale that high. After only 1 km or so of really steep climbing, we had to turn back because a big boulder just dropped in front of us on this small climbing and winding road. We were lucky enought to escape any injuries. But there was now an hanuting feeling in the atmosphere. It was spooky. Down in the foots of this road we enjoyed boiled eggs from the only shop in nearly 15 kms. The low hanging fog was getting thicker. The loud shrieking voice from the jungle shook us. It had started to rain heavely and it was getting dark and cold. The roads were slippery and i had no traction on this, thanks for balding tyres. And top this, we were seven and only 3 rainsuits. Somehow we used as much clothing as we could and started downhill. This was going to be treacharous and it was. It frequent lightening strikes within 500 metres from us not only shook us but brought that "Oh why did i even come here" feeling. The best of riding skills were shown by all reached out from that forest and stopped at a small cottage. And after having troubles and finally starting a friends bike again we started again to move downhill. This time even more faster to reach theog. All shook and wet, we reached there about 5 pm. Couldn't imagine moving without having a cup of tea to shake off some cold and wetness. Half hour was used up here and one of my mates (dhruv) was getting feverish. We had to get going. With few succumbing to thought of staying in shimla and other wanting to reach Chandigarh, we had a situation to tackle. A cup of tea did can sort out things so good sometimes. We gathered ourselves to reach Chandigarh. This would be atleast 4-5 hours of drive and the day was ending. By the time we started our bikes, it was time to turn on the headlights. And so we did, embarked upon the destination far enough to reach in given and worsening situations. Not that i wanted to but at times we had to do 70 or 80 kms downhill on slipper winding roads with on coming traffic. But finally after 4 hours of harshest ever driving we reached solan. The city of Chandigarh was now in sights, reaching there only took as 1 more hour. And at about 10 PM we had hit the city limits. Too tired and sleepy everyone wished good luck and moved respectiveky to their own way. And as for the three of us. were back to Gautams place for that night which was spent discussing one helluva journey we just had. Stats of the third day :-

Distance travelled - Around 250 KM
Stoppage time - 5 hours (It was serious day)
What did we eat - Boiled eggs, Aloo Paranthas.
Potential Accident chances - Twice. Once at the Hatu Peak road and other while coming down to shimla. Rear tyre skidded while i was overtaking a bus an another bus was coming headon.
Best moment of the day - Going through Fagu. Pictures taken at Narkanda.

Photos

Day 4

Woke up late next morning. Had a good hearty meal. Took our bikes for a wash. Gautam and Dhruv polished theirs to a Shine. Me and dhruv started late from Chandigarh, around 3. Had to meet another at ambala who would travel to delhi with us. Not much action on last day. Had that sulking feeling that im going back to delhi, to office, to work. Shopped some at NH1 highway showroom just outside Ambala. After a evening snack we rode back into delhi city limits at around 10 pm. Bid farewell to others, reached home thinking, this is only the beginning. Stats of fourth day :-

Distance travelled - Around 250 KM
Stoppage time - Around 1 hour
What did we eat - A burger.
Potential Accident chances - Once, when this idiot on a cycle decided to cross the highway without noticing a motorcycle and big man coming at 90 Kmph only 20 metres away.
Best moment of the day - Stuck in a traffic jam on an old bridge that kept shaking immesely.

Photos

Site Concept, Design by Chanderjeet Rai