Destination Keylong!

I was in touch with Vaibhav and was told that the trio - Archit, Prashant and Vaibhav after returning from Leh are planning to go up to Baralacha La as they skipped it and followed the Kashmir route on their way back. I wanted to see Keylong so I agreed to join them.

Now we were 4 :

























On 15th day of September 2010, I was supposed to reach Chandigarh  from where 4 of us would continue further on 16th. It was raining heavily in Dehradun since last 2 days, I checked the news only to find that Selaqui and Vikasnagar are flooded. It wasn't a good sign, and local friends of Dehradun were planning to take a dip in the swollen river that morning. I went out with them, and came back at 3pm. "Bhai kahan hai, nikla nahi abhi tak?" Vaibhav was screaming on phone. We made some plans for the evening before the ride, but I was still stuck in Dehradun.


"Ok, I left Doon, I am on the way", I lied and packed my saddle bags, covered them and hit the road at 3:10pm.
I had a little money and the only ATM machine in our village wasn't working, so I continued.


At the first petrol pump I was told that card reader is not working, I paid 200 and thought I would surely see an ATM somewhere ahead. Bullet was serviced a day back, so it gave a good average - 112 kms in 200 Rs.


Vikasnagar and the places before it were fully flooded, a few locals were on the road with umbrella, helping people and telling them about the location of broken roads. Car drivers panicked and were stuck in the flooded streets, I kept cruising in the first gear. Had I stopped I would have been stuck, so I just continued.


Rains stopped and I was managing a good speed, 10 kms before Nahan, there were landslides and mud on the roads which made them risky and slippery. Vaibhav called and asked me to come soon as he was back from office and was waiting with beers. In an hour or so, road opened for 2 wheeler and I was quick enough to move ahead. I was worried about petrol and started looking for ATM which I got after Amb. The fuel tank was full again and so was throttle, and I reached my base for the journey ahead. The journey scheduled to start at 5 am the next morning.
We had a couple of beers and dinner, met Saurabh and then we slept.


16th September 2010: Chandigarh - Keylong (430kms)
Next day we were to cover 310(upto Manali) + 120(upto Keylong) kms. So at 5am we were joined by Archit and Prashant and our ride commenced. We stopped after doing 80-85kms for water break, the morning breeze was fresh and we were fast to cross the Ropar road. But then those slow moving large trucks blocked our way and we snailed towards  Bilaspur. We stopped at another point on the road for a small chit chat break and then crossed Pandoh dam and had our breakfast at a Dhaba there.


We were moving at a nice pace and after reaching Bhuntar, we stopped again. We decided to take the Manali bypass via Naggar and start ascending for Rohtang pass quickly. I called at home from there and told my parents that I am in Manali. They were surprised as last morning I was in Dehradun, but then I convinced them about my safety and promised to ride slowly and safely.


After crossing Marhi, we took a break, we wanted to eat something but things were pricey. A couple in their late twenties were there, clicking themselves in Titanic pose and ordered Pakoras which they didn't ate more than a piece or so. Aaah - lies the treasure there. We ordered tea and told the Dhaba guy to bring those left over pakoras after heating them again. We liked them and ordered more before realising that we wasted a lot of time there. The road was not in a good shape after Marhi, so we were riding cautiously and slowly. To add to the woes, it started raining. But as we crossed Rohtang, the weather changed and it was all sunny.


We moved further ahead and at around 8pm, we were in Keylong, looking for a hotel. Found a good hotel, took 2 rooms pricing 250 each. As we opened our RS, the day long tiredness vanished. We enjoyed drinking and slept in sometime.


Next day, 17th September 2010:
Vaibhav, Prashant and Archit left for Baralacha La and I decided to stay back in town to explore some local life.

Then I came down for the breakfast at a small dhaba with momos, soup and chowmein on menu.

Had a good conversation there with aunty at the Dhaba, my hotel owner and the caretaker of the hotel.

Actually I was a bit interested in knowing the way these people live, a bit about their customs and all.

By 4pm I was able to find a few differences between Kaza and Keylong.

Religion in Keylong was Hinduism + Buddhism, majority was Hinduism whereas Kaza comprised mainly of Buddhists and then Hindus.

I find Kaza as more authentic, Spiti has a culture and they maintained it exclusively, Keylong had a lot many Nepalis for jobs like - taking care of babies, running small Dhabas with fixed taste and menu in each one of them, managing hotels of Lahauli people, cutting trees - though HP government took steps to replace wood by coal as a fuel and recently they are promoting LPG as a fuel to be used in rural places of HP but still if something comes for free - wood, there will always be a few people who will go for it.

But again, I was surprised to see the bonding between Nepalis and Lahaulis, though Lahauli people had lands, were rich but both of them know it's difficult for them to survive without each other so there was absolute harmony, friendship and 'daaru' between these 2 communities :)

During the day I visited Shishur monastery which was locked as Lamas were out for relief work in and around Leh. However I got a few good clicks from there.

Had lunch at Pooja Dhaba – the girl influenced by Priyanka Chopra was supposedly famous over there J

She served some potti – a dish made by goat intestines. I didn’t liked it much; however enjoyed the conversations with the girl so drank 3 cups of tea over there.

People who were not occupied were big time drunkards. In most of the dhabas, people were drinking even during lunch time and were high, good for me to make them talk to me easily.

And though Keylong is on the highway to Leh, but is treated as a transition town where tourists come and stay and leave for their destination unlike Kaza where people visit specifically to know about the place. Still Keylong was mesmerizing in a way that despite of it being cut off from Manali for a good 6-7 month period, people were more aware of things that belonged to our world and were not as simple as Spitians.

And the youth – guys were stylish, they played snooker, smoked imported cigarettes, had their stories with girls, spoke English as well; whereas girls were still shy to talk but lesser than those in Spiti.
The caretaker of our hotel, a Nepali guy told me about his love story, that how he managed to get his girl after running away with her, fought almost everyone in the society, faced heat from cops and people of his own community. I felt good and it made that guy a hero in my eyes. He told me many stories, from scary ones to the fights between HP number plate drivers and outside drivers.

The riders returned in the evening, I took them to a small Dhaba and we had our dinner there. Prashant was feeling sleepy so he went back to the room and we 3 found an isolated cafe where we took our bottle and had a good time, I heard their stories of the day and told them about my experience with the locals. 

On Day 4 of the ride we started late, after 10 am and took no time to reach Koksar. Had our breakfast there, and we crossed Rohtang pass and stopped at Naggar. It was raining and we were riding since past 1 hour in rains, so we stopped and had noodles and tea at a small eatery. Ranjeet Singh - another star biker from Chandigarh reached Chindi and I got to know in Naggar that our next destination would be Chindi. Vaibhav's bike was giving trouble so we spent a lot of time at a local mechanic and me and Archit started riding towards Chail Chowk. All 4 of us were there at 8 pm in night. Another 3.5 hours ride left for the day, and we headed for Chindi at 8:30 pm in night. Mamleshwar resort was booked there by Ranjeet for us, and he even ordered food for us and waited for us to reach. We were tired, sleepy, but we continued riding and reached the resort in Chindi at 12 midnight. Aah, lot of distance to walk with saddle bags, before we reached our rooms. I was very sleepy that night so I immediately took a leave from the bakchod mehfil and slept. 

On last day of our ride, 19th September 2010,  after having our breakfast, a royal one - Poori Bhaji, parathas, milk; Vaibhav and I started before the group as I had to go to Dehradun, 180 kms more than other riders. Ranjeet lost his bike papers so he rushed back via Mandi route and Archit and Prashant were supposed to do the same route and meet Vaibhav at Shimla. 

We took the route from Chindi > Tattapani > Naldehra > Shimla > Solan > KumarHatti. I was separated from the group at Shimla from where I chose to ride without stopping, I did a good run that day and stopped at Kumarhatti for a paratha. From Kumarhatti I left the Shimla - Chandigarh highway and took the diversion for Nahan. The road was in a miserable condition and I did't liked the run. There was mud everywhere, patches with water due to rains and land slides. I crossed Nahan, it was dark by then. A wine shop reminded me of folks back in Doon, I checked the rates and our brand was less than half the rate, took a bottle, packed it and moved ahead. I crossed Paonta Sahib and started feeling sleepy. So I rode very slow at 30 - 35 km/hr speed and reached my hostel around 10 pm. 

A tiring yet memorable day suddenly came to an end, called Vaibhav to know they were partying in Chandigarh.

Waterfall before Aut tunnel

I had an apple from here- tasty, fresh and juicy

At Naggar

Somewhere after Bilaspur

Ascending to Rohtang La

At Marhi, where we had those left over Pakoras

My Bull, looks Rugged!

Archit

Baralacha La 

Breakfast at Keylong

From Shishur monastery in Keylong

Beautiful town - Keylong!

View of town

Surya nahi hua Ast, pahaad fir bhi mast!

Youth of Keylong

Traditional Shawl maker

Evening view from terrace of hotel

 On our way back from Keylong to Khoksar

Bikes parked while we had breakfast at Koksar

Tour' de Himalayas

An effort in vain ;)

* Pics above are not all clicked by me. Pics are clicked by Vaibhav, Prashant, Archit and me in a random fashion.

That's all about this ride, next post would be about Uttarakhand!