The Touring Diary

After around six months I am again back to touring. I had to spend a lot of effort, money and time to bring my comet back to proper running condition after the Himalayas trip. So now that it was complete I wanted to start going on trips and I got a three day weekend to do so. I and Arjun were already having talks for going to Munnar and Prabhu was also interested. I thought of including my brother too for this trip now that he has his own bike (Yamaha FZ16). Also it was his birthday i.e. 27 March. I asked him if he is interested and he agreed to join in. After a couple of days Sunil sir also told me to go for a 3 day. Then we decided to club the two plans and all of us would go to Munnar. So here are the riders for this trip: 1. Sunil (Comet) 2. Sumit (Comet) 3. Prabhu (Comet) 4. Srikeerthi (Karizma) 5. Ajay (Karizma) 6. Arjun (Pulsar 200) 7. Jenson (Thunderbird) 8. Mohit (FZ16) The route taken: Day 1: Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Salem - Tirupur - Udumalpet - Munnar ...

Finally we got our bikes back from the Gati Transports. We had expected at least Gati people would take care of the bike and transport it safely. But all our expectations went for a toss. When I received mine and Prabhu's bike I noticed the packaging on my bike had torn off and the rear fairing had a big scratch. Worse was Sunil sir's bike, it had a dent in the tank at least the size of an adult's fist. We complained to the guys who delivered the bikes to our houses but they said we would have to give a complaint to the higher authorities. Again like the Aakash Packers and Movers these guys wouldn't have done anything. We did raise the complaint but nothing was done. Anyways a lesson learnt from this trip. NEVER TRANSPORT YOUR BIKE THROUGH THESE PACKERS COMPANIES, OUR GOOD OLD TRAINS ARE BETTER THAN THESE GUYS. Anyways moving on and finally the introduction of the team: All photos from Sunil Sir's cam. Prabhu (RIP Brother) - Comet GT250 Black Rigzin - Scorpio: Our h...

Day 14, 15, 16 and final day in Delhi I have clubbed the remaining days in one post itself as the main thing for us at that time was to reach Chandigarh on time so that we have time to pack and parcel the bike before heading off to Delhi. So no major action. The only thing was it was kind of a non-stop run with no time for photos are anything. So here it goes: Next morning we woke up early, got freshened up and started climbing Tanglang la . This side of the pass was not good but still our bikes (mine and prabhu's comets) were better prepared with no air restriction in the filters and could easily climb up. After climbing marsmikla anything would seem easy. We then moved forward towards and Moore Plains and then descended for Pang . We had some food at the homestay where last time we had a tough time due to AMS. Moore Plains Photographer: Sunil Sir Before Pang We didn't stay there much and moved further towards Lachung la, Nakeela, 22curves(not sure what the name was) and th...

Hanle - Chumur - Road block (Read on for the details of road block) - Leh From the start of this trip the highlight of our trip was the visit to Hanle, Chumur and Chumur monastery which has pretty interesting stories behind it. We read about the monastery that it has a lama's body mummified and preserved. It seems that the hair of the mummified lama keeps growing and the monks come every year and cut its hair. There was one more story which Sunil Sir told us that long back in history there was a witch who killed several monks in the monastery which was eventually killed by this mummified lama when she was in meditation. The lama had cut her hands with a sword. And the hands and sword are still preserved and kept in the monastery. Here is a pretty interesting peice of info, On top of the world . It seems even the National Geographic guys were not allowed inside the monastery. Hats off Gaurav Jaani for the fabulous trip and the film he shot in Changthang valley. We were pretty excit...