Bikomaniacs Himalayan Odyssey 2015 - Part 1 Build Up

         

                                    

13th July, 2015 Monday Morning  

I was standing on the fifth floor of my work place, facing Adyar River, looking at the grandeur through window despondently like a caged animal - river, strokes of white clouds in the blue canvas, greeneries. Could not fully come out of the bike tour, I had been to, recently – Himalayan Bike trip. Again, wanted to go for an another trip somewhere , I was unhappy to return to monotonous routine.

I had a strange feeling at that moment. My mind was unusually calmer, like in post meditative trance like state without any usual turmoil. It was like a clean white board, messy scribbling of modern day chaotic city life was wiped out. Morning when I sat in my car - air conditioned cosy metal box, noiseless comfortable ambience, moving smoothly  effortlessly - brought wry smile on my face.

On the other hand, my body was battered and bruised, felt exhausted and weak. I had Lost 4 kilograms during the excursion.

May 2016

Leh Ladakh expedition is every biker’s dream. The trip was full of events.

Yet, I was  reluctant(not consciously though) to write about the (so called epic) journey, which happened almost a year back. Even though I might like to give excuses like busy work schedule, frantic rat race life style, laziness -  I know the truth. Brief illness I had during the journey (AMS – Acute Mountain Sickness) was bringing bad memories. With great difficulty I had to overcome that bad taste.

So, finally here I am...

Build Up to the Epic Journey

Beginning of the Burning Desire

All big achievements or adventures start as a tiny crazy idea.

Once, such a seed for the Himalayan bike ride was planted during our Yercaud friends’ meet, the uncontrollable desire to go to the hills grew wildly in to a big tree, spreading its roots widely and deeply. I became obsessed at one point, like now or never, like someone who had only a few days left on earth craving to fulfil his bucket list.


                              

I fell in love with Royal Enfield (RE) after watching a Himalayan Road trip TV show, and bought the machine in 2009 with a big dream. Since then I had been trying every year to be aboard in to - Royal Enfield’s official “Himalayan Odyssey”. I wrote a few mails as well, without much luck. Either I was too early or too late for the trip. Finally, becoming expert in Googling helped us. We (Shankar and I) came to know about the existence of private Leh Ladakh Bike tour operators.

I am Adventure

After a few days of extensive research we zeroed in on “I am Adventure”. We had started to have telephonic conversations and email exchanges with the proprietor Akarsh Pall. He would travel with groups every single time and had tons of firsthand knowledge. He patiently answered our typical novice Himalayan biker doubts and questions.

I had a funny myth in my mind - “RE is a must to tour Himalaya”. Akarsh cleared that myth. Any bike would do and later during the trip we came to know that he is not a big fan of RE, he himself drove KTM 200 Duke. So we decided to drive our own bikes, my RE and Shankar’s Yamaha.

There were four itinerary schedules to choose from May to Aug, fifteen days each. We registered for July batch.

After going through the itinerary details, Shankar had a valid concern - climbing altitude very fast from Manali  6726 ft (2050m) to Sarchu 14,070 ft(4290m)  in a single day and camping overnight at Sarchu – would put us at high risk of developing AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). And he felt reversing the start and end points would minimise the altitude problems .That means starting from Srinagar towards Leh and Manali. The same was discussed with Akarsh Pall. He accepted the fact and expressed his inability to change the plan due to certain business logistics.

We had booked to and fro flight tickets as per July schedule - Chennai to New Delhi and Sri Nagar to Chennai. Plan was to parcel our bikes to Delhi and post trip send it back from Sri Nagar. For Bike parcelling two options were there: Railway and Gati – a private courier. After a bit of browse study we felt, sending bikes by train would be the safer and cheaper option.

Everything was nicely shaping up. As it happens in my life always, some unanticipated twists happened (even though we felt bad at that moment, a few turned out to be lucky). Believe me I am not adding any extra spice to make the narrative tastier!

Workplace Nervousness

At work place, my department in charge decided to resign and move out of Chennai, around August. That put me automatically in a difficult situation with more responsibilities, considering I was the next senior person in the department. I thought preponing the journey to June from July would avoid the confusion (I would be back well before August), and rescheduled our flight tickets accordingly. Fortunately both Akarsh and Shankar agreed to that.

Nepal Earthquake

Like cyclone Nilofar appeared before our Goa Bike tour, devastating earthquake hit Nepal on April 25^th when our Himalayan dreams were at peak. That earthquake did not have any impact on the regions we were going to visit. Still some uneasiness had crept in.

Herculean Task - Bike Parcelling by Indian Railways

Next big challenge was to parcel the bikes to New Delhi. In India, to go to any Government office, you need to have Yogi like control over your temper. I am just opposite to that. Most of the time I would end up yelling at someone within a minute of entering such places, risking the job at hand. I primed my mind before going there for irregularities, bribery, listless attitude, delay and for anything and everything – of course sending the Bike safely was vital. I had done web search for bike transporting and found some useful tips. The important one was - get protective package stuffs which would come with new bikes from Royal Enfield service centre for parcelling.

Someone created this doubt- “currently railway stopped transporting bikes because of recent fire accident caused by inadequate emptying of fuel tank of a bike”. Perhaps some moron might have left a little petrol intentionally (of course with the knowledge of porter), so that he would not go searching for fuel station after delivery.

With that uncertainty in my mind, fifteen days before the beginning of the tour, I went to Chennai central railway station to enquire about the details regarding bike parcel. Anxiously I reached railway station. As usual central station was testing all my five senses free of cost – it was hot and humid, crowded, dirty, noisy, stinky. It was not difficult to find the parcel department; few bikes were covered and kept ready to be transported near the counter.The moment I reached there, I was hijacked by a porter, preventing me approaching the officer sitting behind the counter. He was wearing red shirt and lungi without any ID card.

“enna sir vandi parcella a?”(Do you want to parcel your vehicle?) –his sloppy demeanour put me off. Initially I hesitated to entertain him. Neither the disinterested- tired faced-government officer behind the counter was ready to entertain me. Preparing my mind in advance really helped. I was not in a frame of mind to fight. Moreover, I did not want to take any chances with my bike.

He described me the details (Thank God, Bike parcelling was possible!).First and foremost was, his charges for packing, INR 1800 per bike. This is apart from railway charges. Then there were two options to send bikes by railways. First one was, transport in the same train in which you travel. Unfortunately this less complicated easier option was not feasible for me.The other one was, only parcelling bike. For that you should handover the bike to the railways. They pack and send it on their convenience, which may take even up to 10 days. That porter slyly revealed a shrewd third option.According to that, I should buy a general compartment senior citizen ticket to Delhi and with that we can board my bike (six years old bike travelling with sixty years old person’s ticket!) in same day’s Tamilnadu Express. Within 48 hours of reaching the destination someone can take delivery.

Next day they had packed my bike and kept ready to load in to Tamilnadu express. I was adamantly present there though that was not mandatory. Two groups of porters were fighting with each other to stack their luggage in to the bogie. Most of them were fruit baskets. There was intense competition among them; the other group objected my bike by saying that that would occupy huge space. Sneakily when the other group’s attention deviated for a second, they lifted and pushed my heavy bike in. It was not as easy as I thought. Within a few minutes the bike was completely drowned by fruit baskets. I paid them extra money than promised after seeing their hard work.

I sent my bike key and copy of bike parcel receipt by courier to Akarsh.

As usual our fitness activities were on. I participated in a 10 km running event in the Chennai’s sultry weather. This is another myth regarding physical fitness and AMS, which I would be writing in upcoming segments.

Days were moving thick and fast. We were closing in towards the departure date, June 27^th.

Another shock was waiting for me!

My department in charge had to leave  at the end of June owing to his personal reasons. That means I would not be there during the most important transition period.I did not want to look back .My obsessed mind was not ready to budge. I made some locum arrangements and with heavy heart decided to go ahead with the epic expedition.
                             

Buddhan Rajarathinam
15th May 2016