Trip to Leh – Part 4

The last part of Delhi – Leh – Delhi Trip that was planned but did not happen. To read the third part of the series, click here.

Day 10

, was spent in lazying around in the bed. A slow breakfast at a Tibetian joint. Tibetian bread with butter and Kissan Jam was awesome. Tibet herbal tea is what my mom makes and serves when we have cold and fever. Down south its called kashayam. Time for some more rest and some more rest. And of course it was raining outside this time even during the day. It wasnt pouring but still was a lazy feeling to go out. Later in the evening finally decided to go to Old Manali.

Day 11

, bags were packed again and plan was to reach Chandigarh by evening. Then enroute a small change to reach Ambala. But rains decided otherwise. It was not easy to ride down the mountains in the rain, but there were no options are alternatives. The only option was to ride since we had quite a distance to cover. Finally this time though we had good lunch at a dhaba. As time progressed both Ambala and Chandigarh looked out of reach and we settled for the night in a dingy hotel at Pinjore.

Day 12

, with no further wastage of time we headed to Delhi. On reaching Delhi we made a small mistake of heading to New Delhi railway station. For this we had to bike through the traffic of Old Delhi. Anyone familiar with Delhi would advise against this. After 30minutes through the traffic I was struggling to breathe. The pollution level is really high. We moved over to another lane went about a km parked my bike and panted for 10minutes. Finally I was able to get some oxygen back into blood. While others went to look for hotel and found “Hotel Southern” at Karol Bagh, I pushed Anand’s bike for 1kms since it refused to start. My bro came back and they both towed the bike to the hotel.

This trip was most adventurous. While last year during monsoon ride I faced tough situations it was nothing compared to in this ride. There were lot of learnings during the ride. We had all parts in this trip, fluctuations of moods. On 12th August when we got into hotel there was sigh of relief and happiness on faces of others. I was preparing myself for the next leg of the journey.
That we were unable to reach Leh this year does not mean we wont try again, we would plan again for a trip next year.

Though not affected by the floods, an understanding of the situation stems from the fact we were stranded in our paths on all directions. Another direction which we could have tried but did not was due to the riots in Kashmir. May peace return to the valley soon. And people have a good time in future. Let there be no more such floods which affects not only the people but also the army and overall economy. The amount of goods that got wasted led to loss for not only farmers but also other distributors.

If you are on facebook do your best in contributing to the efforts of providing shelter to those homeless people in Ladakh region. Click here. Alternatively you could also follow this link, click here. Let us help those in need.

Click here for photos.