[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Arjun Bharadwaj

Refreshing the thread 5-6 times a day to see if the next leg of the journey has been posted

What cruising speeds did you guys have to maintain on the journey sir? All the more curious because you rode along a Himalayan for sometime which is a relatively slower cruiser.

The Versys was at 120-130 and at times he got fedup and explored the rpm range further.

The KTM was at 90-100-110 and i felt extremely comfortable at those speeds.

The Himalayan guy was faster than me at times

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

No worries Mortis. All criticism is good. No criticism is bad.

I write to please myself first, and the audience if any next. If what we do doesn't make us happy, and instead is only driven to make others happy and gain acceptance, our happiness will always be driven by people around us, and not from within us.

Something for all of us to ponder, on a Friday morning.

Hope you will be with us to enjoy the rest of the report together.

Hi, glad you took it in the right spirit and understood the meaning behind my post ! I guess the language in my post could have been found to be harsh by other members which they have pointed out to me. Keep it up I'm reading the thread.

[Red Liner]

Day 6 - We cross the Gateway into Mysterious Lands

The sun rises early in the east.


I for one, was happy with the sun rising this early. He brings me a sense of new. A new day, new possibilities, new chance encounters, and new opportunities to be foolish. I love being foolish. This whole trip was one big foolish one from the get go. I couldn't be happier, even when I am sitting here thinking about it. Are foolish people the happiest? Do they go about trying to perfect every silly part of their lives? I didn't want to live my life with the mechanical precision of a bank account or by measuring all my lines and angles with rulers and protractors. Now that would be silly.

I think the world would be a far better place if we all tried being foolish far more often.

The bike was ready to move on from my foolish day dreaming. With or without me by the looks of it.


The roads were great. I have to give it to our friends we met on Day 4 or 5 for making us take this route. Sublime farms, double carriageways, village people ambling along with their dogs or cows in tow. Life felt far less mechanical. Life shouldn't be mechanical.



Indians love big flashy motorcycles. The baby KTM adventure isn't and hardly attracted any attention at all through the course of this trip. It reminds me of me. I could sit in the background and just observe everyone without anyone noticing me. The green versys however had a big fan following wherever it trundled to a stop. I have to say my mate loved all the attention he was getting for his bike. I felt happy knowing he was happy.



A little further on and we come across another solo motorcyclist on a Hero Xpulse dual sport bike. Tiny little guy, I had no problem getting a bit ahead of him and forcing him to stop. This dude is from the Kerala province/state and was on the road since October 2020!


He quit his job in Bangalore and decided to explore the whole of the North East of India on a small capacity dual sport bike, which was cheap to buy, cheap to run, and cheap to fix. Smart decision. We would run into him once more a couple of weeks later.


The borders between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are mostly forested, green, and fresh. This was Nameri National Park.




We were riding right along the Kameng River.


The Kameng River (previously named Bharali River, now called Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh and Jiabharali (Jia Bharali) in Assam) in the eastern Himalayan mountains, originates in Tawang district from the glacial lake below snow-capped Gori Chen mountain(elevation 6,300 metres (20,669 ft), on the India-Tibet border in South Tibet and flows through Bhalukpong circle of West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh and Sonitpur District of Assam, India.

Since it was a very short ride, and the roads were fantastic, we took plenty of time to breathe in and absorb everything we had around us. As we were riding along the river, I came across this little embankment, which I figured I could ride into with a little off-road thrown in. And just like that I was standing by the river bank. The Kameng river eventually flows into the Brahmaputra.



Gazing at the distant mountains in the east of India.

[Red Liner]

Day 6 - Continued

Mangaldoi - Bhalukpong
Distance 153 kms
Where we stayed: Hotel Mandal Ghang
https://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Re....l_Pradesh.html
Where you should stay, Circuit House Bhalukpong: https://goo.gl/maps/xrWPLz2TmVwZqbSS8

I looked behind and watched an SUV come down the same trail I had and park right behind me. They pulled out an inflatable raft.



A family jumped out of the car, presumably the ones who hired the little expedition. We were asked if we wanted to go on a boat ride as well, across the Kameng river and down towards Assam, from whence we came. Some other time,I guess.


Our own steeds were waiting for us to get on and make the little journey to the border. But this seemed like such a fabulous picnic spot. And the weather was...spot on!


We reached the border and there were Army sentries on duty everywhere. Arunachal Pradesh is still protected by something called the Inner Line Permit, which even Indian nationals have to get to enter the state. In my next post, I will write a bit about the permit and application process. We bombed into the little office to get all our documents verified and we were off to Bhalukpong town to look for a place to stay for the night. Our first port of halt was the ubiquitous government owned Circuit House.

What the heck is a circuit house?
Circuit House is a Guest House exclusively for government employees. Almost every city or state in India has one Circuit House where a government employee can stay alone or with family, if booked ahead of time. A Circuit House is called ‘Circuit’ because in Government and Law terminology Circuit means an ‘Administrative Division’. Naming it so is just a way to give it an identity separate from regular or public Hotels and Guest Houses. That said, tourists can also get to stay at Circuit houses provided
1. no government official is occupying it at the moment
2. Tourist will need to get the hell out within an hour if a government official makes an unannounced visit to stay over
3. The caretaker has no qualms about letting some tourist stay over for the night (the most important pre condition).

When we went to the one in Bhalukpong, it was already full of government officials. So we had to sadly give it a miss and instead headed to a fairly good guest house next door at a reasonable price. We managed to wrangle out a bargain from the caretaker at the circuit house though. We would come in for both Lunch and Dinner there. And by god, we were thankful we did!



After a week on the road, we were finally treated like kings with a substantial lunch at the time people normally eat lunch! It was fantastic, and I was having fish after a very long time. With a spectacular lunch out of the way, and having made good friends with the caretaker, we were promised an even more glorious dinner later that evening. We decided to work up a good appetite and with that in mind, set out to explore what Bhalukpong had to offer for us.

Our first port of halt was the Orchid Park.



I'm not much of a plant or gardening person. I mean, I do enjoy gardens, flowers and the like but I'm not obsessed by it. My mate however is a budding bonsai student and hence wanted to spend time here. I just went about ambling along and looking up at the trees in this forest garden.


As I walked in, I found a couple of kids sitting around doing "something". I went closer to them and


Wow, artists. They had just wrapped school and were in here to do some quiet art work. I sat around and spent some time with them, while they went on with their drawing.

Orchid park done, it was time for us to move on.

[Red Liner]

Day 6: Fate of your Soul

As we exited the park back to Bhalukpong, we were riding across a bridge over the Kameng River, and the sun was still sometime away from magic hour, but we were presented with magic nonetheless.



Looking ahead and I kid you not, this was what we were presented with.



We were flabbergasted. What in devil's world was that?! We had to stop a few locals over the bridge and quizzed them. A steel factory. We were gobsmacked. A steel factory in the middle of a little picturesque town overlooking a beautiful river?! In over a million miles, this was the best they could come up with? We were left shaking our heads, despaired over what we were leaving our future generations with.

We kept riding ahead and noticed that across the Kameng river was nothing but deep forest and no human habitation. Save for one little hut.



That was the Forest Rest House. And the forest we were looking at was the Pakke Tiger Reserve. What a place to be living at. We made a mental note about going in there sometime for a visit. Ofcourse, once you procrastinate something, it usually never happens, and that was the case for us. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

As we were riding down the road without any plans, I spotted a little in progress tibetan monastery/temple. Never one to let go of such things, we wandered down the little trail that took us there.



The temple itself was locked, but what we saw around it, painted in vicious colours more than made up for it. The first picture is a re enactment of the dead soul's deeds being presided over at the Court of Justice between Earth, Heaven, and Hell.

The presiding god of Justice decides where you go. If you've done evil deeds my friend, look on to see what happens to your soul in the form of punishment. The pictures are self explanatory, so I'll let them do all the talking.

[Red Liner]

Day 6: By the Kameng River

Barbaric you say.

There was a reason why Tibetan Buddhism followed such heinous after life possibilities. You see, Tibetans before Buddhism came about their country were mostly barbaric themselves. They were nothing but a bunch of fiefdoms who were constantly attacking each other, pillaging villages, drinking non stop and doing everything else you saw in the pictures above. In order to bring this uncontrolled vitriolic behaviour under control, and without needing to invest in huge law enforcement - this seemed the ticket. The Tibetans of yore believed in magic, black or otherwise, evil spirits and good ones and ofcourse the weather gods. When Buddhism was introduced by Padmasambhava into Tibet, he cleverly integrated all these demi gods from their past animistic religion, the Bon, and came up with what we now know as Tibetan Buddhism. Now if you want to get into heaven and escape all the flogging, you better control yourself and be a good person.

We were done with the flogging and the sharp end torture and whatever else. Just by the monastery, we saw the trail leading further to the river and we decided to follow it.

https://youtu.be/rGHK0CFmpvw

Across the river lay the Pakke Tiger reserve. Th Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary lies in the undulating and hilly foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh's Pakke Kessang District at elevations ranging from 150 to 2,000 m. Notable mammals in the Tiger Reserve are: tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, jungle cat, wild dog, jackal, Himalayan black bear, binturong, elephant, gaur, sambar, hog deer, barking deer, wild boar, yellow-throated marten, Malayan giant squirrel, flying squirrel, squirrel, capped langur, rhesus macaque, Assamese macaque, gaur.



We were suitably warned that Elephants usually come by to this watering spot every evening for a nice little bath and a drink of water. Staying late out here by the river without knowing what to expect was not entertained. But we were sure locals would probably party all night with a fire, grill, and beers for everyone.

https://youtu.be/uvnJfLtNyu8

We spent the rest of the evening lazing by the river, allowing her lullaby to put us into a sort of daze.







It was getting late and it was time to bid adieu to our beloved River Maiden, Kameng.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

That said, tourists can also get to stay at Circuit houses provided
1. no government official is occupying it at the moment
2. Tourist will need to get the hell out within an hour if a government official makes an unannounced visit to stay over
3. The caretaker has no qualms about letting some tourist stay over for the night (the most important pre condition).

Yep, and in really remote stations, quite often the Circuit House/Inspection Bungalow/PWD Guest House/Forest Rest House is the only accommodation available.

Have been lucky a few times to stay at a few of these on bike trips. Just stopped at a place and asked around, and were directed to them.

We stayed a couple of days at the PWD (I think) place at Walong, caretaker was kind enough to allow us to stay. On the second day a couple of government officials showed up. One of them (a local politician) asked the caretaker to kick us out, but luckily for us, the senior official with them was a retired Indian Army Colonel who was on some committee to assess the adventure sports potential in Arunachal (this was back in 2012). So when he saw the KA-registered bikes, he was really happy and spoke to us for a while. Told the caretaker that on no account should he kick us out! Still remember what that kind officer and gentleman told us "Adventure is all about forgetting the bad experiences and remembering the good ones!"

Also got to stay at the government place at Tezu (whether it was an IB or Circuit House I can't remember). That was a really nice place. Suddenly in the middle of the night we heard someone banging loudly on the door. Thought we were going to get kicked out in the middle of the night, but it was a group of local bikers who saw the KA-registered bikes and wanted to meet us (and offer us a drink!)

(So much more interesting than booking resorts en route! Apologies for hijacking the thread, but brings back great memories of that place. And I should stop wallowing in memories and go create some new ones on another ride!)

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by am1m

Yep, and in really remote stations, quite often the Circuit House/Inspection Bungalow/PWD Guest House/Forest Rest House is the only accommodation available.

You are welcome to wallow in your memories of walong any time here lol!

We went to the circuit house/tourist rest house in Walong too for accomodation as the first bet. But the accomodation was really bad and totally not worth the 1200/head they expected us to pay!

So we went down the road and further out of walong down towards the river and found a fabulous place which cost us a bomb, but what the hell. The place was clean and the beds were good. But I got bitten by something there and had itches everywhere for a few days. Ah, more on that sometime later on in this log.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

But the accomodation was really bad and totally not worth the 1200/head they expected us to pay!

So we went down the road and further out of walong down towards the river and found a fabulous place which cost us a bomb, but what the hell.

Both must be relatively new developments. Don't remember the rest house at Walong being expensive at all, must have been 200-300 a night at most back then. Also don't remember any other stay option around there at that time.

[no_fear]

Thoroughly enjoyed the pics, especially the punishments. Learned a new word - "prostitutors". I am glad that Tibbetan Buddhism didn't make its way to Thailand, else Bangkok would not be a fun town in any way.

A random question - how is the availability of petrol stations? Did you guys ask at the places where you stopped to fill, where the next pump is. I am not sure how reliable Google maps will be at the remote locations.

And how did you guys decide, when its time to fill up. I am planning a longer trip later this year and your posts have given me a lot of good intel to work with.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Thoroughly enjoyed the pics, especially the punishments. Learned a new word - "prostitutors". I am glad that Tibbetan Buddhism didn't make its way to Thailand, else Bangkok would not be a fun town in any way.

A random question - how is the availability of petrol stations? Did you guys ask at the places where you stopped to fill, where the next pump is. I am not sure how reliable Google maps will be at the remote locations.

And how did you guys decide, when its time to fill up. I am planning a longer trip later this year and your posts have given me a lot of good intel to work with.

Yeah bud, the trip was fantastic.

1. Fuel stations are few and far between. I would recommend a motorcycle with atleast 350 kms on a full tank of gas. This mileage reduces exponentially in the mountains.

2. Carrying fuel is a huge PIA, and best avoided. How much can you carry anyway? It will never be enough.

3. We carried something that filters fuel. Used that once in North Sikkim where there are NO stations at all.

4. Yes we always asked where the next fuel bunk is, and also made mental notes of those on our return. In arunachal, fuel stations can shut in a minutes notice if there is some inter tribal war. Yeah, we faced that too.

5. If we see a good fuel station, we tank up. I don’t care even if just a litre goes in, but we fueled up. That 1 litre could mean the difference between pushing the bike and running on fumes later that day.

Good luck with your bike trip!

[Red Liner]

Day 6 - Finally we end a packed day!

It was very very difficult to leave behind the Kameng River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJOz...ture=emb_title

As we rode down further to where we were put up for the night, I sighted another monastery. It was up a little hill on the left, and I quickly stopped over to check if it was open. Indeed it was!


We walked in and had a quality sit down for the better part of an hour. It certainly was refreshing to sit quietly in a calm place, with no distractions, no mobile phone, no social media interruptions.


Our trip had so far been go go go! Even visits to things like a serene river bank or a locked monastery meant umpteen pictures and videos, instantly instagrammed, and constantly checking to see how many hearts or hates it received. The mind never seemed at rest. We were always thinking what next after this. Partly because of the limited time we had for the day to "complete" stuff, and check off every imaginable thing we could possibly do and fit in to our crammed schedule.

Sitting in this quiet monastery was different. Essentially, we had nothing "to do". We just sat. Like a table sits around in your room. The prayer hall brought about a sense of calm and immediate stillness. It's pretty hard to describe and best experienced yourself. I was quite tired from all the incessant running around and the mind chatter slowly ebbed away. It almost felt like those few moments before you just nod off to sleep in your bed, but instead you're awake, relaxed, and just breathing. Even watching my breath became a chore. Just being there felt like it. Just being there like all the inanimate objects surrounding me - no where to go, no where to be, nothing to do, no goals to achieve, no responsibilities to take care of, no deadlines, no time to be aware of, nobody to love or be loved of. Death - but not.

An hour later, we pulled ourselves off the floor, and quite reluctantly walked out of the monastery to watch the evening set on the town of Bhalukpong.


My mate had some work to do on his bike. So we had to rush back. From what I remember, his oiler system was acting cranky and the drip tube wasn't aligned perfectly over the rear sprocket.


Haha. He carries all his tools in one bag. And if he has to work on his bike, he just opens that sack and all the tools come flying out onto the ground. I am a tad different. I pack all my tools neatly, carefully, so I know exactly what is where in my head. And i detest having all my tools bounce out, so everything is strapped in. Its fun that we are diametrically opposite on such small things, but its the big stuff that matters. The both of us loved to travel on our motorcycles, and the both of us quickly realised that a flexible "no plan" was better than a rigidly fixed plan. That's why we got on so well together inspite of the little differences in the way we did every day stuff. And thats what matters on a trip like this with your mate. Don't get caught up on the little things. Look at the bigger picture, enjoy the everyday moments. And learn to laugh at things that might normally annoy you. Remember, things you do might annoy the other person too. Wait a sec...am i turning relationship counsellor lol!

Dinner time back at the Circuit House. Were we in for a freaking feast!


It paid to be nice and friendly to the staff. They were genuinely interested in making sure we were well fed, and had the tastiest morsels lying around. Places like these are far off the regular tourist map, and these guys don't get to take care of tourists. Their guests are mostly government officers who typically don't give a damn about the staff (like government officers all over the world probably). So when we genuinely cared, talked, found out about their families, where they were from, about their lives past, and future - they were touched that we would even care.



Ofcourse we would. And this would be a defining feature of how we interacted with most people we met and spent time with over the course of the next few months.

[Red Liner]

Day 7

Bhalukpong-Seppa 143 Kms
Where we stayed: Seppa Circuit House

This was our original plan from the previous day.


I was sick of riding such distances every day. I wanted time. Time for myself, for the people around me, for the birds, for the sun and the moon, and the pretty girls who were always giggling, and so so happy to see someone fully geared up like ironman on his motorcycle.

I spoke to a friend who had helped me firm this basic plan up. He said we were quite foolish to ride such distances every day on the trot. He suggested we reverse the plan. I had a small chat with my mate. This is where things get interesting. He seemed more fixated on the plan that was already made. He was reluctant to make changes on the fly like this. Where would we stay? What are the roads like? Why can't we stick to the plan?

It took me the better part of an hour to absolutely convince him that doing a clockwise circuit made more sense than riding across the freaking province and doing it counter clockwise. Lets get through the places without snow first (we were still early March, and the snow has not yet started melting in the higher regions of the Himalayas). This would not be the first time our plans changed on the whim, and not the first time I had to convince him. But by the end of the trip, I think I managed to break him down in so far as changing stuff up concerns. Almost to the point where the previous evening he would ask if we were still going where we were supposed to lol!

He managed to break me down too. Break down my evident distaste to riding long moronic kilometers every day. I managed to finally find the joy in doing that. More on that one later.

So this is what we ended up doing.


Looking over the pretty Kameng river before we left Bhalukpong


The roads we rode over to get to this side of the mountains.




Stopping for a break. We had a relatively short distance today, so we could afford to do the things I liked most.


Checking out views like these.


We finally started approaching hanging suspended bridges over glacial rivers. Loved it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6MNTSEN5A

Goddamn, I couldn't keep my head straight. Haha.

I think we must have ridden across atleast a 100 or more such little bridges over the course of the next few months. These bridges are the lifeline for people living in such rugged mountainous regions. Else its a trek down the mountain, a scary boat ride across if the weather is good, and then another hike up the mountain. To buy sugar. I can't even begin to imagine it.

[CptSlow]

Such an inspirational travelogue! It has all the highs and lows life can throw at you on a ride and the way you guys have just embraced it and made the best out of every situation. Can't wait to read the rest of it!

[no_fear]

Any chance you guys are going to put this up as a Youtube travel vlog? Would be such a welcome change compared to 2021 Hayabusa releases and who got the first one in India and how fast can it go.

You have explored a region of India that not everyone goes to. It will definitely attract several of us gear heads who thrive on such lovely every day riding documentaries. I don't think even a voice over is needed. Just daily rides, and normal commentary.