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Old 13th August 2018, 17:56   #61
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

All the best Sir, where are you off to?
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Old 18th August 2018, 12:55   #62
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

I been to Ladakh five times and encountered many cyclists ( most of them foreigners). For me, these cyclists are brave people. I can't even think of the kind of physical fitness is required to achieve this kind of fit.

Personally, I am a big fan of "adc's"log.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...mmit-trek.html
And now, here we have one more amazing travelogue on cycling to Leh-Ladakh. As many of you said that cycling is the best way to remain close and talk with nature. Unfortunately, I don't consider myself fit enough to even think of this kind of feat.


Thank you very much, mr.sinha for this amazing travelogue with excellent photographs.
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Old 17th March 2019, 23:58   #63
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

DAY 8: 7-AUG-2017. Debring - Tanglang La - Rumste - Upshi. 75 kms.

Its been almost a year and a half since I wrote up to Day 7 of my trip, and either I felt too lazy or busy or both and couldn’t write down the last 2 days of my trip. In the meantime many of my fellow BHP-ians have privately enquired with me if I was OK and when I would be completing the travelogue. So finally here it is. Thank you for your patience.

In 2018, I also did a 5-day cycling trip on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, which I will write about one day too.

So after a good night’s rest, I was ready to tackle the mighty Tanglang La in the morning. I started at my usual time of 7 am.It was 21 kms to the top, and what a 21 kms it is.

You can see the top from Debring itself, but the journey seems almost unending.

Debring is at 15,750 ft and Tangling La top is at 17,582 ft, so this is an altitude gain of 2000 ft over 21 kms. The road isn’t extremely steep as I found in some of the other passes, but it’s long and endlessly winding around the mountains and repeatedly gives an illusion that you are near the top, only to turn the corner and find yet another stretch winding around another mountain. And the altitude is almost a 1000 ft higher than Baralacha La, so breathing becomes even more difficult and laborious.

Luckily the weather was excellent in the morning. I was really looking forward to finally finish the last hurdle of the trip and join back civilization.

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You can get an idea of the scale of the road and mountains by looking at the oil-tankers plying.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170807_113453.jpg

Traffic was moderate. Progress was slow. Breathing was getting increasingly difficult. Stops were more frequent. Water consumption was high. I was barely doing 3 kms an hour. I was doing 50 pedals, then stop for 30 seconds, then repeat. The view was terrific though.

After almost 5 hours, still another 4 kms to go. The temptation to latch on to the truck was overwhelming.

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And then finally, I reached the top. The last and biggest mountain of the trip was done and a sense of accomplishment filled me. The smile says it all. And I wasn’t as tired as I was during the Sarchu - Nakee La - Whisky Nullah stretch on Day 6. Now its only downhill for the next 100 kms all the way to Leh. Ah, what a feeling.

“UNBELIEVABLE, IS IT NOT?” Aptly written.

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I rested for about 15 minutes, walked around a bit, got my photograph taken, and watched tourists get down from their vehicles and take photos. As luck would have it, there was a tea shop and it was open. So helped myself to a well-deserved cup of tea and chatted with the shop keeper. The shopkeeper wow-wowed me, but then advised me to not stay there for too long at that altitude and get going.

The snow from the previous winter had not melted.

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Passed by many small villages, - Sasoma, Gya, Lato, Rumste etc. on the way. Initially I thought I’d stop for the night at Rumste, but then decided to push forward another 30 kms till Upshi, so I’d have a good, relaxing ride tomorrow to Leh. Anyway this was mostly downhill to flat.

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My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170807_161128.jpg

<to be continued>
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Old 18th March 2019, 00:48   #64
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

<Day 8 continued>

A shepherd on skates.

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Finally reached Upshi around 6pm. This is the Indus river, all swollen up with water from the rains. Upshi is on the other side of this bridge.



Got a small cheap room right next to the bridge for the night. Got some spotty BSNL signal and was able to call home. Family was relieved to hear from me. There was no running water, so got 2 buckets of water - 1 of hot water, and had a decent mug-shower after 6 days. The last shower I had was in Sissu at the homestay on Day 2.

My appetite was still no good, so ate half a plate of veg momos, walked a bit around Upshi, then finally went to bed by 9.

<End of Day 8>



DAY 9: 8-AUG-2017. Upshi - Leh. 48 kms.

The reality had begun to sink in that actually I am on the verge of completing a journey today that had begun a year ago with the purchase of the bicycle and the physical and mental preparations that I went through. Today was going to be easy cycling 50 odd kms to Leh and I was taking it easy. I was cycling at a slow pace, soaking in the scenery on the way and stopping frequently for tea, sometimes taking to army men who frequented the tea joints on the road. I had been on this road twice before by car and with a few photo stops, had mostly zipped through. Today it felt different.

Started cycling around 8 am today. I had a solid 10 hrs sleep and felt fresh though I was still not hungry. I was sick of the maggi soup and omelets anyway and wanted some good spicy meat for a change.

The weather was good. The Indus was in voluminous flow after the recent rains and sometimes flooding the road.

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TBHP readers are already very familiar with numerous Ladakh travelogues and would have visited or seen pictures of places along this road already, so I won’t bore you with more commentary except for an occasional remark here and there.

The Stakna and Thicksey monasteries looked beautiful as usual.

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One of the advantages of traveling by cycle is to notice small things along the way, like these rock paintings by the roadside.

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My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_124513.jpg

<to be continued>
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Old 18th March 2019, 01:03   #65
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

<Day 9 continued>

And now, ladies and gentlemen, this is where I FINALLY got my appetite back. Saw this and entered. Ordered chicken biryani and some spicy mutton curry. The chicken biryani sucked. You’d think they would make good biryani in J&K, but it was disappointing. But the mutton curry was fantastic. So I abandoned the biryani and ordered good old plain rice to go with it. After my last good meal at Darcha (also rice & mutton), after 6 days I finally had a fill of good food. I was back in business.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_134335.jpg
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My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_135928.jpg

Finally entered Leh around 2 pm, looked for a hotel and found a decent one.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170809_155041.jpg

But before I went up to my room, I visited the Tempo office to book my return journey to Manali for next day evening.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_152724.jpg


Finally entered my room and encountered the inevitable “What now?” moment. It was a feeling of emptiness that swept over me. I had lost almost 5 kilos of weight and there was even the beginnings of a 6-pack on my stomach (which was short-lived and got covered by the usual fatty layer within the next few weeks anyway).

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_160015.jpg

After a good hot shower and a few hours of sleep, I went to the market place in the evening to look for a good place to eat dinner and celebrate.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_193923.jpg

Found a decent place and treated myself to some good kebabs etc.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170808_205219.jpg

Thus ended my last day of cycling of this trip.




Return to Manali: 9-AUG-2017.

After a nice relaxing day and good lunch and some rest, I arrived at the taxi stand around 4 pm. The Tempo leaves at 5pm to Leh. My cycle was loaded up on top of other luggage on the roof, and we were soon on our way. The Temp was packed - all seats taken.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170809_155655.jpg
My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170809_182838.jpg

Following map gives a summary of the distance and altitude on the Manali-Leh Highway.

My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway-img_20170809_213835.jpg


I didn’t sleep a wink for 16 hours of the return journey primarily because I was seated in a very uncomfortable position - the last row, right window - there was a spare tire on the floor and I couldn’t stretch my legs even a bit except during the 3 stops at Pang, Sarchu and Khoksar.

But as the Tempo speeded through, I was reliving the past 9 days, each and every moment, specially - Debring, where the mother & son running the tent took incredible care of me, Whisky Nullah & Nakee La where I was in the middle of a hailstorm and almost dead from exhaustion, Bharatpur where I had a long chat with two army Majors from Pune, Pang where an old lady at the lunch place motivated me to complete the journey, the shifting steel plates on the Whisky Bridge, the old man who took good care of me by giving me extra blankets at the Snow View Dhaba in Upper Zingzingbar, the BRO worker at Patsio who invited me for tea, the rice & mutton at Darcha, the nice homestay at Sissu, the water crossings at one of which a missionary priest stopped his car to just talk to me and encourage me when I was walking my cycle through the water, the innumerable motorbike travelers who always gave me a thumbs up, a group of guys on motorbikes from Bangalore who thought I was a nutcase, and numerous other things.

We finally reached Manali bus stand around 9 am on 10-Aug. I looked for a hotel near the bus stand, found one, then booked a cab to take me to the Palchan hotel to retrieve my suitcase and the bicycle box.



Return to Chandigarh: 11-Aug-2017

Back at the hotel, I tried to book another vehicle to take me to Chandigarh. I was looking for a Innova or Sumo kind of vehicle but there was none available. Imagine what I finally got - a whole Temp Traveller - all to myself - at the same price as Innova - 6000 bucks. This Sardarji was returning to Chandigarh empty and he was all too happy to get this money. He turned out to be an incredibly helpful person. He helped me find a hotel near Chandigarh railway station, and even helped me carry my bicycle to the parcel booking office.

I started for Chandigarh on 12-Aug morning 6 am and reached by early afternoon. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder about God’s sense of humor. A day ago, I was all cramped up in a Tempo, not able to move my leg, and today I had a Tempo all to myself.

Since I had saved 2 days from my initially planned itinerary, my train was 2 days later, so I called up my friend to see if he could advance the booking with confirmation. He was able to advance the booking by 1 day, so I still had rest of the day and the next 1 whole day at Chandigarh. Did nothing except to relax, eat and sleep in the hotel. Meanwhile, booked by cycle in the parcel van. It turned out to be more cumbersome than my experience in Howrah. There were no agents and the booking office clerks were not very helpful. It took me a lot of running around to get the booking finally done.



HOMEWARD BOUND

At 1 AM on 13-August-21017, I boarded the Kalka Mail which reached Howrah the next day around 2 pm. Then the next 3 hours were spent getting my bicycle ox released from the parcel office. After the usual run-ins with Kolkata police at some traffic signals, I finally reached home around 7 pm.



Conclusion:

Over the next few months, many people who came to know about this trip asked my why I went solo, instead of in a group or with support vehicles. Well, for one thing, I didn't find anyone among my biking acquaintances who were willing to do this trip. But more importantly, I wanted to do this completely at my own pace. If I had to quit in the middle, I could do so on my own terms and without affecting the plans of anyone else in a group.

One thing I realized after this trip is that we have the potential to push our limits and take things much further than we can imagine. We just need to dream about it first. We truly discover ourselves only if we push ourselves hard enough. This trip has been a humbling experience as well as a great achievement for me.

Hope you all liked the travelogue, and if I have been able to inspire even one of you to follow your dreams, all this writing effort would become well worth it. Thank you. God bless.
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Old 19th March 2019, 13:01   #66
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Re: My 9 days of cycling on the Manali-Leh Highway

Finally read a complete TL after a very long time!

Hats off to you for the courage, mental preparation and final execution of this mammoth of a trip.

Today when you look back at this journey, what thoughts come to your mind? Did it change how you look at life?

Did this set-of other journeys which may happen? I am totally curious!!

Absolutely amazing! Thank you for taking out the time to share this with all of us.

Warm Regards
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