Motorcycle Diaries : To Himalayas: Day 1 , The beginning !

By now some of you know but if not, I have a great passion for riding motorcycles. I am not much in to the mechanics of it. But it gives me lot of joy , gives a different perspective and more freedom that travelling on a car. Its a Stress Buster.

This blog is about one of the most adventurous road trip I have done on motorcycle. 3 friends , 3 motorcycles , 16 days on road, Visiting Himalayas for first time, an accident, almost quitting half way, riding highest motorable road in the world... All in all it was lot of drama and fun ! If you would like to hear more, please keep reading :)

Month of June , Year 2009 , Bangalore India

For those of you don't know riding in Himalaya's is a dream for most motorcyclist around the world , you will see why :) It’s the 3rd time in last few years I was planning to go Leh,Ladhak in Himalayas , but nothing worked out yet.

I used to live in Southern india and going to Himalayas in North itself is considered a big thing back then and it needs lot of preparation. Different terrain, food, language , weather etc - India is very diverse.With 2 unsuccessful attempts in 07 (back pain) and 08 (personal issues) this year all of a sudden along with my other riding buddies (Rahul , Vinal) I started planning for the ride just 2-3 weeks before the trip started.

Everything ready to pack, ha ha. Its not much all goes in one backpack and a tank bag.

Packed !

I had not told my parents till until very close to the trip. To my surprise they didn’t oppose oventhough its considered bit dangerous traveling from one end of the country to the other. In fact they supported me, dad started asking about the routes and plan. So I too was very happy.

So here we are finally starting the trip, so from now on less text more pics.

Day 1: Bangalore – Pune 900KMs

We started by 3.30 am. Our Plan was to reach Pune as early as possible and based on it crash for the day or continue further till Mumbai.

My Friend Rahul

Vinal lubing the chain , the only one who cares about the motorcycle :) . Vinal and I grew up together sine we were 10 year old

Farmer !

Our Lunch, yummy Indian chicken curry!

Beautiful roads and great weather to ride, I love to ride in rain !

We got some rain in some part.

My friend was in traveling back from Bangalore and his flight for delayed by an hour. So when we reached his place ,he was not yet there . To my surprise it was a big enough room and was bit neat too for a bachelors room, ha ha. Didn’t even bother to have dinner since we were so tiered. We had some snacks. I crashed on the sofa mean while Vinal and Rahul slept inside the room. May be by 10 I hear someone knocking the door… no I didn’t hear it or did I ?. But don’t know how I opened the door and here comes my Pal.

He was so excited seeing me after many years. I couldn’t take his excitement ha ha, as I was soo tiered. He was not allowing me to sleep. Finally after he felt its enough and let me sleep.

For Day 1 , Initial 400 km was kind of boring for me not so enjoyable to ride. After that it was superb roads.

Day 2&3 - Disaster Strikes !

Cheers!
@ashwinrajt