At the foothills of the Great Himalayas

Am finally here at the foothills of the Himalayas typing with a swollen middle finger in an Internet cafe called the Valley of the Gods. It's unfair on Day 1 that I don't want to write much about it now because my mind has already moved on. But the net-net of Day 1 was Punjab was amazing - I mean the govt. and the system - it all seems to work so beautiful there. The minute Himachal Pradesh starts, it's all uphill and the mountains start. Apart from a mad mongrel chasing after me out of the blue, the day was incident free. I stayed the night in Mandi, HP in the former palace of the Raja of Mandi but the place itself doesn't seem that way - the rooms are nice that's all.

Today (Day 2) was a completely different story. I started around 8am in Mandi hoping to catch a late breakfast in Manali. The guys at the HP gas station said it might take me 3 hrs, I said nah, more like 2-2.5hrs. Little did I know what was coming. There a zillion hairpin bends (of course not like what will be the next 2 days!) and it rained etc. The Bull skid along the way and I slammed my handle into a milk truck that suddenly braked. The driver got out and said, "Drive slow, drive slow." Hey I was! With a titled side-view mirror and a changed handle I continued. But my respite was for but 5 minutes. I realized the Bull was wobbling forcing me to stop and move to the side. And I saw what I really didn't want to see - a flat rear tire. Hmmm...I looked at the climb and thought what I must do. I tried pushing it and it's just too heavy! Then I got off, thought I'd walk and find a mechanic. I asked for a lift for about the next 10min - no one stopped. Hmmm...I saw some village women with load of grass - they told me a tire shop should be about 2km from where I was. Alright I said, lemme just push the beast. And a beast it was. Huffing and panting, tasting the beer from last night in my mini burps I decided to just start and drive on first gear. I did that for a bit and met some bathing truck drivers on the way. Smoking a beedi, the guy said that I'll end up chewing up the tube inside and also bend the rim - rim? hey I just changed it in Delhi. Alright, I got off the Bull, pushed it some more. And I came by a hut - a family - someone there started to walk in my direction. I asked his name - DHaranram - and I requested him to help me push it up slope. He did - huffing, panting. The next 1.5km were the most difficult 1.5km that I ever walked stopping nearly every 5-10 min- trekking on Mt. Si in Seattle was difficult yes but this was different. On my left was the majestic himachal mountains, on the right the Beas river that followed me all the way through.

Finally I reached Sanjay's Workshop - the first, closer one was closed. Here's the pic right after the push with my savior, Dharanram.
They didn't have an Enfield tube, ordered it and it came in due course and I fixed it myself with Sanjay's mechanic tutoring me. And finally I was on my way. I reached Manali - bought all the stuff that I hitherto ignored - foot pump, spare tube, blah, blah (I forgot to buy a jerry can - oops! - no gas after Tandi). Had the Bull checked up at Anu Motors - there's a brilliant kid called Vijay who boosted me and the Bull alike.

Going with the flow, I reached Vasisht village, next door to Manali. It's lovely, laid back, all kinds of music in the background (loved Nepalese music where I had tea). Pic is of the road leading to the Vasisht temple, which has the natural hot springs. Another kid at the Enfield workshop explained to me that the hotsprings have sulphur in it, which does good stuff to the skin. After my bath, I sat with the priest - he looked more Kashmiri but must be from HP - actually as you keep driving up towards the himalayas, the features of people get closer and closer to the Kashmiris. He summed Bhagwad Gita for the two gentlemen from Delhi and I - you can wash all you want with water or even in this hot spring everyday but that'll clean the mortal body and not the immortal soul - which can be cleaned only with dhyan and sadhana, meditation. Ahem.