Day 6: Leh-Khardung La - Panamik - Hargam - Diskit

The next morning, the Bull refused to start. Here I am in Mahey guesthouse - staring at the Himalayas in front of me, with sunflowers, tomatoes, egg plant and other stuff growing in the garden - Renzig and others from the guest house (really, really nice people) tried to help me but the Bull won't start. Hey, it's Khardung La that I have to climb - if it refuses in Leh at some 10k feet, what am I to do at 18k feet?! And someone looked out from one of the windows in the guesthouse and shouted, "We have a mechanic with us - do you want us to send him?" "You have a mechanic? Of course!" And Ashok - the mechanic turned up - I had ignored using him the day before because I didn't trust he had better skills than Juma (whom I went to and who didn't fix my problem). Veeru, a guy from Bangalore was riding with 7-8 other people (all from Bangalore) - they hired Ashok from Manali for Rs.500/ day so they don't have trouble along the way and can have a hassle-free ride. Ashok took about 5 minutes to fix the problem - he opened the tube leading from the filter into the carburretor and cleaned out the dust and kachra in it. Vroom - it roared and he tuned the engine and it did what it did back on earth - consistent thud, thud, thud without the need to rev it. Oh my God - I was so relieved. He refused money and I insisted and gave him some. I was on my way to Khardung La - but wait, I had to take extra fuel because I was planning to go to Nubra valley (beyond the pass) - why? because the travel agent who got my permit decided to get me a permit (you get one from the Municipal commission etc.) up to Nubra.

While filling fuel I noticed two other Bulleteers - one in a red jacket, the other in yellow - I nodded a knowing nod at the red one. Little I did I know then that I'd meet them on K-top and spend the next two days with them.

90% of the ride to Khardung La is comfortable, easy etc. - roads are nice, curvy, smooth - with BRO funnies and reminders along the way - you'll also see a lot of vehicles going up and down. However, you can't say the same about the last 10km. You just can't. I got stuck in between 10 army convoys in those last 10km and neither could speed and move to higher gear - nor stay at constant speed. As the road got from bad to worse, there were times I could sense that the Bull might just stop and if I stopped, I'd be screwed - really, badly screwed and there's all possibility that the motorcycle would roll backwards. The whole terrain becomes rocky with streams and sometimes snow. It's so cold that your fingers and toes are near-ready to fall off. You can't breath much either. Being behind a puffing army convoy didn't help much either. And you can't even overtake because your motorcycle doesn't have sufficient pull and momentum to quickly overtake in the little room there is. The engine - just like the human body - finds it hard to breath, mix air and petrol and burn to complete its exothermic reactions that give it the thrust to go forward. There were times when I had use my legs to push the motorcycle forward - your mind can't think anything else because you are much too busy and much too alert driving the motorcycle. And finally you reach the top. The high that it gives you - the kick is to die for. Khardung La - also called the Gate of India by armymen is a small area - that says 18,380 feet and highest motorable pass - everywhere. It has a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple, an army post, a restaurant that serves tea and Maggi noodles and even a souvenir shop that sold yellow-colored t-shirts. I met Abhishek from Delhi (red jacket) and Joshua from Nagaland (yellow jacket) on top and we decided to connect later down the Nubra valley. I took the pics I wanted to take and started down. The next 5-10km wasn't very easy either. It was very, very cold with snow and wind blowing in your face. The terrain is as bad as the one leading up to the top. You are constantly trying to balance the motorcycle and avoid bumping too much into the rocks. You'll also hear your motorcycle's shock absorbers making their metallic sounds. And you'll constantly stare at the magnificent valley that falls deep below a few feet away from you. That is Khardung La - the world's highest motorable pass.

Down Nubra valley - near the village of Khardung, I met a group of 8 from Israel who were out of fuel. I helped them out - gave them a litre - I learnt the next day that the army also gave them a litre and they finally climbed out of Khardung La, back to Leh. All you get is Maggi noodles everywhere and it's never tasted better! Along the way, Ed an American driving Hero Honda and Alan and Joan, a senior couple from Newzealand also driving a Bull joined us. I realized later that they were driving with Abhi and Joe from Leh.

Panamik and Hargam had a profound impact on me. I can't exactly say why. There were small instances. I stopped along the way to ask directions. A little boy with toothpaste covering edges of his mouth and who understood little Hindi, forcefully pointed the backward direction when I said, "Panamik." Go back, go back he seemed to say. When I wanted to take a pic of him and his sis, he stood in stiff attention. I broke into a laughter seeing him. His mother kept calling him back - inside the house - perhaps saying, don't talk to strangers - especially those on motorcycles. We continued on to reach Hargam - an army guard stopped us there and asked, "Where are you going?" Sasoma - we tried to say - he interrupted, "Not allowed." He agreed for us to stop at Hargam restaurant and eat our Maggi noodles. I saw one girl here and her facial features resembled Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor's so much. Her hands and neck were big - much like a man's. She wore white sneakers and kept blowing bubbles out of chewing gum. I spoke to a man there who supplied stuff to the army - he told me that the Siachen border was about 20-25km from there - on the left was Pakistan and on the right was China. We were so close to the Line-of-control - oh, boy. We drove to the last and northern most possible place in India - it had an odd-calming effect.