the power at the tip of my fingertips, the humming of the engine between my legs, and the wind blowing in my face. But sometimes, the road is no more than boulders, rocks, mud, and flowing streams of water, the power of the Enfield gives me a stronger and less-safe push forward than I would like, the vibrations of the engine make my feet numb, and instead of wind blowing in my face, it's dust flying into my eyes, causing an eye infection, which is what I awoke to discover on the morning of Day 3.
As we awoke, for the first time with no alarms, we casually explored the village of Sangla, I found some antibiotics for my eye, and in the afternoon we enjoyed a leisurely 2-hour ride to Chitkul. Day 4 was also meant to be a relaxed day. In the morning, a girl we met the day before, who was riding with 2 guys, asked us if she could continue with us, as she was pressed for time. So we left 7 people, and within an hour Lior's bike started giving him problems. In the 1.5 hours we waited, Amir took the opportunity to weld another broken part of his bike. We were then able to ride 3 or 4 more hours with no further problems. And then, an hour before reaching our destination, Lior's accelerator cable ripped. Missing 1 small part, and having to ride up to the nearest mechanic to find a replacement and then back down to the bike, it took nearly 2 hours until the bike was fixed. We arrived at Kalpa at 6:30pm, riding the last half hour in a light rain. Once again, our day turned out to be much longer than we expected. And for our new rider, (girl) Lior, this was quite a change of pace from riding with the 2 experienced riders she was with before. Over an awful dinner, we decided we would spend an extra night in Kalpa. So on the 5th Day, we rested. This worked well for me, as my stomach problems had only worsened since we left Manali.
In the morning, we rode down to Reckong Peo to get our Inner-Line Permits, necessary for driving on our route on the sensitive Indo-China/Tibet border, and then I went to find a doctor. A doctor there wasn't, but a hospital there was. Visiting an Indian hospital was quite an experience, though it was no help for my stomach problems, nor for the leg pains I started feeling the night before. And this was not the kind of hospital where I'd be willing to get blood work done, so I decided to grin and bare it.
On the morning of Day 6, we awoke to see that the beautiful mountain view we had become accustomed to, had been covered by thick clouds of mist. We got ready to leave, but every time the skies cleared up, a new mist cloud rolled in moments later, bringing with it a light rain. By 9, we decided we couldn't wait anymore, as we had a long ride ahead, and we departed Kalpa. Driving at a pace rivaling that of a small child, with visibility no more than a few feet ahead, we descended to Reckong Peo. Within 20 minutes, on a steep 180 degree turn, Amir avoided a low-speed collision with a jeep, crashing his bike into the ground and breaking his headlight. A few minutes later, we continued on without any further incidents, and with only a few short breaks, we arrived in Nako in the late afternoon. We walked to the Nako lake, where Amir braved the cold water to take a dip, and then we hiked up to a viewing point that made it clear to me why so many friends of mine insisted that I get to Nako. At night, we sat together and examined our map, counting days and dates, and determined that we needed to get a hustle on. With the Dalai Lama's birthday approaching in 3 days in Tabo, and his stops planned in villages nearby, we knew that we'd have trouble finding places to sleep in the area. We didn't finalize plans, but prepared ourselves to possibly have to sleep in less-than-ideal conditions if we had to.
On Day 7, we rode through the morning without a hitch, arriving in Tabo for lunch. Lunch took longer than expected, and at 3 we left, with questionable amounts of gas in our tanks for the distances we planned to cover before the next gas station. Taking a detour into the Pin Valley, we arrived in Mud, bypassing Danker, in an impressive 3 hours. As we arrived, Amir felt there was a problem with his front tire, and after 10 minutes, it was visible that air was leaking. Since we still had an hour or so of sunlight left, and not wanting to be delayed in the morning, we decided to change the tire right way. This proved to be more difficult than we thought, and an hour later we were still working, with hardly any light out, and occasional rock blasts across the valley forcing us indoors. When the inner tire was removed, we inspected it only to discover that it wasn't even punctured. The valve was leaking air, and we were quickly able to remedy this. But we had already removed the tire and the inner tube (the bulk of the work), so it didn't really matter at this point. Our next fun discovery was that the new tire pump we had bought wasn't worth the $9 we spent on it, and couldn't fully inflate the tire. Leaving Benami and Amir to finish the job, I went to shower, only to discover on my return that they had lost 1 of the 4 nuts that holds the front tire onto the bike. It was futile to search through the gravel it fell into in the dark, so we decided we would try in the morning.
So on the morning of Day 8, after searching for over an hour, with the help of some local kids, Amir's bike was left with a half-inflated tire that was only three-quarters attached to the bike. In other words, it was unrideable, especially on the rocky road that leads out of the Pin Valley. Catching a ride to Kaza, 50km away, Amir and Lior took the half-inflated tire and one of the nuts, along with our 4 empty gas cans, hoping they would return with all missions completed so we could continue the following day. Benami, Keren, and myself decided to take a ride to Dhankar, which we were told was another must-see village in the Spiti Valley. 50km from Mud, including an 8km climb from the valley, we reached the beautiful village of Dhankar, where security forces were posted all along the way, as the Dalai Lama was scheduled to make a stop there for the afternoon. All along the uphill road, all of the neighboring villages had set up huge banners welcoming the Dalai Lama. We parked our bikes about 1km downhill from the village, and walked up, awaiting the Dalai Lama's arrival by the monastery in Dhankar. 30 minutes after waiting in the heat, the Dalai Lama's convoy arrived. 15 cars in total, with a very modest sedan that the Dalai Lama himself rode in. Of course, there was a very large commotion over his arrival. He entered the monastery, at which point we decided this was a good time to go, and we began our ride back to Mud. 2 hours later, we were back in Mud, making record time. My arms, and the back of my hands, were quite sunburned as I had not applied sunscreen on in the morning, and I knew I'd be paying for that oversight over the remaining days of our trip. But for the 4 hours of riding, I set up my music playlist to play, in order, Led Zeppelin I - IV, and Houses of the Holy, and enjoyed it tremendously. Maybe that's why I didn't notice my hands and arms turning bright red throughout the day. Oh well.
Day 9 was also a short day, as we only had a 50km ride to Kaza, where we refilled on gas (the last gas station before Manali), and then had a pleasant 1-hour ride to Kibber Village (which used to claim to be the highest village in the world), another must-see stop. On the way, we also took a quick detour to Key, where the Key Monastery is cozily nestled into the side of the mountain, making for quite a view. At Kibber Village, we ate lunch, and as the rest of the group went to walk around, I took a much-needed nap. That night, we sat around and discussed what was to come. According to our schedule, we had 2 more days planned for trip, but we were well aware that the last two days would be long, hard days that involved climbing up to very high mountain passes, and then back down. Fingers crossed, once again, we left Kibber Village early on the morning of Day 10, hoping we would (all) make it to Manali in 2 days, without any (more) major motorcycle problems...
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