TGT : Day 1 -- 02/09/07 -- Delhi-Manali -- The Tour begins. Finally!

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Date : 02/09/07
Place : Anant's Home (Delhi)
Time : 2.00am
Distance Covered : (11496.0 - 10922) = 574kms
Itinerary: Delhi - Panipat - Ambala Cannt (NH1) - Chandigarh - Ropad - Kiratpur - Kullu - Manali
Fuel : All along the way
Connectivity : All cellphones work in roaming. STD booths all along.
Food & Shelter : Umpteen hotels to eat and stay. A bit scarce once you start climbing towards Manali. Carry your own water as much as possible.
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Slept at 9pm last night only to wake up at 2.00am. Anant's mom made me light an agarbatti and pray at 2.45am once i was ready. Felt like home! The plan was to meet Yogesh at Brar Circle at 3.15am and head towards Manali.
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A pretty uneventful day with most of the riding on NH1. Rains near Ambala meant had to use the tarpaulin the very first day. The panchu worth Rs.75 worn over the riding gear gave away in the very first hour! :) Some bad roads on the way near Kiratpur where construction of flyovers is in progress but otherwise not much. Climb to Manali was good with the first flavours of the mountains thrown in. Still some rain but mostly drizzle. Thankfully no traffic jams. By the time we made it to Kullu, it was dark and dinner time and around 9pm. Post dinner ride was awsome. Night rides seem to be becoming my favourites. We passed through what was a 2.8kms long tunnel and at one point, i almost turned back since there was no oncoming traffic!!
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We still made it to Manali by around 11pm after almost 21hrs of starting from Delhi. Not a great record to boast of...Dharam was already there since the morning having taken a bus on 1st. Had thankfully got me a warm sweater by then. The accomodation was in HPTDC Dorms (Only Rs.75!) which were good but bloody cold. No hot water meant everytime we dipped our hands in water, we froze to death for about 5mins! But anyways. The excitement carried through the day till the lights went out at around 12.30pm. Yawn...But TGT had finally begun. So much thinking, planning & dreaming for it and now we were finally on our way!