TGT : Day 2 -- 03/09/07 -- Manali-Darcha -- Off To Leh!

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Date : 03/09/07
Starting Point : HPTDC Dorms in Manali
Destination : Darcha (Pang as planned but reality is usually harsher!)
Start Time : 8.00am
Distance Covered : (11650.1 - 11496.0) = 154.1 kms
Itinerary: Manali - Rohtang Pass - Gundla - Khoksar - Tandi - Keylong - Jispa - Darcha
Fuel : Only petrol bunk between Manali & Leh is at "Tandi". Also, pray that there is electricity and stock of fuel!
Connectivity : No cellular network. Only STD booth between Manali & Leh was in Jispa. Manali to Leh is 3 days so only time to call back home is day 1!
Road Conditions : Have noticed that its mostly good except a few kilometers before and after a pass. It was near Rohtang on either sides with roads exceptionally bad after Rohtang till Sarchu. Nothing as bad as it is mentioned in the logs pre-2006! In fact an all season road from Manali till Leh will be open by 2009 if the BRO plans go along as planned.
Food & Shelter : Forget pukka makaans and meals. Mostly tents only for extremely basic food & accomodation beyond Rohtang. Maggi & eggs is staple diet. Lucky if you get rice-dal/rajma & sabji (mostly cabbage with carrots). Lots of different kinds of tea though. Accomodation is basic again. Tents with beds. Generally extremely cheap in late august & september but NOT at Darch. The ones we took at Darcha were Rs.125/person for the night! Forget hot water. If you do get some, it will mostly be a jug barely enough to brush your teeth and wipe your face. Toilets? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!! Get used to crapping in the open and using tissue wipes.
Daily Expenses : Fuel - Rs.290 + Rs.200, Food + Water - Rs.150
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When in Manali, make sure you close all doors & windows of the room before you go to bed. I didn't and woke up at 7am with barely any sleep and a throbbing headache. Hot water costs Rs.10 a bucket but is normally unavailable in the mornings (when you need it the most!) even if you are willing to pay with your life! So with no tea, only cold water for morning chores, we still managed to load all the luggage on the bikes by 7.45am. Filled the tank to the brim and off we went, luggage-myself-&-dharam, at 8am towards Rohtang, our first halt. I was sure the bike was going to pull it through like a jetliner with around 200kgs on top of it! Reality usually isn't a nice dream, so i was to find out later. BTW, we started right in front of the sign saying "Manali-0 km" ;-)
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It was all damn exciting. The chill, the feeling of truly getting on with the ride, the excitement about visiting the places i've been seeing on the net. Guess thats what pulled me & Dharam till Rohtang cause the bike just wouldn't. So much for an Enfield 350! We still managed to huff & puff our way till Rohtang Pass at the altitude of 13050ft. And what a feeling it was to be on a "PASS" in the Himalaya's finally. The air was cold and it was pretty cloudy but the faces were beaming. Sounds poetic but then it still doesn't capture the "Wow, I'm here!" feeling. It is to be experienced, not read on some blog. There were customary pictures taken at Rohtang with all bikes lined up. Quite a line up it was with about 20 bikes. And as expected, there was a pile up of bikes. The only thing standing between the bikes toppling down and the ones still standing was the mighty Bhuwan! I'm not lying! Go see the pictures for yourself. ;-)
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I was pretty careful at Rohtang trying to take tiny steps to make sure I don't tire myself out as i'd read in various logs on the net. But honestly, i was feeling ridiculous walking so slow and not really doing things like getting the bike on its main stand. So i decided to test the caution and see if one really does get tired with minor physical activity like walking! What a mistake it turned out to be given that i had already woken up with a groggy mind. Now i was saddled with an extremely irritating and persisting headache that wasn't to go away soon enough. So AMS is serious thing and the only way it can let go of you from its clutches is sleeping over it. Unfortunately, its not always possible cause its not something that you encounter only in the nights! So pay heed to all the warnings and take it easy till you acclamatise. ;-)
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Roads leading to Rohtang are actually quite a difficult climb. One manages to ignore the seriousness of the climb since it is the first pass and adrenaline levels are pretty high. A lot of other higher altitude passes like "Naki La" & "Baralaccha" are infact a lot more easier on the bike. Again, the climb down towards Sarchu leads you through probably what are (were soon i hope) the worst roads in the entire Manali-Leh stretch. Dharam's back and butt were probably subjected to 3rd degree torture till we made it safely to Sarchu. Roads from Sarchu onwards are good and by any standards. In fact roads in some parts of Pune city are worse! So the ride further till the night halt at Darcha was smooth with frequent breaks for pictures. We made it to Darcha by 5.30pm pretty much in one piece.
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Darcha is actually not a village or town but just a bunch of tin sheds and tents. You hit it right after climbing down the mountainous road from Jispa. So remember what i said and don't start dreaming of cozy hotel rooms, warm beds and hot dinner. The tents them selves were pretty warm but offering not much in terms of food except maggi, eggs & rice-dal. So thats what we had and i spent the rest of my time reading the service manual, talking to a chap from bombay riding solo on his bullet 350, and fiddling with my bike as per his and the service manuals instructions. I was to find out later that it just was such a terrible thing to do! Dharam spent the time finding out about buses/cabs that go towards Leh to avoid the grind all over again since the log entries we had read said that Baralaccha and More Plains had bad roads. Plus there were Lachungla & Tanglangla (2nd highest pass @ 17582ft) to climb the next day to make it to Leh. Seems there is a Delhi-Leh(!!!) bus that passes through Darcha at 6am and Dharam decided to get on it.
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Anyways. The time after 5.30pm was spent EATING, getting used to the cold water, smell of the bedsheets in the tent and messing up the bike. Actually i could've very well ended the days log in the previous paragraph except that i'm still in two minds about whether to put in a few words on how much a city b@st@rd i've become. But what the heck! A day of riding and sipping tea at every break meant there was intense pressure building up inside by 9pm to do the crap session. Inspite of spending the entire day, without what falls in the category of "facilities", i still was hoping to find a decent loo. The girls who were running the place must have had a seriously tough time suppressing their laughter since i actually asked them this question. All they did to answer it was wave their hand outside and point towards the open space!! It wasn't easy to go through the entire exercise at 2.30am when it is 5degrees outside and trucks keep flashing their headlights at you. Some things just have to be done no matter what the price! ;-) It was also one of the umpteen things that made me realize the kind of luxuries we dabble in and manage to ignore in the city for ever running behind that expensive car or mobile phone.
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