Leh, Ladakh

I should have died on top of Baralacha la pass, but for some reason I'm still alive.

It was yet another ride, with just me, the bike and the mountains. There're no people around. I asked myself, where have the people gone? Weather was harsh. It was hot and dry during daytime and freezing cold in the night.

Second time I'm caught up in a mountain pass. This time it is Baralacha la pass. The oxygen was very low. I was fighting every second to keep myself alive, breathing with my mouth wide open. Biking was another challenge. Forget biking, it was hard for me even to walk and push the bike. I couldn't walk 10 steps while ascending to Baralacha la. My body was cursing my mind.

As I reached Baralacha la it was pitch dark. I couldn't see a thing. The place seemed haunted and I felt so lonely. My palm and feet had gone numb; I couldn't feel them. I had no energy whatsoever to pitch my tent on the pass. I had no energy left to walk or bike. I stood in the pass holding my bike, not knowing what to do.

My body had almost given up. I was freezing and my body was ready to die. I started to remember my past life, but I never cried. I felt I had a good life and yes, I have nothing more to do. All my wishes have come true. The last dream being cycling 3000km from South of India to Himalayas and I had already completed 3000km.

Amidst all this emotion rushing through me, with my body ready to die, my mind had some other plans. My mind still wanted to keep me alive and had not given up yet. I felt energy coming back to my legs and I walked few steps to see a light blinking far away. At this moment I remembered, what the local guy said to me, while having lunch at base of Baralacha la. I recollected him saying to me, If you reach top of Baralacha la, there is a camping tent, run by a family, a little further down. He was not sure if the camp was already closed.

As I saw the light blinking once again, I got on to my bike to hit the downhill. I couldn't see a thing, but aimed for the place where the light was blinking. I was rolling down reaching out for my life; perhaps the last survival instinct of my body. It was last chance for me. If I find a camp at the place where the light was coming from, I could live. Finally I reached the place and saw that it was a camp. I kept the bike aside and rushed into the camp. There were people warming themselves up by reaching their palm to the fire. I was shivering and couldn't speak out a word to them. I think they knew exactly what had happened to me and asked me to bring my hands on top of fire, to make my body warm. I got my life back, I survived for some reason.

Next day morning, I woke up to find that it was the last working day of the camp and people were bringing down their camp and moving back to their home town. I just thought, If I had been late by a day, I would have died on top of Baralacha la.

I went check to my bicycle and found that water in bottle was frozen, which reminded of what would have happened to me last night; I would have frozen to death.

Risen from the almost dead and carrying all this thought in my mind, I reached Leh, my final destination of this trip. I was done with biking, I was done with my little dream of cycling 3000km from Bangalore to Himalyas.

Darcha, Himachal Pradesh

I had a good sleep in Keylong, under a warm blanket. I woke up late.

I was in two minds if to leave Keylang or rest for a one more day. After, having a chat with the hotel guy, I decided to keeping moving since I could find a tent to stay for the night, 30km away from Keylang, in a place called Darcha.

I reached Dharcha, by afternoon. Found a tent camp with a beautiful young lady from Nepal, who was in charge of this camp. It was interesting too see their cot. they had piled up stones and had laid a bed on top of this pile. I had some tasty chappati & daal for dinner.

I didn't have a clear plan beforehand and was planning my ride every day by asking people I met en route.

Keylang, Himachal Pradesh

Last night was a nightmare. I was cold, almost freezing cold. I woke up in the morning to see a layer of ice formed on top of my tent. It was a windy morning and I was feeling pain in my joints due to cold.

With so much pain in my fingers due to cold, somehow I folded-up my tent, prepared the bicycle. Spending a night at top of Rohtang was an insane thing to do, considering what I experienced. Perhaps being brought up tropical climate my body couldn't take in cold weather.

I started to pedal my bike, but couldn't ride after 10meters. I oxygen was low and I was gasping for air with my mouth wide open. I pushed the bike till the point from where the descend started.

Next challenge was the descending roads. Infact, there was no road at all. With roads being fully destroyed by landslides, It was like a trail wide enough for a car to go, with rocks and puddles. If you make a small mistake you can fall into the valley and never wake up.

After tackling the last 8km of bad road once gain, I reached a small, but nice & warm hotel, in the outskirts of Keylang. The hotel manager said, cycling till Leh may not be a good idea. The climate is getting cold and even the bus services to Leh will be stopped soon due bad weather. I listened to him and imagined how tough it was for me at almost 4000 meters altitude in Rohtang. If I had to reach Leh, I had to cross passes which were even higher.

I didn't have any clothing for cold weather and after what happened in Rohtang, I decided to buy some.

Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh

After a day's rest and exploring in Manali town, I start for Leh. Rotang is the first pass in himalayas that I have to cross; Rohtang means 'pile of corpses'. Soon I will be facing death.

Winter had already arrived in the Himalayan regions and it seemed that I was bit late to do the Manali to Leh ride. My first point of halt and today's destination is Rohtang. It's a mountain pass that closes down in winter, due to snow fall and ice formed, which apparently closes the road connectivity. Little did I know what I had to face today, what it means to be cold.

The initial stretch of road from Manali-Leh Highway was a death trap. The roads were broken due to landslides. However, after initial stretch the roads got better and I was enjoying some of the best Mountains and valley views of my life.

I met the first bicycle tourist in my entire life. His name is Petras and he was from Greece. He gave me few tips on how to ride uphills, especially with luggage on. I was still learning how to use a geared bicycle. He advised me to use more of the endurance muscles rather than using the power muscles of the legs.

I had met Petras while having lunch and he left soon after lunch. I didn't see him anymore that day. He was a very good climber and zoomed away as I watched him finishing my lunch.

The oxygen was getting low and I was feeling it slowly, as I climbed the mighty mountains. It was pitch dark when I reached Rohtang pass. The wind was making the temperature drop and I felt cold seeping into my bones. My palm and feet were almost numb. It was windy and I don't know how I did I pitch the tent and got inside and quickly jumped into my sleeping. Now that felt warm for a while.

With the wind blowing, the temperature was soon getting low and my sleeping bag was not good enough for subzero temperatures. I was freezing. My feet went very cold even inside the sleeping bag and I couldn't sleep in the night.

Suddenly, I heard a tapping sound on top of the tent. I started to wonder what's happening.

Manali, Himachal Pradesh

The original plan was to reach Kullu and the plan B was to ride till Manali. It was a smooth ride, very good road and panoramic mountains surrounding me.

Two young men stopped near Pandoh dam and one of them said "I have seen many white people cycling this way. It's good to see a crazy countrymen men like you doing this crazy stuff".I smiled at their comment, had a short chat with them and kept riding on.
I reached Kullu and my bum was very sore. I knew once again I have endure all the pain, if I had to reach Manali. I started for Manali. Yet another adventurous (perhaps I'm fool enough to say that) ride in the darkness of the night, under poor visibility. But yeah, I reached Manali and it was 9:00pm. Found a budget place to stay. My stomach flu had began to subside.

Went out to Manali town. Had some Momos(first time in my life) and a cup of hot 'Gulab Jamuns'.
I will take a rest day in Manali and start the most sought after ride, for adventure junkies, the Manali-Leh cycling.

Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

Woke up late today and started to Mandi, my next stop. I was expecting steep climbs and bad roads after what I had gone through yesterday, but was surprised with better roads and rolling terrain. It was long downhill from Sundarnagar, a beautiful valley town with a big lake in the middle.

Again, people were saying hello, hi and I was waving back. I reached Mandi in 5 hours. There was some special festival going on in a Hindu temple in Mandi and town was busy.

My stomach was slowly healing. The plan is reach Kullu, a hill station, tomorrow.

Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh

I never had a clue how today's ride was going to be. Started a bit late from Rupnagar, since my stomach was little upset. I was riding next to Sutlej river for a while; it was beautiful.

Soon I was welcomed to Himachal Pradesh, with a never ending climb to a small town called Swarghat. The climb was tough with really bad roads, trucks passing by and on top of all, my bad stomach. It seemed to be a stomach flu and I realised that I'm having diarrhea. But I kept climbing. At one point, I couldn't control my bad stomach, ran into the bush and flushed out. I was really tired now and was nearing a stage that I may faint and fall. I lied down on the road side next to a Hanuman temple and fell asleep or perhaps blacked out. I woke up after sometime, with little energy. I was only drinking water and didn't feel like eating since my stomach was having problems. I pushed my bike for more than an one hour and to reach the hilltop of Swarghat. I was out of water, my throat was dry and I could hardly feel saliva in my mouth. Drank some water with banana sitting at one side of the road. A cow came to me and wanted to have some banana as well; I gave couple of banana's to this cow and started to roll down the hill to Bilaspur.

Night had fallen, it was pitch black and I had not reached my destination yet. There were no street lights on road. I switched on my tiny front light bought from Chandigarh bike shop and was riding on rocks, broken roads and mountains edges. It was a risky ride as well; I had slipped and fell couple of times due to poor visibility. However, I had to reach Bilaspur and kept saying to mind that nothing will stop me from reaching there.

The roads were really worse today. With my illness, this ride was the toughest one I had done till now. My cycle computer reads: 93km with 9.5 hours spent on saddle.