Into The Wild and Out of it

Day 11 : Trip 1474 km

Sangla - Wangtoo - Bhavanagar - Rampur - Shimla

0600 hrs on this day and I could hear Gyan stirring and getting up for his visit to Chitkul. Kenny also came into the room and tried waking Anshu - the late sleeper, but to no avail. I wanted to get up and go with the guys, probably on the pillion. The moment I got up , I just plonked back to the bed, my body weak from the fever. I decided to call it off and take rest instead.

The next time I woke up was at 1000 hrs when I heard Kenny and Gyan's bikes outside. They had returned from their trip to Chitkul and they had lots to tell. Seems they went to the place where the road actually ends, and also to the supposedly "last dhaba in India". I was still groggy from my fever but managed to get up since I had to get my tyre checked. I asked Gyan to set up the foot pump near my bike and that I'd take a look myself after inflating it a bit. After pumping the foot pump a bit ( the pump also needed some minor repairs and a nearby taxi driver offered a valuable nut) I could make out that air was leaking from a previous puncture. Damn! All this while through the torturous roads in Spiti didn't wreak havoc on the puncture, now the good tarmac screwed it up!! The tubeless puncture expert Jill came to the rescue and after a failed attempt, the puncture was repaired and my bike was all set for the road run to Shimla.

Jawed wanted to have breakfast in the same Sonam Tibetan Cafe to have one last glimpse of the lady there, one who went by the name of Pooja!! But from the last evening's episode, I said that breakfast there would take a hell lot of time and that we should move ahead and hope for some dhaba not too far ahead. By 1145 hrs we were all set, paid up the hotel and set off from Hotel Monal Regency. I needed to check on my tyre pressure and came across the solitary tyre repair man 3 km down the road. The tyre was ok, no leaks , and we moved on. Soon we came across the familiar JayPee-has-f***ed-up-the-valley territory and for a good 3 hours it was a ride through dust storms, cement splashes, dumpers galore and thundering generators. Hungry we were but we couldn't find a decent place to sit because of all the dust flying around and so we rode on and on trying to get out of the construction area. Oh! I forgot to add in the previous posts that most of the roads from Kazaa had this phenomenon called shooting stones , where loose rocks would come flying from the mountain tops and posed a hazard on the motorists below. We were on the constant lookout for these stones and there were a couple of times that we had to stop on the road when the high winds brought rocks tumbling down. Jill had a small rock smash against his saddle bags - luckily the rock missed his bike or else he would have vented his ire on the poor mountain!!

The ride seemed endless and the dusty construction roads never seemed to end. Screw JayPee!! Finally the roads cleared up and we came across Bhavanagar where we stopped for lunch. It was 1315 hrs and we were all hungry, plus I couldn't take a paracetamol on an empty stomach. We went into a dhaba by the roadside, actually a little higher up than the road, and ordered the usual combo of rice-dal-sabzi. There was a surprise in store for us there - the walls of the dhaba were splashed with posters of Kurt Cobain, Avril Lavigne and some other female singers I don't know about - a proper Hard Rock Cafe in the wild! The meal here was the cheapest we've had in the entire trip - a very very economical 125 bucks for the five of us (Vikram didn't have anything, he was still having an upset stomach). Finally I could take a tab of paracetamol.

After the lunch and a cigarette break, we decided to hit the road in the hope of making it to Shimla by 2000 hrs. The roads were rip-ready and the bull inside Kenny and Anshu woke up. The heavily laden bullets were doing 70 km + on the straight runs!! Anshu was like on shilajit!! I managed to tread behind Anshu. Somehow through the entire trip it became a norm for someone to tag behind Anshu and I wasn't feeling particularly confident today on the bike because of the fever - so I followed Anshu on his bike. I had even told the guys that I might take a fall at some turn and that they should be ready to pick me up cause I wouldn't have the strength to pick up myself. Fortunately, I didn't fall and my bike was spared the bruises and scratches of a hard fall.

I was beginning to feel a little better after a while and the roads were inviting. I couldn't hold it anymore. I honked at Anshu, revved up my engine, downshifted and gunned ahead of Anshu and ahead of the pack. Did some pretty wild banks and at one point sparks flew off my undercarriage as my stand scraped the tarmac while I banked hard on that turn. Gyan didn't believe me, but the fact was corroborated by Jill who was right behind me. At one point the road was barricaded on the cliff side by tin roof sheets for some shielding from electrical power plants and it looked just like a racing circuit!! I revved on and on and my digi speedo registered 85 kmph at one stretch and again at a bank, my stand scraped the road. It was only when my stand scraped the road twice I finally came to my senses and calmed the Rossi inside me! Doing those kinda speeds at those bends could mean murder - my own!!

We stopped at a small town Jhakri some 10 km before Rampur for some tea It was here that I reminded Gyan he should reiterate his booking at our Shimla Holiday Home since we were reporting a day late, which he complied to. A small snack later we moved on hoping that the roads didn't turn bad further up. It didn't , for a while. Just as it was getting dark, the roads began to ascend, the air got colder - chilly in fact, the roads started getting pockmarked with potholes and the climb started getting harder. Our bikes started losing steam and I couldn't shift upwards of the 3rd gear. Other fellow riders didn't fare any better , but Anshu surprisingly registered 5th cogs in stretches. He definitely was on some shilajit from some clandestine-meeting-cum-shilajit-deal !!! The roads turned for worse , everyone was losing patience since it was so close to Shimla and yet it looked so far now. The roads looked almost nightmarish in the glare of our headlamps. After some impatient riding and some very very dirty stretches that were on every one's nerves, we decided to number ourselves and ride in a tight pack - no overtaking and all. We did ride throughout that way - the last 50 km to Shimla - the roads sometimes good, sometimes just plain dirty, but the air was consistently cold. Finally we entered Chhota Shimla. When I conversed in Assamese with Gyan and Jill, some nearby localites thought we were foreigners on a bike tour and they politely showed us the way to Shimla in a polished, trying-to-be-foreign sounding accent!! I replied in an equally accentuated "Thank you" and led the pack - right onto a snarling traffic jam. Come Shimla and we were greeted with the infamous Shimla traffic jams which saw us take a good hour to cover a measly 6 km to our holiday home Hotel Himland West. The day's booking was on Gyan's name and he checked us in to the comfy suite of the hotel at 2140 hrs. My booking was starting from the next day. The friendly waiter promptly came to our service and got us a bottle of our beloved RS. I was quick to order 2 full tandoori chicken and french fries judging by the fact that we were famished and needed to bite on something meaty soon.

People got fresh soon in the centralised hot water in the bathrooms and we settled down for the regular evening shots. I hadn't been taking in any alcohol in the past two days and today I thought I had mustered enough thirst to take in some gulps. The food came and everyone literally jumped at the chicken, drinks were left untouched. I found it hard to consume even the first peg and I drew a line at that stopping myself to force another peg down my throat. Dinner was ordered since the kitchen would be closing soon. Hot mutton biryani and mutton roghan gosh came up and while people were at their whisky glasses and cable tv, I turned my attention to the food and finished my dinner.I still hadn't recuperated completely from my fever yet and so I didn't linger on much, went to the other room, got under the sheets, popped in a paracetamol and slept off.