Into The Wild and Somewhat Out of it

Day 10 : Trip 1250 km

Reckong Peo-Kalpa-Sangla

10 AM at Hotel fairyland and most of us were up and ready for the day's ride to Sangla. Tea was ordered for us all and this gave us some time to chat with Josh and his girlfriend. We exchanged info about the routes and the bike circuits. By noon we were all set and bade goodbye and good luck to the American pair. We hadn't had lunch and decided we'd have it in Kalpa itself. We had a lot of good things about Kalpa from Josh and didn't want to miss the place. After all, it was just a 12 km ride. We rode on and after some kilometers , we found hordes of hotels at spectacular locations. We hadn't climbed this far the night we were looking for hotels at Reckong Peo, and Jill and I felt dejected that we had missed out on some great places to stay. The moment we entered Kalpa limits, the roads were coloured with green pines and the air carried the fresh pine aroma all around. A little higher and it was all apple and apricots!! That place is sheer heaven, and I am not exaggerating at all. The Kinner Kailash range is visible in all its glory and it being a clear sky, we could make out the "shiv ling" at the peak - a white thumb like structure, solitary and awe inspiring.

Kalpa is absolute honeymoon country. I would suggest all newly weds to visit this place and stay at the Hotel Kinner of the Himachal Pradesh Tourist Development Corp. That hotel is a wonderful place and the rates are amazing - Rs 1100 for a cottage!!! The moment we entered the hotel, it offered us some amazing views of the Kinner Kailash, and the hotel staff were only eager to show us around. The hotel had a wide patio where one could sit for hours and hours and just rake it in. We had some splendid snaps taken, our "NatGeo" photographer Anshu making the most of it all. We ordered some simple food over there and after a while the waiter announced that lunch was served and boy,what a restaurant!!! It was on the first floor, wooden , warm and glass windows all around you that offered fantastic views of the valley and the mountains. And what a lunch!!! Absolutely ravishing!! We all hogged and hogged!! The bill came to 900 bucks, but didn't mind one bit. First , the restaurant was an absolute stunner and second, the food was awesome!! This place is definitely A one stuff. On a more serious note, off the track, there's just so much to see in India, I really wonder why people spend mega bucks on a honeymoon abroad. I don't say its not worth it, but try exploring your own country first - it wont disappoint you one bit.

A solid lunch later, we got onto our bikes again and started off with our ride towards Sangla. The ride took us through the valleys of Kinner Kailash , always attracting the attention of the local people there. The ride was not much to write home about, except for the fact that there were some huge Hydel projects of JayPee group going on at full swing, and to our utter dismay, they had just screwed the roads there. Gone were the lulling roads, gone were the greens. All we came across were mud, slush, cement slush, dust, grime, oil slicks, stones and clouds of heavy particulate matter. It was just too sad to observe all this. We all thought that in a few years' time JayPee was gonna turn all the greens into a dull shade of grey. "How green was my valley" is all we can mutter in a couple of years' time.

We reached quite early, on the other side of the Kinner Kailash. It was awesome; Just a few hours back we were looking at the range and the shivling from Kalpa, and now we were like behind the same mountains. It was probably the first time in the entire trip that we checked into a hotel before the sunset. There was still time for dusk and we decided to dump our stuff in the hotel rooms and go do some local sightseeing. We stayed at one Monal Regency hotel, which was quite comfy and our room even had a waterfall as wallpaper!! After gathering some info from the hotel staff, we hopped onto our bikes, Jill did a pillion with Kenny, and moved towards the village. I was feeling particularly confident in just a wind sheeter and a pair of floaters. Fool I was, cause in the evening I came down with a fever!! But anyway, we moved through the village, towards the Sangla waterfall we had heard of, only to find a dried up stream there. Perhaps it wasn't the season then. But we did find an open space sort of thing at a cliff and went over there to have a view of the valley below. Shots were clicked and people just hung around . It was a good time there at the point overlooking the valley.

When it was turning dark, we decided we'd get back to the village for some snacks. It was at that point that I discovered that I was running flat tyre in the rear! Thank God it was a tubeless trye or else I wouldn't have made it back to the village. We tried checking the tyre for some nails or something like that but we found none. Puzzled I was as to how the tyre was losing air. If it was the bleed valve then I was a goner, there could not have been any shop there that would be dealing with tubeless tyres. But anyway I limped backed to the village and we sat inside one Sonam Tibetan Cafe for some momos. The lady had told us that the chicken momos would take some time , so we settled for the mutton momos and just sat on the balcony sort of things and watched the market below. Jill was particularly interested in one girl that came into the cafe once and roamed around in the small market place with her friend and indeed she was playing a cat and mouse game with Jill. We all egged Jill to go and make a move, but it was good he didn't!

The momos were taking ages, and we were thinking if this was called "in less time" what would have chicken momos taken! Finally, the momo soup arrived and we all slurped in the soup from our bowls. Then came the momos, finally, steaming hot and relishing. We hungrily ate into the momos, which were quite filling. It was almost 19 hrs, and I was done with dinner- the momos were filling enough! After that we returned to our hotel and I ran up a temperature, probably due to cold I had caught with my "daring" attire for the evening. I told the guys I'd check up on the tyre in the morning and that I was gonna take a paracetamol and try to sleep.

Before I slept, the guys made a plan in Anshu's room. Chitkul was some 20 km away and it was the last place on the road there and Kenny, Gyan an Anshu wanted to see it. So it was decided that whoever wanted to visit Chitkul would get up at 0600 hrs and make a trip there and return by 1100 hrs to the hotel and then move on with the rest of the guys forward. Gyan and Kenny wanted my opinion, but I felt too weak to get up and said I was ok with the plan and I dozed off, leaving the guys to spend the evening together in Anshu's room.