Into The Wild

Day 9: Trip 1192 km

Nako-Pooh-Reckong Peo ; 14.09.08

Late evenings had always translated to late starts throughout our trip. And today wasnt going to be any exception. Not that anyone was complaining!! But we did lose daytime on our journeys and entered most villages by dusk. The last evening was another evening of laughter, rum shots, stories, episodes, walk in the moonlit night and a somewhat disturbed sleep!! People got up relatively early, wanting to catch some views of Lake Nako, which was just 200 meters from our hotel. Lack of hot water in the hotel made us reluctant to have a shower and most settled for a good face wash followed by some bed tea. I sat down by the balcony overlooking some fields and which also gave me one great bird's eyeview of the Nako village. Kenny, Vikram wanted to visit the lake again, and I ,after getting a quick shower, got all dressed up for the day. While others were getting ready we made another trip to the lake. It was only then that we saw the inscriptions on the thousands of stone slabs that formed a kind of wall around the lake. It was just so beautiful - just so mesmerising -just like the prayers inscribed on them. I dont know what kind of patience the monks must have had while inscribing the prayers onto the rocks and thus making them kinda immortal beauties. It was like someone had transformed all those rocks to some divine art. When asked, one elderly fellow told us that these were works of some old buddhist monks who had come to the place few hundred years back. All of them were hand crafted yet calligraphically perfect, no prayer line out of alignment - one seamless, endless poem.

Kenny and I were so tempted to carry one piece each and searched for small slabs. We did find some, but somehow we thought otherwise and kept them at their rightful places. Our conscience just didnt allow us to take away one prayer from the rest and somehow it just didnt feel right to take away any of that priceless beauty. Infact, after we put the slabs back we felt at peace with ourselves. Anyway, it might have mattered differently to someone else, but for us it felt the right thing to do.

We proceeded to the lake shore, and after a long long time I could see normal aquatic life -meaning fish- in the lake. Kenny was in the mood for some "Jitender" shots, so he went about climbing about trees and all for some quite splendid shots. Not to be outdone, I also sprinted up the same tree and had some leisurely "Akshay Kumar" shots taken. Quite felt like a kid there, so much so that I picked up some flat pebbles and threw them across the lake - the way you do to create jumping stones up the surface of the water. I must say, I did quite well , Kenny being the witness!

Some kiddish snaps later, we returned to the hotel to find people gearing up their bikes. I decided to empty my jerry cans and check for the mileage now. Gyan and Kenny had taken my ass too long till now , poking every now and then about my pathetic fuel consumption figures. To prove it was the terrain and a mere fluke, I measured the petrol bottle by bottle in a 600 ml pepsi pet, and put in just around so much to bring up my mileage figures to 36.5 km/litre. I beamed, urging Gyan to check his. He was confident that it wouldnt be much different from his previous figures, but when his tank guzzled up more than 5 litres and still to go, I had the last laugh!! Now, HIS bike's figures came down below 30 km/litre!!

People were ready at last, and Anshu had also taken some shots of the lake, we paid up the hotel guy (he was quite enthusiastic about bikes, and asked a lot of questions on our bikes, bike gear and performance bikes). Some foreigners arrived at the place there and gave us approving glances, quite elevating our pride! We skipped breakfast there since it was way too late for breakfast and tad early for lunch. We decided we'd brunch somewhere on the way. We kick started/self started for our ride towards Reckong Peo at noon .

Just before Pooh we encountered a fork towards Ship Ki La, the pass that allows you to visit the Chinese border, a pass into Tibet. By this time Anshu and Vikram had moved a bit ahead of us and no matter how much we honked , they were past earshot and that left us with the four of us trying to figure out what to do. There was no milestone saying how far was Ship Ki La and we had to find that out before we could take any step. We found one himachali belle waiting for a bus/jeep just at the fork and decided to ask her on the distances. I took the honours, again beating Jill to it!! She informed me it was some 8-9 Km up, but the fool I was , I forgot to ask her about permits and all. I went back again to her (she must have thought I was trying to make a pass at her!!) and asked her about permits and all, to which she replied that she couldnt tell much about it and the best place to find out about it would be the army camp at Ship Ki La itself. Thanking her, I made my way back and passed on the info to the rest. Not wanting to forgo this chance to seeing the Chinese border from such a location, we decided to give it a go. It was a question now of who'd get Anshu and Vikram back to the fork, since it was quite some time since they haved moved ahead and there were no signs of them stopping a bit ahead. Making another poke at my improved mileage figures , the guys asked me to go ahead and get the 2 runaways. Anyway, I decided to go and fetch Anshu and Vikram, asking Kenny, Gyan and Jill not to move from that place till I got back.

I rode quite some distance, all the way up to the next inhabitated place to find Anshu taking some shots and Vikram looking for a pay phone. I asked them to keep an eye on the rear view mirror from then on and took them back to the fork. On the way, I found Jill coming towards us -minus Kenny and Gyan. Jill informed us that Ship Ki La wasnt just 8-9 km from the fork; It was some 15 km and that after getting to the army camp , we'd have to park our bikes and take a hike for God-knows-how-long to actually get to the border. Apparently Gyan and Kenny had moved on upwards, leaving the rest of us to wonder whether to follow them or was it actually worthwhile to go to Ship Ki La. I was seething - not only I had burnt precious petrol getting the guys back, now Gyan and Kenny had left us without informing. Another guy in a jeep on the way back from the heights told us that it Ship Ki La was 20km away and that roads werent meant for jeeps either - they were only the 4x4 Stallion trucks of the Indian Army. After a debate, we decided we'd try to catch Kenny and Gyan going by the mantra that we shouldnt do anything alone in these kind of terrain. But after a while Vikram found the steep climb and turns unmanageable, plus we were all burning a lot of fuel. We decided to skip it and make it to Pooh and wait for the now too-enthusiastic riders.

On the way to Pooh, we looked for a place to refill our stomachs. Came across a settlement full of Dutch people from Dehradun on their Enfields and it was at this same place that Anshu almost picked a fight with a localite regarding a bike parking issue!! I got shit scared when Vikram also got down from his bike in support of Anshu. Now, Vikram is a big guy, and when he is angry he looks intimidating! But in reality he's just a big huggable bear!!! Anyway, to cool things off I urged everyone to hop on their bikes and gun off to the next town. Anshu also had the same idea , saying that with these foreigners around we'd get no service over there. And so we moved on , waving a big " bye bye" to the supportive Dutch.

Some 5 km later, we found a cliffside dhaba, parked our bikes behind a truck and climbed up the steps to the dhaba for some hot momos and noodles and started our patient wait for Kenny and Gyan over some mountain dew and noodles. Vikram, who was having an upset stomach for a couple of days, settled for some eggs and kept watch on our bikes and on the road for the roadrunners. Sometime later Vikram announced that Kenny and Gyan were approaching and he went out on the road to stop them. Come Kenny and Gyan, a lot of "gyan giving" went into them and a fiasco ensued that I better leave out of these pages. But in the end they admitted they acted rashly, and peace prevailed - but not before making complete asses of ourselves before the local folks there!! How naive we are. Anshu suggested that we make a team leader, one who's gonna think for all, but who'll make an authorative decision everyone has to abide by. I suggested we make Anshu the leader, since I deemed him the most rational guy among us. Kenny suggested my name - but I'm chicken!!! Anyway, we'd all ask Anshu for his opinion - although he'd be happy with every decision! Awesome flexible guy he is!!

After Kenny and Gyan finished their lunch , we started for Reckong Peo. I was happy to leave the place. First the ride fiasco , then the almost-fight of Anshu with the localites - the day was going just great - great downhill. We rode relentlessly, making a short stop at a roadside temple for some prayers. I rarely go to temples, but somehow I stopped there. I went up the steps, prayed that there were no more hassles in the ride , prayed for a someone's happiness and decided we'd better get going before we lose day light again. Vikram seemed to appreciate the fact that we stopped for a prayer. Amen!

A narrow, steep and tricky climb up the hills towards Recking Peo, we could make out the city lights in the distance. Jill remarked that it might be a hill station akin to Manali. It sure looked like one from the distance. Not too long after, we entered the city streets and a most welcome sight greeted my eyes. Not the people, not the lit-up hotels, not the busy streets, not the civilization - but an SBI ATM!! We all were running out of cash and the pool had gone dry! Just in time to replenish our dwindling supply of moolah!! Pockets refuelled, Jill, Anshu and I went in search of a decent hotel with parking space. Funny it is, but the more civilised the places were, the more concerned we grew about the safe-keeping of our bikes. Out in the wild at Chhatru,Chandertaal, Kazaa and Nako , we'd just park our bikes and forget about it. Shows in a way how civilization corrupts people. This was also the first place in 5 days where we got cell connections. Our days in the wild were gone, we were now connected to the world. Immediately after switching on my cell, I received queued-up messages asking if I was al right. I was somewhat confused, until I came to know that there had been serial blasts in Delhi the previous day. I assured everyone I was ok and told them not to worry. Felt good to be receiving messages from far.

Up-hill and down-hill, side-hills and alleys later hunting for a hotel, we zeroed in on one Hotel Fairyland for 250 bucks a room. No hotel in that place offered us parking space and we had to be content with parking our bikes on the street in front of the hotel. We also found one guy from Pennsylvania, Josh who was also staying in the hotel and who had come from Shimla, intending to cover Spiti and Leh. He also had his girlfriend with him on his Enfield. We were all jealous suddenly wishing WE had girlfriends like Josh. Probably the only one unfazed by Josh was Anshu for all the reasons we were jealous of Josh.

The kitchen didnt offer us any dinner, so we went downhill on 3 bikes looking for a restaurant. Everyone seemed to be attracted to one Ridang Hotel and Restaurant. It looked clean and inviting, and once inside we enquired if the hotel had a bar. Indeed they offered one and most of it all, it was all empty!!! We all moved into the bar and looked for some change from the steady intake of rum. Anshu and I settled for some beer, while the others decided to binge on a bottle of Royal Stag. But alas, Royal Stag was out of stock and the guys had to re-order one bottle of McD No 1. The bartender was one timid fellow that reminded Kenny very much of Bassi, our college friend. What followed was a real blast at the Ridang Bar. The guys got senti and all - Kenny and Gyan making a public apology for being selfish earlier that day, and Gyan offering Jill his personal aplogies. I felt so warm inside, felt like my prayers in the roadside temple had been answered!!

The mood was so lively there, even as we seemingly harassed the poor bartender. Ofcourse, all we did was order food and booze, and we kept thanking the guy, but he looked so timid compared to us that the feeling of owning him down came to me! Now our "bhai" Vikram felt like another bottle of whisky, one on him!! He ordered another bottle and the festivites never seemed to stop!! There followed friendly fights and Vikram dropped onto the floor for which he blamed the crazy angle of the floor!! Finally , we finished our dinner, paid up and bade goodbye to the bartender, but not before Jill dropped a bombshell on the bartender. Just one line actually - "We'll be back tomorrow"!! I swear I could have seen the guy go nervous!! But I relaxed him asking him not to worry, we'll be gone the morning after!!

People seemed to be in an extra mood for partying that evening. The moment we entered the hotel, Kenny boomed aloud "Where's the bottle?" - so loud probably every single soul in the hotel must have heard it! Anshu came to our room and promptly took a seat inside the cupboard!! He was game for some more whisky too, but I and Gyan declined and decided to hit the sack. The party continued in Anshu's room till a long long time as we came to know in the morning. Like always, I fell asleep not too long after getting under the sheets, feeling warm and good inside.