I remember when I first was going traveling outside of Europe. I went to the doctor to get all kinds of vaccines, mosquito nets and malaria tablets. The doc told me something that I would keep in my mind until now. He said "Claudio, it doesn't matter how many of these shots I give you, as long as you don't drive a motorcycle abroad, chances are you are going to be fine!" Hehe... If he only knew I was going to drive a bike through India, where 300 people a day die in traffic accidents! So, I got a cool half face helmet also for safety, making me look something like a skater. Anyhow, he should have better told me about all the head aches and tantrums this bike could bring.
Straight after I bought her, I had her checked up at Anu's workshop (a well known mechanic apparently) and next day me and Tashi head off on one of the most spectacular road in the world. 500km, it can only be opened during the summer months, it's going over the second highest motor pass in the world before coming down into the Tibetan plains and finally reaching the town of Leh. This is considered one of the most risky roads in India, because many parts of it is not really a road, sometimes it's as wide as a Swedish bicycle lane (and trucks try to pass each other there!) and as the snow and glaciers melt the avalanches keeps destroying it. There is constantly 1000 of workers mending the road, so mainly the military can get through. Many people were trying to talk me off from going, but I guess it's nice conditions to start learning how to drive an Enfield!
Day 1: We were supposed to meet another Belgium couple and a German dude to go together for the tripp early in the morning, but my bike broke down just at the intersection and I couldn't get it started... This was shit, just had it serviced for a full day!! After calling down my sleepy, hangover mechanic to the road and checking the bike for two hours or so, changing this and that, we discovered the fault. I had put in some metal spare parts in a compartment on the bike filled with electric wires... ooops, as we opened the compartment there were electrical fire works sparkling away in there; and also in the mechanics eyes, looking at me sideways! 4 hours later we were on the way again!
The partly muddy road winded slowly up to a high pass were Indian tourists were enjoying 100x10 meters lenght of snow with Yaks pulling them up, and going down on big tires. Some youth were hip hop dancing, fully dressed to their ears like Eskimos. After that first mountain pass, the road was really good and it was a nice travel in the valleys.
Day 2: This is life! Riding an Enfield a bit nonchalant with my feet up on the leg guard, cruising amongst the most amazing scenery I ever seen. Spectacular mountains, deserts, lakes, canyons and sand rock formations. The road gets a bit tricky here though, but my Lady is holding up really well. By the side of the road we pass many groups of workers, hacking big rocks to smaller pieces with sledge hammers, the smaller bits with big hammers and finally knocking those rocks to gravel with small hammers. This is proper medieval work and the workers are black, fully dusty and probably earning shit. In the evening we made it to Pang, an isolated oasis of a few tents for food and sleeping matts. Our heads are a bit spinning from the ascent to this 4000m something altitude.
Day 3: In the morning I put in some engine oil and when I start the bike, she starts spewing out oil in a big leak all over the ground... my poor baby! I can't drive the bike any further, with no oil the engine would crash after a few km. We try to close the leak with some M-Seal (a poxy kind of mass that turns rock hard), but as soon as the engine starts, the leak finds its way out. A big biker gang ride by and a mechanic give me some more M-seal, not to any use, the oil kept leaking out. After a long day of frustration, Anu and his group of customers suddenly appears and comes to stay the night in Pang. Finally I can get some proper help from the famous mechanic. He gives me some M-seal and advice how to put it on... wow, surely this has to work now...
Day4: I try the Anu way and wait a few hours, but big surprise, leakage streams out.. Time for another solution! On the road, a truck had stopped with some problems with the cooling system and we ask the driver if he can help us to take the bike to Leh. For 500 rupiees he agrees and we struggle to load the bike up on the truck which is loaded with cement to take to Leh. After some food and drink, the driver tell us to wait by a main road in Leh at 8 o'clock the next morning. Finally everything sorted, we leave some bags in the truck as well and head off on Tashi's bike! Driving over the worlds second highest motorable road, we finally made it to Ladhak. Ladhak region is a part of Tibet and is more Tibetan then the Chinese counterpart where much of the culture has been destroyed. Here all monasteries and cultural heritage remains untouched. Amazing scenery of green valley and brown coloured mountains as we drive all the way to Leh. This is can not be called a city, it is more a small town with a few main streets. This that used to be a very isolated part of the world, is now getting crowded with tourist shops and Internet.
Day 5: Up in the morning a stand by the road at 8! One hour pass, two, three, four... f^&k!! The truck is not coming. Tashi is saying not to worry, but that's pretty hard for me. At least I have a photo of the truck and the licence plate. Being only one road between Leh and Manali, I start back tracking the check posts for to see if the truck already has passed towards Leh or not. After a whole day checking everywhere, it seemed that it still hadn't passed the mountain pass to Ladhak. But I had to be sure, so I hitchhiked all the way back to Pang on a truck. Finally reaching there at dusk, I saw the truck but no sign of the driver. Not much to do, I'm sleeping in the truck. In the small hours of night, a drunk driver stumbles in to the small driving area. When he finally understood who I was, he started an endless monologue in Hindi for ages before passing out next to me. Before having this wonderful experience of sleeping together with a drunk Indian truck driver, with whiskey breath on my face, I understood the the cooling system was broken and it would take two more days before he would make it to Leh.
Day 6: It's amazing how many people you met that you knew from before somewhere. 3 friends on bikes had been staying the night in Pang as well and were off to Leh, but no space for me with luggage. I hitched a ride on a truck back to Leh after breakfast (after Mr. Drivers morning drink) and after a long day, I finally came to Leh at night and updated my friends about the situation.
Day7: Finally I have a day to relax. I had a nice walk around this town, seeing the market, the castle and the mosques. This place have some nice restaurants and hanging around the tourist street I met allot of people from Vashisht. A group of western, long timers in India, all experienced biker, had heard what happened to me but the story was way out of proportion. It was like I handed over the my totally crashed bike to Aliens and were told to wait for a week for it, somewhere out in the desert. I don't know who told this story to the Enfield Club, but he sure broadened this out!
Day 8: So today I was finally going to get my precious baby back. I had made arrangement to met the truck by the main post office (where he was going to offload the cement) at 9 o'clock onwards in the evening. Again waiting, waiting, waiting for hours until around 11 the truck pulled up. I climbed and opened the door and three strange men sat inside and wondered who I was... I was certain this was the same truck and asked the guy's for the plate number, it was the same and I started yelling 'This is my truck!!' They guy's had no clue what I was on about and they told me the driver had been drunk half ways and had ran off into the desert somewhere. One of the guy's was the truck owner and wondered if the bags were mine. I told them I didn't give a shit about the bags, I want MY BIKE!! After I told them my story, they looked in the back and found my bike there. I was told they would offload it the next morning at 5, so I could come and get it then.
Day 9: 4.45 I woke up the gang in the truck. 2 hours later my lady was off loaded and finally back in my arms!! First thing was to take my baby to the doctor and have her stitched up. Then off to the beauty parlour and have her washed and cleaned from all the cement dust. A 3 day trip had turned out to a long journey, but finally everything had turned out good!
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