Leh was closed the next day as His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama was visiting. We had to wait till evening to collect some spares for the bike for the toughest part of the trip ahead. We were to ride for the next four days on Indo-China border, hence we were forced to leave one of our members, Dana behind at Leh, as she was a U.S. Citizen. Even Indians are prohibited in some of these sectors unless they have an inner line permit.

Too excited to see what the ride had in store for us, we started from Leh at 5 p.m. De-routing from Karu, we were riding to reach Tangste. If crossing Khardung-La at 6 p.m. was foolishness, than crossing Chang-La, third highest motorable pass in the world at 8 p.m. was the height of foolishness.

Needless to say, the cold was unbearable, a simple job like removing the camera from the cover to take a snap of our ever conquering exodus looked like drunken juggling. Realizing the danger we could put ourselves in, we descended as fast as we could, but a stream, which would have been easier to cross in the evening was now a river with a determined current.

Again all of us needed help and we all got our feet wet in the crossing and the cold was even more punishing this time. It paralyzed the feet, with no sensation at all and yet we all somehow managed to move ahead. Salvation was finally sighted in the form of an Army post at Tsultak and we asked for help. At first, we were yelled at, but then the Army guys at the Chang-La pass were yelled at, for letting us pass through at night.

But it was evident that our Army personnel were happy to see Indians riding to these regions, they are used to seeing foreigners all the time. They arranged for our stay at the camp and fed us all before toting out some knockout Army rum.

The Army was like our guardian angel. We considered ourselves lucky to have got help when we needed it the most, and I took respite in coming to know that we were not the only one's who would go to any extent to experience adventure; a foreigner couple was struck at the same camp for two months. Once a week they would go up to the pass on donkeys to see if the snow and landslide were cleared, lucky for me I had my Bullet!

Next day we thanked our hosts and were on our way to Tangste. 70 kilometers of riding on lovely roads that offered great views and we were at Lukung. A first look at Pangong-Tso Lake, the largest brackish lake in Asia at 14,000 feet was like defining the colour blue.

We were riding parallel to the lake, after a few kilometers, the roads disappear and dirt track starts and stays that way with a few villages like Spagmik, Man and Merak coming en-route, with very few inhabitants. The lake gave us company for another 40 kilometers; and thereafter we were riding on desert dirt tracks. We had to ride through lot of sand patches; suddenly I would see the bike curving towards the hill or the lake. I guess the Bullets wanted to dance seeing the beauty of the place. We then reached Chusul, with everybody knowing that they had done the best ride of their lives. This part of the ride was through a sector that really does justice to the word "remote". There were no roads, forget about road signs, no place to eat, no one to call for help. And wild, un-spoilt nature all around.


Next...
Finally the moment we all were waiting for came - we were at the Indo-China border - the reason for the expedition...(read on)

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