Bulls on Parade to Chindi

The Chindi Chandaals

15,16,17 Apr 2016

March had gone by without a Ride. It was a waste to let such great riding weather pass by. There had to had to be a Ride in April. And so, Chindi was picked out of the wishlist places. It wasn't close, the Ride would be a bit of stretch, 460 kms. But we've accomplished so much more earlier. A 3-day ride would be possible. The Ride Invite was floated around and only me and Adit were the confirmed ones. But as the day grew closer, the final tally included:

Rohan and Vihans - Royal Enfield Classic 500 - Suno
Ankit - Royal Enfield Classic 350 - Chintu bhaiya ka bday hai
Adit - Yamaha R3 - Home grown
Himanshu - Bajaj Pulsar 200 AS - Health and Wealth
Diptinder - Royal Enfield Electra 350 - Caught speeding

It felt a little strange with 6 participants instead of the usual 2 or 3, but greatly welcomed. The time of departure was set at 4 AM on an early Friday morning. But on Thursday night, Vihans called up to postpone the time to 6 AM. Since it was a long weekend with Ram Navami and Ambedkar Jayanti, the roads would be very crowded at 6 AM. So, a consensus was reached for 5 AM. Its very hard to say No to our dear Vihans and even harder to negotiate.

15th April 2016:
Chindi

The night before any Ride brings insomnia with it. Sleep does come but only an hour before its time to wake up. And so with groggy eyes, I reached the gathering point of the landfill site at GT Karnal Road at 4:45 AM. Adit arrived 5 minutes later. Himanshu arrived 10 minutes later on a Pulsar 200 AS. This was a surprise as we were expecting his Electra Twinspark. The explanation was that the Electra had been thoroughly used for more than 80K kms and was now starting to give problems. Another reason why we are Cast Iron hearts. We fought with thousands of mosquitoes until finally the remaining 3 arrived. Vihans announced that it was Ankit's birthday today. It would surely be grandly celebrated all along the way. We were off at 5:30 AM with a loud cry of "JAI BoP". 

The road was crowded that day. Motorcycles have an advantage in that respect as we snaked our way around. Although I have increased my cruising speed in tours now, but with the other machines in the group being more powerful, I could only trail at the back. The slowest rider determines the speed of the group. As the sun rose, we regrouped ourselves at Panipat Toll, 60 kms later.

Timing would be of essence today and we didn't delay. We kept on pushing and stopped for breakfast only after crossing Kurukshetra at 8 AM. Many other motorcycle groups were also encountered along the way. There used to be a time when we were the only ones. While its great to see the riding culture catching on, it does take away our sheen of yesterday. There were several women riders seen too. Maybe they were on a Tribute Ride to Veenu Paliwal.

After making a long haul, we took it easy on breakfast. Many parathas were ordered with curd and butter. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again. Sitting at the dhaba looking at our motorcycles parked and enjoying morning tea, such is the place where I feel belonged. When the bill arrived, it was straight away guided towards the B'day boy, Ankit. This set the trend for all the bills arriving in the future and Ankit knew it too. But he had tricks hidden up his sleeves for later, like a gambler.

We set off within an hour. The next stop would be in the Himalayas only. All the roads through the cities of Kurukshetra and Ambala were now operational. It was a smooth ride through these towns. However, the group went helter-skelter at Chandigarh. Some missed the right turn at Zirakpur and instead rode towards the main city. But misnavigations are all part of the deal. We all regrouped only after enjoying the speed run through the Himalayan Expressway and the curves till Dharampur.

Here we picked up 'child' beer, that too Golden Eagle, and decided to savour it at the same viewpoint where we had it last on the way to Arki. I haven't seen this beer available anywhere in NCR even though it is such a premium quality, better than Budweiser I dare say. On taking the turn at Subathu, we avoided the majority of traffic headed towards Shimla. But it was too hot at our secluded viewpoint. All the shaded trees were now withered. So, we continued on and found another spot. Somehow I don't get the feeling of being in the Himalayas until it is secluded and there are no PB or HR or DL number plates driving around. The fact that so many others are enjoying what I came to enjoy ruins it for me (borrowed from Seinfeld).

The 'child' bear was refreshing against the parched throats in this heat. It was like fresh water to a group of lost wanderers in the desert. It was noon now and we still had 150 kms to go. Our breaks were quite short though. For lunch, we chose the same hotel where we had stayed during the Arki ride. The chicken was well prepared. We missed our earlier Ride participants. The Fort looked even more ruined than before. It seemed as if our suspicions were true. The King really did not have enough to get by.

When the bill arrived, Ankit had disappeared. He was not going to get caught a second time. It was time to take out contributions. The onus naturally went to the CA in our group, Adit. When everyone had taken out his share, Ankit magically appeared and took out his share too. The b'day boy had outsmarted us all.

100 kms still to go. But by now, our muscles started aching. There was a brief respite as we touched NH-88 at Shalaghat. The road turned very wide and smooth. We were now on a cushy mattress after a long spell of lying over a bed of nails. But it was for only 10 kms when we turned off at Galog. Still, SH-13 was a smooth one too, although narrow. It was newly paved at many sections. It's amazing to see how much effort the HPPWD puts in just to keep regular commuting going. Stops were more frequent now as the riders were getting tired. At one of these stops one of the locals came and warned us to move a bit further up the road as he had faced rockslide on this section earlier in the day. He noticed the DL number plates and gave a thumbs-up. Mountain people are ever so helpful. But then we being from the NCR are a stubborn lot and still didn't move. We have to see the rockslide to believe it. So, we moved at our leisure. Delhi people don't follow others instructions. We set our own rules.

Tattapani offered a great view with a lake. This place would surely be worth a visit. But we still had another 42 kms to go. Rohan and Vihans were slightly taken aback as they had expected Tattapani to be the destination. Adit also noted that we had been on a descent for quite some time, which was odd because we hadn't ascended so much.

In order to minimize the breaks now and chasing the far target of reaching our destination before dark, I set off in the lead with Adit giving me company. His R3 had a great revving sound whenever he gave it a good twist. It isn't a mean growl but isn't an irritating screamer either. The sound speaks of refinement. Since the road was pretty straight without any scope of misnavigation, we continued riding and stopped only when it turned off towards Chindi. The last 15 kms had been an ascent and the air turned cooler. While waiting for the others, we asked on the places to visit nearby. There was an abundance of temples. Shikari Devi (20 kms), Mamleshwar (10 kms) and Kamru Nag (60 kms) were the recommended ones. I had planned to visit Kamru Nag as the temple structure was very distinctive in the pictures and also it looked to be motorable in Google maps. We are not a bunch of trekkers. But yet again, Google maps had taken us for a ride. It showed distance from Chindi to Kamru Nag to be 40 kms, not 60, and that would be a stretch following today's long haul. Moreover, it was not motorable, but a two hour trek. We consider even a small flight of stairs from the parking to the apartment as an arduous trek. There would have to be an exclusive ride to Kamru Nag in the future.

For now, we reached the HPTDC Hotel Mamleshwar fantastically located on a hill top in between lush green trees. We had made it to our destination before dark after all. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough rooms for all of us. We have stopped making advance bookings now because there is no certainty of the number of confirmed riders. The nearby PWD rest house didn't have vacancy too. So we looked onwards on the road towards Karsog and found Hotel Gopal.

And then we met the great Dayal, the caretaker. He was an enthusiastic host, too much for our taste. He was most friendly with Rohan. We had the whole hotel to ourselves and that meant exclusive service. Dayal immediately took our order and went off on his bike to get supplies from Churag, 6 kms away.

As the snacks arrived, we were all ready with our glasses. The b'day boy had brought a bottle of Red Label to celebrate. We all cheered to him and our ride. Ankit had also brought along his discotheque bluetooth speaker. This was well made use of as Vihans showed us his trademark dance moves. Then we made the mistake of asking Dayal the places to see around. This was the trigger that led to an hour long answer and he would not let us interrupt. This also meant that all the information got botched up with the alcohol intake. So we would have to repeat the mistake the next day. I wouldn't want to put a bad impression of Dayal. His service was impeccable. Its just that he was a zealous speaker.

Dinner was served in the room. We chose to stay inside as there were giant bugs outside. A giant spider in one of the bathrooms was also dreaded.

It was a great relief to sleep in a room without fans when the temperature in NCR was 44 degrees.

Route taken:
(Delhi - Ambala - Dharampur - Arki - Galog - Dhami - Tattapani - Chindi)

16th April 2016:
Mamleshwar, Kamakshi, Tattapani

We woke up lazily. Dayal was insisting to ride one of our Bullets today. So Ankit went off with him to get supplies for breakfast. Himanshu immersed himself in nature photography. Breakfast of omelettes and puri-sabzi took a long time coming and it was almost noon when we were done. The food was delicious though. There was no stinginess with the contents in the omelette. It was properly thick.

Dayal had a whole day planned out for us with a bonfire planned in the evening. But we were now not interested in exploring the surroundings much. So we checked out much to his disappointment. We shortlisted Mamleshwar temple and Kamakshi temple, 18 kms away for sightseeing. It was during the descent that some of the trees parted to reveal the beautiful Karsog Valley.

It looked like a picturesque mountain village, the sort wallpapers are made of, with a stream of clear water running in it. Contrary to the crowded Shimla and Manali, there was ample greenery to be seen here. Popular hill towns had lost most of it, sadly never to be regained.

The sun was very bright though adding to the temperature. Now that we were riding in the valley itself, it grew hot. The young crowd of the college in the town was mingling about. We reached the Mamleshwar temple to observe what it was famous for. The object was one of the seeds they had saved since the time of Mahabharat and it was 250 gms heavy. The architecture of the temple was interesting though.

As we were about to leave, the temple folk were taking out a procession to another town nearby with drum beats sounding the travel. We watched until the procession disappeared from the scene. Then started for Kamakshi temple. This was a new thing happening in BoP. We had always skipped temples in our rides. Maybe, its the old age catching up with us. Children gathered around the bikes as we parked them at the Kamakshi temple. After a lot of discussion, each kid had turned himself the owner of one of our bikes. This area seemed to be less explored by the motorcycle community and we were getting the attention.

There was no way forward. So, we had again reached the "end of the road" literally. It is a feeling of accomplishment. I remember having similar feeling at Chitkul and Tanot where you run out of roads to explore.

We started the return journey now. This has also lately become a trend in our rides. We start the return journey a day earlier and stop at another place which shortens the distance to be ridden the next day. For today, we chose the destination as Tattapani. Adit had already booked two rooms. The plan was set for the evening ahead. We took limited stops to cover the 50-odd kms and reached our destination for the day. The notable event during this section was when Himanshu suffered a fall while avoiding a bus coming in the opposite direction on the narrow road. No damage was reported on man and machine. This was the one and only mishap of this ride. Unknown to him though, he had broken a streak of 11 Mishap-free BoP Rides, which included one week-long Rajasthan ride.

Although we could not get rooms at Hotel Hot Springs we still could utilize their facilities since our hotel was also owned by the same person. We promptly got ready and made for the Hotel Hot Springs and straight into their Hot sulphur bath pool. Water is our weakness. This place used to be famous earlier for hot sulphur springs. But now that a dam has been constructed, the site has submerged. Still the Hotel has harvested the spring water and built a pool. All our pores were thoroughly cleaned. That should take care of a bath for the next couple of days.

Now we needed to get our body temperature down. We chose the beer therapy in the terrace restaurant. Although there wasn't any available at the hotel, the staff arranged it to be brought from the nearby wine shop. Mountain people are always eager to help. A platter of snacks was ordered along with it and we cheered to a day well spent. The only beer available was Godfather. Only that strong beer can satiate the mountain people's thirst. Surprisingly though it has disappeared from the wine shops in Gurgaon. It used to be so readily available a year ago.

We had skipped lunch today because of the very late breakfast. The snacks provided relief. For dinner, we set off towards our hotel. Adit and Vihans had already given the instructions for a table to be setup on the rooftop. This took some convincing but then Vihans is a master in that. The manager was insisting that we keep our voices low and we readily agreed. The notoriety of Delhi people precedes them. However when we reached the rooftop, two weddings were in progress and their sounds were far-reaching. All our calm demeanour went crashing away.

Even though the bluetooth speaker was in full swing tonight also, Vihans acted pricey and did not show us any moves. Somewhere in the midst of the council meeting, I went to take a leak but ended up in dozing off in one of the rooms. Maybe it was the mixture of sulphur bath and Godfather beer or maybe again old age catching up. But I'm grateful to Himanshu to come and wake me up and the other guys who made sure I had dinner. I had missed a good portion of the fun at the council meeting.

(Route taken: Chindi - Karsog - Kamakshi - Tattapani)

17th April 2016: 

The return journey is the most tiring. But we had covered 40 kms already a day earlier. While the rest were taking it easy, Vihans was in a hurry as he had to attend a wedding in Delhi later tonight. We were ready to go at 10 after tea and toast. This morning snack will have to take us till Dharampur. Shimla was 45 kms away but now we took the broad SH-13 all the way. On the way we crossed Naldehra. This place also looked attractive and just 20 kms from Shimla. However, the throng of tourists on ponies turned us off. Maybe we'll plan a ride here in the off-season. Traffic started increasing as we crossed Mashobra. We debated on reaching the Dhalli tunnel whether to take the bye-pass or enter the city.

The long queue of vehicles made us opt to take the bye-pass. Sadly, Rohan had to give up his wish to taste momos on Mall Road. The queue only increased as reached the end of the bye-pass. With the help of motorcycles we were able to overtake much of the traffic that included some very rash drivers who got the finger from us. But amidst all the chaos, we got split up. One moment Rohan was riding ahead of me and the next he was overtaking me. We all got together at Dharampur at Shan-e-Himachal dhaba at 2 PM. This place has become a regular joint for us. It used to be Giani's across the road, but we enjoy this place's chicken more now. It allows us to source in beer from the nearby theka, but that's not the only reason we like this place. The food is indeed better than Giani's.

The waiter this time wasn't that friendly. It took a bit of altercation to set things straight. After that the service was good. We were hungry. We had survived on tea and toast up to this point since morning. Food was wiped out from all the dishes. We were now almost out of the hills. The temperature of the plains was hitting on the faces. The Himalayan Expressway was the only good thing to look forward to.

At the road after the end of the Expressway, I was caught speeding by Chandigarh police where the speed limit was 60 km/h. They showed the video camera clip and I had to pay the fine of Rs 400. That didn't hurt. What badly hurt was Adit had just zoomed past this section at a speed of above 100 km/h. I was doing a measly 72. Rohan and Himanshu had lowered their speeds before this section. How ironical that the slowest rider of the pack gets fined for speeding. It hurt even more than my ligament tear back in 2009 and that was a lot in quantity as well as duration.

As we hit the plains, the travelling speed increased, but the going got slower. Stops had to be taken due to the heat. We would have made it in good time but at Karnal a long jam hit us. It was at the Karna Lake turn. Vehicles were lined up for miles. Motorcycles have the advantage of bypassing such long queues. But at the end of it when the roads did open up, we were drenched. A water break was soon taken.

We were on target to reach Delhi by 9. But due to the traffic, we made it at 10. Still not that bad a timing considering that it was a long weekend with high tourist flow. All the cleanliness of yesterday's sulphur bath was now coated in Delhi's pollution.

May would be a tough month to ride. June would offer some respite from the heat in the form of rain. Lots of groups would be heading to Ladakh at that time. Let's see when the next BoP ride takes place.

Until then,

JAI BoP !!!