16th Day: Diskit – Leh (9th Sept , 2014)

Woke up at 5:45 am after a sound sleep. It seemed like a rough day to ride as I could see the mushroomed grey clouds in the sky. The very thought of negotiating the rough road of Khardung La on a rainy day gave me the chills. Besides the petrol too had still not been arranged.

 I reached Diskit monastery at 6:35 am.

 Few lamas had just started with their prayer and others were slowly joining in. I got myself a place at one corner of the prayer hall and sat there watching the magic unfold. Taking photo was strictly prohibited inside the prayer hall. Slowly the prayer session started to gather steam. The herbal incense chased the negative energy out of my system and awakened my soul. As the lamas swayed chanting the mantras, some lamas of higher rank made intricate hand gestures. I don’t know what the mudras meant but I knew it was divine and it added a lot of meaning to the mantras being chanted. I felt that it was the best start to my day ever.

The herbal incense 

It was a long praying session so the lamas were served breakfast and tea by two lama kids. The smallest one of the two was a treat to watch. The tea kettle that he was carrying was almost of his size. His innocence was too powerful even to break the concentration of lamas who were in a trance state and make them smile.

I was served the butter tea too. One sip of that tea and my spiritual transformation was complete.

Before I realized I had already spent two hours sitting in that hall listening to the prayers. Just when I was getting ready to leave, one lama walked in and started giving Rs 100 to everyone present in the room, except me of course. Later he told me that it was a “Bara din” (Full moon) that day. Full moon is considered holy in Buddhism.

As I walked out of the prayer hall, I signalled the two lama kids to come outside. I gave them some cash which they accepted with a smile. When I last saw the lama kid (the smaller one), he had pulled up his lama gown to his chest revealing his shorts inside and was putting the money inside the shorts pocket. (Whenever I think of that sight, it makes me smile even now)

There was a souvenir inside the monastery so I decided to buy a hand mala for myself which would remind me of everything good about Leh.

I also visited the oldest Kali Mata monastery in Ladakh on my way to the hotel. 

Mahakali Monastery

I checked out of Zambala hotel at 10:15 am. Nawang had managed to arrange two liters of petrol for me. When I was leaving, he requested me to write good reviews about his hotel and handed me one apple plucked from his garden. The ex-lama was well familiar with the power of the internet.

 The road was closed for maintenance, so I was stuck for about half an hour. As I was hungry, I took out the apple given by Nawang and took a large bite out of it. Am not very fond of apples, but the piece that I was biting was really good.

Nawang offering me an apple plucked from his garden

The roadblock 

My breakfast 

 As I feared running out of petrol on my return trip to Leh, I started riding in neutral wherever it was possible. I was praying that I reach Khardung La before my petrol got over. I knew that once I reach Khardung La, I could manage to reach Leh riding neutral all the way as it was a downhill ride. After about an hour of riding, I saw two riders with extra petrol riding ahead of me. It was like “finding sahara (help in hindi) in the desert of Sahara”. I sped up and overtook them. I wanted to be ahead of them because, unknown to them, they were my rescue team. If I ran out of petrol, I could wait for them and ask for help. A biker will never let another biker down.

Finally, I managed to reach Khardung La at 1:10 pm without using reserve petrol. Took some time out to observe the scenario once again. I checked my prayer flag tied to the signal tower. As I saw my prayer flag fluttering in the wind taking my prayers to the Mountain Gods, it dawned upon me that ironically that signal tower was not only emitting heavily coded army signals, but it was also sending many prayers signals to someone up there. I only hope that God has a good decoding team.

My prayer flag 

I had met Ananth and his wife Sibi at Hunder the previous day. They were a friendly couple from Mumbai and we had crossed one another frequently on the way since then. When we met again at Khardung La, Ananth walked to me and said, “Man, this is a sign. I have to take a picture with you”. Sibi joined in and we took a group photo. Clearly, the hero in that pic was Chitti. (that's what Linda calls my Royal Enfield .Inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!! )

(Ananth, if you are reading this, please mail me that pic)

Had Maggie and a packet of chips for my lunch in the army canteen. Just when I was about to start descending, one Sardarji in his late 60’s drove past me in his Thar. He was a smart-looking fellow and was there with his friends. It seemed to me that living life just came naturally to him. 

Happy.Singh

 I started for Leh at 2 pm. The BRO personnel were still clearing the fresh debris. After about an hour of riding, the warm wind of Leh valley welcomed me. I could see Leh from the top of the hill. Apart from Darjeeling, I was never so happy to see any other place.

A 6-foot giant lorry driver and a peep inside his lorry

Highway Doctors 

 The petrol ran out when I was 18 kms short of Leh. Reserve petrol would easily take me to the town. Chitti’s brakes too were making some strange noise so I took him to the same Amarjit garage (read 13^th Day). Once Chitti was fixed, I tanked full and checked in hotel Skitpo.

In the evening I headed towards Shanti Stupa which was about 20 minutes ride from my hotel. The view of Leh from Shanti Stupa tempted me to take a night shot so I waited another hour for the sun to set.

Shanti Stupa

Leh as seen from Shanti Stupa

Leh as seen from Shanti Stupa after sunset

Once I got my click, I went in search of food. I was craving for mutton curry and rice but Tuesdays were a “dry day” in Leh where no alcohol and meat were served. I had to settle with rajma rice at Neha Snacks and later had veg momos at Mero Momo House. The owner of the momo stall was a Sikkimese lady married to a Kashmiri guy and the menu left no room for any doubt. Momo with special Kawa tea ????

 After dinner, while I was walking in the market I looked at the sky to see the full moon. It was just the right time to catch a glimpse of the full moon as the black clouds, which had swallowed the entire sky, were very close to hiding it. The clouds around the moon made it look like someone was peeping through those black clouds. I guess the prayers were successfully decoded.

I called up Linda and she sounded very nervous as she had heard a lot of stories, the Aaj Tak kind, about the Srinagar floods and me being incommunicado was only adding to her frustration. She ordered me to take the same Manali route on my way back. I was going to do exactly what my lady tells me to do. She hung up with a smile.

At the end of the 16^th Day, I had travelled 147 Km.    

*All the special moments which I would not get a chance to do otherwise are in bold

(Do read the other days chronicle listed in the same page)

#Royalenfield  #trip #leh #bikeride #adventure #ladakh #travel