Service Station Ahoy! 

Everything on paper seems easy and rosy, but once things have to be done in the wild wild world then you start to realize like is indeed a box of chocolates and some are not chocolates at all!

The vehicles specially the underestimated motoscooters - Blazes were supposed to do in excess of 4000kms and return back to Delhi after travelling on really inhospitable terrains. We were worried that what if something irreparable happens with not even one man in sight for hundreds of kilometres.

Our ToolsMan ( Vinakay Jee )  decided that its best to give a quick service to all the bikes in Srinagar itself. First we had a general checkup and then we went out searching for engine oil. We found Castrol Power1 in a shop ( Evergreen Engineering Company, Authorized stockers of Castrol products ) in front of the watchtower Lal Chowk, Srinagar. We bought off 5 litres of oil and put them in each of the vehicles. A quick carb clean job was also done.

Off we went for Kargil, our nest destination for that day. After that no oil change was required but peridical checkups were still done on the vehicles. The Comet’s carb had some serious problems due to the spurious petrol filled up in the hills and was required to be cleaned up every now and then. 

Hats Off!
The House in he woods had in some of its dwellers as cap collectors. We were delighted to spread our dandruff onto their caps one by one!


Find the xBhp cap!

The Indian Farmer

The Arab Sheikh

The New York Porter

Salaam - e - Waalequm!

The Indian Groom

Self Proclaimed Cowman!

Chinese Kung Fu Master

HItler Reloaded

Clint Eastwood

 B for Bikeism, B for Bookworms

  I was always the bookie type, with thick glasses and a decieving intellectual look.
When I inclined towards computers 5 years back and then biking 3 years back and then photography a year and a half back, I hardly had time to sustain my bookwormism. Anyways, I never used  to read the usual stereotypical informative books like encyclopedias or thick novels. I was always attracyed to graphics and visuals - comics, Ripleys and of course Tintin and Asterix were my favourites. Of course then there was this habit of doodling at back benches of my classes and doing a bit of comics books on xerox papers. Then of course the addictive smell of brand new unopened books. Ahh.

It was a matter of time I would again turn towards books.

It was recently I realized, after years of detour from bookism, when I started working on the Great Indian Roadtrip, that you just cannot do without books. Internet as a necessity is another story and deserves another blog.

Travelling a country as big as India is no joke. And I cannot imagine what travelling the world would be like. Phew. One lifetime is prolly not enough for that but god give me the strength…sheesh getting emotional uh!

Anyways, to easen up our task we had to buy some books off the shelf besides keeping the internet as the ultimate reference. After all we do not aim to create encyclopedias of information through this trip, if you want one go and google or get some books already written.

We chose the following books which we thought might help us in the journey :

1. Autocar driving destinations
2. Driving Holidays in Himachals : Uttranchal
3. Driving Holidays in Himachals : Zanskar
4. Driving Holidays in Himachals : Ladakh
5. Driving Holidays in Himachals : Sikkim
6. Outlook Traveller : 100 holidays in the Hills
7. How to be safe on Indian Roads
8. Eicher India Road Atlas ( Highly Recommended ! )
9. 2006 Hotel and Restaurant Guide ( published by FH & RA )
10. 2005 India Travel Planner ( published by Dept of Indian Tourism )
11. Dedicated maps of J & K, Uttranchals and Himachals

The above list is defintely not exhaustive and is our personal preference. Some recent books that I bought which are not related to the trip are :

• 1000 Places to See Before You Die : A traveler’s life list. Patricia Schultz
• Lonely Planet’s Blue List : 618 Thigs to Do & Places to Go
• Lonely Planet’s The Travel book ” A Journey Through Every Country of the World
• 100 Great wonders of the world

Mere pass hai VISApower, kya aapke pass hai?

I may not be tendulkar but i write my name is ishtyle! Thats my new card for the GIR! Sundeep BHP Gajjar and its ferreal!

The Route completed so far

4500kms on record in 35 days. See the map below for a rough guide to what route we took.

The Tools : By GasolineJunkie ( Ashish Divakaran )

For this trip we needed some basic stuff to take us through the breakdowns, we had all the spares we needed, everything from spare tubes to a spare CDI for the Comet. Just didn't know what to do with all of them, all we had was a + and ' screwdriver and a corkscrew that we hoped will come handy when fixing the bike. Who knows, maybe you cantopi open an engine with a bottle opener.

My job here was to get stuff that we needed for this ride and I had big plans for making a tool cabinet in our backup vehicle. Maybe a drawer for tyres, another one for spanners and wrenches. After our backup vehicle problem we had to make do with what time we had and for some reason I totally slacked off when I should have been shopping for tools in Delhi.

When we got to Chandigarh and hired the Tata 207 we started thinking of what we needed to put in it and then someone said 'tools!!!' With less that an hour to go I sent Autofreak ( Abhishek Kaushal ) to the market with a large of shopping list of tools, so this is what he managed to buy.

• Set of screwdrivers - Small, medium and large of both Phillips and Flat Blade screwdrivers. We also got 2 screwdrivers that came with the Blaze.

  

• Set of pliers ' A wire stripper, cutting pliers and a weather-man that I bought in Leh. The cutting pliers have been pretty useful in a lot of minor repairing and tuning, especially with the Comet carburetor. I think my weather-man has been the most useful tool, I've used it for everything from pulling out nails from tyres to opening drink cans, I've also used it for trimming my beard works like a mach3.

  

• Set of hammers ' I bought a set of two hammers and a center punch. We haven't used it till now, except for self-defense or when I needed to keep skyscraper away from the red bull.

  

• Spanners ' we have two sets of spanners, open-end, and offset ring spanners. Sizes are from 6 to 32. There is also a movable spanner and the two 'T' spanners that come with the Blaze. ( You can see the following page for more information of spanners and wrenches : http://www.diydata.com/tool/spanner/spanner.htm )

  

• Set of Allen Keys
• Blades ' we have a blade and a hacksaw with spare blades. My weather-man also has a pen knife and a saw.
• We bought an Electric pump that runs off the cigarette lighter, also have a pressure gauge for tyre pressure.
• Adhesive ' in the toolkit there are two boxes of quick dry M'seal, a few tubes of superglue and a tube of epoxy resign. We haven't used this as yet. Duct tape comes handy when your trying to hold things together, but in our case we have brown packing tape.
• Because of the inadequate 6 liter tank in the Blaze I bought two 22liter metal jerry cans from Leh. Not really a tool, more like accessories.
  

What I actually wanted is a Stanley 100 piece toolkit, but I couldn't find it in Delhi and in Chandigarh so we had to buy most of our tools separately. Fortunately, till now we had all the tools we needed when repairing the Comet. Small things like weather-mans and Swiss knives are small, easy to carry and they are really handy for everyday repairs. Most bikes come with toolkits so even if you are carrying lots of tools remember to get your bike toolkit with you because they are usually made for the particular bike.

For leg2 I need to buy more tools so if you have any ideas please speak now or forever hold your peace.

The House on the Hill

The ride from Rohru to Mussoorie seemed endless as we rode into the night, riding through our initially decided full stop for the day at Chakrata. We hit one of the last open eating joints in Mussoorie at 10 PM. GasolineJunkie managed to arrange a house for us to stay in one of his distant relatives in Mussoorie's Landore Hill. I was a little skeptical about living in anyone's house, specially when you are going to land up at 11 PM on a cold night. Landore Hill was 15 odd kms from our dinner joint and with each passing kilometer the surroundings were getting increasingly fantastic and started to resemble a snug little peaceful village with elements that would you get in a Walt Disney video game.

It was 12 PM when we finally arrived. There were lots of insects and wild things hiding in the dark and conversing about odd things and maybe some important things like the GIR Team was in town. The distinctive smell of greenery and all things moist and slippery announced that we were in Uttranchal.

As we descended the final steps leading to the house we didn't know what to expect. It could be an old and dingy place, would it have been better if had taken a hotel and have had more freedom, will there be a clean toilet and etceteras.

The caretaker of the house knew English because he worked under a German Lady and an American man who owned the place. He opened the door for us and instantly all our inhibitions and fatigue were proved volatile. The house reminded Ken of French countryside Chalets while it stunned me and instantly made me depressed and in an "I want my home to be like it" mood.

Ah, man and his desires. Seriously, what else would you want in your old age ( I wont mind even when I am young as I am ). Cold nights with clouds floating inside the windows for company, copper fireplace for a TV set. The house had a liberal dose of old wood and interesting artifacts. The next thing that you notice are the sketches and drawings on the walls. It gives you a faint idea of the immense artistic sense and talent the residents of the house possessed. I was overwhelmed and considered myself lucky to have chanced upon this. Thanks to Gasoline ( Ashish Divakaran ) for letting the GIR into this cosy hamlet when we least expected it.

By far, in these 31 days of the GIR Leg 1 the best two places that I stayed in were : 1 ) Shanti Kunj ( Alcove of Peace ) in Mussoorie, Landore Hill and 2 ) The 1 Crore Rupees Houseboat on the Dal Lake.

I have placed Shanti Kunj before the house boat because it is a privately owned property and is nurtured with non commercial love and care, something that you will not find even in the most fancy of hotels across the world.

It would only lessen the life of my precious IBM keyboard if tried to describe the richness of the house in words, therefore I have chosen to convey it through photographs which I hope will do justice to it.

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Schedule : Sept 9 - Sept14th

Sept 9 :    Manali - Losar

Sept 10 :  Losar - Kaza ( Kibber, Ki )

Sept 11 :  Kaza - Tabo

Sept 12 : Tabo - Recong Peo

Rest of the route to be framed.

There will be no Internet Connectivity for the next 5 days, so bear with us.