Paul and Jo plowing through the wheat spread across the road.


More black-magic mechanic work on the mule.

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2003-06-15 / 06-16 - Manali - Naggar - Manali (Day 61-62)

Paul and Jo get me out on the road early for a day trip to Naggar Castle 20km South of Manali. The road on the other side of the main road is quiet and well paved leading to an easy ride up to the castle. The local farmers are using the road and passing cars to thresh wheat, laying the stalks out on the road in thick patches and letting the passing cars separate the wheat from the chaff by driving over them. From a motorcycle's point of view, the wheat is too deep to ride over without caution and we slow for each patch but riding through is like riding through little yellow snow drifts.

We make it to the castle which has a commanding view of the valley and let an hour just slip by admiring the view and sipping down a couple of pots of chai. Paul and Jo tell me more about their life which generally involves working for a few months and then traveling in India for the rest of the year. By working just a few months, they are able to save enough for several months of travel, in this case three months work will cover the costs for seven months of travel. It is an interesting set of choices this life has, neither was able to pursue much of a career, they haven't bought a house and of course kids are not possible, but on the other hand they have had years of seeing the world, and the freedom of life on the road. As with any lifestyle the tradeoffs and what one gives up seem great by most standards. On the other hand I think of so many people I know who haven't made the time to take 2 or 3 months to travel and experience the change of viewpoint and life that such travel brings.

We push on past the castle and up into a small village a few kilometers into the hills. The road is a little rough with some patches of deep loose dirt which the cycle bogs down in and some bumps. I'm riding behind Paul which has lowered the stress level of riding tremendously. On the main road with Paul ahead, he will telegraph if there are trucks are ahead, road hazards, on in today's case, wheat all over the road just around a turn. The stress of riding has probably been cut in half without the worry of big surprises around the corner and I finally get a glimpse of how much more work I've had to do riding alone. However, now that we are on this dirt road up to the village, I'm simply covered in dust head to foot thrown up by Paul's bike. Well, there are always tradeoffs!

Into the village we find there is a religious ceremony in place with the local god being paraded around the village by the elders and piped on by musicians. I go down in front of the procession to get some pictures and get screamed out of the way by 1/2 the village which sees I have a sacred cow wrapped around my feet in the form of my boots. The crowd yells to get out of the vicinity of the god's carriage and up on the side of the hill to watch. Oops. They take this stuff a little seriously and the leather boots have had their drawbacks.

We head back to Manali and complete the ride with a stop at Johnson's Cafe. Dirty and tired walking into a beautifully decorated cafe opening out onto a garden and having lasagna, and a huge salad is like being in heaven. All in all Manali is an amazing place with the valley walls just a kilometer away rising straight up on three sides and covered with pine trees and apple orchards. The town itself because of the number of foreign tourists has a range of food and supplies. There is also the party scene of the Israeli hippies which is reminiscent of the beach scenes of Thailand, just a continuous party.

The beast has started being ornery again and refusing to start. It stalled on the side of the road on the way back from Nagger and didn't want to move again so I ask Paul to help me look it over. We spend all of Monday playing with the bike. It was one of those where everything goes really smooth, fixed several potential problems and put it all back together thinking we are finished and and the bike refused to start. We end up tearing the bike apart again looking for an electrical short which we can't find.

Fortunately we're in a town that caters to Enfield's and there are 4-5 mechanics to help. We ride over on Paul's bike and bring a mechanic back to look at it. In another example of total frustration with the bike, the mechanic reams out my points with pliers which both Paul and I just wince at, puts it back gives an explanation for the situation which makes no sense what-so-ever and the bike works. Time and again I've seen the mechanics work on this bike and do things that just confound me but seem to work - unfortunately experience has been that they work only for a while.

As we are finishing up, we move the bike and the bolt holding the rear break just falls onto the ground leaving both Paul and I laughing... things like the rear brake falling off are just normal. The bike is purring like I've never heard it run yet, perhaps it will be happy for a while as the trip to Leh will be the most arduous journey I've attempted yet.

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