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2003-07-17 - Lamaruyu - Bosco (Day 93)

The two bikes set off in the morning and we have another pleasant if uneventful day of riding. We make it over another pass but in comparison to the ones I had been over before Leh, this was anticlimactic as it was not high enough to have snow or even to be very cold and by comparison, the tameness of the pass was a bit of a let down. It was kind of a shame to realize that there is very little to compare with the roads I had already been over in the world and that "high-mountain passes" anywhere else will probably be only a mild shadow of Baralacha-La or Khardung-La.

We reach the village of Bosco and take another road-stop room with dust that flies up from the bed, bed bugs and no hot water. The sheets in this hotel had probably not been washed this season and it was simply rank. However, there were other choices both of which made this hotel look like the local Hyatt.

The town has a first century BC (reputed) carving and attached monastery that was interesting as it was on a much smaller, more human scale then the other monasteries I had been to and it having only one monk that I could see in attendance was completely peaceful. Tired from the road it was a very pleasant place to spend an hour looking at the murals and sit in quiet meditation.

Leaving the monastery, I came upon two Polish guys with their bicycles who had ridden overland from Poland, which was quite amazing. They had plenty of stories to tell which made for a nice afternoon though the conversation was focused primarily on Enfields. These guys were thinking that since two plane tickets to Poland from Delhi would cost about 2,000 US$, that they would buy an Enfield and ride it back overland instead. They thought they could spend about US$ 1,000 on a used bike and US$ 1,000 on expenses and just ride it back to Europe. Adrian and I both had reasons why this was simply a bad idea - in my case, I thought it was pretty insane, Adrian just thought not thought out but in agreement that two guys on one bike to Europe wouldn't work. These bikes are just too fussy and a pain to set out on a trip like that without preparation and at the very minimum time to get used to the bike and the way it rides which is just too different from any other bike to be taken lightly.

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