Indo-Nepal Ride 2011-2012

Folks I am not a writer but still this is just an attempt to save a memory of this riding trip. Apologies for any sort of error.

Stage 1: Premature Excitement.

It was 27^th December 2011; I got a call from Biplav Arya that, he & Shashnak Pandey are leaving for Nepal ride on 29^th Dec early morning. I got surprisingly shocked that I got a privilege to join this ride with two matured experienced rider. Eventually after so many thinking hiccups within a day, I decided to get my Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 (Named Warsaw) a technical check by mechanic & prepare myself for this amazing ride. So many questions were running into my mind because this is just my second ride of Royal Beast & I do admit that I am still a amateur whether it’s about my riding or technical knowledge, but anyhow I got my Warsaw checked in short turn around time & found perfectly fine for the ride. So an exciting day has come on 29^th Dec Morning 5AM I packed two bags full of clothes, useful stuffs as if I will go in train lol & reached at Biplav’s residence at South Ex-Kotla, call him up but he was still snoring like a pig. I waited outside & playing with the bungee cord & packed my bag & left some additional stuffs at his place only. Meanwhile, Shashank Pandey also reached with his Classic 350 fully prepared with his riding gear & saddle bag. We met after a long time & it was good to see each other for a ride which was just a silly nomadic dream way back before when Biplav, I & Shashank use to work for HCL. So we laughed with slangs & funny talks etc. Suddenly Biplav rang my cellphone & said “Bakchodi kam karo yahan log sotey bhi hain is time”. Few minutes later he got himself ready & came down to take out his big giant Royal Enfield Standard 500. After some initial preparation we were now jet set ready for the ride. There was no specific plan was discussed except that we will take a break at Moradabad somewhere.

Stage 2: Ride Begins

Three bullets have come out & loud sound begins with dhuuug dhuuug dhuuuug in winter early morning.

We had taken NH24 highway through Akshardham road, Ghaziabad, Hapur & taken a very light tea break somewhere on a highway where people were staring three of us as if we are aliens (this is every where’s story during ride). Bullet headlights were on, ride was on, three bull heads & bullets were tearing the white snow which is the most challenging & pathetic on road because you never know whom you will going to hit & who will going to hit you from your back. Ride was on its pace on broken one way road with many pothole where Biplav discovered my front wheel is giving some kind of wobble. We planned to take a technical break at Joya & got my front wheel tube changed with a new tube. To avoid wasting time Biplav got his back wheel checked at the expert bullet mechanic. Here Shashank & me bought some apples & sapodilla for a run time filling & he said “Joya se pehle ek jagah aayi thi jiska naam Dildo tha” but later on realized it wasn’t Dildo it was Didoli which we might have read wrongly J

Ride was on & on … we were heading towards Moradabad crossed it successfully & entered to Rampur. Here we were feeling damn hungry as we didn’t have a good breakfast so we had a good rajma-chawal, choley-chawal & kadi chawal from a roadside thela which was along with a roadside mechanic from where Biplav got his Bullet’s back wheel bearing repaired. Mechanic didn’t do well so Biplav ripped his ass apart & taught him some technicalities. I suggested humorously that he should open a garage & name it as Biplav Bullet Bureau. Some small pranks are really inexplicable here ;-)

Ride was on & on… Rampur crossed successfully & we have also bought two additional MRF tubes size 3.25x19 for any emergency situation from MRF store followed by Rudrapur (let me tell you, road & traffic are terrible). By the end of dusk we have reached to a very popular Dam where we clicked some good pictures & reached to Indo-Nepal Border on our respectable time.

Stage 3: Indo-Nepal Border

Now we are entering to Nepal Border where we were asked to stop for a security check. Guards said that Nepal is closed due to some curfew & we were not allowed to enter. We were in dilemma that, what would happen now?? Yahan tak pahunch gaye aur dimaag ka dahi ho chka tha.. Now we met an amazing policeman K.S.(I won’t write his full name, though I know it). We started talking to him & he invited us to his cemented cabin for our name entry on his register. Baato he baatooo mein KS was preparing his weed & Shashank took this initiative & offered a gentle help to create a fabulous weed (he is good in such masala thing ;-)) Bakchodi starts between KS & Shashank about Guns, granites, Ghaziabad, Prison, Gangsters blah blah.. we already marked a good impression on him & he let us go inside. A Policeman is enjoying marijuana on duty, this scene was ultimate. We had crossed the barrier legally, done some paper work formalities & entered to Nepal now. It was getting dark at 8PM in this Kaanchas country. This feeling was good that we have reached to Nepal after crossing 350Kms approx in a day. However, major distance was yet to be covered. We were heading towards the Mahendernagar where we planned to stay that night. But unfortunately Biplav’s bullet met with a puncture on a pathetic road(motey patthar waley road) & we had no idea how to get it fixed. On road we met a young boy Sagar of Class XI who shared his information about some local mechanics but due to lack of knowledge mechanic refused to take any step & went back. Sagar advised us to stay here in a hotel till morning & showed us the way of a nearest Hotel West Shine.

Stage 4: Nepal Journey.

Three of us reached to Hotel West Shine with a punctured tube & decided to spend that night there. We got well treated by one of the hotel staff Joshi. Hotel was good in condition; we locked our motorcycles at hotel outodoor parking & dumped our stuffs in our single room with two beds. It was time to open the local rum Khukri & celebrate the first night of the journey. We ate their local dish, I carried my own small hookah as well but we also smoke bidi. While we people planning to sleep, owner of the Hotel Mahesh Chand came in to greet & meet us. This guy was a full-on character who was praising it’s own tail main ‘yahan ka yeh hoon wo hoo, Mere aagey sab yahan bekaar hai, tumhe kisi cheez ki zarurat padhey to mujhe call karna yahan’. He bugged us so badly that I went off to sleep, so was Shashank. Shashank is the one jo usey aur phhoonk padh chadha raha tha. Biplav was only facing him till the time he walked out of our room. Now a new next day begun, three of us clicked some quick pictures with surrounding landscapes & got ourselves ready without wasting any precious time. Joshy served us with a hot ginger tea & Biplav got his bike’s punctured repaired & we were all set to bang on the road & enjoyed the best stretch of the ride till Karnali Bridge & Chisapani. While riding we took a lunch break then a 20min technical pause in between a remote area where few cute little kids gathered us & touching our bikes. I am able to recall their name as Kaaley, Gopi, Pardesi. We clicked some amazing pictures with them & moved on towards the Butwal (target of the day). Short tea breaks were there & trust me Nepal is one of the best places to have strong ginger tea. It was always giving us a kick start on our rides. Another thing is beautiful girls which were appearing in front of us in installments & distracting us with their beauty. One thing I have noticed that, in all the hotels, kitchen work was always governed by ladies & Nepali ladies are composition of beauty & hardwork. Shashank Pandey decided to marry a Nepali girl LOL. And during this Nepal ride I invented one song “hawa mein udhta jaaye mera balaclava malmal ka” which became a super hit among three of us. We were singing this song throughout this journey in our meantime.

Riding was on & on …. Dhug dhuuuug dhuuuuuuuugggggg..

Just like our riding speed, afternoon was turning to a beautiful sunset, dusk & dark night. Let me tell you dark nights are always spooky when you are riding around the dense forest. The landscape which gives you a refreshing feel during the day time, same gives you a haunted feel at night time (This is just a personal observation which depends). So three of us were riding at low speed because the roads were not up to the mark & we were facing potholes. The worse part of night riding is to open your visor for the better visibility & invite the dust & that point of time Petrol level was decreasing, Shashank’s bull was absolutely working well. However, Biplav’s bullet was riding on a reserve & mine was shortly reaching towards the reserve. Our short target was to reach at petrol pump at any cost which we eventually got it in Lamahi after asking this & that people. If anybody is traveling through mahendernagar to Butwal then Lamahi is the best place to fill in Petrol/Deiesel also with a good food where we sipped a cup of tea & left without wasting our precious night time. After riding 20-30 Kms Biplav advised us to stop around the hill side, he was indeed right because the moment we raised our head above; the view black & white Sky-Star view was spectacular we spent almost 15min, smoke three bidis & cracked a silly PJ : “ James Bond apni bidi khud jalata hai”. I played a track called ‘Guaranteed’ by Eddie Vedder & did some bakchodizzz. We moved on & finally stopped at Butwal where market side were all closed, people might have snoring or watching TV or surfing internet at their homes which three of us were not missing at all. Luckily we got a hotel at Butwal gol-chakkar to spend our night. We parked our bikes in two consecutive hotels but stayed in a room of a hotel. We were completely famished, so quickly ordered the local dish Daal-bhaat-maasu & ate it like some hungry devils & went back to our allotted room. Hotel room & washroom really sucked but it didn’t bother us as we were using it as a night shelter. Our room number was ‘kotha# 215’, don’t know if in Nepal they call room a ‘kotha’ LOL. I was panicked & keep on giving a stare at Shashank, if we are at the right place which does not have prostitutes & pimps. Of course! It was a good hotel nothing like are apparent perception. One thing which was happened really strange or funny or a kind of stress buster is, there was a couple who were staying in another room & our wall was common. Suddenly we started getting moaning voices from that room. We didn’t take much time to understand such mmmmmmmm moaning aah aaaa!! voices that some sex session was happening in another room hahahha. Our faces were like, What the fuck man!! Whats happening aroundJ, we were staring at each other, giggling & controlling our boisterous laugh so that those couple wouldn’t get disturbed in their love making time. Early morning happened, we always discussed to get up at 5AM & by 5:30AM & check out while we go off to sleep. But it never happened we always made it happen till 8:30AM ;-) Now early morning also those couple from another room played a loud mobile music & started fucking. This time we said Oh gawwwwwwwwwd! Not again. But three of us charged up with some horny horny voices in early morning. We were on road now, hunted for Petrol Pump & refilled our Bullets because from Butwal we will be heading towards 150 Kms of hill where there is not even a single petrol pump till the time we reach to Pokhra.

Riding was on & on …. Dhug dhuuuug dhuuuuuuuugggggg..

Shashank Pandey got to know from a former Maoist about some Maoist activity which was just happened few minutes back. But these people do not hurt the tourist so we were advised to carry on with our ride & now were entering the beautiful hills of Nepal. Hilly turns were dangerous for me because I was riding first time on such hills, steep slope & badly shaped circular turns. But I overcame with the situation; we took very few breaks which were either of Tea or else clicking pictures, Biplav’s clutch cable broke up which he himself repaired & we finally reached to Pokhra at afternoon time.

Stage 5: Pokhra-Himalayan Range

We reached to Pokhra on our third day of trip during afternoon where we stayed at Army Man’s home turned hotel. The actual place name was Padri. We had our lunch, clicked some pictures, took a big relax, dumped our luggage & went out to explore. Here we met a guy who was riding a bullet, Biplav stopped & asked him if there is any place where Royal Enfield repairing workshop available? Wowww! What a luck we had, he was himself a RE trader of that town. My front wheel break shoe was almost dead which were damaging the disk so it was very important to get it new. So we took down his name (Vinod), number & he told us to meet at around & 7PM. Three of us now fondling the city streets & headed towards the offroad & went towards where I guess no one prefer to go during the night time. It was a big steep off rode slope & again what a night with a Khukhri bottle of Rum & shining bright star up in the sky which could easily be counted. We celebrated our ride, did a cheer to our pegs & said Happy New Year 2012 to each other. After our pegs Me & Biplav reached to Royal Enfield shop which was located at Naya Bazar, met that guy got my Bullet’s shoe brake repaired. Mechanic name was Ravindra.

We stayed that night in Pokhra & got ourselves ready next morning for a return back to New Delhi. Time was less, we have taken some short number of leaves so couldn’t explore much which we could have done. We filled in the full tank petrol, took the same hill road of 150km & reached to Butwal. The weather was not pleasant for a ride because it was drizzling which were making road very slippery. My bull had given me so many deadly skids but I managed to balance it all the times. Drizzling was turning into a slow rain & roads were absolutely wet but we successfully reached to plains. From Butwal we ate some local paani puri, tikki etc & taken a decision of non-stop riding for sometime. Rainy weather was truly amazing & giving a beautiful scenery to the yellow –green cultivated crops & huts. By the day end, rain had taken a deadliest face which made us stop at the same place Lamahi. It was a longest break there because of heavy rain; we ate our post-lunch & sipped a good ginger Nepali tea. We waited there at petrol pump-small food joint for 2hours I believe & decided to ride in night as we had no other options to stay there. It was again a spooky night; I was tailing Biplav & Shashank because I don’t feel good in fast riding that so in night.

Stage 6: Major FuckUp of the trip:

Now the major fuck up happened of the trip. Shashank who was following Biplav & I was following Shashank Bullet’s bright red tail light. Suddenly, we had no idea where the hell Biplav is out of the sight. Shashank stopped near around the hotel & waived me to stop there. We discussed that if we have seen Biplav Arya somewhere? I said “How would I, you were following him” ? Now both of us had no clue if he had gone ahead or following us. But there was no possible reason that Biplav is following us because he is the lead whereas I & Shashank didn’t see him at our back or taking any kind of turn that so for no reason. We decided to stay at roadside dhaba where light was enough for Biplav to locate us (in case if he is following us from very far). We also switched on our bike’s indicator light. Our discussion & mathematics were running-on about Biplav’s no scene. Weird kinds of thinking were surrounding our minds, for eg: till how long we will wait here? Biplav is not a kind of person who will leave us in the middle… If suppose he had left us & carried on his ride what we will gonna do? We didn’t even have much cash now for travel till the time we will reach to UP..  etc

We sipped our tea, it was almost 20-25 min we waited for Biplav but he was no where around, we didn’t even get any dhuuug dhuuggg sound from far which could make us relief. In a dark night we were checking all the single headlights from far & praying to God if we will meet Biplav. After some chasm, we decided to ride till the next market/hotel side & see if Biplav is waiting there for us or not. Next stop was 6km which was Kohlupur. Me & Shashank were riding slow, we promised to ride slow because Biplav was already missing & two of us didn’t want to miss in this dark highway. But suddenly I got a big jerk from my back wheel & face the most unexpected thing & that so at the wrong time. My Bullet’s rear wheel tube was punctured. I screamed & said What the fuck!!!!!!!! Now what the hell God wants from us? Biplav the Bullet God is already missing, On top of that this puncture thing in the dark forest night where we couldn’t expect a puncture repair shop at this time of around 11PM & next stop is still 6Km far. It was a cold blooded scary night, this scene happened in the road which was surrounded by wild animals & Maoists. Me & Shashank were the only one on the road, I started dragging my bike. No doubt about it, BOTH OF US WERE BADLY SCARED. Meanwhile, I gave a suggestion to drag our bikes back to the same hotel where we were waiting for Biplav. But Shashank made a brave decision to let’s drag it ahead till Kohlpur & let’s see if there is any help we will get. Now shashank was dragging my punctured Thunderbird(Warsaw) & I was riding his Classic 350 at a very low speed. I am repeatedly saying here we were scared but we managed to drag it till the next market side where we found one Truck tyre/tube mechanic who was still working along with some paan-bidi khoka. Mechanic’s name was Imran Kale, we showed him the status of bullet & asked him to help us. He said he will take time as he is in the middle of fixing a truck’s tube. Meanwhile Shashank & me were sipping tea & back to our hot conversation ‘Gumshuda Biplav ki khoj’. After spending 30 minutes, I got a sound dhuuug dhhuuuggggg dhuuuug. Shashank said “ kya tujhe bhi wohi sunaai de raha hai jo mujhe sunaai de raha hai” I said “haaaaaaaan bhutni k” I ran towards the road from the garage end & saw Biplav Arya with his red riding jacket & black 500cc Bull is coming from the following end rather than coming from ahead. I bowed in front of his bike as if God’s daze, a savior has come. Mera do kilo khoon shayad badh chuka tha aur shayad shashank ka bhi. We smart ass & jack ass (named given to Shashank & me respectively by Biplav) were finding ourselves so relaxed & out of this orphan feeling. But Biplav came with full of anger, red-headed, killing nature & said “Bhen k---- , kahan gaye they tum log, I rode 17KM back to just to find two of you, fought verbally with so many officers around & asking about two bulletiers, pata nahi kahin kisi Maoist ne kaat kar to nahi fek diyaa this & that slangs. Biplav’s anger was very obvious but it was neither of ours fault which was sorted lately. Anyways we are back to our relaxation mode, now Kaley is also ready to open the nut-bolts of my thunderbird. But we were ignorant about Royal Enfield, so once again Biplav opened his magical tool box , took out some instruments & advised Kaley how to deal with it. Biplav & kaley managed to fixed the tube’s back to the tyre. We decided to not to ride ahead & stayed back at local hotel. We found a small hotel with a filthy room at Rs200(Nepali Currency), drank rum in night with black fried chana, talked about Gorkha regiment, slept at around 3AM & got ready to move on next morning. This night was our last stay back in Nepal, after that it was a non-stop ride till Delhi-NCR with short & crisp tea-bidi breaks. Lastly, pathetic thing which we faced was Moradabad roads & after Hapur it was fucking fog with very low visibility in night.

Overall it was an amazing trip with so much of fun with learning among three of us, Nepal landscapes, Girls, chaai-bidi breaks, stupid PJs, my shitty songs, Eddie Vedder Guaranteed, Society tracks. However, Alexander Supertramp’s level is still out of our reach as of now. But we will plan another ride….
City Riding still on n onnnnnnnn dhugg dhuggg dhugggggg….!!

Regards

Amit Mohan Sharma (AMS)
Courtesy: Royal Beasts
Indo-Nepal ride pictures are at : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150458018018663.355469.519133662&type=3