Motorcycle Diary “Mustang” “The Last known forbidden kingdom” “The Land beyond Himalayas”

This as usual again happened over night, I had no plans to visit or travel yet I did and I guess that’s what’s “call of the mountains” means is!! It was immediately after the biggest Nepalese festival Dashain, one of my cousins, popped in at my home. We had dinner and we were watching T.V, that’s when he had a call and he was explaining what he has already packed for the trip and is ready to leave as early as possible. As its in we Nepalese blood to intervene in anyone’s business, I asked him, where he is headed for?? He quickly replied, I have couple week’s long break, so escaping this hustle and bustle for a week, may be to Mustang, more precisely “Muktinath”. I was explaining my cousin how I wanted to go with him but cant because mum was going to India and cannot leave the house and dog by itself. As soon as I dropped my words to my cousin, came a phone call to my mom saying her trip to India has been postponed for the reason that the train tickets have been postponed. I went to my mum’s room and told her if she was not leaving I am and she gave me a green signal.

I packed my bag once again in a small laptop bag in no time and went to sleep as I wanted to catch a good night sleep before a tedious, hilly terrain ride to Beni which is around 275km and which would take me somewhat 10 hours. So me, my cousin and his friend headed out of Kathmandu and decided to ride for around 4 hour nonstop until we reach Muglin; a river and highway side small town which serves good “Daal Bhat” and other food and beverages to the travelers, days and nights. That’s what we did we rode on the busiest highway dodging big vehicles and making it to Muglin exactly at 10:00 am. I was riding a Honda CBR250r where as my cousin and his friend was on a small 125cc engine Honda Shine but we were bang on time. We had our staple food and took rest for about half an hour and decided to move forward. We had estimated we would have arrived Pokhara by 1 afternoon and head further west and arrive the town of Beni by 4. Delays on the highway of Nepal are something to expect and that’s what happened, we arrived Pokhara at 3 pm.

I decided to call it a rest at Pokhara at least for an hour where as my cousin and his friend decided to move forward claiming I had a bigger engine bike and I could catch up at anytime. When I was alone drinking coffee alone at lakeside in Pokhara, it reminded of a friend of mine, who was a friend from back in school, who has been in shit with me, when in Nepal and in States. He had been in Nepal just couple of days before and had come to Pokhara just to have fun. As soon as I called him and relayed my plans he came with his bag packed to the station where I was drinking coffee without a second thought. What more do you wish for? A friend who knows you in and out, who has been a friend since I was 15 and now 11 years after, similar kind of fun, Hell Yes!.

I decided to rent a bike as my bike is a sports bike, made for the plains, not for the mountains and off road. We went together to rent a bike, “Royal Enfield” to be more precise, 500cc to be articulate as I am heavy and my friend is not less, this bike would have been an absolute match. Season time bad luck, all Enfield’s were booked so without any further delays;30pm we decided to go further west to Beni as the evening was picking up pretty soon. We made to Beni without any problems at 6 as we were caught up in drizzle some 12 km ahead of the town.

We wandered through out the small town first to find a rental bike for me and second to find a good place to stay. Finally I decided to take my own bike and we decided to stay in Hotel Yak; a newly opened motel in 2014. The price was reasonable, we paid 1000 rupees each for 2 double bed room we hired, and both rooms we rented had a television, a bathroom with hot and cold water. Amazing thing the rooms even was equipped with cctv cameras as well. We had nice dinner, again daal bhat for a fair price of Rs.350 per person.

As we were at dinner table waiting for our food; it was like early Christmas when we met 3 other friends of my cousin popped out of nowhere, who were headed to same destination like we were. My cousins 2 new friends had come 3 people from Kathmandu on 2 Pulsar bikes, one that of 180 cc and other 220 cc. The new friends of my cousin slept smoking weed and drinking beer till somewhat 2am in the morning. I and my friend couldn’t sleep all night, I because I was exhausted from all day ride and he because of the noise made from Kaligandaki; A major tributary in Nepal.

Before we made a move early in the morning we had our breakfast where we also heard stories from locals about “Mustang”. We had been advised to pay money for even charging our cell phone batteries and hot water. Out of the blue I asked the small motel owner about the road conditions, he replied “The road is good for us as we never saw road before and we do up down on weekly basis but for you outsider it may be pain in your butt”. We gathered all the courage as we had heard the stories and seen the videos where you have to cross raging stream, one of the biggest waterfalls in Nepal and most of all the puddle of slippery black mud which gets dangerous in watery conditions.

All packed, bag, food and courage we head forward towards our destination which is around 80km far from Beni. Since we left beni I don't remember seeing a graveled or black topped road through out. The road, that’s what people called was not even a road that was a bloody mountain or hill which had been chopped off or carved from excavator and left the way they were dug out . I saw busses stuck in the puddle of mud, I saw 4 wheeler stuck in the puddle of mud, I saw bikes slipping in the puddle of mud but that scene provided me a different kind of vigor, a vigor that pushed me through the challenges. The road till a place name Ghasa was a “Highway to hell”, if you slip towards your right the raging river will carry away whatever comes to it, if we slip towards left we would have surely broken some bones and another nerve wrecking problem was my motorbike’s bad ground clearance. My bike engine had multiple and countless encounter with the road and how bad I remembered the Royal Enfield I wanted to hire. 

We saw the story we had heard early that morning come to reality when we saw one of the biggest waterfall “Rupse” right in front of us, in the middle of the so called highway, coming down with all the strength. We all halted there, all 7 of us, as we had decided in the morning that we would wait for everyone to arrive before crossing any difficult section of the road. One of our friend went in the pond, made by the fall, on the highway, before moving further down. Upon asking the depth which we could see for ourselves, he replied it is waist deep which is not a problem but the water is ball freezing which could be a problem. We crossed one by one with support of a friend who would walk our bikes through so that we do not fall off the cliff to Kaligandaki. One by one we made it through but wet and cold from waist and below.

Shortly after we made it through Rupse we came across another stream named “Bokshi Khola”. Boksi Khola means witches stream in direct translation; It was named so for the reason that the stream at times is like flash flood and washes away whatever comes its way. When we had arrived at Bokshi Khola, we saw group of foreigners on their Royal Enfield surveying the stream so that they could cross it. We without even second thought, no survey crossed it and moved forward. When almost everyone one crossed we parked our bikes so that we could take our socks off and tie it on some part of the bike to dry it out, the foreigners gave us a shout, they shouted many words but all I heard was, Bravo!

Moved on further, had our lunch at Ghasa, soaked under the sun, we decide to move further. Before we made a move we again queried about the road conditions of highway to come, the feedback was positive as every one answered “If you made it here rest is a piece of cake”. In fact it was a piece of cake, except for the fact that it had no black topped road, the road was plain, dusty at times, potholes at times but absolutely better that what we had been through. It was barely about 3-4 hours of fun ride let’s say.

After lete which is around half an hour away from Ghasha, we had already left the tallest mountains behind us. The mountain which is seen towards north from throughout the country was now in the south. We head forward and by the time we reached Marfa; the apple village, it was already 2:30pm. We were cold no matter what we had on because we were at 2900m from the sea level. We decided to rest for a while as pressing clutch, break and gear simultaneously and continuously had already jammed my palms and feet and now it was beginning to get numb. We stopped at Marfa, had black tea, plucked and ate almost 4kgs of apple for dirt cheap price of Rs.30 per kg. The best, sweetest and tastiest apples, that I remember having in my entire life.

After half an hour rest we headed forward to Jomsom, which is at 2700m and was an hour away. It was only half an hour or little less away from Marfa we came across what people called the deepest gorge of the world. The complete area was barren and was surrounded by hills and was like a natural tunnel. Everything was beautiful but the bloody gust of wind, which sometimes blew towards and sometimes against us. When it blew against us it was very powerful and sometimes made us feel like it will blow us away along with our motorcycle. It at time became so windy we decided to stop, as it was cold we decided to pee as well. When we peed we peed our pants, thanks to the wind.

We reached Jomsom in less than 10 minutes when we had halted, and at Jomsom we decided to call it a day. We parked our Bikes, had our food, bought some pain killers from the community pharmacy as we all had severe head to butt aches. We rested at hotel Monalish for Rs.1000 per room a night.

Jomsom is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains from all sides. Nilgiri is the most nearest and looks like across the street and magnificent; Jomsom also has a small airport as well which serves the entire region. The people residing in Jomsom are either Sherpa’s who are the age old settlers or minorities who have shifted there for business purpose. Walking through the wind from 12 noon to 4 in the evening is very tough had has a powerful gust.

We had decided early previous evening that we would wake up at 4am, or as early as possible and ride up to Muktinath which is around 2 hours away and vertical, close to 4000m from sea level. After discussion for over an hour, over the dinner previous day again, we had come to a conclusion that we are going to have something for breakfast and move on for the reason that altitude sickness kicks in on empty stomach pretty profoundly.  That’s what we did, we could not wake up at 4 but we woke up at 6 and by the time we had some biscuits and tea it was 7. For sometimes we were looking for garlic as we were suggested garlic helps in preventing altitude sickness, but unfortunately no garlic in entire town.

One of my cousin’s friends was already drinking Marfa: apple brandy named after the place itself. Half way through he was drunk and already bulshitting. After Kagbeni we stopped around some 3500 m to take some snaps as we saw a beautiful ambiance worth capturing, red flowers, perfect sky and above all Himalayas. The drunk friend asked for the keys of my bike upon insisting for long enough I had given it to him. He took a wild spin on the flat land, thanks to god nothing happened and I got my keys back.

We rode fine to Muktinath, without any problems except the fact that the air was thin, the motorbikes had less performance. We went in the temple which was slightly below 4000m so we were already feeling the fatigue climbing 20 stairs to the temple. We decided we will not stay for over an hour in the temple periphery or else we all are going to be altitude sickened and we were planning to return back to Beni. I don't know it was because of the altitude or something everything slowed down, even we were slow, hungry and exhausted. We decided to have a bowl of noodle, by the time we finished our bowl of noodle and started moving back it was already 2 and half hours.

I and my friend Roman was the first one to roll out as I was the slowest amongst the riders, my cousin and his friend was the 2^nd as they were not far behind us in terms of riding fast. The other 2 motorcycles were the last one to leave as they were pro riders.  As we were lowering the altitude this time, me and my friend made it to Jomsom within an hour and sat there drinking coffee at Java. We waited almost for another hour until all the others arrived, upon asking I came to know that the drunken friend insisted on riding and met an accident and broke the handle of the bike. Our friends upon arrival to Jomsom told us that within 5 minutes from when he took over, smashed the bike to the wall and broke the handle and if the bike had fallen on the other side it would not have been the handle of the bike but hand of a person or probably dead body of a person.

We fixed our bikes in Jomsom and it was already 1:00pm before we fueled our tanks with the petrol from black market which cost us double the amount, which was the only option. Immediately after Marpha; where we ate apples while ascending, my bike was punctured. I left my friend on the road with my brother and cousin and told them to wait until the other friends arrive on whose bike my friend could hop on and get to the mechanic. I left alone to find a mechanic which I didn’t know if existed, if did where it did. I spoke to locals on the way and they confirmed that there is a mechanic somewhere 5-8 kilometers from where I was, in the place named Koban. It took me bloody hour to ride my punctured bike to Koban on the rugged road, but finally found the mechanic. I fixed the tire and waited for my friends to arrive, until they arrived which was half an hour later, I had finished eating apples freshly plucked from the orchard behind the garage.

The night was kicking in, it was already 3pm and we wanted to reach, Tatopani. Tatopani was not more than 35 kilometers from where we were at, but it would take not less than 3 to 3 and half hours. The reason we wanted to stay at Tatopani is, it is natural hot spring water that came from the volcanic plates and we wanted to dip our body there to relax and ease the aches. We made a move and we headed towards our destination for the night. The biggest worry was the portion after Ghasa to one of the largest fall in Nepal “Rupse”, I get the chills even till the day whenever I think of the road that we took. It was slightly before 6 we reached when we reached Rupse, all waiting for my bike as it was the last one to arrive. Except for small slips and engine bouncing against the highway nobody encountered any accident. One by one we crossed the fall fine and headed towards Tatopani which was still around 45 minutes away. I was very exhausted or riding for 3 days and not having a spare rider along me, I could hardly keep my eyes on the road and my contact lenses were drying up. I nearly was about to doze off on the road I saw one of our rider slip on the puddle of black mud and almost dropping in the raging river towards right. I and my friend jumped off the bike put the stand as quickly as I could and rushed to help him. He was under his bike, stuck, and hanging by the edge. I picked the bike up and my friend pulled him back and made sure he was alright, we 3 halted there for around 5 minutes and moved ahead. 

We reached Tatopani around 6ish without further obstruction. We booked a room at Trek O Tel, ordered our dinner and before dinner was served went the nearby pool of natural spring water. We sat in the pool for almost 2 hours, some of our friends enjoyed beer, we made new friends, shared experience, gave suggestion to the people who were heading up and were as concerned about the highway as we were. After bathing we had our dinner and went to our rooms where we played cards for a while and slept around 11, as we were heading home the next day as early as possible.   Next day we woke up rode our bike and got back to Beni where we did not spend any time and headed further to Pokhara where we stayed for a night and following day we reached home without any obstacle.