4 Clues From Your Childhood That You Were Destined To Ride Ladakh!

YOU RACED THROUGH PUDDLES

A puddle was a magnet drawing me to splash through on my bicycle as fast as my tiny legs could pedal. Or I’d wait for the grown ups to get distracted so I could jump and splash in it till I was drenched.

Well, that same gleeful sensation seems to overwhelm us as we cross rivers on our motorcycles in Ladakh. Grown men and women can be seen squeezing their socks dry on the other bank, grinning like Cheshire cats. Some go right back into the river to “help” their mates but all they’re doing is splashing around as they did when they were young.

YOU PLAYED IN MUD OR SAND

A pile of sand or mud was meant for rolling in, digging, sifting and throwing into the air. I made mud castles to storm it with my band of imaginary bandits and practiced that villainous “bru-ha-ha-ha” laugh to perfection.

While riding in the Nubra Valley one can’t help turning off the tarmac and head towards the dunes. As we walk without our riding boots in the fine sand, we imagine ourselves as Silk Route traders from Turkmenistan, with our double-humpbacked camels fully laden. But the view is no mirage: there are indeed lush pastures cradling the pristine stream on one side and the dunes surrounded by rugged mountains on the other.

YOU CLIMBED TREES

A good tree was one I could climb. With a fluttering heart, I’d pull myself onto the higher branches, expecting at any moment to go crashing down. The thrill of looking into the distance from atop a tree made me feel brave, like I was on a wild adventure.

Riding higher and higher over the passes of Ladakh on our motorcycles is an adventure like no other. The narrow twisties that wind through the gorges and lead us to the lunar landscape or “moonland” of Lamayuru never fail to delight me. Besides the thin air, one also gets breathless out of awe of the innumerable shades of mountains that keep unfolding all the way up to the beautiful pass of Fotu-La. Up here the view is what I think I was searching for from that treetop long ago.

YOU BUILT TENTS WITH BED SHEETS

Building tents with bed sheets or carton boxes was my way of being in the land far-far away. I’d be transported to a magical place as soon as I entered my tent of make-believe. The night sky would be filled with shooting stars, while inside our flashlight lit faces would discuss our wild expedition.

Reaching the sapphire Pangog lake or the Tso-Moriri lake in the high Himalayan desert is surreal but almost how I imagined it to be. But it’s impossible to be prepared for the actual sensation one feels until you get there after a day of riding over gravel and dirt. The cool breeze sending ripples upon the deep blue lake and the wispy clouds above makes you want to dance with delight. It is only while sipping your second or third cup of chai sitting inside your tent overlooking the lake that you get this sense of deja-vu. Yes, this is that magical tent from my childhood!

In case you had too much homework growing up or little time to clown around like me, someone did say, “you’re never too old to have a happy childhood.” So grab that motorcycle, ride around Ladakh and let that kid within dream and play!!

Imagine your perfect destination for an adventure ride: what characteristics would this place possess? Awe-inspiring scenery? A road network from which every straight stretch of tarmac has been banished to some other land? How about food? Would you opt for bland? Of course you wouldn’t. And finally, there are the people. Do they embody an innate kindness and a welcoming, inquisitive nature toward strangers like you? If these attributes tick the boxes of your adventure motorcycling ideal, welcome. Welcome to Nepal.

Piqued your interest? Well please read on. The rest of you can return to ‘The Motorcyclist’s Guide to Route 66’.

Let’s start where most of us do, Kathmandu. An ancient metropolis of infamous lore, the jumping off and re-entry point of most trail trekkers, base campers and summiteers and the epicenter of incidental oriental/occidental hippie-dom, Kathmandu is mesmerizing. Come for the beautiful World Heritage sites of Durbar square, the heaving backpacker crunch of Thamel or just to tell your friends that you’re going to Kathmandu so you can watch them tilt their heads in curious dog fashion as they try to remember where Kathmandu is. This is a city with a buzz that never stops. Satiated with a big taste of this wonderland, let the ride begin.

Now show me a person who tells me that getting out of a large Asian city is easy and I will show you a liar. Bangkok, Delhi, Phnom Penh, Kathmandu: doesn’t matter. Extricating your good self from any of them is always an ordeal. Whether you find this wearisome or gorge on it like the most fucked up video game ever, that’s your jam. It is and will always be an essential part of the Asian riding experience. But as the carnage wanes, and wane it will, you will quickly find yourself in a 1,000 km state of nirvana. For if curvy roads are what you seek, and as a motorcyclist, it is indeed your purpose (if not, please refer to ‘The Motorcyclist’s Guide to Route 66’, above) you have reached the Promised Land. The 200 kilometers of mountainous, twisty ribbon from Kathmandu to Pokhara is a particular miracle stretch. The road may bulge a bit with the thunder of 20-ton Tata trucks but if you are lucky and the weather gods are smiling down on you, keep your neck slightly craned to the right as you ride. See those majestic peaks? Those aren’t just mountains, my friend. THOSE are the Himalayas and there is scarcely one that doesn’t surpass 20,000ft (6,000m) in elevation. Maybe one day you’ll scale a couple but for now, just smile and drink it in as you wind your way toward Pokhara.

Concentrated around the southern shore of Phewa Lake, Pokhara is Nepal’s adventure playground. From here you can set off on your trek to the Annapurna Range, crack your skull on a white water rafting expedition, plan your hiking route to the remote region of Mustang, engage in the faux-danger of zip-lining or grab your last of real pizza before you move on to realms of Nepal with less Gringo density. A beautiful town on a serene lake with views of the Himas that will melt your mind, Pokhara knows its function and serves it with aplomb.

With Nepal’s two largest urban civilizations in the rear view, the roads take a turn for the divine. That is because as you head south toward the mountain town of Tansen, you have been unshackled from the main artery that connects the Kathmandu and Pokhara. The traffic dissipates, the massive trucks seem purged and all that stands between your front wheel and the medieval town of Tansen is 6 hours of twisty curvy rollercoasterdom though forested landscapes and lovely villages settled by lovely people. A night in Tansen is to teleport to the real Nepal. No backpacker bars, no pizza joints, no North Face outlets. Coming here is an intention, not a consequence, and the people you meet there – housing you, feeding you momos, giving you advice on the best off road trails – these people will be happy to see you and their kindness is infectious.

Leaving Tansen, as tough as it may seem, does have its rewards. For the first 50km heading south toward Lumbini is, according to my ride notes, ‘a traffic-less amusement park ride through some of the most beautiful mountain & valley landscapes conceivable by nature.’ As you leak elevation from 2,400m down to 400m and level off on the valley floor that will eventually become India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, bam: back to reality. Flat, straight & congested, the withdrawal symptoms as the mountains recede may at first feel like someone pulled a plastic bag over your head and is choking you out but if you just chill the fuck out and meditate for a minute, you’ll be fine for you have landed at the home of the Buddha. No spiritual place I have visited short of perhaps the Golden Temple of Amritsar transports one to a state of sublime tranquility like the Maya Devi Temple. This simple, four-sided structure encloses and protects the foundations of the house that was the birthplace of Siddharta Gotama, the mortal man who would become the divine Buddha.

Recharged, we aim higher. The flatland can be kind of dull so after our Zen time we set a course for Chitwan National Park and our third ecosystem in 500km: First mountains, then plains and now, the lush forest and jungles of one of the most diverse and wildlife rich sanctuaries in all Asia. It takes 7 hours to navigate the 154km back up to the foothills of the Himalayas but you won’t complain about it, not for a minute. That is because this road is an off-roading gift waiting to be discovered. On a whim, we took a dirt track off the main road and were fabulously rewarded with a 20km ride through forests, rocky trails and several rivers just begging to be forded. And ford we did. Nothing elicits more of a fuck yeah moment than slashing your front tire through the rapids, defying the torrent and arriving upright and unmolested on the other shore.

Chitwan gives you an opportunity to create some separation between you and that machine you’ve come to love. An open-jeep safari to explore wild rhinos, elephants, leopards and tigers in a pristine sanctuary all their own? Yes please. And when you are sitting on the observation platform at dusk watching anxiously as a 5 meter croc silently stalks a wild boar and the waiter gently whispers ‘another gin and tonic, sir?’ ‘Yes please.’

On the final surge back to Kathmandu and home base you will ascend without reprieve. It takes a lot of hairpins bends to deliver you and your machine from 500m to 2,500 in a stretch of only 150 km so do your best to disguise your glee. Giddy is not a cool look. We rise and rise until we reach the hilltop village of Daman. It is here that you will befriend the most cuddly local dogs south of Everest (definitely a cool look), elbow your friends for a spot next to the small stove and single source of heat in the mountaintop lodge and snag one of the best views of Everest to be had anywhere in the entire nation of Nepal, save for perhaps the summit of Everest itself.

And there you have it. Of course, this is not all of Nepal. But the 1,000km in 12 days will give you a cross-section of all of the best that this exotic country has to offer. Arid plains, sub-tropical jungles, alpine forests, muddy trails, rocky climbs, raging rivers, crocs, rhinos, pythons, buddhas. And Everest.

If those voices in your head are coaxing you to get two wheels underneath you and experience something truly incredible, the Himalayan nation of Nepal has truly got it all.

Join us in Nepal this spring and fall at Two Wheeled Expeditions – Nepal