Forward Operating Base Leh

Little house cleaning.  Gotta give some props to the town of Leh, the people, the Yak Tail Hotel.  Place is great, no crime, no begging and really nice people.  It is a big tourist town, but mostly for people to fly in and hop on Adventure Touring, Trekking, Rafting.....you name it.........trips around the local area.  Prices are very affordable and we haven't run into anyone who has tried to rip us off.
We have been staying at the same joint in Leh and it is awesome.  Family owned forever, oldest hotel in Leh and run by a dude named Bobo (Baw-Boo) who hangs out with us and arranges everything.  When he walks through town, everyone knows him.  He just lounges all day at the hotel, sipping tea, while his wife is a Gynecologist at the local hospital. Most of his staff have been here for 12 years plus and helped raise him while he was running around the place when his parents were running it.
  
Took a day off to nurse my whip lashed neck, sore ribs and do some bike fixing mostly with a hammer, and I think I even used a wrench twice.  Only have a few days left, so I need the Royal Hoopride to hold together. 

Here is the entrance.  Bobo let us park our Battle Wagons inside the gate.  The Courtyard is all green marble.  It's running us 12 bucks a day for our room and if we eat here, another 6 bucks for so......a day.....three meals.  Check out the old school RD350, Bobo has two of them things, they are very rare and cool as Shi'ite.  People are always stopping by and talking about them.  The rooms would probably gross out most people, but what the hell, I'm only sleeping in the joint.

Better look at the courtyard.  That is one of his dudes, does everything and has a twin brother.  On his way with SchlepRock's 50th cup of Chai milk tea of the day.........stuff is tasty......even when it's 90 out.  OBTW.....I've dropped 17 big ones since getting to India.....Curry and tea is the way to go!

The "Bionic" Enfield, 24 hours after going down around 40.  We rebuilt her, but as far as being stronger and faster like Steve Austin, ferrrrget about it.  Restored to original, no power, zero suspension and the ergonomics of a tricycle. Fires up first kick, these things are pretty tough.  Check out my prayer flowers wrapped around the front.....still in the mix baby! 

 

Fixed all the stuff on the right side of the bars.  Mirror was crunched, break lever needed repeated skin graphs and you can see the old school crash bar, the right side was pushed in......2 hours at Clearview Auto Body (Mohans Enfield in Leh) and we're back in the fight.

 

Right Pannier looked like a Coke can that had been smashed by someone.  I think if you click on the image, you get the actual size and can see the tears and ripples in the upper outside corner.  On my G-rides back home, I have used soft bags on hard core trips up dirt roads like the Dempster because of the horror stories of smashed legs when going down in a crash.  Crashing with hard Panniers scares the shit out of me.  10 minutes with a hammer, the lid closed and locked back up.  For the record, those Panniers are about as worthless as a third row of tits on a boar hog.  Dust and everything got inside.  

I sense being light headed in my near future!