Outta Punjab in search of Ganj…….

Amritsar to Mcleod Ganj, track us here! Amritsar to Mcleod Ganj

Easy day today, wake up around 5, load the Hoopty and get on the road for a leisurely 160 KM ride to Mcleod Ganj…….should be lounging at 6k of elevation out of the smog zone and suffocating Punjabi heat by noon.

But no…..take Winston’s bike off the center stand loaded up and ready to go……back tire is flat…..for the love of god, just one day can I wake up, load my bike, and get on the road without losing 5 pounds of water weight fixing something.  I’m pretty pissed off the $1.50 (LOL) 'Murrrican we paid for the patch job on the first flat only made it two days.  So we Nascar another and roll out.  Soaked in sweat, the tire is changed in 20 minutes. 

We head out in search of gas.  Couple of U turns, driving down opposite side of road shoulder, we find one…..pop the hose in the tank and BOOM……the F’n power goes out.  "Please God, I’ve really tried to live a good life, why am I being punished?"..……shoot the shit for 30 minutes with the gas dudes and magic, power back on…..We make out of Amritsar at 7:20….......NOT JUICY.......traffic once again SUX……but in a whole new way.  Meet the TATA.  These things are freaking huge and there were millions of them in Punjab because they are coming and going from Lahore Pakistan hauling I believe sugar and wheat.  They are slow and take up three lanes of a one lane road spitting out dust and dirt everywhere.  Get use to it….we will see them in the Himalayas. 

 

Blistering temps once again as we cross the border out of Punjab towards the Dalai Lama’s hood. 
 

Hopefully this inspires someone to come here and try something like this.  My ONLY piece of advice would be to NEVER ask locals for directions.  If directions are offered……IGNORE them….lol.  We asked like 50 people before we left the hotel where the closest Petrol station was.  Everyone told us like 10km back on NH 1 which is where we entered the city.  I told Winston, F*^& it, we are going towards Pathankot on NH15 and if we run out of gas, we’ll figure it out.  I counted 15 petrol pumps and stations within the first 2km leaving the Golden Temple compound…..lesson learned.

Navigating……….Garmin NT maps for India are worthless.  If you put "Navigate to" in my 60 CSX and hit “go to” it computes directions and it does give them…….but “turn left at alley”  and “turn right at passage”……..seriously that is what it says……useless!  There are ZERO signs in the cities, so you have that going for you.  It does say turn in 350 feet and counts down…..if you take your eyes off the road for a second to look at your GPS…..you are probably going to get creamed, guess that’s why I like it here, continuous concentration, good for ADHD.  I use my compass on my GPS in the city.  I figure out where we are in relation to where we want to go…..which direction in cardinal heading to get us going that way, and just point the bike in that direction.  It’s way easier……one way street?….we just ride opposite direction like everyone else does…..go down the highway in the wrong direction with a cement divider with no off ramps?……no big deal, flip a beeeotch onto the shoulder and head back where you came from….saved us twice this morning. 
     

Pathankot Demolition Derby

Roll into Pathankot……major round-a-bout with 8 lanes of traffic, a bus stand, market, shops, and I estimated 1 billion of the 1.2 billion people in India all at this freaking intersection.  Winston decides to disregard my brief and write-up on India traffic (please refer to earlier post)…….law of tonnage and who has the right of way, or perceived right of way that is.  He passes me, I see the bus going for the same spot he wants….I see the little conversation bubble  over Dub Ya’s helmet and smack……broadsided on the right pannier and goes down like a Canadian figure skater only making 2.5 turns of a qua-zillionial lutz or whatever ya call one of them hard tricks.  Bike does a 270 degree donut  on it’s side, sparks and shit flying everywhere…..I immediately think to myself….”Self, what do I do with his body…….he never told me if he wanted to be buried or creamated”……..Bus was going slow, Winston was going maybe 10 miles an hour…….we pick the bike up with the help of 1 billion laughing Indian men and hang out just for the hell of it at the bus stand for the next hour in the F’n scorching heat cuz the bike is flooded.  We make some jokes….laugh it off and Winston tells me “I thought he was going to stop”…......Winston, “Thinking kills the team”…….

Couple gas stops, and we begin our climb into Mcleod Ganj….beautiful, slow twisty road up the mountain.  Been a long day…..we have now packed 5 hours of riding into 9 hours so far ..……it’s now 3 pm…………7km from Ganj, Winston says to self…”Self, I didn’t break anything on the bike  going 1v1 the hard way with 25 tons of public transit back in Pathankot……..maybe I’ll take a corner too sharp, do a World Super Bike lowside and crash into the embankment and break my clutch lever”…………SUCCESS!  I lose sight of him….stop for a few minutes and turn around.  There he is…laying in a pile with a dude and his son trying to roll the fat chic off  Dub Ya’s 150 pound Canadian frame.  So we get practice changing the clutch lever.  Winston had that beeeotch off and replaced in 15 minutes and we rolled on…..made it with life and limb………Oh JUST TO TOP THINGS OFF……..the key that was in Dub Ya’s bike is now mysteriously disappeared in the chaos….The kid turned the bike off with the key as the back tire was chewing up dirt and debris like a crashed helo in Black Hawk Down.  Did the kid leave with it?  Did he take it and throw it to sabotage us?  Does he work for Chinese airport security back in Beijing?  We will never know……but we had a spare.

We arrive at a hotel, drop 10 bones for a nice room, have a good meal and give thanks a funeral wasn’t on our itinerary.