Hello from Manali!

Apologies for the silence, we haven't been in a internet cafe for ages! Ah, it's been an interesting time :) We left Delhi for Amritsar and, except for a slight problem actually *finding* the right road off the ring road (it's not like they would signpost Highway 1 - a main artery!!! - or anything :), it was a pretty uneventful 475kms. It was our biggest day on motorbikes in India but no where near as challenging as that day to Panajii :) The biggest challenge was keeping cool as it is *very* hot, especially in all our riding kit. We stopped twice at places just because they had air conditioning...one was a McDonalds with a drive thru! :)

To get to Amritsar you have to go through Haryana (Amritsar is in Punjab). They would seem, by their road safety signage, to be one of the most safety conscious states....but we saw more road carnage than any other day on the road, so it doesn't seem to be working! We did learn that "whisky is risky" though :) Punjab is the land of Sikhs and it was a very different part of India than we have experienced (it's a nice different :). We arrived and it was a madhouse! You would have thought that *everyone* thought Amritsar was the place to be. Lucky for us we were again offered an escort to our hotel by a couple of young men on their motorcycle - it is so nice to have that assistance at the end of a long ride when the map is not the best :).

I was not feeling great - I seemed to be picking up the start of a cold that the bad air quality of the ride did not improve on. We found a place to eat and then headed to bed....not wanting to try the cold water shower (brrr! :). A couple of hours after we got to sleep I awoke to a fit of coughing that I couldn't shake and I sent the lovely A (not very awake herself) to ask the guys at the front desk for a cup of tea - hot always helps my throat when it gets like that. It eventually arrived and I could again breathe and swallow and we got back to sleep. We slept late and I was feeling better, but not great, so after breakfast we went off to find the Golden Temple - the most famous Sikh temple. Word in LP was that the marble paths were too hot to walk on by noon (you have to leave shoes outside) so we...hot-footed it over there :).

It is a beautiful temple - surrounded by water it seems to float in the middle. There were long and very orderly queues (unlike Ajmer :) and we watched as the masses of visitors walked around the complex or bathed in the water. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and had a rest before it was time to head to the border to watch the flag ceremony. When it was time we both piled on the Enfield and headed out of town. The LP says that the ceremony is at 5:30 and we arrived at about 4:30 so we could have a look around and get a good spot.

The Enfield had a little problem on the way out - the chain seemed to be hopping a bit when you let off the throttle. They had just put that new cog on the rear so I had a look at the chain tension and I could see that the chain was off the teeth...and there were no teeth on the cog!!!!! Yikes. I told that mechanic when he put that new cog on that it needed a new chain but he said no, it just needed a cog (as I know from bicycles and my own motorbikes - you always change the chain and cogs together). We were in a spot of trouble as the bike won't go if there are no teeth on the cog. When we went to ask if there was an Enfield shop around we were told that the ceremony started at 6:30...hmmm, that might be enough time...and there was a motorbike shop up the road. So off we went.

We found the shop but the mechanic said that we have to go to Amritsar - he didn't have the parts. So we made the hard decision to fore go the flag ceremony so we could get out of town the next day...oh well. We very cautiously rode towards Amritsar being careful not to load the chain - it's 30kms back to town. We made it back safely and miraculously found the Enfield shop right where the guy said it was... and they could fix it right then - woohoo! We agreed a price (650 rupees) and I handed over the cash for the "boy" to go off and buy the parts as two guys started taking the Enfield apart.

First the rear wheel has to come off for the rear cog to go on, but the Enfield has an interesting design...they started to crack open one of the outer engine cases, drained the fluid and proceeded to pull the entire clutch assembly and it's case just to get to the front cog! A bit extreme for a part that wears as quickly as the drivetrain - on my Fazer there is a small cover for the front cog and it's a 2 minute job to get to it. It was nice to see that everything looked in good shape in the transmission, though :) Forty five minutes later I had a fresh drivetrain and we were on our way - the proprietor having giving the bike a test ride and pronounced it fit to ride (with that little head wobble that they do all over India :). On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a different part of town - much quieter - and had a lovely thali (Punjabi thalis are a speciality of the region :).

The next morning we were up decently early, packed the bikes, paid the bill and had some delicious tea (for me) and coffee (for A) from the street stall (the guys at the hotel would have gotten us coffee from here if we asked for coffee, so we went direct :). Then it was on to the bikes and off towards Dharamsala! We were a bit tired of straight boring roads so it was with great pleasure that we passed Pathankot and headed into the foothills and the curving and climbing roads - woohoo!!!! The Enfield handles like a dream! We found our way up the mountain to Dharamsala and the Enfield was giving me a tiny bit of a problem with the fueling....but it was climbing like a trooper on the rocky road, which was good :). Then we headed even farther up (through the military zone! strange to be so near the peaceful Dalai Lama) to McLeod Ganj where we parked the bike (not the only Enfield by a long stretch!!!!) and found a place to stay. We also ran into another guy on an Enfield that we had met on the road earlier in the day...turns out he's from Luton, just down the road from A's neighborhood :)

Simon has been riding around India on his Enfield for the last 6 months and he is on his way back to the UK just before we head back - we have already arranged to meet up for a beer :) We also found one of the few places in McLeod Ganj that has beer (and coincidentally the place that Pierce Brosnan eats when he comes to town - the British connection, eh? :) and sat down to chat about this and that over a few beers. We had a great time!

The following morning we headed back down the mountain with plans to return, if possible, for the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday celebrations - McLeod Ganj is a great town and we would like to spend more time there. The Enfield gave me a few starting problems in the morning and seemed to be having that fueling problem again...I had talked to Simon about it and I checked the plug and it looked fine - it wasn't running lean or rich. Hmmm. We got moving and I just put up with it, planning to have the Manali mechanic look at it when we arrived. The Pulsars were never this much trouble!!!!! It was a bittersweet ride that morning...the roads were fantastic, but the Enfield was troubling me and then it stalled on me and wouldn't start at all (even when I swore at it :)! Lucky for us we were on a hill and I turned the bike around and bump started it and then vowed to find the next Enfield mechanic and have him sort it out.

That turned out to be about 35kms outside of Mandi :) We pulled in and the mechanic listened to my story (lucky me, I could find one that spoke English! That was very lucky as this was a small town) and then had a look at the bike...kicked it over a few times and told me it was a problem with the compression. Yikes, I don't like the sound of that at all! He pulled the small cover that accesses the tappets and found that one of them was tight, so he sorted that out -they are hard to adjust, it looks like a cup and cone adjustment when you need to get it tight enough so it doesn't rattle, but loose enough that it moves freely. He then adjusted the ignition spark a little bit and took it for a spin. Then he sent me off for a spin and when I came back he told me that he thought that I needed a new piston ring. GREAT....not!

The guy had done a great job diagnosing the problem and making the bike run - when I took out for a test ride I thought we were on our way, it was running so much better. Rana, the mechanic, did say the bike would be fine to ride if we were going to stay on the flats but not if we were in hilly country - we could go to Delhi on it no problem. I felt he was a good mechanic so I asked how much and how long...we were still a fair ways from Manali, but we could stay in Mandi for the night. He said about 1500 rupees and 4 hours - he would have to go into Mandi for the machine shop. So I said yes (we can't go to Leh with a compression problem) and they started pulling the Enfield apart...I hadn't even had the bike for a week and it was having major surgery!!!!

It was great to watch the bike break down into it's component parts...again :) and to watch Rana work. When they pulled the valve block off you could see the blackness of the piston - what a mess. The exhaust had been clear, not smoky - I checked when I bought the bike and A had been following me for 2 days, she would have noticed. Rana then pulled the piston and checked the rings...they looked good...hmmm. Then he had a look at the valves and decided to check for a leak...yup, the exhaust valve was leaking - this was the same tappet that had been too tight. Now it needed new valves. So he packed the parts onto the scooter and headed off into Mandi...we went for a walk and then waited.

About the time we expected Rana back Arun showed up - Rana's cousin - and asked what he could do for us. He was very nice and it was obvious (though no one said) that Rana was delayed. We asked where we could find some dinner and then Arun most graciously offered us the use of *his* Enfield, which just happened to be the same as mine but a couple of years older :) We opted to let him ride his bike and we would take the Pulsar (the trusty Pulsar!!!! I didn't mention that Rana and Arun both dissed Pulsars but we all know which bike has been fabulous for 4 months on the road and which one has been in the shop twice in one week :).

We went up the road to the only hotel in town, parked the bikes outside and sat down near the window - all three of us. Then it was decided that we would have a drink, so 3 mango Slice bottles were brought over. It was all very strange and we could tell there were things not being said but finally Arun said we should come to dinner at his house just down below the hotel - we shouldn't spend the money. Knowing looks were passed between Arun and the hotel owner. Well, we don't say no to an offer of home cooking or not having to buy dinner :), so we said yes. Then we told him that we should arrange to stay at the hotel for the night and he said why spend the money...we can stay at his house...if we didn't mind. Wow, this was all very nice. So it was decided and after more knowing looks were passed between Arun and the hotel owner we headed down the hill, stopping to pick up some of our things, buy some water (for us) and some fresh veg for dinner.

We arrived and had a bit of a thrill at the hill climb up the dirt path to the house (that was fun, but A walked up with our stuff and the veg :) and we parked the bikes and got a very warm welcome from Arun's wife and 2 year old daughter...both very shy. It is the Indian tradition to treat guests as gods so we were feeling very fawned over. We had cup of tea and Arun kept us entertained. He is a basketball coach at a school in Chandigarh (the most modern and clean city in India - a designed city not unlike Milton Keynes) and his wife is a lecturer in Sanskrit. They were on their school holidays at their family property in this village. Arun and his wife both have several degrees, Arun played basketball on the national level for Maharashtra and his English is very good. Chikoo, the little girl, was adorable and she played a game of peekaboo all evening - peering at us through the window, which caused lots of giggling on her part, and being very shy in our presence.

Dinner was served and we ate first (as is the custom) and it was delicious!!! Dal and rice, some marrow (which they called pumpkin and was stir fried) and some curry all followed by fresh mangoes ('tis the season :). We were then installed in front of the TV while they ate their dinner. Then there was more conversation and it was time to go to bed - good thing, we were knackered! We both slept incredibly well - it was so quiet! In the morning it was raining and there was a wonderful breakfast of tea and paratha and then we all rushed off in various directions - us to the bike shop and Arun to take his wife and daughter to the local school.

We arrived to Rana's shop to learn that the Enfield had been rebuilt overnight - Rana worked until midnight! The bike had new valves, a new piston and had had the cylinder bored - and it had to run for 2 hours to seat everything. We were not going to be on our way anytime soon. So A went across the road and brought tea for everyone and Rana occasionally fiddled with the bike but it was all about waiting. After about an hour we went over for more tea and some breakfast for the boys (we were stuffed from our paratha breakfast :). Then it was time! Rana took the bike for a spin and came back, he told me I needed to go take it for a spin. So I went up the road and it was great...just a bit of clatter, though. Then I took it up the hill road and it seemed fine...and then as I was going up one section I started to loose power again...then it stalled! Ugh. I couldn't get it started either. Double ugh.

I tried to bump start it going back down the hill and it locked the rear wheel - maybe the insides were not happy at all.... :( So I put it in neutral and coasted down hill without the engine running. Arun hopped on when I arrived (Rana was working on another bike) and the bike started right up! :) OK, so problem, but probably not a big problem. A few more fiddles and some more adjustment of the ignition and the test ride was good, then Rana went up the hill with Arun on the back to make sure that there was no problem with power and came back satisfied - he gave me a 10,000km guarantee on the piston.

We packed up and got on the road to Manali...WOW. The Enfield was running great, that was good, but the roads were just AMAZING. (ATTN Mr. Brown - the 30 kms to Mandi were 30 of some of the best kms I have ever ridden on a bike!). Swoopy curves, up and down the hillside, just heaven. The Enfield is much more planted that the floppy Pulsar so it was pure joy to ride, even the oncoming cars/trucks/buses coming around the corners on my side of the road did not unsettle me :). We took the turn north towards Manali and followed another river up - more great road - and then it started to get congested as we got near Kulla and then it was pretty busy all the way into Manali which is a bit of tourist hell. Luckily we followed the LP recommendation and headed for Old Manali and we are in a nice guest house.

A's asthma did not like the dusty road up or the exhaust fumes though - especially the long tunnel that didn't seem to have any light or ventilation! - and we have spent a day recovering. It's probably not all the air quality - I think that whatever I had in Amritsar I passed on to A (hey, what are friends for if we don't share??? :) and she spent the night coughing.

We have decided to change our plans in light of new information...if I thought Dharamsala was bad when it came to foreigners on Enfields, it's got nothing on Manali - *everyone* has an Enfield and they are all heading north :) We had also talked to Simon in Dharamsala about the route (he had just done it) and even without knowing that we were having respiratory problems he said make sure we have a mask to cover our faces as it is very dusty on the ride up. I still have a cough and A is trying to recover from hers...about 300kms of the road to Leh are going to be dirt, and it's altitude...why push it? We also don't have time to do justice to Ladakh - it would be an in and out trip just to say we have ridden it and climbed the big passes. There is a beautiful pair of valleys just to our east, no one goes there, the roads and views are supposed to be exceptional and we have the opportunity to see some beautiful and old Tibetan art that has survived the Cultural Revolution because...it's not in China :) What more could we ask for?

On the emotional side, the river looked great on our ride in, and Manali is a great place to go rafting, but we would rather ride the motorbikes. After the last 7 months of travelling the attraction of the "highest" pass and an enormously challenging road (steep, rocky, lots of river crossings) isn't as much of an attraction as some serious natural beauty and remote, unchanged villages - it is still attractive, just not as attractive :). So we (after much discussion) are going to spend our time there and we might even have time to make it back to Dharamsala for the Dalai Lama's birthday...but we aren't rushing it, we want to enjoy ourselves :).

More photos coming!!! Catch you later.