Himalayan Odyssey Day 2 - Chandigarh to Gushaini

Today is our first day on the Royal Enfield Bullet bike - a classic retro designed bike with little change in it's looks from the original model.  The predecessor of the Bullet was first produced in 1931. This was followed by a four-valve, single-cylinder model named Bullet in 1932. The 1935 G model was the first that assumed the 'modern' look, with vertical cylinder, cast-in pushrod tunnel and eventually fully enclosed valve gear.  The single was reintroduced in 1948-49 redesigned by Ted Pardoe, chief draftsman at Enfield in Redditch, England. The strong single cylinder engine allowed it to excel as a trials bike.Orders from the Indian government for use in it's army led to setting up of the Royal Enfield factory in India in 1955. The Bullet today is faithful to that classic design of the 50's albeit with several design and quality improvements.
 

 Everyone was eager and enthiusiatic and ready and all the bikes were shiny and our motorcycle attire were all gleaming. Gushaini is 250 km from Chandigarh and we will be travelling along Chandigarh-Mandi-Kanda-Gushaini.  

Barely 15 km and still within the city limit, we had our first breakdown!  One of the bikes had a puncture.  While waiting by the roadside, we were surprised when we saw "weeds" growing by the road side. Now I know why Marijuana are also called weeds.  In India or at least in Chandigarh it is growing everywhere and were actually growing as weeds.

 

The road to Mandi was an elevation up to 1,200m above sea leavel.

 The mountain-side buildings.

 Colourful lorries plies along this road.  The ride today are generally amongst heavy vehicles.

 

A former princely state, Mandi in the state of Himachal Pradesh is located in the banks of the Beas River. This historic city has retained much of its past glory and elegance. Steeped in the grandeur of its past, Mandi has made a flourishing changeover in to an effervescent and bustling city.  Famed for its stone temples, this city has popularly called as the 'Varanasi of Hills'. The majestic palaces and finely carved temples speak out the princely elegance of this pictorial town. Elegant mansions of Victorian era add the charm of this beautiful picnic spot. Mandi is believed to be the place where the great sage 'Mandav' had undertaken his penance and legends say that his reparation was so severe that the rocks were turned black due to it.

The ride continues on to a dirt road up the mountains and traffic remains busy with heavy vehicles.  Unfortunately it rained mostly after Mandi and the camera was kept in the bag and no photograph were taken.  An accident occurred after Mandi when one bike lost control and went under a bus.  We had an injured rider whom had to travel in the back up vehicle and a damaged bike up into the lorry.

When we were in Gushaini, we stayed in a tiny hamlet nestled in the folds of the Tirthan Valley in Kullu district. This mountain hamlet would have been like any other village that dots the hills and mighty mountains of North India.  Raju Bharati, an enterprising man has converted his house into a pleasant homestay amidst an orchard of apples and peaches trees.  The cottage is partially hidden under lush mountainous foliage and across the Tirthan river and hidden from view from across the river.  The double bedroom was made up of wood and locally-sourced pine woods.

Posing at the hamlet myself, Fadil of Royal Enfield Malaysia, Ruslan an architect and Azman a contractor businessman.

Himalayan Odyssey Day 1 - Delhi to Chandigarh

The Himalayan Odyssey September 2012 was jointly organised by the Royal Enfield Malaysia and Royal Enfield of India. Royal Enfield organises various trips for Royal Enfield owners through the year. These are mostly off-road adventure filled; fun and leisure motorcycle rides through spectacularly scenic, off the beaten path places and on challenging terrains. Himalayan Odyssey is not a competitive event. With the high altitudes and weather conditions, physical fitness is paramount. One of the important aspects of enjoying and completing the Himalayan Odyssey is the participant's fitness level. For this purpose, everyone need to undergo a physical fitness test and doctor's certification after a medical check up. To pass this test, participants will need to cover 5kms and do 50 push-ups in 1 hour.  For this event, our trip cover a distance of almost 2,000 km with 90% of the time on dirt roads.

We arrived in our hotel in Delhi almost midnight last night after a 6 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur.  The first leg of our journey will be to Chandigarh by train 250km to the north of Delhi. By the time we checked in the hotel and briefing for the next day plans, it was already after 1.00 am.  We are supposed to be up early by 5.00 am, breakfast by 5.30 am and leave the hotel by 6.30 to the Delhi train station. Our train departs at 7.45 am and expected to arrive Chandigarh by noon.

It was raining and when we left the hotel the traffic jam was beginning to build up. We got down and some of us hire porters to carry our luggage. Lucky thing I did, as I later realised that the station was huge and the platform was really long.

We were at the station early and had to hang around for more than 30 minutes before our train arrives at the platform. Waiting for train at the platform is not for the faint hearted - the stench of urine and feces will greet you especially every time a train passes by the station. Travelling by trains in India is strictly for hard core travellers only not for tourist-types.

 The yellow trains does not only carry passengers but loads of cargo as well.

The blue trains were the air-conditioned ones.  But the tickets were all sold out weeks in advance.

We were fortunate as Royal Enfield India made sure we got on board of the blue train.  For the duration of the trip they served us tea and bicuits, bread, omelettes four times. Photo of Pak Riza from Jakarta and me.

I wondered why this notice was necessary.. then when I went in I know why.  When they can't or didn't read the notice on the toilet door, they just poop on the floor.. they cant seem to figure out what's the weird looking round chair with a hole in it doing in there.

This must be non-western style. It was just at that time of the morning when we left the Delhi station that we saw men, women and children populating the railway reserve lands, were doing their business by the rail tracks.. oblivious to the amazements of foreign passengers on the train.

 

After a while I realised that not all trains comes with seats. The toilet facilty? I imagined it has to be non-western style.

We checked in the Garden View Hotel in Chandigarh at about 12.30pm. By 4.00pm our motorcycles was delivered to the hotel. This had everyone busy inspecting and choosing their Royal Enfield Bikes.  The terms of use - any parts replaced due to wear and tear of broken due to falls or accidents will borne by participants.

  

Posing with our new helmets in Chandigarh. Most of us brought our own open-face helmets but these were unceremoniously rejected by the Indian organisers due to safety concerns.  No full-faced helmets no ride they said..  So all of us went to the local motorcycle shop and got ourselves an approved Indian helmets.  Thank you Bro. Jamil for his generosity for settlingr all the helmets expenses. 

Sunset At Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu

This is the view from the coastal road from Kota Kinabalu to the International Airport at the Tanjung Aru sea front after the Sutera Harbour.  The traditional stilt houses can be seen from the road side.

The children playing football on the sandy bar at low tide.

The sandy bar field is only playable at low tides. No football during high tides.

Houses on stilts at the Tanjung Aru coast.

Tanjung Aru sunset at low tides.

Tanjung Aru Fisherman going out for night fishing.

Tip of North Borneo, Simpang Mangayau, Kudat, Sabah.

The storm was gathering as we leave Kota Kinabalu for Simpang Mangayau, Kudat which is approximately 180km north of Kota Kinabalu to the tip of North Borneo.  I was expecting a sunny day when we plan for the trip just a week ago and was dreaming of beautiful sunsets.  That didn't happen instead it was raining all the way and the sky was overcast when we reached there.

The very tip of North Borneo

 

Overnight in Nunukan, Indonesia

  

 Leaving Tawau for Nunukan. No photographs allowed said the security personnel after I took this picture.  

Ferry scheduled to leave at 3.00pm that's when the custom personnel stop manning the entrance and all the smuggled good were hurriedly loaded on board.  Ferry finally leaves an hour later.  - that's why.

 

 Arrival at the Nunukan Port Immigration Check Point

 

 Break of dawn viewed from the Hotel

 

 Street or Port peddlers is a common sight at the ferry terminal

 

 A passenger ship just arriving from Sulawesi Island

 Port porter waiting for customer

 

 A view from the hotel room. Earlier someone was taking a bath in his underwear below.

 Porter busy with customer's cargo.

The high speed ferries to Tarakan and Tawau

Lunar Eclipse Viewed from North Borneo on 10th December 2011

This was my first attempt to capture the Eclipse of the moon. The Total Lunar Eclipse on December 10, 2011 will be visible in its entirety from where I was in Sabah, Malaysia.  These were pictures taken from the front yard of my home using a Nikon D7000 and Tokina AT-X 340 AF-II 100-300 F4 which translates to 160-450mm on a DX camera.  The sky was clear with patches of low altitude but fast moving clouds and steady westerly winds.

 

  A quarter eclipse - exposure taken from the bright part of the moon at 8.52pm.

Half eclipse - Exposure taken from the bright part of the moon at 9.24pm

Half Eclipse - Exposure taken from the darkened part of the moon at 9.21pm

Full Eclipse with the darkened moon with a reddish glow at 10.30pm.