the five minutes into town with our guide Yogesh to explore the weird and wonderful sights of a small village that looks like it has not changed from the beginning of time. Then it was on to dinner in some deep dark corner of the village where Yogesh knows a great place hidden away. Leh was our base for a few days where we went to various sites, one of which was the highest drivable road in India. Sadly, all good things come to an end and it was time to take the homeward-bound leg back to Minali where we started via two more luxury tent sites and more bumpy, winding roads and fabulous scenery. We arrived back in Minali to stay in the mountaintop hotel with the stunning views we’ d started the trip in. But it wasn’ t all over as Yogesh turned up at breakfast time to tell us he was taking us on a sightseeing tour of Minali – complete with a trail ride up a mountain path I would have enjoyed on my KTM 300. To do it on a Royal Enfield was a completely different experience!
LESSON LEARNT
The next day was not so much about the trip but a lesson learnt in the importance of booking with a local rather than booking it at home, and of the unpredictability of India. Yogesh had organised for us to travel home by train for a change of scenery and pace, but there was some talk of unrest so Yogesh decided to follow us to the train station – just in case. When we arrived, the town was in a turmoil due to some guy who had been sentenced to jail but had a few hundred thousand followers who weren’ t happy so were converging on the town. When we arrived, the trains had been cancelled and the army had closed all roads in and out, and shut down the internet and cell phones. So, Yogesh managed to get us out of town and to a hotel far from the trouble where we had to stay for two days while we waited for the army to open the roads. We watched the news that night and half an hour after we left there was a riot where the police shot and killed three people after they burned the train we were to travel on and smashed the town up. If we’ d have booked this at home and had a guide that just waved goodbye when the tour was over we may have been dumped by the taxi driver in town and stranded without being able to communicate or even know how to get out.
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