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I first heard of Jalori from Kaushik. Jalori by its sheer steepness was his litmus test for his Yamaha rx100 to be able to conquer Gatta loops and Tanglangla for Leh. He would proudly tell me the pass gains 5000 feet in just 15 kms or was it 7. Anyway, the hype is what caught my attention. And since I keep a Leh drive ambition in my heart as well, I did Jalori twice this time within 6 months. The routine remains the same, start Friday night 2 am, reach by Saturday afternoon. Settle, roam around. Sunday explore adjoining areas, start by 5pm , reach delhi by monday morning 7.Trip hangovers are part of my monday blues. There are two routes for this pass (d’oh), one goes from Shimla kufri fagu theog narkanda ani, the other from Aut (kullu) Bali Banjar jibhi ghiagi shoja. In favour of the first route, you have the hatu hotel and hatu peak at narkanda as a major attraction and later the muddy sutlej as your companion. And also I think the road from this side is steeper. The second route from Aut has a few dams ( 3 starting with pandoh). For this route you don’t take the tunnel just before aut but the road on the right of the tunnel. After the Largi dam, tirthan river will accompany your drive.

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This was the last ride of the Luci-Fers as we knew it. Post this ride, 4 of the original 8 decided to move out of Delhi for greener pastures… so this ride was a very special one for all involved… With the D-Day approaching, preparation for the ride was in full swing with all of us getting our bikes serviced and checked up at our respective mechanic’s shop. Every one was excited and eager to get on our steeds and thump our way to Manali… We had decided to halt in Mandi for the night, as the ride from Mandi to Manali is breathtakingly beautiful and best enjoyed during the daytime.

The riders

Karma Negi – The Donkey (Electra 350)

Swapnil Wilson – The Bitch (Silver Standard 350)

Sushil Goyal – Pillion on “The Bitch”

Karan Puri – Julius Cruiser (Black Thunderbird 350 AVL)

Pravin Bhateley – Horsie (Machismo 350 AVL)

Sumit Singh – (Black Thunderbird 350 AVL)

Shoaib Ahmed – (Blue Electra)

Manish Chachra – The Black Beauty (Black modified Thunderbird 350 AVL)

Other travelers

Sachin Malik & Varun Kathuria in a red Swift

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Around a month back, I had written an article about the first day of a visit to McLeodganj and Dharamshala. This article is about the second day into the same trip. Given that we had covered McLeodganj on the first day, the objective was to cover the lower parts of the Kangra Valley and Palampur (and eventually there were a fair number of places that we covered, some good, and for some we wondered why they were there on the tourist map). As usual, there was the discussion about the taxi fares, and eventually we settled (when I say settled, it means that we accepted the quoted rate) on a rate of Rs. 1300 for taking us around.
After a quick breakfast, we got into the taxi for what seemed like a long day ahead of us. The journey was through a hilly road, but nothing too steep nor too rough. The drive was through a beautiful environment, given that the rain had made the whole countryside full of greenery. You just have to look at a photograph to appreciate how green a hill and the valley can be. After a short drive, we reached the first location on our day journey.

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One of the most exciting places in the world – Las Vegas… who hasn’t heard of the gambling capital of the world. When I was in India, I had heard about this place and Hollywood movies had made it an enchanting place for any movie fan.
When I was in Los Angeles, and was thinking of touring the area, my landlord highly recommended that I visit Vegas at least once. Of course, he didn’t need to advise me again.
I travelled alone and didn’t want to spend a lot of money on expensive hotels, so I decided to stay at a motel- of course, I wasn’t going to be spending much time inside, so I figured why pay so much for a room which is mostly going to be unoccupied.

I booked my flight and hotel tickets through Expedia.com
If you are visiting US for the first time and need good quality but inexpensive tickets and hotel rooms, I would recommend Expedia. It gives you a variety of choices and you can always get something within your budget.
I booked myself for 3 days and 2 nights and asked around for some tips on tips on sightseeing, from people who had already visited Vegas. I wanted to carry my bike along but that turned out to be very tedious and time consuming so I decided against it.
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