My First Bike Trip: Memories to Cherish on my blog .

I have a very strange habit, which actually, I never revealed to anyone.

Cherish Life has made me walk on various paths and I’m glad that it did. Today I decided , why not pen down my experiences, my encounters and my take on life, with everybody who matters for me. I feel it is very difficult to climb on this peak of success, and much more difficult to hold on to it till the end .Cherish Cherish Cherish
According to my opinion, any man who gets success through a certain way, he must always be grateful to it.

The dialogue goes “with great power comes great responsibility”. Today I’m an actor, an entrepreneur and a social worker. I owe my success to all those people, who made a difference to me at every step of my life. If I take names, this blog will have only names. But if I name a few my mother , presidency correctional home, Smt. Alokananda Roy, Mr. B.D. Sharma, Sri Shiboprasad Mukherjee, Smt. Nandita Roy and You .

In this blog I will be writing to about my experience during my first motorcycle trip to Guru Dungmar, North Sikkim .

Day-1 target Siliguri (580 km) Cherish

I have a very strange habit, which actually, I never revealed to anyone. I know I have only one life. And there are many wishes and desires, which I had been piling from my childhood.
As a child I used to get fascinated, with the sound of a passing Royal Enfield motorcycle. I always thought one day I would own one. Eventhough I bought many motorcycles for kolkata Facilities Management, but all this while never thought of buying a Royal Enfield. Right after the release of “Gotro”, I bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle which I longed for quite a long time. Even though I could a hayabusa or a Harley Davidson was never what I piled in my bag of desires. And I also planned my first ever bike trip with like-minded others. Spreading awareness about theatre therapy was the prime goal of this trip apart from tasting adventure.

Childhood Memories

I have a very strange habit, which actually, I never revealed to anyone. I know I have only one life. And there are many wishes and desires, which I had been piling from my childhood.

As a child I used to get fascinated, with the sound of a passing Royal Enfield motorcycle. I always thought one day I would own one. Eventhough I bought many motorcycles for kolkata Facilities Management, but all this while never thought of buying a Royal Enfield. Right after the release of “Gotro”, I bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle which I longed for quite a long time. Even though I could a hayabusa or a Harley Davidson was never what I piled in my bag of desires. And I also planned my first ever bike trip with like-minded others. Spreading awareness about theatre therapy was the prime goal of this trip apart from tasting adventure.

Journey towards China

Our journey towards the China border via North Sikkim started from Chakdah. Here, we met a lot of people at the 1 hour long flag-off ceremony organized by the local theater groups and local administrators . From Chakdah, we headed straight towards Siliguri.

On our way to Siliguri , we stopped at Krishnanagar, Bahrampur, Lalgola and Farraka . Our stoppages were intended towards sharing and awaring people on the benefits of theater therapy .we stopped to take Our first break to recharge Our energy with food , adda and a lot of water. From here we headed towards Siliguri. The National Highway at Dalkhola is in a pathetic state , huge potholes all around , they looked more like dug graves , waiting for someone’s death .We reached Siliguri at 2:30 Am.

Day-2 target Gangtok (114km)

I was riding on the mountainous roads for the first time and the scenic beauty around surprised me. Even though I rode a motorcycle in a Bengali feature film called Asamapto, but that was just for 100-200 meters. The highs and lows around the hills made us go click all the way. On our way to Gangtok, we came in touch with a lot of people including school students. We interacted with them and played Theatre Therapy games with them.

Not only the panoramic frames, the local food items and local people also amazed us in many ways. As it was my first bike trip, I was pretty excited about everything. Every nook and cranny made me giddy to explore more. Although the first few kilometers was difficult, as we crossed kalimpong, we got the hang of the road. We stopped just before Rongpo for Lunch. Just before entering Gangtok there was massive traffic Jam. We reached Gangtok at about 5 PM. We unpacked, bathed, changed and headed towards M.G.marg, the evening was spent there.

Day-3 target Lachen (107 km)

We started from Gangtok to Lachen. During our Journey, whenever the petrol indicator, indicated reserve, we filled our oil tanks. The roads were difficult, the steep slopes, the rocks, the pebbles, the broken roads, the land slide affected areas, little streams all kept throwing challenges on us, and we were always prepared. One of our team mate along with his pilion fell with his motorcycle on one such uphill slope.
Eventhough none was injured seriously, the motorcycle was slightly damaged and the oil filter started leaking . We stopped at Mangan for lunch. After an hour we headed again towards Lachen. From Chungtang there is a diversion , the road to the left went towards Lachen and the road towards the right went to Lachung.

By mistake, I and some of my teammates went towards Lachung. After riding for almost an hour, we realized our mistake and headed towards Lachen where we actually planned to go. Just before entering Lachen there is an Army checkpost which closes at 6 PM. We reached there at about 5:45 PM. I recommend to cross the stretch from this check post to Lachen in daylight
After sunset we faced multiple difficulties crossing this stretch . We reached Lachen at about 7 pm .Eventhough it was only 107 kilometers but the roads will strain all your energy.

Day-4 Target Gurudungmar (66 km)

From Lachen, we started for Gurudongmar Lake at 4:30 AM. The temperature was near about -7 degree , it was chillingly cold , our hands were getting frozen and numb. We had to every now and then stop the motorcycle and heat our hand by placing our hands on the engine of the motorcycle. Our first major stoppage was the highest Dosa point which was about 15000 feet above sea level.

We ate our breakfast here and headed towards Gurudungmar. The stretch was mainly controlled and populated by different units of the Indian Army and very few civilians could be sighted. We reached Gurungmar lake. But unfortunately on our way back my co-rider’s biketyre gave up, it was punctured.

By the time the puncture was repaired it was already 6 PM and snowfall had started. But as a team, we got over the situation with the help of the Indian Army Bihar regiment unit called Akhaurus. Visibility was poor and oxygen level in air was very low, we somehow managed a room and spent the night at Thangu. That night was restless as we were frequently gasping for breath. One of the co-rider even suffered with severe chest pain, we had to give him a sorbitrate to stabilize him.

Day 5 Way To Siliguri

Early morning we set for our return journey. On our way we reached out to a local village, we arranged a workshop for the villagers as we wanted to make not only the socially stigmatized people but all aware about theatre therapy.

We had a box of chocolates with us. We shared those chocolates with the villagers and a sweet bond develop with them. From Gurudongmar, we started for Siliguri. And after taking a break of 45 minutes we started for Raiganj. It was midnight when we reached. However, not a single guesthouse or hotel was open. But a local man helped us a lot and arranged a guesthouse for us.

Journey Continues

After sharing information about Theatre Therapy with Malda people, we reached Krishnanagar and then Chakdah and then we returned to Kolkata. It was indeed an experience that I will cherish forever.
Few tips for a motorcycle trip .

I would also like to share a few tips with all.
*No matter how easy a trip is, if you are riding with a group, stay with that group. *Every day, we rode for almost 400 kilometers and that’s where I realize that tubeless tyres are always good for this type of trips.

• When our Tyre got puncture, we used Motul tyre repair . It is a useless product to repair leaks of tube tyres . Never use it.
• Along with your GPRS , USE MAPS OR TAKE LOCAL HELP as you can get lost if your internet does not function.
  *Don’t forget to invest on a good helmet and safety gear as they are the real life savers of the riders.
  ** And last but not the least; any adventure or in this instance a motorcycle trip can be accomplish only if you have the right mindset. So ride with your mind..

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