At Chusul, the Indian army served us dinner, our first meal of the day, since there is no other place one can eat on this route. A stroll down to a small lake where the lucky ones get a chance to see migrating cranes. We were not so lucky but sitting by the lake and looking in awe at the mountains, I realized that I was lucky enough to have done this route, which is prohibited otherwise.

While at Chusul, we were told to keep a look out for a particular mountain, spotting the mountain would mean that China was within sight. We were on the dirt tracks again, but instead of riding on plains, we were riding on mountainous terrain, which meant that the ride was much more challenging.

The mountains here can give the chameleon a run for it's money, colours change every few kilometers. Abundance of vegetation also gives the landscape here a breath of life, we had the rare opportunity to see Kiangs, a cross between Zebra and wild horse.

Finally the moment we all were waiting for came - we were at the Indo-China border - the reason for the expedition. The mountain appeared - it stood boldly in black, in stark contrast to its pastel shaded peers.

In shape of a Trishul (Tri-pointed weapon used by Hindu God Shiva), it gives birth to the name Chusul. Incidentally, the name of the regiment that serves the nation in this region is also Chusul. It took sometime for the thought to seep in that 2 kilometers away from where I was standing, was China.

I was quite eager to go to the other side and see how India looked from there. It was an overwhelming experience, a moment in life I will never forget. We started riding, I couldn't keep my eyes on the track ahead, I was glued to the other side, and that is when we saw the Chinese outpost on the base of the mountain. We were riding on a five kilometer plain between two mountain ranges, one side was China, and other was India. After a few kilometers came the War Memorial of 114 Martyrs of 13 Kumaon, dedicated to the brave soldiers of India who lost their lives on 18th Nov. 1962 during the Indo-China war.

Here onwards, the ride got more tough as gravel and sand increases, resulting in multiple dirt tracks with no signs, a wrong turn on the dirt track and one could land up in China eating Chopsuey with the Chinese!

Something incredible happened here, an incident that was the worst in the entire trip as far as I am concerned; the chassis of my Bullet broke apart, separating the engine from the handle bar, and I thought that was the end of my trip.

After days of excitement, I finally broke down and was in tears faced by a situation that had overwhelmed me. But Amol, Histasp and Allwyn somehow managed to tie the bike together. The only place we could weld the bike was at an ammunition depot. Amol rode my bike slowly through the gravel and stones in a way so as to cause no more damage till we reached the Army's depot. The army was at first apprehensive but on seeing that we had nowhere to go, welded my Bullet.

The eventful day ended at Chumatang, where we stayed at Border Roads Organisation's camp.

After Pangong-Tso we were riding to Tso- Moriri Lake. The dirt track here was all stones instead of gravel and sand. A backbreaking ride with shepherd dogs chasing the Bullets.

On the way down from one of the many mountains, a salt-water lake appears. It lies surrounded by mountains on three sides, and as we were going down the slope, the lake got bigger and bigger, taking the colour of the sky and the mountains around it. A few minutes at the lake and you can see the lake changing colours.

After a backbreaking ride, we finally reached Tso-Moriri, the entrance area to the lake is fenced, since it is a marine sanctuary. A lakeside ride through the adjoining mountain took us up to Karzok at 15,000 feet. Karzok has only few dozen houses with a lakeside campsite, where we had our meal and an hour long nap on the banks of the Lake. Next day we had two options to reach Leh, first being more dirt track riding, second being concrete roads. Without second thoughts, we were on the same dirt track we took from Chumatang via Mahe to Tso-Moriri. And then, on a diversion from this route for the climb to Polokangka-La pass at the height of 16,500 feet.

On the descent from the pass is where one gets the first sight of Tso-Kar Lake on the plains below. From the plains, a straight track of 15 kilometers led us to the lake. Tso-Kar if compared to Tso-Moriri and Pangong-Tso is not that magnificent, nor massive. But it has locals sitting on the banks watching their cattle and horses. A brief interaction with them and they offered us tea. They are basically nomadic Chang-pa herdsmen, very shy by nature and will answer all your questions in one word with a wide grin on their face; very friendly people indeed.

Tso-Kar lies on the other side of More Plains so we rode for another 30 kilometers on sand and reached the Leh-Manali road on More plains from where onwards it was a relatively easy ride to Leh.

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