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Day 3 in Manali I wake early and do a preview ride up the Rhotang.

See how the bike is doing.

See how my breath is doing.

Get the legs working.

See how the route is up the left side of the Beas.

So I don’t cross that bridge and ride down into new manali – instead I head up the road along the left side of the Beas. never been on that road before. Turns out in 10 minutes I’m in gorgeous country, so many local people up farming at 5:30am. Lovely sun. Glorious morning. Stupendous. Word to the wise? Stay up here. Forget old manali. Really really forget new manali. Find a place up here and live the life.

I stop at a hotel for breakfast, The Tranquil Inn. Breakfast is reasonable, I seem to be the only customer. My only objection is there’s no view from the breakfast tables. I want a table out on the balcony.

Stomach full I continue up valley. Pass through real villages where people live. Yeah there’s a bunch of tourist crap up here too but mostly its real people living real lives. Cross the Beas at Palchan and then just follow the highway up. And. Up. Traffic goes from zero to lots as soon as I join the main highway.

The switchbacked road up through palchan has some steep bits, maybe the steepest I see all day. Above palchan the air gets really good, the views too. This is pretty magical country. Too bad about the tourists and traffic. Older locals must have fond memories of this place before it was nuked with a tourist bomb.

Before this trip… every single time I went up the Rhotang I thought how great it would be to ride up it. You start with pretty but temperate forest around manali, then creep up through several different sorts of canopy until you’re in the alpine. Also before this trip every single time I went up the Rhotang it was drizzling and too early in the morning, riding a horrible diesel local bus. Well? Turns out I like climbing lots more than before, and the road is massively improved. Yeah, and well, day like this, perfect weather, its just a great way to spend time. As nice and enticing the Rhotang looked in the drizzle, a perfect day is just… way cool.

Stomach rumbling I stop at the dhaba in Kolchi at 10 for one of them 4 egg masala omlettes and 3 cups of chai. I sit and chat with a driver of a bollywood movie support van. Then continue on up through the terrific forest. The road grade isn’t steep at all so I can make surprisingly good progress. My main concern is my breath, I want to stay aerobic and watch for symptoms of altitude sickness, but no symptoms show and the bikes low gearing mean little chance I’ll need to work hard. If anything the higher I get the better I feel, the air is just so good to breathe.

The one thing I don’t like about the Rhotang road are the jackass taxis. They definitely pass me too closely on purpose. The huge trucks? The buses? The military vehicles? Everyone but the taxis are absolute gentleman and give me as much space as they can. And if the road is single lane they don’t go behind me and honk, they wait until I can make room for them. Really cool. Not what I expected. But the taxis? They can go fuck themselves.

I ride up to just a few switchbacks above the Gulaba checkpoint. Instead of waiting in line with the countless taxis I ride past. At the police gate I get a rolling high-five from an officer. Pretty cool! My legs feel great, my breath feels great. The bike feels great. Next day is supposed to rain, I’ll take a rest day, top up my carbohydrate and leave the day after.

My last day I head back to Manali and have a lamb burger at Corners restaurant. Its expensive but the food is clean and tasty. This is the last really cultured meal I’ll have until I return to delhi more than a month later.