As some of you know, I went off to S India on an Enfield tour and had the most amazing time riding on some superb roads and seeing some fantastic places. On the basis of this, 3 of us are booked to go on a tour in August 2013 to the Himalayas. If anyone's interested in joining us then let me know. The bikes are 500 Bullets and the trip cost includes use of the bike, all accommodation, fuel and food, together with internal flights. There is an ex-pat Brit tour guide and a back-up vehicle to carry luggage, spares etc. All you pay for are your international flights, visa and your drinks bill :wink: There a few companies who do this sort of thing, but irrespective of whether you are interested in this one, I'd be happy to share any experiences and recommendations.
Ok - so I thought I'd post up some of my photos of the trip to S India. The one of the Enfield 'Desert Storm' is courtesy of www.extremebiketours.com as in addition to the 500 Bullets, they've now also got some of these as additions to their stable. (These new ones have electric starters and left foot gear changes. Damn wierd new-fangled stuff!) As mentioned, 3 of us are off to do their Himalaya trip In Aug '13. Anyone else wanna play?
Ken is that the very expensive tour to cheap country? With all crap around me lately I was thinking about going somewhere away but price of such tour scared the hell out of me. Maybe will just go on my own .... like old days
There are a few tours who do this sort of thing, and they all are pretty much variations on the same theme. Some include food, some don't. Some include fuel, some don't etc etc. As mentioned in my original post, the guys I'm going with include all food, fuel, accommodation, plus 4x4 to carry all your luggage and spares / tyres etc for the bikes. Also included are 2 internal flights to get from Delhi up north and back to Delhi again. For the S India tour the price included the flight from Goa down to Cochin for my return flight home. Some companies tours cost more, some are less. Some use 350 Bullets, some have 500s. Some go higher into the Himalayas ...some don't. Some companies bikes are not doubt better prepared and maintained than others. Some people want to go on a tour with someone who knows their stuff, other people want to try things out on their own. The list goes on. Just depends what folks want to do. All I can say is based on my own experience, I'm 100% sure I made the right decision to use these guys for the S India tour, and am therefore going to use them again for the Himalaya trip. You should have a chat with John too - I'm sure he'll be able to give you his insight.
Hello, I'm going to take my 500 bullet to Ladakh around the 18 August 12. Going to stick my bike on a train and do a DIY job. I'll fly there from Mumbai. Leaving india at the end of the year (after 3 1/2 yrs) so need to make the best of it. Had a good look at my Royal today to see what to do to prepare it (we wont have a back up vehicule). Think I'll get a sump gaurd, bit of lock wiring and some spares. So far I've done a few trips on it and its been 'bullet' proof. Will post picks when I get back..... Greg
Here's their latest video from the tour they've just finished. They now have a mix of Enfield Desert Storms (electric start and left foot gear change) and classic Bullets. Mighty Himalayan 1 2012 - YouTube
Well that's got me going Ken, brilliant little video, would love it to be longer, shame you can't hear the Enfields. Don't forget to pack your thermals!
so what do you reckon you are looking at as a rough cost? I could use something different to waste my end of year bonus on........
The Bhutan trip will be superb a great place, my sister lived there for a few years in Thimphu . No where else like it ! Just stunning.
Hired an Enfield when I was there 20 years ago. Had a great time getting away from the tourist bits. Managed to break the kick start miles from anywhere. Rememberd my youth and so knew how to bump start it. All good. Got on the ferry to go across the last river between me and the hotel and just kept the bike running. So clever. Went to go up the ramp to get off and stalled it. No room to bump it and no one to help. Got off and found a gang of road workers and paid them to give me a push. Off I go after giving them about 20p and felt bad so went back and gave them some more. Lots of smiles and waves as I set off again and stalled it again. Knob. Whats the moral of this story. Just keep going when once out of trouble Regards Steve
So an update. I'm off on my mini adventure this coming Friday. My trusty, hopefully, Royal Enfield was shipped 10 days ago from my place in India by truck along with my 3 friends bikes. Our program is [TABLE="width: 494"] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, width: 153, bgcolor: transparent"]17/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl63, width: 341, bgcolor: transparent, colspan: 4"]Flight Pune Delhi. Landing in Delhi late night.Over night in Delhi in hotel.[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl68, bgcolor: #D9D9D9"]18/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl63, bgcolor: transparent, colspan: 4"]Flight from Delhi to Kullu (Bhuntar). Arrival in Kullu early monring 9am. Preparation of tour. Ride till Manali 40km.[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl68, bgcolor: #D9D9D9"]19/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Manali[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Jispa[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, bgcolor: transparent"]20/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Jispa[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Sarchu[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, bgcolor: transparent"]21/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Sarchu[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Tso Moriri[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, bgcolor: transparent"]22/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Tso Moriri[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Leh[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, bgcolor: transparent"]23/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Leh[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Leh[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl67, bgcolor: transparent"]24/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Leh[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Pandong-Tso[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl68, bgcolor: #D9D9D9"]25/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl64, bgcolor: transparent"]From[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Pandong-Tso[/TD] [TD="class: xl65, bgcolor: transparent"]to[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Leh[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: xl68, bgcolor: #D9D9D9"]26/08/12[/TD] [TD="class: xl63, bgcolor: transparent, colspan: 4"]Flight from Leh to Delhi, then to Pune. All flight same day. [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] First day will be tough as we land at 2000m, ride upto >5000m then back down to 4000 where we need to find somewhere to sleep. There has been heavy rain and lots of land slides so there where lots of blockages, hopefull we will get through if not we shall play it by ear. Our first travel agent (supplying back up vehicule for gear) cancelled our bookings due to conditions so we had a bit of a panic early this week. anyway should be fun and quite a different biking experience from Le Mans 10 days ago! Will of course post pics. Greg
Looks great Greg! Look forward to hearing your stories and seeing pics - good luck with everything! Our guy has posted up another video of what we're up for in August 2013. The previous video is in one of my earlier posts on this thread - as mentioned before if anyone wants to join us then drop me a PM. Extreme Bike Tours Mighty Himalayan 2 snippets http://extremebiketours.com - YouTube
So am back and alive after my mini adventure Really was an amazing trip. Incredible scenery. Riding the high altitudes too soon caused illness and we had one of our team in hospital on oxygen. I suffered a little on the second night but next morning was great. We rode just under 1500 klms in 7 days which considering some of the 'roads' are rocky tracks was enough. We rode the 3 highest 'motorable' roads in the world, it was a nice achievement but the best rides are around 3 to 4k meters altitude. here is some pics
Yes they are prayers, one for each day... There are times when you are glad they are there. sorry for the last photo, blurred....:frown:
