Good Old Days – Royal Enfield Himalaya Adventure Manang 2024

This was the first time the new Royal Enfield Himalayan encountered the Nepalese Himalayas. I have been lucky enough to snow ride a few times in the past on our Indian Himalayan terrain. However, this was the first time I got to ride and shoot while it was snowing. The feeling of snowflakes falling on the riding gear, piling up on the motorcycle as he sits there posing for photos — what a feeling! What didn’t help much was that no amount of layering helped the cold make the body shiver.

Day 4 of our Himalayan Adventure Walk to Manang 2024 was a rest day (a “chill” day as Gen Z would say). On this day, our ride photographers Ashik Thomas and Ankit Sharma asked me if I would like to ride the Himalayas to the Manang terrain so they could photograph someone monkeying around on a bike. I instantly agreed to this for the sole reason that I did not want to rest or cool down – I am simply and eternally incapable of such a thing.

We headed to a dam about 10 minutes from Yeti Hotel in Manang. As Ashik continued to shoot pictures of the Himalayas on that beautiful terrain, I sat on the ancient rocks, thinking about how different life is in my hometown, Mumbai. Hustle versus here. I was immersed in nature when suddenly it started to drizzle. Said drizzle soon turned into snowflakes and that’s when I got to experience a proper snowfall. Do you remember when the golawala scraped the ice and collected the flakes in his hand in front of his eyes as a child? I felt exactly the same. The only difference was that the flakes were not collected in my hand, but on the Himalayan chair.

By the time the shoot was complete, my riding gear was soaked and so was I inside. Imagine my surprise then when I was informed that actual filming had just begun. Ashik asked me if I could give him some action shots – how could I say no?! We looked for patches where we could get drifts, slides, jumps, wheelies, and every “Insta hero” photo I could imagine. The resulting evidence is right there in the pictures!

Day 5 was another exciting day for us. We stayed at this great hotel in Darechok called Riverside Spring Resort. I’m sure if you google the name you will see how widespread this property is and the amount of amenities it has to offer. And I absolutely loved it; the nine and a half meter deep pool, the table tennis arena, the food and so on. However, the most important attraction of this place was that it is just 500 meters away from the biggest brewery in Nepal, where the popular Barahsinghe beer is brewed and distributed all over Nepal and several other countries.

Barasinghe had some great food and literally a platter of beer to offer. The beer sampler had the first five flavors they could taste, then order their favorite in either 330ml, 500ml or 1000ml mugs and drink. We ordered a lot of food and drank a ton of beer (Belgian Whit being the best). This place actually closes at 20:30 so we were lucky to get in at 05:00. And by 7pm, the place was flooded with people and everyone seemed to be having a great time. One of the music enthusiasts at our table started singing, and a few beers later, the singers in each of us came out and we turned into our own versions of Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam, SP Balasubrahmanyam and so on.

Surprisingly, people at nearby tables also started singing Nepali songs. Moments later, we were all singing along, though none of us understood the Nepali songs. However, the locals seemed to know most of the Indian songs and sang them with the correct lyrics too. I happened to like a Nepali song that got stuck in my head for days to come, Jindagi Sarara Motor Gadi Ma by Sushant Ghimire. If two days of a six-day trip could do this, imagine what the whole trip must have been like! This opportunity to ride the new Himalayas in the Himalayas not only gave me a great time off-roading – which is what I love most – but also gave me memories that will last a lifetime.

CHECK ROUTE
Day 1: Kathmandu to Besisahar: 178 km
Stop: Hotel Gateway Himalayan Resort
Day 2: Besisahar to Manang: 90 km
Stop: Hotel Yeti
Day 3: “Rest” day. AKA “hammer
himalayan day
Day 4: From Manang to Taal: 60 km
Stop: Hotel Peaceland and Hotel Sunrise
Day 5: Taal to Darechok: 115 km
Stop: Riverside Spring Resort
Day 6: Darechok to Kathmandu: 105 km
Stop: Hotel Manaslu