Ride the Himalayas Day 7 7-16-19 Moonlake Camp to Plm dhara Hotel & Restaurant Sissu

Ride the Himalayas    

7-16-2019       Day 7 of the "Ride the Himalayas" Starting in Moonlake Camp

The night was super clear and COLD!  Remember we all were huddled around the wood stove in that tent last night before dinner!  Ya almost wanted to snuggle with your bunk mate but we weren't that good of friends.  Hahaha   Did I mention It was a COLD night, well we all managed to survive and the boots were nice and COLD in the morning as well from being soaked the day before which was another treat. LOL  The sun in the morning was a welcoming sight and Mischa led morning Yoga.

 After breakfast and packing up we found out that 4 of our crew were leaving us as they didn't have work permits or something in the next state (or province) to continue on.  We pooled up a good some of money to tip them for all their help and wonderful cooking.  Von did an awesome heartwarming speech thanking them for their help and hospitality on the trip then presented them with the tip they could divide amongst themselves.

Von is on the right and Jjr Pawan on the left with our fab four guys leaving us in the middle.

Moonlake Camp

I took a bunch of photos of the area with all my cameras and about 8:30 we took off down the dusty trail.  The insides of my knees were killing me as they felt so bruised from hugging or banging against the fuel tank and my lower lip (which would become legendary as the worst burnt lip of the century) hurt so bad I could barely eat which is another weight loss technique I was mastering on this trip.  LOL

  

My eyes were burning pretty bad and tearing like crazy from accidentally getting sunscreen in them this morning but ya gotta put that stuff on or you'll burn to a crisp in the thin atmosphere up here.

 

We backtracked to the park boundary and had to go through many stream crossings.  Here is Paul Dunne from Australia showing us how it's done.  After he came down the stream he went BACK UP just for a little practice.  Paul was an excellent rider.

Here I am crashing my way through, photo courtesy of D. Hamilton

We finally made it to pavement where I'm in my element and in short order started blowing by the fellow riders with vengeance for fun of course.  I really should have just stayed in the back as I'm sure I missed taking some awesome shots but that just means I need to go back and do it again.  😀 

The lunch stop for the day was by a bridge and a super tall waterfall was nearby.  Most of us had a Roman style egg noodle dish which was quite SPICY!  Von scored some really nice hand made wool hats and I thought some gloves for like 500 Inr which was super cheap.

 

Some of the group

Our awesome photographers Vidit and Vikas

Huge rock that fell down the mountain.

We finally got to our hotel (Plm dhara Hotel) in Sissu (about 9875') which was still being built but the top floors were complete.  This place was BEAUTIFUL!  Our room had a nice TV (we didn't even bother to turn on).  All the male staff wore black suits from very young boys to the owner which was a very nice touch. We had nice balconies that looked out over the valley and across to the Sissu waterfall.  All of us ripped off our soaked clothes and put everything out to dry on the balcony.  It was nice to just walk around in dry clothes and regular shoes that afternoon/evening. 

 

Like most hotels we stayed at, all were a work in progress and some did and some did not have WiFi.  Wifi was spotty at best even in the larger towns so don't get your panties in a bunch if you can't post to the world every day. 

At dinner we saw on the menu that they had "Cheeseburgers"  All of us went crazy at the thought but it was fake news.  😆😆  One good thing was the hotel had labeled all the dishes so we knew what the heck we were eating which was awesome!  None of us really knew the names of the dishes so I took shots of everything.

 

Every afternoon or evening we would have some snacks.  Tonight were some fried/battered veggies and they were SPICY HOT!  Everyone has Chai tea (I'm not a tea fan at all but gave it a try and still don't care for it so water for me).  Von, Steve and Dave started working over the Kingfisher beer supply at the hotel and our mates Paul, Evan & Mischa from Australia joined in.  Those guys were putting the hurt to the cold beer supply of the village and I'm sure an SOS was going out to other villages to truck some more beer in ASAP.  Things started getting out of hand when Von thought it might taste good in his soup.  Hahaha  At one point Paul was going to toss up a Gulab Jamun (donut hole type thing soaked in honey) for Von to catch and well... it didn't go as planned.  Gala tried to catch the circus events on her camera and all of us howled. 

Vanna went over to the nice shop that sold all sorts of clothing and wool type products and found some nice sox to keep her feet warm.  Since she took a bad fall in the beginning of the trip she wasn't able to wear a boot on that foot (later we found out that her ankle had been broken).