Precautions: When you want to check the road conditions, although chances might be bit difficult that they will gladly interact with a civilian but its worth a try and pay a friendly visit to the regional office of GREF (Border Roads Organization) and enquire for the latest update, remember they are army chaps and have latest input from remote and far flung roads. IMHO condition of roads is not a problem but landslides info is what you need to ask, till around 12,000 feet slides happen frequently.

Money: Plan your whole trip and do a proper budgeting beforehand, cut some slack towards miscellaneous unforeseen expenses and add some more as rain check. Never keep all money stashed in one place. Spend from one reservoir for like 2 days before you open the next stash. Think of unlikely places to hide money, like you can hide money in 500 denominations in air filter box, under your bike seat etc.

Interacting with locals: Never try and be a showman with them, although my experience is that hill people are gentlest of many races I have known.

Don’t give in to the idea of suddenly being best of pals with them, because they are genuinely shy most of time and don’t know how to react to your friendly gestures. Never eye their woman folk and pass even innocent comments on their woman folk. If they offer you something to eat, it’s ok to accept. Don’t offer them money in return unless agreed upon previously; offer to pay for food is frowned upon in almost whole of India and more particular by the simple country folks, instead offer some toffees or a chocolate bar to the kids or something that you can give as a small souvenir.

EVEN IF you are an atheist never, NEVER make fun of local gods just because you have never heard of them, down in plains or because their gods look funny or grotesque. Other thing is to forget for a while that you may have any political views weather on national or locals issues. Should some discussion veers off to politics, play by ear!

 
Clothing & Shoes: I have set a kind of parameter that excluding your foot pump, your whole baggage should wrap-up around 10 Kg mark including your spare parts and tool kit. I follow the idea of a hardy and light ‘traveler’ not rider. Only two basic pair of comfort fit jeans is enough for me and couples of tee shirts for change, rest are basically woolen for outerwear. Make it a point that you take along a good (long if possible) down jacket with you. Inner thermal if you can get the fleeced one are any day better. You can easily live in just one pair of out clothes if you can change underwear everyday. So throw in about 7-8 pair always. If possible get a loose skier lower to wear on top of your thermal. This combination works better then thermal and jeans in high hill riding or very cold temperatures.

It doesn’t matter what you wear but it make sense that you take only worn-in shoes that doesn’t bite and pinch. A sturdy pair is always an asset and worth investment. Shoes with steel toes might be a nice idea but all gear shifters may not allow tall clearance for them without feeling very awkward. Avoid flat soles, as they tend to skid from foot pegs after being wet. Try and wear those shoes that have some kind of cut groove between toe and heel like those army DM boots or latest range sports shoes with deep curve in sole.

Heavy woolen socks are always better and throw in extra pair as well. In addition you can have those army style lugs with spikes hammered on toe and heel if you are really going to drive rally style or you are going in early spring and likely to encounter lot of black ice. But you better blunt or sand file the spikes on the tips.

Throw in some grocery plastic bags, as you may need to keep something you buy on way or store your smelly clothes till you get to wash them or give for laundry. Throw in some old newspapers, they will come handy with wet socks and if your shoes are not Gore-Tax type. All you have to do is make small paper balls and stuff them overnight and by the morning they will be somewhat wearable and dry.

On the Road: When in hills try to change your mind set from plain road driving. You will see other drivers will respect your driving as well. Be patient and learn to wait for pass, which may take a lot longer then plain roads. Not because the other guy is racing with you but because there has to be some EXTRA space around before he can side step without breaking his pep and loosing speed. Nobody is going to give you pass just because you hooted for it and come to grinding halt himself from this 3rd or 2nd gear and when you overtake, start raving all over again in 1st gear.

Truck drivers are the nicest lot in hills, try and be nice to them in return. It will pay someday if not on same trip. You better wave them when they give a side pass coz they’ll be the one who’ll  help you in awkward situations when you really want help.

Incident with me, while on my way to Leh from Manali which is famous for loose mud and slides, I tried to take a short cut between the loops on an decline (NEVER EVER TRY TO TAKE A  SHORTCUT ON AN DECLINE, COZ IT WILL BE WORST DECISION OF YOUR LIFE) where I got stuck in middle coz I didn’t judged the incline of that shortcut and found my self in miserable condition where I could not go down or pull my bike upwards, this truck driver I have passed came for my rescue. And WHY did they were helping enough???? As they told me you are good guy we saw you two days back at Chandigarh and then near Manali and both times when we gave you pass, you waved us bye!!! Bottom line is BE NICE.

While Driving: Everyone have own driving rhythms, so go on as much you can drive but taking rest whenever you feel tired will save you lot of bother, health wise. Idea is don’t over strach yourself unless there is some impeding doom around. One very useful idea, is about cummerbunds to prevent kidney rattle even if it sound bit weird. I just have to say that riding in Himalayas is not riding in Western Ghats, you will understand what am saying when you realize your front fork did well for all those good 10 years for you but their seals leaked within 2 day of driving in Himalayas. Kidney rattle CAN ruin your general mood and no harm taking care of this aspect too. This is especially useful for those TV junkies with somewhat flabby tummy. Guys with six-pack tummy may ignore this.

Take a long cotton ‘dhoti’ and twist it softly that such dhoti rope feel soft yet supple, before wrapping around lower back, try and have around 4-5 rounds before tucking in. It works better then those plastic and stiff back support thingies they sell in market.

Always keep your extra jacket handy (tucked on top of luggage with some bungee net) because weather can change in minutes. From sunny warm enough sunshine this minute to freeze your nuts the next turn. A pair of insulated gloves works better, the kind of Spalding’s skiers use, lightweight and effective because leather once will just pass on the cold drafts to your skin. Whenever you stop for a smoke or just stop, placing your gloves on the head fins is not a bad idea, you will drive off with much warmer hand.

Your seat might prove to be a spot of bother in about 3-4 days and you might feel like you are sitting on a bamboo and seat of a Honda Scooter might seem a dream sofa set. So go ahead and improve upon your bamboo.

It’s also imp or ride on correct tyre pressure. Allow some slack for hot air to expand and judge what psi you want to ride on cold tyres. Before starting off everyday you must do a physical eye inspection of your bike, check for loose ‘nutt bolts’, check all the control cables and fuel lines, free play, breaks and tyre for any cuts or nails embedded in them from last day riding. Always check engine oil and 2T level if not using premix. It is not a bad idea to clean your spark plugs every second day. That will also keep you in touch with what’s happening inside cylinders as well. Do check drive chain tension everyday as well.Use a thin air filter spunch instead of standard, this help engine to get enough air for cumbustion. I have seen a huge TDM 850cc nicely parked on road to Khardungla, because she couldn’t bugger up in that rarefied air.

Tools: Use bungee nets instead of bungee cords as this will help in holding your luggage fully.
If you are driving something very exotic then you needs some extra care about spares because you just wont get them anywhere else so you have to think real hard in advance about what all you might need. Consider carrying spare clutch plates in addition to regular spares and tool kit. Revise your bike’s weakest spot where she might trouble you, spend few bucks extra and nip the problem in bud itself. Also carry a spare lever set because it rains pretty regular in hills and when you have dashed inside that tea stall in hurry leaving her parked on main or side stand in soft mud, she is ought to fall, when, is just a matter of time and that might cost you a clutch lever.

Never give in the temptation to go for thicker oil just because it worked fine in plains. Mine almost froze to bricks in Pang. Even if you do have to have heavy-duty thick viscosity engine oil, when you hit the hills, drain some part of it and add regular oil or you can add some 2T as well which is stock 15 SAE.

Medicines: Prepare your medical kit keeping in mind your past medical records.

1. Take some anti puking tablets and anti loose motion ones as well,
2. Iodine gauze or solution,
3. Pudine Hara tablets are better then Diagine or gelusile,
4. Some mild anti allergy tablets,
5. A moisturiser
6. Diamox 250 mg
Drive and live sturdy an Insisting on too much hygiene will leave you frustrated or bed ridden for want of it. I mean don’t try and be a staunch sticker for only packed food and mineral water. Because if you have to have local water and food, you have already pampered your stomach line a lot and it will fail at first test.

Even if you have taken ill, you still NEED TO eat something. Carry some hardy fruits as well from your shopping/city/civilization point. Curd and rice are always available everywhere. Rice is easy to digest and curd will help you with ‘friendly’ bacteria that exist in it to help you recover from illness.

Unseen UV rays can wreck your skin as well. When you see those rosy cheek people in hill its not because they are in best of health, but because that’s a very mild UV burn. They stay rosy because they just live there, bring them down in plain and see that rosy cheek turning into dark brown shade. So you can try and not look a Baywatch model with muscles rippling. Once burned those tissues will take from 3 to 5 months to heal and your skin colour to be back to normal self. Apply nothing less then 30+ sph factor sun cream. L’Oreal makes 50+ but its very costly, Johnson & Johnson offer one with 40 sph and cost about 300 rupees. If you can get total sun block Zinc paste that you have seen those cricketers having, nothing like it.

Take some ointment for those baby rashes. You are going to need one application every night after 4-5 days. That will also serve as a bacteria-killing cream. Get some anti bacteria foot powder too.

Mountain Sickness: There are already many posts on forum about this so I will just breeze thru on it. This can be of two types but since the acute type is for mountaineers we will stick to first stage type, which can happen while riding. It’s a bit complex but I will try to explain. This is not some kind of sickness or indicates weak physical condition of yours.

What happens is, when you gain height your body is not able to adjust to the rarefied air with less oxygen. Genetically our body is conditioned to breath at a fixed rate and maintains pulse. Gain of height imbalance (don’t ask me how) Ph factor (water level) in our blood, which triggers the brain and con it into thinking that this particular ph level means body is resting so brain in turn, without we noticing it, signals to slows down the breathing and bring down pulse rate slower the way it should be at the time of rest or sleeping.