Once I was googling for family vacation trip in Himalayas, I stopped by YHAI’s Manali to Leh Cycling Expedition. How lovely, and magnificent journey it would be! Obviously, that time as I was in search of family vacation, so kept it aside, but my mind was thinking doing it.

After returning from vacation, and seeing few cyclist at Manali, the thought became stronger. I talked with my friends about expedition playing in my mind, none of them shown interest and laughed at me, but one of my colleague shown his interest in cycling, not for Manali-Leh. Ah! atleast one guy I found who loved cycling. I had never been on cycle after schooling, and what kind of cycles available now a days was not known. We started gathering some knowledge about modern day cycles, but most we found were out of our budget. One day an advertisement showcasing opening of a new cycle store in my city appeared in newspaper. We both visited the store – CycleZone. The owner of the store asked so many questions to us related to our purpose of buying cycles, gave details about types of cycles, gears and much more. We got confused as there were so many new things we learnt, which we weren’t even aware of. In a month’s duration, we visited CycleZone for atleast six to seven times with queries in our mind, and resolution by them. Finally, we finally chose Montra MTB, as it was in our budget and serving our need, and we were not sure that time about how much time our tempo about cycling shall remain.

On the first day, when I took my cycle from store to home, I was riding a cycle after a long period of about 25 years, and soon I realised that its not that easy, and we need a lot patience and practice before Manali – Leh route. Fingers crossed, hope for the best.