Come with me to Keylong, the land of monasteries

Keylong, you may relate this place to heaven on earth. As mention in one of my previoud short blogs, I went there via Rohtang with my friend(you may say my all time travel partner) & the experience was mind blowing. Keylong is the administrative centre for Lahaul spiti district in Himachal Pradesh & is a wonder deatination for bikers & adventure lovers.
We reached Manali at around 2:30 PM & hired a bike(Royal enfield 350) along with the bike accessories to go ahead. Despite a formal warning from the localites about the weather in the evening, our adrenaline rush made us to start our exciting journey at 3:30 PM towards Keylong via Rohtang. I was a bit terrified as I never rode a royal enfield before but I got over it in an hour. We were enjoying the cold breeze & the spectacular sceneries around there. The sonorous sound of the river flowing by the road, archaic mountains & exhilirating environment was making the experience more ecstatic.

. We reached at Marhi(a place in between) at 5:00 PM & had some food. https://youtu.be/HLDwVyg9W14. We finished fast & started again as we were already late. We were singing songs & moving ahead. At around 6:30 PM, we reached Rohtang & in contradiction to my imagination, it was just a pass though amazingly beautiful & snowladen. I thought that we would find some to enjoy tea & snacks over there :(. https://youtu.be/ff-5u3ByDaE Ice on the roads was just removed the day before we visited. https://youtu.be/oa4Lhh7mL5Q I was in a single pullover with no handgloves that resulted in frostbike on the back of my hands. I stopped the bike as I was literally shivering. I did some pushups to warm myself up. My friend was enjoying the picturesque sceneries for the time being. Even he was worried seeing my condition. But I was good though a bit cold :). We started again & were in great tension if we would find some place to stay. https://youtu.be/fJGSQm-9cKA https://youtu.be/3HKpZINDffk Somewhere in my mind, I had already decided to stay on the side of the road in that chilled night. Anyways, I was driving on those old tattered roads filled with icy mountain water after Rohtang. We lost all hope but at around 8:00 PM after a continuous ride, we saw a little glimpse of light. We went there & it was a nice small village, Koksar. Small tents were there all around with the strong sound of a waterfall. I asked for the rent which was INR 1000. We were deprived of cash so we requested them to help us. Seeing our pitiable condition, they gave us a dormitory just for INR 300. We had a cup of nice tea & ate some food & went to sleep. Our socks & shoes were all wet. God it was a mixture of wonderful & horrific experience. I will continue my story in the next blog. Stay tuned. :) Tk