Hello every body!

I thank ifood.tv, to give me a platform to share my experience in and out of kitchen. I don’t have a vast experience in the kitchen but I have some crazy experience on the road of India, because of my deeds my friends call me “Dangerous” Khan.

I will let you know about my recent voyage, which started in a bizarre way. I was watching the famous Rocky 3, and suddenly I got this rush of blood in me. I picked my camera, pair of clothes and hit the road around 1 in the morning. I went to my friend place, picked him in his sleep and left for Manali.

Manali is a beautiful hill station in Himachal pradesh, (India). It is also called honeymoon paradise. It is famous for adventure sports in solong valley and its beautiful weather. When you enter Manali you will sense love in the air.

Manali is a good 600 km from Jalandhar. As we started our expedition, the radio told us a massive hailstorm was ahead and its gaining in strength. We had two options either find a shelter and make an emergency halt or face the hailstorm. I opted for the later. The trick in riding a bike in the hailstorm is to dash in and out of the storm in a flash. We packed our self in heavy snow jackets and tracks. I asked my friend, to hold on me tight, as there will be high turbulence.

In no time I was hitting 100-to 105-km/h mark. It was exactly 3:30 in the morning when we hit the hailstorm. I closed my eyes and prayed to “All mighty Allah”, to be merciful. I remember dashing in the storm at the speed of 115 km/h, maximum my bike can go. The road was like a pool of hail. Small pieces of hail were hitting us with great intensity. But I kept on going, my speed dropped from 115 to 100, and I was unable to open my eyes as rain water were hurting me a lot. It took us 30 min to dash out from that storm. My speed never dropped below 100. It was very dangerous, but we conquered it with our determination and without any major injuries. Thanks to Almighty Allah and our snow jackets and track we were not soaked.

Three hours had passed while we were on the bike, without taking any major breaks. A head lies 250 km of steep hill road. Only good thing was that there were no more hailstorms waiting for us. I said to myself, that I would continue riding till we reach our destination. Another 250 km were covered in next 3 hours, and without any injuries and hick ups we had reached to our destination. 6 hrs we didn’t ate anything and we were just on bike. We took hot water bath and early breakfast, and we planned we go for paragliding from 12500 feet high.

We reached solong valley were paragliding actually take place. It started pouring cats and dogs, and temper dipped to 2 degree. The rained stopped after 2 hrs and it became freezing cold. A black cloud hanged over us. Other tourist went back or preferred to stay in door in a resturant, which serve wonderful Maggie. I asked the paragliding instructor to allow me to glide in the air, in over cast and dangerous weather, he denied, but after long argument and paying extra he took me for a sail.

The first step in paragliding is to strap your self properly to the safety belts. Then hold the long rod, which act like a steering while you glide. And then come the best part, run fast and jump of the cliff. The air will lift and you will fly like a bird. It’s awesome. You feel like you are top of the world. I did the sailing twice and second time weather got worse and we faced great difficulty landing. The wind almost blew us away. But even after all the difficulty faced, I must say, it is worth trying. You can see in the pics attached how over cast was the weather.

I believe life is not meant to do traditional things. Eating, sleeping, dating, watching Tv, shopping and etc every one does. But facing challenges like hitting the hailstorm at a great speed, or plunging into a ice cold waterfall in the night, or swimming in the ocean in the full moon night, makes you conquer your inner fear. Remember fear, is suffering

Time to pen off and look out for another expedition, See you soon

Cheers.

The Nish

"Dangerous"

Image Credits: wikipedia.org