Thirty people. Twenty motorcycles. Four SUVs. Two weeks.

For me, all transport (including my flight back to Delhi), accommodation, permits, meals, and adult beverages - in short, everything - totaled approximately 60,000 rupees or US$1000 depending on how strong the rupee is when you calculate. The motorcyclists paid a bit more for the fuel, maintenance, and backup vehicles.

Delhi - Shimla - Naggar - Sarchu - Tsomoriri - Leh - Nubra Valley - Turtuk - Srinagar - Pahalgam

• Shimla to Sarchu: Wrong turn to Naggar, almost running out of fuel, having the first of many Slippery Road Experiences, chai in the middle of nowhere, saying hello to the cows, discovering a new climate on the other side of Rohtang pass, using a clever camp toilet in the back of my tent, and seeing an actual starry sky.
• Sarchu to Leh: Discovering a new planet around every corner, taking pictures next to signs with increasingly high elevations written on them, can't believe I'm not dying from the lack of oxygen, satellite phone paranoia, chocolate-loving children, a checkpoint or two, and a pretty lake.
• Leh: Enjoying the twisty streets, many jewelry and pashmina shops, slow and periodically nonexistent internet (but at least internet), Tibet-like monasteries, stunning mountains surrounding the valley, and all the other tourists, pretty sure we came during the only days of rain Leh got all year.
• Nubra Valley: Summiting the absurdly high Khardung pass - twice - and entering the secret beauty, quiet villages, clean restrooms, and unimpressive hot springs of Nubra Valley, wandering the unspoiled town of Turtuk, like no place I've been.
• Leh to Srinagar: Just when I thought the scary steep muddy passes were over, the worst yet: Zoji-la. Also, witnessing Indian patriotism at the War Memorial, returning to the humidity, oxygen, and a huge lake in Srinagar, experiencing Kashmir Hospitality in an idyllic location, and going through security an awful lot of times before realizing my air ticket back to Delhi had mysteriously been cancelled.

I had never met anyone on this trip before going (and had only communicated with two over email) so there was part of me that wondered, in the back of my head, whether this was all real.

Yep. All real.

Just minutes after I left my apartment in the pre-dawn light, my food bag split open in the middle of the street outside my building. But a nice dude on a motorbike helped me put it into a spare bag I had (whew) packed and helped me hail an auto. As the auto took me to the metro station, I had a moment of brief panic. Was the metro closed for the huge holiday of Eid ul-Fitr? Was I going to see how fast I could get EasyCabs to pick me up? Nope, whew. It was also the emptiest metro ride I'd ever been on. And for Friday morning rush hour, that is saying something. Every passenger had a seat the whole way to the central station. At least until I switched to the Yellow Line, the line that goes to Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque in Delhi. Packed. At least I was not going toward the mosque, along with every Muslim devotee in Delhi.

I met the European couple that was the driving force behind the trip in Defence Colony, a pretty neighborhood in South Delhi. Nicest people ever! After coffee and introductions, the initial group of us piled into multiple Innovas.

We were off before 9am and somehow managed to avoid mosque traffic as we headed north on NH 1. Our destination, several hours ahead, was the mountain town of Shimla, where the rest of the group, the motorcycles, the SUVs, and our fearless leader Akarsh were waiting.

In India, the concept of Adventure Motorcycling is taking a little longer to catch on. The reason? Motorcycles are considered cheap transportation here. An alternative, not addition, to a car. Therefore, the idea of purposely foregoing a vehicle for a motorbike seems a little strange at first. But it is becoming more and more popular.

I forewent the motorcycle for an entirely different reason. I'm just not that good. And riding in an SUV all the way up sounded like sufficient adventure to me!

Road munchies included Haribo gummi bears!

We reached the beautiful mountain town of Shimla in the early evening, a few traffic jams later. I'd been here once before. Upon reaching it, getting up to the YMCA involved taking the squeeze-em-in double elevator called "The Lift" then up tons of stairs up to the church and beyond to find the hidden building. Here, the restrooms were unisex, there was no toilet paper, and a black dog kindly showed us to our rooms and checked on us when we brushed our teeth.

The dog's name, I just discovered, is Trigger.

Yes, those are chicken fajitas. No, really. Where they got the "guacamole" up here I can only imagine...