My Travel Log – Roadtrip Unplugged (June 25 2010 to July 07, 2010)

We all have DREAMS. And some of them are larger than life. I had a dream of visiting Kashmir since the time I marked it in my Geography maps in school and since the time I heard the name of this place. I had been perennially complaining to my folks about not taking me on the Kashmir trip (ermm…it’s a different thing that I did not exist when they went there) and I finally got my chance in June 2010 after 10 years of dreaming, planning, plotting and pondering!!!!

When my dearest friend Santosh told me about his plan for a roadtrip to Ladakh and Kashmir in early January, I jumped at the idea. Ladakh was a fairly recent addition to my ‘must go trips’ and was harboring a thought of clubbing that with my Kashmir visit since 4 years now. The scenic portrayal of 3 Idiots climax just triggered the excitement to make it there. After grueling sessions of planning and re-planning and cancelling of trip itineraries and permissions over Feb to June, I was finally headed to my dream and destination…all packed…bag and baggage. Although I knew I would be back to reality in 12 days, somehow the only song that I kept humming ‘I’m leaving on a jetplane. Don't know when I will be back again…’ as I zoomed my way towards paradise like Alice in Wonderland! The next 12 days formed an eclectic mix with new friends, exotic locations, deserts, lakes, barrage of pictures and so much more!!

Characterization:
Shaily (me, child-locked chocolate lover, contagious laugh-o-holic, proud Mumbai-ite, yapper)
Santosh/Santa (driver, cinematographer, complete entertainer, poser, bad hindi speaker, trip planner)
Shuaib (shaayar, coolie, center fresh provider, muscle man, awesome lyricist but bad singer)
Sahana/Saha (photographer, poser, scapegoat for almost all jokes)
Ghanashyam/Ghana (cash provider, man of few words, graviera looker, failed singing attempter)
Kishore (driver, singer, ………..) – feel free to add!
Giri (scandalized passenger, ……….) – feel free to add!
Prasanna (avid photographer, compulsive blogger, ……….) – feel free to add!
Srilaxmi/Sri (the silent one, smiling face, …………) – feel free to add!
Nandini and Vani (…………..) feel free to add!

Places we visited: Delhi, Manali, Keylong, Bharatpur, Leh, Lamayaru, Drass, Srinagar

Other Places/Locations/Destinations where we had memories as we passed by: Chandigarh, Rohtang, Baralachla Pass, Sarchu, Tanglangla Pass, Rumste, Leh, Khardungla Pass, Changla Pass, Pangong Lake, Kargil, Sonmarg, Wular Lake, Dal Lake, Fotula Pass, Dashir Lake, Gatta Loops, Darcha, Mulbek village, Alchi Village, Morey Plains. (Feel free to add anything that I have missed...!)

Day 1 (June 25 midnight to June 26 2010): Adventure married us on the first day of our trip as we drove 550 kms to Manali from Delhi in the death of the night. After almost 20 hours on the road through Kalka, Chandigarh, Ambala & Kullu, we finally made it to a cosy little guest house on the banks of the gushing river Beas as Manali welcomed us with chilly breeze. Did not like the hill station much – it was overcrowded and over hyped with traffic jams worse than Mumbai. Glad we were just put up there for the night and managed to find accommodation away from the main market!

Day 2 (June 27 2010): An early start next morning marked the beginning of our ascent to the favourite tourist destination - Rohtang Pass. Among rocky roads and recently cleared landslides, our brave drivers gallantly made it to the over-hyped Rohtang Pass in time for late lunch. The snow was soot coloured and Eskimo like humans with thick furry overcoats swarmed the place like bees. Umm..it was surely cold and breezy but was definitely not Alaska…these people surely looked queer!! Anyway…we quickly got back on the road and beyond Rohtang the route got prettier and the air thinner.

Our destination that evening was Keylong, a tiny little hillstation nestled in the northern most part of Himachal Pradesh. Most people on their way to Leh halted there for the night. The town was in a lazy slumber all through the day and we could view snow capped Himalayas and unexplored greenery from every little nook and corner. That’s when phone went out of network coverage – strangely such a welcome delight! That’s the first time I felt as if…the world did not know which corner I am in...and I felt untraceable and strangely proud about it! ;-)

Day 3 (June 28 2010): From Keylong to Sarchu was one hell of a journey! We went through the winding Zingzingbar and the dreamy Baralachla Pass. Snow on either side of the narrow road, frozen lakes, magnanimous glaciers, melting iciles and cutout landscapes made our drive through the golden sunset breathtaking. The Earth looked like a newlywed bride adorned with impeccable white snow all over. A sight so pure and yet so fulfilling is rare. Many a movies have been shot there since it is an ideal location for directors like Yash Chopra who want an actor like SRK in his pullover to romance a Kajol or Rani or Juhi dancing in thin chiffon sarees amongst the snow-capped peaks of an untouched location! From the latest lot, I am sure Jab We Met was shot here :)

We did not make it to Sarchu by end of the next day (as we had planned). Too many landslides and flooded roads made the journey slow and draining. Someone told us…'Why don’t you stop over at Bharatpur city for the night? Sarchu is about 35 kms away from here..but its 7:30pm and the road ahead is worse. You might get stuck.’ Good suggestion. So we stop at this place which has a bunch of about 10-12 tents in the middle of nowhere, for some sustenance and one of us asks the kind tent fellow ‘Bhaiya Bharatpur city kitna durr hai…raat ko wahi par rukna hai’. The guy looks at us with twinkling eyes and mocking smile ‘Yehi Bharatpur city hai sahab!!!!!!!!!’ WOAH….when did 10-12 thin tents become an entire city? We were in for more shock.

Snow everywhere, strong winds blowing, Maggi for dinner and Old Monk rum to give us company and warmth. The tents rented out beds for 100 bucks per night with thick warm blankets and for lack of better options, that became our night halt. At about 11pm, the electricity and hot coals warmed by solar power went off and we were left in a cold, desolate, super-windy and shivering state. A couple of us suffered from hypothermia, some got high on alcohol as a bid to survive and the rest of us huddled up under a bunch of thick blankets trying to sleep. Santosh got up like a brave guy in the middle of the night, to fetch his thin favourite bedsheet and when his fingers touched the ice-cold cloth he immediately broke into a weird shivering dance and screamed for his dear life! Although we were in a sorry state, we all burst out laughing at his antics that added colour to our night.

Somewhere around 2am, I realized I could not breathe and was too cold to think straight. The wind was creepily blowing and the blankets did not help me, so I groggily stepped out of the tent and ran to our car. Realized that 2 of our friends Sahana and Shuaib had already occupied the backseat and were resting peacefully with the car heater on. So our small bunch spent the night in the warm confines of the car until the brave Santosh came and woke us up at 6am!! So Bharatpur went down in the history of our trip as the coldest nights (was -5 degress to say the least!) and the most difficult and adventurous nights ever. Every other night thereafter was compared on the ‘Bharatpur yardstick’ and thankfully, no other night outshone Bharatpur! :)

Day 4 (June 29 2010): The next morning our route took us through more tents at Sarchu, rocky roads at Darcha, naturally eroded winding roads of Gatta Loops, an uphill drive to Nakeela Pass (15547 feet) and Lachulungla Pass (16616 feet), Tanglangla Pass (17582 feet) and down the dusty Morey Plains. The scenery completely changed. We had entered Jammu & Kashmir now and barren mountains and vast deserts welcomed us. But it was a pretty sight indeed as a lot of winter snow had not melted so we saw a riot of colours ranging from whites to browns to yellows to greens to blues as the snow, roads, mountains and sky fought for our attention! The roads were so clean and well maintained, that we could picnic on the middle of the Manali-Leh highway, and we did just that, literally!! The song that kept coming back to my mind was… 'Hum Jo Chalne Lage…Chalne lage yeh raaste…manzil se behtar lagne lage hai yeh raaste…!' Somewhere on the way…our car bumper gave away and had to be tied onto the carrier of the other car with us. Our Corolla now resembled a backless human being!!

So after 48 hours on the road and without bathing…we managed to complete our tumultuous drive to the city of Leh, which welcomed us like an oasis in the midst of the desert. The city and its feel was so international with beautiful breeze and fine roads to give us company. We found a old-fashioned guest house set in the picturesque backdrop of the mighty snow capped Himalayas. A traditional Ladakhi family looked after this guest house and they had their own farm which grew splendid big roses of all colours. They also had potato, carrot and other vegetables grown on their farm, so we were treated to home cooked food during our stay!

Day 5 (June 30 2010): A bright morning dawned on Day 5 of our trip as I peeped out of my room window and the heavens welcomed me. Agar duniya mein koi jannat hai…toh yahin hai…yahin hai...yahin hai! :) After a sumptuous home made breakfast of ladakhi bread, puri bhaji, omlettes and freshly removed milk from the inhouse cows, we were ready to explore. Our first stop was the Shanti Stupa that overlooked the city of Leh. A lonely white structure juxtaposed against vibrant coloured flags adorned the city skyline. Leh, being dominated by Tibetian culture and Buddhism, had prayer shelters, gompas, monasteries and such stupas at several places.
Then we made our journey to Khardungla Pass, the second highest pass in the world at 18380 feet and the highest motorable road in the world! Hats off to our driving company – Santosh and Kishor who made those tough high rise roads look so manageable and safe!! So Khardungla Pass was our ‘highest point’ in the trip and also the passageway to other such adventurous destinations such as sand dune dominated Nubra Valley! We could not feel our own skin and we were struggling to breathe. Thank God for the hot sweet black coffee and steaming Maggi that we got on Khardungla Top. This had become our staple food on the trip.

On our way back to Leh city, we stopped by at the Leh Palace. Not exactly as royal as Jaipur palace nor as ornamental and intricate as the Mysore Palace but unique in its own way. Probably the oldest structure in the city, this castle like palace gave an aerial snapshot of the greenery in the midst of barren land with tiny houses that dotted the vicinity. It served as an excellent location for a photoshoot as we blended the old world charm with the rocky interface, fading light and an enthusiastic photographer to shoot a range of expressions from ‘graveria looks’ to ‘where am I looking poses’ to ‘spontaneous and natural laughter moments’ which were very awesomely captured in our individual profile picture portfolios! The evening ended with a fantastic Tibetian candle-lit dinner at a place called TIBETIAN KITCHEN. Ghana and I experimented with Veg. Thukpa soup which gave us delight and warmth after the chills of Khardungla. That coupled with veg momos and a lot of other food and several glasses of fresh lime soda were conveniently savoured by us 4 - Santosh, Giri, Ghana and me!

Day 6 (July 01 2010): Our 11th member on the trip Prasanna graced us with his esteemed presence by joining us in Leh early in the morning! We began our journey nice and early at ermm…10am :P after a sumptuous breakfast. We were on our way to the world renowned Pangong Lake which featured in the movie 3 Idiots. It is among the largest salt water lakes in North India and stretches across the Indian border to China. We crossed Changla Pass where there was a military camp and a bunch of soldiers who made us feel proud by sharing their grueling war stories! As we descended onto a winding road on the other side of the pass, it was surrounded by rock structures and desert sand, and it felt like Arizona! We finally made our way to our tent accommodation at Pangong which was about 3 kms away from the last village on the Indo-China border. The vast expanse of Pangong Lake spread across 2 nations with about 1/3 present in India and 2/3rds in China. I was amazed by the sheer size of the water body and I wished I had an aerial view to the majestic lake.

Splendid breeze and friendly tents beckoned to us as our starved lot fed on chai and hot food. We were very proud of our custom made ‘ROADTRIP UNPLUGGED’ t-shirts, personalized with our favourite names and numbers and many a mad poses filled up our photo-crazy day. As we sat by the lake and watched the twilight set in, the winds became biting cold and chilly. Our tents which were located a few steps away looked warm and inviting. It was quite an experience to camp in the Northern most corner of India…so close to nature and its beauty and so far away from civilization and networking. It is the kind of unwinding and peace that can rejenuvate any physical being and feed any starved soul. Nature could not have given us better company than this. It was the perfect night as we all drifted into soothing sleep.

Day 7 (July 02 2010): Summer mornings in the mountains are fairly early whereas it gets dark only at about 8pm. So we were greeted by a bright new day and rising sun at 5:30am the next morning. Could not have missed the sunrise at the lake for the world! As the sun rose behind the mountains and its early rays hit the snow-capped peaks and glittered in glee, the lake awoke to a riot of colours. The landscape was so picture perfect that it reminded me of those Drawing class pictures which each of us must have drawn atleast once in their lives. Mountains, sunrise, water, grass, trees and a bunch of happy humans – the perfect scenery! Have hardly ever seen a morning so pure and serene. As most of us stared and posed against the vibrant blue-green hues that pristine water of Pangong offered in every ripple, 3 brave men decided to make their experience memorable by taking the holy dip in the icy cold waters of the lake! So our 3 idiots – Santosh, Shuaib and Kishore gave a shivering performance on ‘Ek Garam chai ki pyaali ho…koi usko pilaane wali ho!’ Their adventure and dance were sure to give Salmaan Khan a run for his money ;-)

A long song-a-thon session followed where each of us sang Kannada, Hindi and English songs and made public display of our talent, and in some cases like mine, the lack of it! So while we found some fantastic singers in Kishore, Giri, Vani and Nandini , I sang like a torn drum, Santosh sang like he was on gunpoint, Shuaib sang as though the world has ended and Ghana recited song like a poem! So a mix bunch of poets, lyricists, singers, wannabe singers, shaayars and bathroom singers added to the melting pot of musical memories and unlimited laughter as we began our journey back to Leh city.

Day 8 (July 03 2010): As Day 8 approached, we bid farewell to the stately mountains, the untouched greenery, our guesthouse manager’s daughter Amu, our favourite joint Tibetian kitchen, the overpriced handicraft shops and every little thing that made up the city of Leh. Never did we think, that the same peaceful town would awaken to a rude shock just 1 month after we left it. I really hope that the city regains its normalcy and soul soon. There is hope in the heart and a promise in the mind to revisit and reminisce about the Leh that was.
This day, we started our journey on the Leh-Srinagar highway and the smoother part of our journey. This was maintained by the Indian Army and the main road of operation, communication and transport so spotting army bunkers and trucks on the way became a regular feature. We stopped at the Magnetic Hill, turned off the car ignition and parked it in the box marked on the road in neutral gear. The car moved ahead on its own and it was a thrill to watch the peculiar ways of nature! After witnessing a fine river confluence of two beautiful rivers – Indus and Zanskar merging 2 distinct colours into a single river, we headed to the Alchi Murals for lunch. This place had a historical and religious significance, since it had some wall murals painted thousands of years ago and a little monastery called the Alchi Gonpa. We prayed by rolling the Buddhist prayer gongs all through the monastery and realized that spirituality is omnipresent, whatever the religion!

That evening, we stopped at Lamayaru, which has been my personal favourite location in the entire trip! This is where I discovered the most awesome ginger-lemon-honey tea ever! The Lamayaru monastery and the sleepy town with its sacred air could calm all restless nerves. The natural beauty of the yellow daisy fields against the backdrop of a starry sky coupled with the holy environment of that location left me charmed and mesmerized. Still when I shut my eyes and think of the trip, this scenery flashes in my mind and transports me to another world. I found mystic silence and peace in this place and its etched a special position in my very existence.

Day 9 (July 04 2010): As we embarked on the Leh-Srinagar highway, our onward destinations started becoming less rocky and more green with millions of beautiful streams and rivers emerging from hills and disappearing into the winding river Drass that ran its course through Kargil and Drass. Kargil was an ugly town, its war significance apart, there was not much to see or do there. I personally found it to be pretty shady with limited lodging and boarding options and non-existent backdrops. I was glad that we did not have to stay there the night and we moved on to Drass.

Just before we reached Drass, we visited Operation Vijay, the war memorial set up to honour the soldiers that fought the tough war of Kargil in 1999 and some brave shaheed jawans and captains who gave up their lives at the border. Its strange how when you visit such locations, it sends chills down your spine and you instantly feel very patriotic and proud of such strong men guarding your nation. I got the same unexplainable feeling…wish I had it when I was sitting in the warm confines of my home and unassumingly watching the war on television.

We got an opportunity to visit a gallery of war memoirs and talk to some soldiers on duty. They were so staunch and brave even when they recollected the events of the war. I cheekily stole a glance towards one brave jawan and asked ‘aapko darr nahi lagta?’ to which he gave a broad reassuring smile and said ‘hum darr jayenge toh aap logon ka khayaal kaun rakhega!’ So true. We heard about their harsh winter postings at Siachen and Khardungla, their shelling experiences at mountain peaks and were rendered speechless by their will to win! :) Drass Memorial stood at a place where there was heavy shelling in 1999 and had Tololing, Tiger Hill and all important reclaimed LOC points to its left and right. Every hill you looked at around you, was recaptured and fought over. A touching song by Lataji, that kept coming back to me then, was ‘Ae mere watan ke logon…zara aakhon mein bhar lo paani, jo shaheed hue hai unki…zara yaad karo tum kahani.’ Moved me to tears. Outside the memorial, on the highway, we saw the sign ‘Beware. You are under enemy observation.’ But somehow, it did not shake us completely as we gave our final salute and bid farewell to the soldiers who protected our nation from these enemies. RESPECT. JAI JAWAN.

Day 10 (July 05 2010): So Drass was supposedly the second coldest inhabitated place in the world and the temperature had gone down to minus 60 degrees celcius on 9th January 1995! Somehow, having braced sterner weather conditions before, and the fact that it was summer 15 years later, we found Drass weather to be pretty tolerable ;-) Having missed the 9am one-way deadline to head towards Srinagar, we chilled and relaxed in ‘Kashmir ki vaadiyaan’ until lunch. Then came the most strenuous and difficult drives ever and hats off to our brilliant driver Santosh who carried an Innova full of 8 people and tonnes of luggage through the narrow one-way road of Zojila Pass. Probably the most dangerous drive in the world, there was rocky mountain on one side and deep valley on the other with little space for movement or mistake.

We saw the widely strewn Amarnath camp tents in the Zojila valley with 2 dedicated helicopters going to and fro to the Shiva Lingam for darshan. Sonmarg, the coniferous paradise, greeted us with open arms as we descended this Pass. Pretty little flowers of all colours – blue, pink, yellow, red, purple dotted the green landscape. There were thousands of roses and carnations, fresh aroma of dewey grass, cattle and sheep grazing and lazy good looking people with red chubby cheeks swarming up the place.

Flat tyre, limited petrol and fading sunlight spiced up our journey from Sonmarg to Srinagar. The night we arrived in the capital city of Kashmir, it was as quiet as a graveyard. The city was under curfew due to riots, which was a regular feature there. We made our way through half the town to reach Hotel Jehangir and drowned into our beds after eating what looked like food!

Day 11 (July 06 2010): Having an entire day to ourselves in Srinagar with many potential sight seeing spots made a topic of discussion the next morning. After realizing that the city will be under indefinite curfew since there was a lot of disturbance around Baramulla area, we had no choice but to give Gulmarg and Pahalgam a miss, since that was the only route to reach there. So we headed to Wular Lake, about 40 kms from Srinagar, very close to the Indo-Pak border.

On our way back, we took a very good decision of staying at Dal Lake in a houseboat. This was a childhood dream come true for me. We sat in a shikara and went towards our houseboat humming the Shammi Kapoor classic ‘Ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar…dil chahta hai…use chahne do…mujhe tumse mohobbat ho gayi hai…mujhe palko ki chaaon mein rehne do.’ A marvelous sunset in the horizon made our evening special and memorable. We were amazed to see how to lake was buzzing with activities and hawkers selling everything in shikaras right from food to flowers, chocolates to liquor!! As we sailed into the twilight and the day faded away into a star-filled night…away from the chaos and curfew of the city, we found serene abode in the midst of Dal Lake. The houseboat was very artistically furnished with royal beds, ornamental dressing rooms, fresh flower arrangements and home-cooked healthy meals.

Day 12 (July 07 2010): The day of my departure dawned so soon! I know, I know, all my readers think otherwise. (Gosh how can she ramble on for so long about a 12 day trip, you may think!) But that’s who I am, remember? The yapper…who loves yapping! J A lovely bright morning followed by some shopping in the Dal Lake market consumed most of my morning.
And then, before I knew it, it was time for goodbyes. Goodbye to the most awesome trip of my life. Goodbye to Srinagar. Goodbye to nature in abundance and sheer boundless beauty. Goodbye to the greenery, the mountains, the deserts, the lively water bodies. Goodbye to the paradise of India and the colours of Kashmir. Goodbye to my new bunch of friends who made the trip so happening and cool. And Goodbye to my dear friend who made it all happen. The journey back to Mumbai from Srinagar was pretty dull as I gulped down Kasatta icecream and Kitkat to get over my post holiday depression. But as I boarded the plane back home, I made up my mind to revisit it, some day, in some life. I think I left a part of myself there. :)