Getting Leh'd via Srinagar

Thanks to Vodafone I couldn't post my bits online as I traveled. And well it is best that I couldn't. I may have missed an amazing view or a breath of fresh air in the bargain. So am pasting the bits I had put down. Its a lengthy post but if you didn't have the time you wouldn't be here would you ? :P


1. Here we go again
2. Jammu
3. Srinagar
4. Gulmarg
5. Kargil
6. To Leh
7. In Leh
8. Pangong Tso
9. Khardung la

Here we go again
The last trip to Leh was via Manali so the next one has to be via Srinagar. Have been keeping a tab on the tix prices since April but they were too expensive.  Saw a sudden drop on Monday and booked the tix on 19th. A couple of others to join in. Himalayas here I come again.

Ok so there are *absolutely no* reservations in hand. All we have are the to and fro tickets. Nice!!

Jammu
So still no reservations and 2 OK landings by Spicejet we are now in Jammu. The initial plan was to spend a day here but frankly we had no clue as to what could be done here. As the plane taxied to the parking bay the pilot announced the outside temperature and the decision was made, we need to get out of here. 250rs by prepaid cab to the bus stand so Chucked it and walked outside for a rick. 150rs "fixed rate" by rick. Chucked that too. Saw an oncoming tempo and jumped in with the backpacks. 32rs ah finally in my budget ;) Couldn't fit into the seats but who needs that anyways.

Reached the stand and found that we can get to Srinagar in 8hrs by shared cab. Done but food first. Hogged down some amazing palak paneer and tried our best to bargain down the shared rates too. Got a discount of 100rs :( and took the only available Innova out of there.

As we rode through Jammu we could see it was a pretty big city. Definitely not my cup of tea. Good move to skip it.

As we rode along we reached bear Patnitop and found ourselves stuck in a huge traffic jam. Reason - the police were trying to control the Amarnath yatris. Crap didn't plan on this. So 7 hours later the jam is slowly being handled. Why can't we desis drive in a single file? Shoot the car that moves into the opposite lane I say.

Srinagar
After a couple of more stops which paled in comparison to the earlier jam we were finally Srinagar bound. So instead of reaching Srinagar by 10pm we reached there by 7am. Well who cares. Headed straight to the LP recommended hotel. Fuckers have raised their rates by nearly 300% in 5 years. Chucked them and took the cheaper one next door. Slept for a few hrs and then headed straight to Dal Lake. Frankly the first impression was not great. It was too crowded. The house boats are piled all along the boundary of the lake. Too many shikaras and too many people there too. What was i missing?

One shikara ride. That was what was needed. Once you get up close to the cool waters of Dal Lake you are in love. The cool waters and the friendly shikara-iers get you into the mood. The day just got better from there. The sunset is especially great out here... 
Check out those pics on picasa.

The khawa was delicious too. Thanks for the reco Alokey.

Another LP recommendation here "Shamayana" disappointed with the mutton being undercooked. Veg was ok. 

Vodafone does not have good connectivity here. Definitely no data connectivity. Thats great!

Gulmarg

We had allotted two days for Srinagar. Considering Pehlgam was all crowded up with the Amarnath yatris we decided to skip it. Gulmarg was the obvious choice to explore. Leaving out the annoyances of getting the tickets to the cable car ride, which are surprisingly called gondolas, we reached the peak 4200m... all snow capped peaks bordering with Pakistan. The steepness of the slope was crazy. Luckily the clouds view for most of the time. Once it opened up it was as scary as staring down from the roof of a sky rise in NY. Check out those pics on picasa.

Blogged on my way here... the last of the data connectivity :)

Tip: do bookings for the cable cars online @ http://www.gulmarggondola.com/

Kargil

The whole idea of the trip was to head out to Leh from Srinagar... via Kargil and explore the route along the way. Well Srinagar to Kargil is pretty with just Sonmarg on the way so picked a shared cab again and decided to bunk at Kargil. Hell even if we didn't decided that we would have hard to. The roads were closed on us due to construction from 11am right up to 4pm leaving little time to travel. Guess what we had to actually clear the path ourselves and threw quite a few rocks over :)

We landed out at the j&k tourist hotel in Kargil only to decide to skip it for lack of hot water. For some reason the local here showed us the worst rooms in the house while there seemed to be better

Did I mention that I am in slippers up to this point. My freaking woodlands disintegrated... didn't store them well since my previous trip I guess. Got a pair of Chinese shoes at Kargil. Will defn need it in Leh.

To Leh

Wanting to explore the route from Kargil to Leh we we wanted to hire a car for ourselves. Now here comes in the desi irritation. The Leh and Jammu taxi unions are at odds and they don't allow each other to do "sightseeing" for tourists in the other's territories. God when will these unions let us be?

Regardless we found a good cabbie for the ride to Leh. He showed us around in Kargil and off we went. Lamayaru, moonscapes, mulbekh and khatse were covered and we reached Leh at around 8pm. No reservation here too. Tried calling up the LP recommendations again to find out that they have raised their rates by more than 300% here too. LP please chuck India off the list of bargain travel destinations.

Thanks to the cabbie we got a decent room on old road for a good rate. Sleepyyy.

In Leh

Exploring Leh today. Headed to the palace and then saw a senior woman trekking up to the monastery above. Male ego took over and we followed her. Phew we made it. Climbed up to the temple above and got some awesome pics from there too. 
Check picasa for those.

Pangong Tso

While I have been to Pangong on my last visit here I just couldn't get the image of the night sky out of my head. I could enjoy that sight a thousand times over. We booked a cab to Pangong and got a Japanese couple to share the ride with us. All of us wanted to stay there but didn't bother with advance reservations. We reached there by 2 and managed to strike a deal for the tents. 

The moon was a couple of days away from a full moon. Pretty bright. The night came and so did the stars. The sight was pretty but paled in comparison to what we saw the last time we were here. Gaurav+Atibi we were lucky as hell. On this trip I've already experienced more traffic jams than ever before and a flat too :(

Some pics at picasa

Have some panoramas of this place which turned out pretty great and no I ain't sharing those :P. 

Khardung la

So now we had the last day to ourselves. Khardugla was on the cards. But I frankly ain't interested. Who wants to see a pass all over again? Then our buddy finds out that people cycle down from the pass. I joined in at the last moment and the ride rattled each and every part of me. 
See details in this post.


What next? The next trip would be a trek to Stok Kangri. Crossing 20kft would be a good badge to earn.

Well Kerala may be God's own country but J&K is his very special holiday retreat. And we all know where he'd rather be ;)

So was it a good vacation? 
Hmmm... still trying to remember my office password.. have till Monday ;) 

2012 - Getting Leh'd all over

2010 - Just got Leh'ed

Vacation's (carbon) footprint...

The one thing that pisses me off the most is our blatant disrespect for our environment. Over the past few years I have been consciously trying down to cut down on my carbon footprint during my travel. Here are some tips for you. Try it.. 


1. Carry your own water bottle and Refill it. Atleast restrict the number of bottles to one a person. This is very much possible.
Locals are drinking local water and not from mineral bottles and are living a much more healthier life. Use your common sense and refill your water from the appropriate sources. 
2. Don't litter. Dont throw stuff out of your car window. Chocolate wrappers, chips packets and now the great "mineral" water bottle. The general rule is that you do not throw non-biodegradable stuff on the roads. But considering there are so many of us I feel  that even biodegradable stuff should be disposed off at the nearest dumpster.
Seeing people throwing stuff out of high end SUVs bugs me to death. WTF didnt you get a basic education before getting the keys?
3. Don't be loud. Come on blasting your music in the middle of the mountains? Let the birds enjoy their peace. And if you dont realize it the loud music can actually cause an avalanche. Keep it low.
4. Don't pee just anywhere. This is purely for the guys. I know that nature calls can be brutal but please use better judgement.
Have a look at the women who do not have this option at all. If they can wait for a toilet you sure can hold it too.


We did try to be good eco citizens during our recent trip to Leh and were largely succeeded thanks to those with me. I look foward to a carbon neutral trip soon. Yes it is very much possible.. have some ideas lets see if that day arrives. 


It feels so good to know that you left the place just as you found it. Try it sometime.

You know you've had a great vacation if ....

01. You have an early flight to start your vacation
        And you actually wake up before the alarm rings.
02. You reach your destination and end up in a hotel room with none of the features matching those shown during the booking online. 
        And you are still fine with it because you find the view to be awesome.
03. You are starving enter the restaurant and see something you've never heard of on the menu. 
        And you order it.
04. After you place the order you realize the place is filled with loud obnoxious people who remind you of your relatives or the boss at work. 
        And you still can't get yourself to leave because your legs are too sore from exploring the town. 
05. You soon realize you are among complete strangers. 
        And that makes you realize that you have finally broken out of your "routine".
06. Next day you land up in a place that gives you a deeper understanding of what "my b@#$ are frozen" means. 
        And you still have a grin on your face that evening because you have some Old Monk in your hand and find yourself sitting under the best freaking show of stars you've ever seen.
07. You find out about an interesting destination on your way that you've never heard of
        And you decide to spend a day there as well
08. You have no reservations at the new destination. 
        And you couldn't care less because you somehow know it will be worth it.
09. You want to make a call back home to tell about the change in plans but see you have no network connectivity. 
        And over the next few days you realize life works fine without phone calls,  Facebook, email and hell even gMaps!.
10. You wake up at 6am. 
        And that too for a trek!
11. Now you find that you have missed packing the charger to your camera. 
        And you dont freak out because you know you are going to experience it first hand.
12. On your trek you find a beaten down path alongside the designated route. 
        And you ditch the designated route.
13. You reach the summit of your trek with your buddies by your side
        And none of you say a word for the next hour as stare into the horizon.
14. At some point during the trip you cant seem to figure out which day it is. 
        And you don't care either. 
15. You reach home and find that you have eaten Maggi 50% of the time
        And you cook Maggi again at home too.
16. You are having your Maggi
        And realize that you left your holiday destination the same way you found it. No litter and no plastics!
17. Next you call up your girlfriend. 
        And 5min into the call you realize you are speaking to your ex.
18. You reach back at work. 
        And you realize you can't recall your log in credentials.
19. You get your credentials reset
       And you have to spend the rest of the day answering emails.
20. You start work 
       But still cant stop bragging about your vacation ;)


Cheers!

Moov or Iodex?

My decisions taken on impulse seldom let me down. I've already been to Khardungla the last time I was here so visiting the pass again wasn't really on my to do list. For those that don't know Khardungla is at 18300ft while Leh resides at around 11300ft. So if I had to visit the pass it had to be done different. So thanks to a pal I registered for bicycle ride from Khardungla to Leh an hour before the troupe was scheduled to leave. 1 American, 2 Brits, 1 Spaniard and the 2 Indians signed up. A mini Tour de France en Inde was on the cards. Riding up the ~40km we were getting and idea about how crappy the road was and the gradient was pretty scary. Regardless we reached the pass, downed some maggi and got on the bikes.

Fuckinggg shit! What was I doing?

Haven't ridden a bike since ages and didn't come prepared with the right gear either. But now it was too late. The women in the troupe started peddling and I just couldn't back out now. I swear i felt someone pushing me... or maybe that what they call male ego ... hmmm let me get back on that one.

The first few kms were just slushy. I got wet mud all over me and my shoes got drenched too. But hey I was getting the hang of this. Slowly I remembered how to ride the damn thing and avoid the sharp stinging pain up my ass when it went over those rocks. The last 10 odd kms were the best roads and the bike zipped through the breeze as if I were a part of the peleton. The guess here is it would be moving at a speed of 40-45kmph. No proof but hell I'll punch you if you disagree.

I reached the city in 1:45mins with a 10min stop at south kullu waiting for the 3 behind me. The front 2 were too good to even spot after the first km. No yellow jersey for me.. but who cares I survived. All said and done I live to brag another day.

But the big question now is moov or iodex pour la derrière? ;)

Reaching Kashmir...

Kashmir has always been a dream destination for many of our generation. The fact that some of our elder siblings and friends have enjoyed their holidays trips in some of the most pristine slopes of the world has been an itching point of many a conversation. Regardless of how well you may have travelled you just loose the contest when your friend claims to have been in the shikaras on Dal Lake or skied at Gulmarg or similar. Unfortunately things in this part of our country have not been that conducive to us travelers either. The tales of unrest and violence have etched an everlasting feeling of fear leading to a practice of seemingly overzealous caution, if not by oneself then by some member of the family. End result always being in the  trips to J&K being perpetually postponed.

But no more. I have finally reached Srinagar and as I explore this part of my country I just realized that as I reach the next one of these peaks I have also finally conquered that fear I harbored somewhere within myself about visiting here. Now it's your turn.

Leh chalein ?

The mountains have called and I most certainly cannot ignore that. It has been nearly 2 years since I visited Leh. That trip was awesome and I have waited to head back there again. To keep things a bit different I am heading to Leh via Srinagar this time. I cant wait to visit J&K and soak in one of the most beautiful places on earth. 


Toh Leh Chalein?

Hindsight 20-20

Just felt the pinch on writing off an investment made over a period of a year. 
Lessons learnt? To be more impulsive I guess or maybe the lesson is ... Shit Happens! Wipe it off and move on...

SCMM 2012