Travelling for me is more than a hobby, its an obsession to know more and more about this beautiful world, make new friend with beautiful people and most important share the details so that others too can see what you experienced. I like to give tips on areas that makes the next person more meaningful and try to ensure that he / she doesn’t waste time or utilises time in the best possible manner. For example is the hop-on-hop-off bus is not the most effective way to go through a city, and hiring a cab is a better way to see things - well tell the crowd! Let them know! I also focus on the smaller things related to travel - for example, if a hotel has an advantage from an angle not related to the hotel per se , but related to maybe the proximity of the hotel to places or easy commute to the city etc. I try to pass it on. At the end of it all, helping others just by sharing is a wonderful exercise by itself. One of my stories describing a road-trips to Leh Ladakh in the Himalayas has helped many of my friends and acquaintances to do the road trip and all of them have thanked me for the story. I am reproducing the same as an example of how people can be helped by narrations having a content which is very much useful to them:-
Delhi – Manali – Leh – Kargil – Sonmarg – Srinagar – Anantnag – Jammu – Delhi round-trip by road . .
Day 1: It was the 5th of September 2016, a bright sunny day – when Shailesh drove his Renault_Duster from Jaipur, 220 Kms away, to my house in Gurgaon. Inside the car was my friend Simba, a two-years-old Labrador, full of energy and rotating clumsily inside the car to find the right angle to hug me and lick my face. It took quite some time for me to pat him and calm him down. While planning this dream-trip by road from Delhi all the way round via Manali – Leh – Srinagar – and back to Delhi, finding out a Kennel in Delhi/ Gurgaon for Simba was top priority, and finally I zeroed in on one which was basically a large farm-house on the outskirts of Gurgaon – and which had a good collection of dogs and the upkeep seemed to be friendly and professional. I had my bag packed and it didn’t take long to get into the car and head towards Simba’s new home. We were all exited for the days ahead, and so was Sibma!
Our target night-stay for the first night was in Chandigarh. We reached our hotel in Chandigarh and went off to sleep after a quick dinner.
Day 2: Next day, we checked out early and had breakfast in Chandigarh and we had the first glimpse of the Himalayas just around noon and after a lunch near the Bhuntar airport, and then headed for Manali. The beas river was fascinating and went alongside the road to Manali. I took us some patience to find the way to our Hotel and we had a hot shower after we checked-in.
Day 3: We got the car washed and serviced the next day, ready to start our trip, and relaxed the whole time.
Day 4: Clear blue sky and the traffic getting thinner as we moved away from Manali towards Rohtang pass (13058 FSL), elevated our moods. The landscape changed gradually as we climbed up the winding roads and the tropical deciduous forests gave way for tall pine trees and that too got thinner as we approached the pass. As it was September, almost all the snow had melted away at the top of the Rohtang pass, and the area looked like an undulating field with rocks strewn in the entire area. Till March/ April, this pass needs to be cleared of ice and snow by the Border roads organisation (BRO) and sometimes by the military too. Shailesh took out his new Cannon with a special tele-lens and practised some long shots with the camera on the tripod. Finally, after hanging around for an hour, we hit the road again – only vehicles with special passes to Leh were allowed – and few had those, so we had the road almost to ourselves except for a few trucks and cars, and a couple of motor-cycle gangs on their Bullets and Harley Davidsons. The roads got rougher and rougher and we focused more on the driving than on the scenery, till we got used to it. We had a few stops, took pictures, listened to songs and thoroughly enjoyed the journey with breath taking beauty spoiling us. We took turns to drive and anytime one felt tired or exhausted was replaced happily by the other, as driving was also a pleasure here. Stops were taken “anytime” one person said so. That’s luxury and that was the real fun.
After two hours of driving from Rohtang, the skyline was not having a single tree – and barren hills of various shades and colours like brown / grey / dark slate / faun / black were mesmerising us - with the metal road turning and twisting endlessly like a snake, and a different scenery with every turn is something only nature can give us. Unbelievable beauty left us spellbound. The music stopped and we just kept on savouring the scenery every minute – so much so that we almost forgot lunch. Lunch was a surprise again with Kamrup dhaba in Koksar serving us hot steamed rice with mutton curry. It tasted superb and didn’t take time too as it was ready to be served. Our target night stay was Jispa, and there wasn’t any choice either as there was nothing between here and Darcha. We reached there just before sunset and after looking at a few hotels, decided to stay in Camps on the dry river-bed. We had the cell phone number of the owner of Jispa Camp resorts, from a helpful driver in Manali, and the owner welcomed us with two neatly furnished camps with attached washrooms and hot-water. The series of camps against the backdrop of snow-covered mountains and a fast-flowing river, was a fantastic experience, and as it happens we took an oath to come again here and stay for a week – piped dreams ofcourse, and we knew it was so. After dinner, we went towards the river as it was an almost full-moon night and we could clearly see the glittering shine of the water as it hit the boulders and rocks. It was pretty cold and we returned shivering landing straight under the blanket.
Day 5: After breakfast we started to cover one of the longest stretches all the way to Leh, 335 Kms away – which should take us around ten hours without breaks. Ours was the first car to leave the camp that morning. Lesser stops – we reminded each other – but we soon forgot what we had promised. Darcha was just 10kms from the camp, and although warned, we missed the only gas-station on the way and had to return back for it, and in doing so lost more than half an hour. Then started the mesmerising sceneries straight out of a sci-fy movie. Tso Kar (Lake=Tso), a large blue lake in the middle of nowhere, moon-scaped mountains of different colours and above all the absolutely clear sky and the clear air, a luxury for people staying in the crowded plains. Some short stops just for the camera clicks and a leak was all we could afford. We crossed one more landmark on the Manali-Leh NH-3, Baralocha La pass, some 55 Kms from our camp at a height of 16,043 FSL. The road conditions improved and as we covered ground we realised that lunch had to be skipped to have some cushion for any contingency. Finally – when we couldn’t hold anymore we stopped for a fast and simple vegetarian something – and continued on our way. We were travelling with the sun-rays directly hitting us on the front seat the entire afternoon – and we later on realised that dark shades with UV protection wasn’t a luxury and is a must to avoid the glare hitting the eyes. I had one but Shailesh had his usual lenses. Soon we could feel the chill as the sun gradually set on the horizon – the yellow glow on the sky continued for more than an hour or so with light-and-shade playing a wonderful game depending on our location and the surrounding hills, until it became dark. The quietness in the cabin and the darkness outside, with Leh around 90 Kms away still, hit our nerves – and we stopped in a café for tea/ coffee and a short break to get over it. We had late night dinner with leftovers or whatever was available in the hotel’s restaurant.
Day 6: We planned to go to Pangong Lake that day, which is about 150Kms from Leh via Chang La pass at a height of 17,589 FSL, which was midway from Leh. The trip to Pangong lake started a little late and the road was tricky after we left the main highway, as signages were absent and at critical junctions we had to wait for some other vehicle to come and bail us out. This happened two to three times, but soon we arrived in Chang la pass and had Maggie-noodles with eggs in a road side shack, followed by tea. As we approached the lake and could see it from quite a distance, it turned out to be a simply zapping site. The size of the lake is awesome and seemed to be endless. The pristine blue water and the serene environment with huge coloured mountains in the backdrop was unbelievable and seemed untrue. We had pakoda on the way back in a road-side dhaba with chai, and we were back in the hotel by 3pm. Later, we went out for dinner at around 8pm in a typical Kashmiri restaurant which served very good meat.The mutton rogan-josh and butter-nan tasted really delicious, and so did the firni.
Day 7: This day was reserved for a special item – the first of our Bucket-list! We would go for a fast-water rafting grade 3 in the Zanskar river. We were taken first to the depot which had the inflatable motor boats and all the gears for the passengers, and then went past the sangam (meeting point) of Zanskar and Indus river, upstream of Zanskar for 5 kms approx. Pretty scary and countered by loud screams by all (as if it would save us) only to find that there was competition from another boat! It was real fun – we finally reached our destination in less than an hour. We went back to the hotel, reaching around 3pm.
Day 8: We checked out of the hotel and dumped all the luggage in the car immediately after breakfast. Filled up gas and left for the highway at the highest altitude in the world, that’s Khardung la pass at 18,380 feet. Leaving the Leh town from the market area, a narrow lane connected to the highway through a village, and only after we made the first 25/ 30 kms did we feel that we are on our way to Khardungla pass. The road was metalled but needed urgent repair, especially as we climbed up. The pass was about 40 Kms from Leh and the sand dunes of Hunder was around 120 Kms further. We were pretty confident that we would make it by 2pm and have lunch at Hunder. But this 120 Kms is no ordinary 120 Kms and with only a fifteen minutes stop on the pass, we finally reached Hunder at 6pm, an hour or so left for the sun to set. Lunch on the go was basically “daal-bhat” but was very delicious. The entire route had sceneries similar to ones we had encountered before, but the scale of the mountains, the winding mountain roads at a height where even breathing was difficult, and where every crossing of vehicle was risky made the driver concentrate fully on the road and maintaining quietness inside the car was an unwritten rule. Just after the pass, Border roads Organization people were literally making a heap of freshly fallen boulders and stone of a land-slide – into a road. On both sides, the traffic was halted and we had to wait for half an hour, before the job was completed. The small bulldozer seemed to be on the brink of falling down at the edge of the road, but the operator seemed unperturbed as this must have been routine work for him. By this time the traffic accumulated was maybe 50 to 70 vehicles on either side – and “traffic management” by BRO ensured a smooth process after the road was repaired. At the end of the day, we observed these BRO workmen going back to their tents and cooking their own meals – tough life and must be tougher in winters.
At Hunder, there was a huge parking lot for cars and buses, and after parking - there was a two kilometre trek to the spot where the camel rides were available. When reaching Hunder, the last 10 or so kilometres was an amazing site of large stretches of sand dunes patterned with the wind with very high snow-capped mountains in the backdrop. The desert and the mountains – an unusual partner an unusual site which cannot be described in words. It just reminds you of the power of nature and no wonder it draws such a large number of tourists even at the fag-end of the season.
We decided not to go for the camel ride, but watched the process of tourists getting on the animals with the invariable screams by the ladies as it rose from a sitting position, and the camels going in a single file all the way towards the mountains and back over the sand dunes, the whole trip taking an hour approximately. Hunder, which falls on the historic Silk Route, used to be a busy trade stopover with caravans of Bactrian camels moving in and out of the Nubra Valley. These camels have two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped Dromedary camels and are smaller in size too. It took the sunset for all the tourists to move out of the area and that too after it was really dark enough.
Engrossed in the beauty we forgot to book anything for the night stay, and this took us time as mobile connectivity was very poor. We however found a bed-and-breakfast joint in a middle of a large farming area. We checked in and then went a few kilometres back to have our dinner and returned back by 9pm. The two-storied building was simple but had all it required for a hot bath and a sound sleep.
Day 9: We had planned to return by the Kargil-Sonmarg-Srinagar route and decided it would be the longest leg of our journey, since the target destination of Sonmarg was around 330 Kms from Leh (450 Kms from Hunder) with Kargil coming midway which was about 200 Kms from Leh. The other alternative was to have a night-stay in Kargil and travel to Sonmarg the next day, which we didn’t opt for.
Early breakfast and an early start was possible because of the Hotel people and we reached Leh at around 1pm. But Sailesh had an idea; there was a lovely restaurant in Leh by the name of Bon-appetite, which we got to know from an Expat who was also doing the white-water-rafting in Zanskar, and although we knew we would lose some time here, it was too tempting and we took the risk. The food was excellent with freshly baked bread, rich cheesy pasta some beer to wash it down. It shaved off an hour from our tight schedule, but it was definitely worth it - and soon after we set off to Kargil, filling up gas before we hit the highway NH 1D (Srinagar Leh). The road was excellent and the view breath-taking – with the Indus river following us for half the way to Kargil before it deserted us. Leh to Kargil was a four-hour ride as per google and we reached Kargil at 7pm. We packed dinner in a hotel on the way with the Ramadan fast breaking time they were all crowded and bustling with activity – and then set off for the rest of the journey to Sonmarg. We were mentally calculating that another 123 Kms would take us three hours if not for the Zoji La pass (11, 570 FSL), about 98 Kms from Kargil. Only few patches of the pass had very bad road – and the rest was “No road at all”. A very scary ride especially at night and we were lucky not to have a broken-down car or a flat while crossing it. While crossing the pass, we had company of just one more car going along with us. We reached Sonmarg around 12 midnight and we somehow woke up the staff of a Hotel on the highway, and he was kind enough to open rooms for us at that hour. Relieved, we found time for a quick shot of whiskey and had the food we got packed in Kargil for dinner. The tandoori roti was cold and was like rubber – and the dal was chilled, but getting it heated up was simply not possible, having just enough so as not to wake us up early morning, as we had planned a lazy first half the next day and relax.
Day 10: There was a river just behind the hotel and we could see a large flock of animals, mostly sheep, grazing there. We also got a rare insight into the lives of the nomadic Bakarwal tribes of Kashmir. The herder families, which number around 1,00,000 men, women and children, travel between the Jammu’s Himalayan mountains and the meadows of Kashmir every year with their flocks of cattle, horses, goats and sheep. Every year, just as the winter snows begin to melt in April, the community begins their journey with their livestock back to the alpine pastures for grazing during the summer, before returning in September as the weather worsens. We then went walking - following a trail to go as far as possible in the valley to find a tea stall that sells Kashmiri tea – Kahwa (a traditional green tea prepared with exotic herbs including cardamom, almonds, cinnamon and cloves). We had Kahwa and came back all the way to the hotel. There we checked out and started our way back targeting Jammu from Sonmarg, that’s about 367 Kms and quite an ambitious plan considering the fact that we had a little more than half a day left.
We started off on a deserted highway at the maximum speed possible – for we must cross Anantnag, the last baston of the stone-throwers before sunset. No stops, no tea breaks just frequent reading of the kilometres left, the time left and keeping a watch on the roads for any unusual signs. It was a real pity that we passed the entire Dal lake but didn’t or rather couldn’t make a single stop. Shailesh took over the wheels as I was unable to drive fast enough and we did finally cross Anantnag by 6:30pm, and we again reached Jammu very late at around 11pm, and then finally checked into a hotel that we had booked online.
Day 11:- After breakfast with alu-paratha (stuffed bread with mashed potato & shallow fried) and pickle, in fact it was more of a brunch. We started late after arranging a manual washing and cleaning of the car. The last lap – especially after we left the Himalayas – brings a melancholy that I face everytime I return after visiting the mountains. The highway from Jammu to Delhi is excellent and we did one stop for a quick lunch in a mall near Ambala, some 200 Kms before Delhi and another one for tea – entering Delhi at around 8pm.
Little did we expect this fabulous trip to end so suddenly leaving a sudden vacuum like atmosphere – an anticlimax. The urgency, the value for time, the endless roads, the search for hotels and food, the fun and frolic all vanished and time stood stand-still, making us speechless - surrounding us with emptiness
