Such a Long Journey

It has been almost ten days since I returned from my trip to Ladakh and I have still not posted anything about my travel. Since several of my fans have expressed they could not wait any longer I am forced to write in short bursts whenever I find time. (Some may wonder what is it that keeps me that busy, but we would not get into that now)

We left Bangalore on June 13^th 2200 hours and reached Alchi (a monastery 60 kms to the west of Leh on the Srinagar-Leh highway) on June 19^th 15 hours. It was a 137-hour journey, I am sure Armstrong’s journey to the moon was much shorter but I am equally sure that the scenery on the way must have been no more spectacular.

June 13^th – 2200 Boarded Sampark Kranthi express leaving Bangalore from the Yeshwantpur station, a long commute by auto-rickshaw

June 14^th – The train journey was to be utilized studiously by pouring over philosophy, sociology and psychology of education. Instead concentrated on the food that was packed for the journey, which spoilt by the afternoon. So, fretted and worried about the next meal after each meal. As Douglas Adams aptly put it, the best way to deal with an uncomfortable situation is to frown a lot and go to sleep. So did a lot of both.

June 15^th – Reached Dalli in the morning. Had a bath and ate lunch at Arati’s (my traveling partner) sister’s place. I packed and unpacked my backpack so many times that we barely made it to the New Delhi station in time to catch Shalimar Express (4645). We were running with our heavy backpacks on the pedestrian over bridge and realized that the staircase to our platform was closed. We got off at the next one and got down on the tracks with all its muck and clambered up again to reach the train (yikes). Don’t get enamored by its name, Shalimar is a cattle-cart. It was one hell of a journey in that train packed like sardines with 8 other broad-shouldered jawans all heading to the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir. All 10 of us in our compartment were either from Karnataka or Tamil Nadu, so I read Junior Vikatan on the way from Delhi to Jammu. It was sad to see so many young lives (all were in their early 20s) wasted in a totally unnecessary ‘conflict’. May be if both our countries should have conscription and when every family sends it young ones to the front sense and hence peace would prevail.

June 16^th – Reached Jammu bright and early at 1000 hours. The scheduled arrival was 0530 but no one other than us was surprised a bit. We missed the buses to Srinagar and so had to share a Sumo with 5 others to Srinagar. 4 of them were again army folks and the driver, Salim, was a spirited Kashmiri. The faujis were tense about the late start and wanted to reach the valley before dark. Salim could sense their unease and did everything possible to slow the journey. Thanks to him we had a fantastic rajma-chawal lunch in a relaxed pace. The road trip was great with nice views and was littered with vehicles that had missed the road altogether and plunged into the gorges and ravines. We got furthered delayed when the road was closed briefly to pick up one such wrecked car.

A wrecked car extricated and as always it is a good tamasha for everyone

By the time we reached Srinagar it was 2100 hours. We were politely informed in the bus station that 17^th being a Sunday there were no buses to Leh since they did blasting on the highway. Sounded as if India and Pakistan armies worked only on Sunday and did some uninterested shelling of each other’s territories on that day. My travel partner was slowly getting to know me better, especially my planning capabilities. So we had a day to chill-out in Srinagar.

June 17^th – A houseboat sounded appropriate for the night stay but it was just a shack. The only nice part was the morning spent in the verandah viewing the Dal (pronounced as dull) Lake and the vendors in their shikaras peddling their wares. I surprised myself and bought jewelry from one of them.

Buying jewelry on the houseboat verandah

We had enough of the boat when I heard obnoxious splashes when the bathroom was getting used. The sewage goes right into the lake from all the houseboats. So we decided that we would move to a guesthouse and at least the sewage is then centralized and if we are of an optimistic bent of mind we can even think that it would be treated before getting released in the Jhelum. The owner of the houseboat had sent his daughter in shikara to paddle us out and it was a very dreamy Kashmiri sequence, a pretty Kashmiri girl paddling the boat with me sitting on it. She was chitchatting in a friendly manner but the dream was rudely brought to an end when she asked “uncle, aap kahan se aaye ho”? It must have been my white stubble, so I promptly shaved that night.

Definitely not dull in any way

We did the usual rounds of Srinagar, the Mughal gardens, Hazratbal mosque and Jamia Masjid. The Jamia Masjid is a must see. Unusual for a mosque, it is constructed of wood with full cedar trees acting as columns.

Jamia Masjid, Srinagar - A differently shaped mosque with cedar columns

We finished the day with a fantastic Kashmiri dinner at Adhoos. There was a korma made out of lotus stems that was very unique and very tasty. Though there were a crazy amount of army men all over, Srinagar seemed reasonable safe. The town was very active though the touts are aggressive and annoying. We booked tickets on a Semi-luxury bus to Leh and settled into a guesthouse overlooking Jhelum for the night.

A Kashmiri family at the mosque, when shown the picture she said "behathareen". Urdu is so much more poetic than Hindi, "accha" sounds so flat.

The next post would be on our bus journey from Srinagar to Leh. Till then...