Well Guys,
We are back (about a week ago) was very busy at office clearing 2weeks backlog and attending to some blocker bugs
So My story begins:
During my Ladakh trip couple of years ago on Bikes, I had promised myself to get my family to this pristine land and let them experience the Sheer Bliss first hand, thus began the planning of a trip.
Finally on 4th June 2010 the D-Day had come, we packed (almost half the house) till late at night, 2 of my cousins Raju & Rajesh, My brother Shiv & his wife were also at my place helping us pack all that we wanted to take along, We planned to take 10 pairs of dress for a 16 day trip, so each one had a Bag full of dress, that makes for 3 bags, 4th bag for Ready-to-eat MTR stuff + snacks + Biscuits + Sponge Cake etc ( I really missed these on my last trip), 5th bag for the Tent, 3 sleeping bags (thanks to Sumit & Prabhu for lending 2 bags to me) , an other 6th Bag for just the warm cloths, glows caps Sweaters & Thermals (for all 3 of us) and the last 7th Bag for A pair of Gum boots ( i know should have just bought it, but I had it with me & knew they were useful), Medical Kit, Kids medical kit, Rain coats , Warm jackets Car cigarette lighter to 220 Volts converter, Laptop, 2 Mobile chargers, 2 helmets & kids riding gear etc ....
We put all the in my car Matiz, the entire rear seat was FULL, we weighed the stuff & found it to be 85 kgs while its to be 75 kgs (25kg * 3 People) as checkin limits, later I reduced it as much as I can hope that Vaidee & His wife had less luggage & we could sneak in to their weight too ... cabin baggage is 8Kgs per person & Checkin baggage is 25Kgs, no bag to weight more than 30 or 32 kgs as the belts & people cannot safely handle it.
We boarded a waiting Easy cab & head to the airport, learn that Vaidee is in an other Taxi, the one in FRONT OF US .. what a timing then we synced up at the airport (Poor Tejas learnt just than that Vaidee is also coming to the Trip!!) checked in all the luggage, we were just above 125 Kgs 127 to be precise
, cleared the security check & on the way to our flight, had some quick Breakfast at BIAL, noticed lots of sparrows inside the airport, Tejas was All exited as he saw lots of flights & was the first time for him on a flight.
We had a nice meal in JetAirways, landed in Delhi & were taken from one flight to an other in a jet Airways Bus directly !!!, we landed in Srinagar in about an hours time & what a view while landing all snow capped mountains, Anu was all exited to see them So was I. After we collected the huge baggage list from the belt, we came out to see REGZIN the man of the Trip waiting for us, Gave us a big welcome Hug and put all the luggage in his Scorpio's rear, all the while the rear seats were folded to accommodate Luggage. We decided to have food first & then head tot eh house boat. we had woke up that day at 4:30 left home by 5:50, left BLR by 7:00 left Delhi by 11, were out of Srinagar airport by 12:45.
Stopped by a HDFC ATM, and as soon as I got in to the ATM room 4 other localities too jumped in alongside me & Vaidee, I guess it was cold & dreselling lightly out side, we were suspicious but didn't want to chase them out any ways, withdrew cash and were off. All the while we saw huge security on both sides of the roads, like from any point on the road you could see like 20 to 30 military guys, all armed to the teeth with automatic weapons & staring you in the eye. it was not a comfortable feel but had expedited something like it but not of this magnitude, every circle had Gypsy with Automatic weapons on it some with rocket launchers and stuff, you could see many different kins of guns, some were LMG's AK47's Chain guns, i cant name the others, besides feeling fear kind of started ling the ammunition & the ground clearance & armor of military vehicles soon seeing so-many guns all around felt like I should also get a couple of them
we reached Dal lake boliviard & didn't like the looks of the houseboat very much, they were very close to each other * Vaidee expected them to move around like in Kerala, we enquirer at many places for a South Indian restorant ( I am picky with food you see) and found Parimahal Hotel, food was quite good but the place was very untidy. had food & decided to stay in a hotel & not a houseboat as we didn't like the ambiance & felt that our mobility will be restricted & dependent on Shikaras, Poor Regzin had to cancel the arrangements made in the last minute ( I had not requested to Book one, only to check on them) & we stayed in Mallike Place, there was a suite with nice view available at 3500 INR ( 2 rooms one bath room) but by the time I was working with the reception for payment the other partyu just moved their luggage in to the rooms & the room was given to them, but me & Regin talked to the manager & he agreed to give a room that is listed as 2200 for 1500 to us so we got 2 adjacent rooms at 1500 each & moved in, got fresh & were out by like 5:30 PM.
That night we went on a shikara ride, the guy force fully took us shopping in to a floating market & we were back. charged us 460 Rs for 2 boats I think, The boat ride at night was very peaceful & silent, view of house boats at night was quite a sight. It got quite chilly bu the time we returned from the ride, it was bout 8:30 pm, sun set around 7:45 or 8:00 Pm & is up by 5:00 to 5:15 AM !!
Pics to follow