31st October 2019, 07:58
| #16 |
| BHPian  | Re: An adventure honeymoon: A 1500 km trip through the Himalayas! Day 11, 1st August 2019 Kargil to Sonamarg We were woken up in the morning to the sound of the river flowing! Yes it was incredibly loud, especially in the morning silence. Today was the last day of our ride and we were looking forward to it. Little did we know that this was going to be the best ride of the trip! We finished our packing soon and went out for a walk. The view of the town from our hotel room.  We had our breakfast by 8:30 PM. By 9:30, everyone gathered in front of the hotel to start. The mechanic had fixed our bike by then. Once the luggage was loaded into the D-Max, we set off. We crossed Kargil town, which was just starting to get busy for the day. We stopped for fuel at a bunk a few kms outside of town. There were orchards on the banks of the river. Fruits were growing aplenty. We now know that almost all of it has gone to waste. How sad!  Once everyone had topped up on petrol, we started off again.  We followed the Drass river for several kms. The river was in full flow and we could hear it over the thump-thump of the 500s!  Our first stop for the day was the Kargil War Memorial. It was around 50 kms from Kargil town. We faced more of these kids on the way. They would jump onto the road! We got splashed with water once again. I saw it and managed to duck. My wife wasn't so lucky! One guy from our convoy was hit hard on his arms by something. Someone even threw what seemed like a chappal at us. Nice!  Somewhere along the way. Golden fields all around us! Sona-Marg???  We reached the war memorial around 11:30 AM. The main entrance was pretty well guarded.  From the inside. Bullets were fired, blood was shed, and lives were lost at the very place we stand! #goosebumps  Some more pics.   A depiction of the legendary Battle of Tiger Hill.  Weapons captured from the slain enemy soldiers.  Pieces of mortar shells. And a monument made from captured enemy bullets.  Our tricolor, planted firmly in the hills, cemented to the ground by the blood of our warriors. A silent prayer to the countless souls who lay down their lives, perhaps at the very spot we stand!  We left the memorial around 1 PM. There was a canteen inside and we had some snacks, since we didn't want to stop anywhere else for lunch. On the way we crossed Dras village. Soon after Dras, we started the climb to Zoji La. It started to get cold with each hairpin. The marks left by the melting ice is visible on the hills.  More of the golden fields on the way. We stopped at several places for pics.  The route was incredibly beautiful! There were several small rivers crisscrossing all the way. No idea which is which.  On the way to Zoji La. The roads were mostly good, with some broken sections in between. Perhaps the roads got washed away from the water due to the melting ice. They did seem like dried out water crossings. Around 2 PM, we reached a check post. Perhaps this was the border between J&K and Ladakh regions, not too sure. We waited here for the convoy to catch up.  Greetings Earthlings! I come in peace!  Once the permits were checked, we started again. This time, the marshall told the others to go ahead and wait for the others at the pass. Almost everyone zoomed ahead. I had to take it slow as the roads had started to deteriorate.  Sandip and Neethu stayed with us.  Riding slow gave us the added benefit of being able to enjoy the phenomenal landscapes! Mountains, snow, ice, rivers all in one!  We started to approach the top of the pass. You can see the glaciers in between the hills. They were feeding the rivers below.  At the top, we found the rest of the convoy waiting. The marshall had caught up by then. He got info from some truckers that it was raining heavily ahead and the roads had become dangerously slippery.  We were there for more than an hour, waiting for our marshall to give us the go-ahead. There were a few shops nearby, and we had some hot tea and snacks. It was starting to rain here and was getting real cold, real fast.  Spotted several shepherds in the area. Looks like a regular grazing spot.  There was a big glacier on the river banks. There seemed to be several vehicles and tents there.  I climbed down the slopes a bit for a closer look. This is what I found! Several makeshift tents had been set up at the base of the glacier and people were having fun in the ice. Looking closer, we observed many snow mobiles as well. Those were for hire from a nearby tent. What can I say, make hay while the sun shines, I mean, rent snowmobiles while the ice still hasn't melted!  Our luggage truck. Words like well-built, rugged and sturdy don't do justice! She's as solid as the rocks she so easily climbs!  Day 11, continued... Last edited by GeneralJazz : 20th November 2019 at 08:24. |
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4th November 2019, 23:42
| #17 |
| BHPian | Re: An adventure honeymoon: A 1500 km trip through the Himalayas! Day 11, continued... By 3:30 PM, we started our descent from Zoji La. It was starting to get foggy and the roads were supper muddy and slippery.  There was a diversion on the way. Don't know whether the one we took was the main road or the other way around. The roads were incredibly slippery. Brakes were useless, even a slight tap would send the wheels skidding. Engine braking was the only way to slow down. At some places, even downshifting was causing the wheels to skid. It was a tough ride. A view of the Sindh river below. The valley was starting to be visible.  At the edge! Received an earful from my wife for this!  After Baltal, the hairpins ended and the roads straightened out. It was still very slippery though.  Soon we had completed our descent and were almost at the level of the river.  This was perhaps the most beautiful part of our journey. The location was truly breathtaking! The lush greens, the snow, the river, the glaciers! WOW!  Some more pics from the spot.  Trying out a Knight and Day pose!  Our steed. Solid, powerful, reliable. This thing is built for the mountains. Respect!  Once again, we noticed massive military movement here. We were starting to suspect something was off, but were too busy admiring the scene to give it any further thought. Several helicopters were flying around over here, based off the helipad nearby. Even though they were flying at our eye level, they looked tiny in front of the mountains!  Theres no mountain too high, or journey too long with you by my side!  We had stopped there for nearly an hour, taking all manner of pics, till we were satisfied with the results. By around 4:30 PM, we left the place. Sonamarg was around 45 mins from where we were and the roads had become great. We started to follow the Sind river, almost at its level. Our stay was at Divine Inn Hotel. We reached there around 5:30 PM. It is a wonderful hotel with a beautiful lawn and a great view of the river. This is where we would part ways with our bikes. We were to drop off the bikes here, which would be taken over by the next batch starting from Srinagar. We also bid farewell to our marshall, Wangdu. A truly nice guy. While this was the end of a once-in-a-lifetime journey for us, it was just another day at the office for him. He was to accompany the next batch all the way to Sarchu.  Goodbye Bullet! You served us flawlessly through this harsh terrain. I have phenomenal respect for this machine now. On the way, we had seen several broken down Pulsars and KTMs, some even with a broken front fork. But this tough girl really did conquer the Himalayas!  On our way through town, we had seen a few beautiful locations and we were eager to explore them. We quickly checked into our rooms. The rooms were excellent and had a fantastic view of the mountains!  The town was a couple of kms away from our hotel and it was a very pleasant walk. Again we noticed troop movement all over the place. Even then we didn't know what was happening.  Just before town, we found what seemed like a popular picnic spot. It was by the banks of the Sind river. The view from here was simply phenomenal!  It was a short walk to the river bank. All was good till we looked down at the ground!  Wherever we go, trash and garbage follows! We spent a lot of time there, till sunset actually. It was so beautiful and peaceful that we didn't want to leave!  We stayed there till around 7:30 PM, taking all manner of couple's pics, romantic poses and all. Meanwhile, Single Pasanga!  It was starting to get late and we had to make some last minute purchases from the town. Very reluctantly we left the place.  It was around 8:30 PM by the time we were done with our shopping. We slowly walked back to our hotel.  Back at the hotel, we had food and went to our rooms to finish packing. Our riding gear, all muddied, battered and bruised!  This was the last stay of our trip, which was arranged by our provider. We would be dropped at Srinagar the next morning by a van. We had dinner and retired to our rooms. We talked well into the night, about our journey and the tough situations we faced so far. The ride to Sonamarg and the little time we spent there was one of the best parts of our trip. We will definitely come here again, if and when these areas return to normalcy. We were able to watch news in our rooms and the massive troop movements throughout J&K were being reported now. All sorts of rumors were being thrown around. Enemy invasion, Indian invasion, terrorism, revolt, revolution and so on and so forth! Not wanting to get more tensed, we switched it off and turned in for the night. End of Day 11 Last edited by GeneralJazz : 20th November 2019 at 08:24. |
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6th November 2019, 23:19
| #18 |
| BHPian | Re: An adventure honeymoon: A 1500 km trip through the Himalayas! Day 12, 2nd August 2019 Sonamarg to Srinagar Our provider had arranged two vans to drop us at Srinagar. Since most of the group were planning to leave the same day, they agreed to drop us at the airport. Our flight back to Cochin was the next day, so we planned to get off somewhere in town. We had mixed feelings in the morning. On one hand we were glad that we would be returning home soon while on the other hand there was a bit of sadness that THE best journey of our lives was finally coming to an end. We bid farewell to each other over breakfast, with promises to stay in touch and so on. Soon we loaded our luggage into the vans and set off. There were around 12 of us in one van.  It was a 2.5 hour ride to Srinagar from Sonamarg. Since none of us had to return the same day, we talked to the driver about changing our plans. For some extra money, he agreed to take us on a tour through the town. We only had half a day and didn't want to spend time arguing with the local autos. The route was very beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed it all the way.  Somewhere on the way, while we were caught in traffic, we bought some fresh apples from a road side seller. They were delicious!  We entered Srinagar town around 10:30 AM. Got our first sight of the famous Dal Lake!  Our first stop was the Nishat Bagh, which was by the Dal Lake.  We had to take some entry ticket to get in. It was very beautiful inside. Well maintained and neat. Only thing that bothered us was the hawkers who were literally chasing us! Guys selling flower seeds, "authentic" Kashmiri spices, "super strong" saffron and so on! We had to pretend we didn't speak hindi to get away from them!  There is an elevated area with fountains and had a great view of the lake.  There was a stand where you can rent Kashmiri outfits and have your pics taken. They charge a bomb but we got a few pics nonetheless. Reminded me of an old Malayalam serial 'Alavudeente Albhutha Vilakku'   We left the garden by around 12:30 PM. The guy who took our pics told us to collect it from the market nearby.  Our van driver dropped us at a nearby hotel for lunch. Food was good and the ambiance was great.  After lunch, the rest of the group was tired and wanted to call it a day. They had booked rooms in a few houseboats and wanted to be dropped nearby. The van driver dropped us off at one of these 'Kahats' (docks? maybe). The local houseboats are called Shikaras and we can hire them for a tour of Dal Lake. They can be hired for 2, 4 or 6 hours. We chose the 2 hour package.  The rates were fixed by the govt, or so we were told. Anyway, it seemed reasonable.   This area of the lake was pretty crowded. On the left you can see the rows of residential houseboats.  World's only floating post office!  The far end of the lake. We were told by our guide that many sections of the lake will freeze in winter.  First time seeing something like this! Hawkers on boats will float close to you selling their wares. Everything from fruits to kebabs to clothes to jewellery.  We stopped for a bit at Nehru Park, which seemed to be a popular spot for movie shooting. A park in the middle of a lake? I don't get it!  It had a nice garden and a restaurant as well.  Our guide was now taking us to the Dal Lake market area. Spotted this on the way. We had nice Kahwa here, badams and saffron and all!  We entered the market area of the lake. An entire market, floating! Groceries, medicines, clothes, souvenirs! Everything on boats! This reminded me a lot of the Kuttanad/Kumarakom backwaters of Kerala, where each house was on an island and people kept boats in the garages!  Cultivation in the middle of the lake? I'm confused!  We stopped at a few of the floating shops to buy some shawls and stuff. The people there are extremely courteous and pleasant. One of the guys know Kerala very well. During winters, he would take his wares and sell them down south. Spoke a bit of Malayalam too!  Waiting for our boat to arrive. Once we got into the shop, he had gone somewhere to 'park'.  We stopped at a few more shops before our time was up. Our boatman was a pleasant guy and didn't mind us taking so long. He was even OK when our 2 hours were up and only gently reminded us of the same. Didn't even charge us anything extra. Just another day for the locals!  We slowly started back to the shore by around 4:30 PM. Had a long chat with our boatman, about his life and family. The hardships the people of this area have to go through, truly we are lucky!  Our van driver picked us up and took us to Lal Chowk, one of the shopping areas in Srinagar. Now this is where we started to get real worried. Police/military had covered the entire town. There was a fully armed soldier every 50m. On the roads, on the bridges, even on rooftops of buildings! We thought there was some imminent terrorist threat. Even our driver admitted that it was highly unusual. After we were done with the shopping, our driver agreed to drop us off at our hotel. We had booked rooms in Hotel Heritage Luxury, which was only a few kms from the airport.  Once we reached Hyderpora Flyover, it became clear that something serious was going on. There was complete gridlock on the streets. Roads we jammed, shops were being closed and people were hurrying about. Our driver was getting continuous calls all this time.  We reached our hotel by around 6 PM. Our flight from Sirnagar was at 7:30 AM. Our driver promised to pick us up by 6 AM. The hotel lobby was quite crowded and the manager seemed harried. He was very courteous though and checked us in soon.  The view from our room. The rooms were excellent and had satellite TV. This was when we finally realized what was happening. It was official, the state was under lockdown. All the news channels were repeating the same thing. Tourists were advised to leave the state asap. Flight operators were making arrangements for extra flights. The town would be completely shut for the next several days. Each news channel was telling a different story, from terrorist threat to alien invasion!  Our parents called us up and wanted us to move to the airport immediately. But we managed to convince them otherwise. We all sat together discussing the sequence of events. All along our journey we had witnessed massive troop movements and finally it dawned upon us that this was the reason. Sometime later, the hotel manager called us up and asked us if were planning to stay back in Srinagar. He had received instruction to advice all the tourists to leave the state. We went down to the lobby later at night and found it packed to the brim! Many tourists had to cancel their plans and needed a place to stay for the night. The hotel had closed its main gates and the tourists were staying in the lobby. Over and over again, it was being repeated asking the tourists to cancel their plans. We spent a sleepless night there, hoping things would be fine till the time we got to the airport. Selfish, yeah, but what else can I do? Sad part is that the hotel was so beautiful yet we were in no mood to enjoy it. End of Day 12 Last edited by GeneralJazz : 20th November 2019 at 08:23. |
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8th November 2019, 07:49
| #19 |
| BHPian | Re: An adventure honeymoon: A 1500 km trip through the Himalayas! Day 13, 3rd August 2019 Srinagar to Cochin We woke up early, by 4 AM or so, having managed to squeeze out a few hours of sleep. I called our van driver the moment we woke up. To our dismay, we told us that he couldn't make it to the hotel as the roads were blocked in his area! I was starting to panic now. The airport was 5 kms from our hotel and we had more than 30 kgs of luggage between us, so walking was out of the question. We quickly finished our packing and went to the lobby. There were people sleeping in the lobby. The manager informed us that some of then had already started walking. Those who left for the airport the previous night had to come back as they were not allowing passengers inside the airport until about 2 hours before the flight. We informed him about our predicament. The hotel didn't have a vehicle, but the guy was super helpful. He made a few calls and managed to convince a taxi driver to come pick us up. We thanked him profusely for his help. The taxi arrived by 6 AM and we left immediately. Took around 20 mins to reach. The roads was under complete army control, all the way to the airport. There were military trucks and armed vehicles all the way. Tourists were seen walking to the airport. It was chaos! We reached the airport by around 6:30 AM. There was a huge crowd outside. They weren't letting anyone in until 1 hour before their flight time. Everyone who had come early had to wait outside. Huge queues were forming outside the counters of the carriers. People were looking for tickets, trying to reschedule and so on. On top of it, it started raining!  By 7:30 AM, we were let in. The airport wasn't the neatest one we've seen. Birds and by corollary, feathers and poo were all over the place.  Once we had checked in our luggage, we went to the food court to have some breakfast. Most of the shops had long queues. The crew for the morning shift hadn't arrived yet and the night crew were understaffed. Somehow we managed to get something in time. There were birds even inside the food court!  By 8:20 AM, we started to board our aircraft. We had a connection flight with a stop over at Mumbai. We parted ways here at the airport. Neethu and Sandip were taking a flight to Trivandrum while Sooraj was taking one to Chennai. We hurriedly said goodbyes and went our separate ways. There wasn't any particular reason to prolong the good byes either. Our next major trip would involve Neethu and Sandip while I would be seeing Sooraj in office the next working day!  We heaved a huge sigh of relief once the flight took off. It was a 3 hour flight to Mumbai. Due to the lack of sleep the previous night and the stress and panic in the morning, we passed out in the flight, waking up only when we landed. There was a 6 hour layover at Mumbai and we spent the time there enjoying the airport. It is not humanely possible to get bored inside the Mumbai airport!   Boarded our next flight by 5:30 PM and finally landed at Cochin airport by around 7:30 PM. "Kochi ethi"  My in laws were waiting for us at the airport. We all heaved a very loud, very long sigh of relief as soon as we entered their Creta. At long last we were back home. It was truly a bittersweet moment for us. On one hand, our honey moon had come to an end and on the other, we reached safely after all the issues on our last day there. Reached home, had some dinner and passed out in bed! Conclusion 14 days, nearly 1500 kms, 2 states, 43 GB of pics and videos! This had been the toughest journey of my life so far. The cold, the altitude, the terrain. It was a hell of a trip. I won't be doing another Ladakh bike trip again, I don't think I can. I do want to go there again, next time in a 4x4 though. Given the political situation in J&K today, I think it will be a while before people can travel to Kargil and Sonamarg. The tour provider recently released their itinerary for their 2020 Ladakh trips and Kargil, Sonamarg and Srinagar have been left out. Those were perhaps the most beautiful parts of the journey. Now that I've settled back into my regular life, I've had a chance to re-evaluate my priorities. Have I become a biker? No! Has my passion for biking increased, even a little bit after this trip? No! Do I think that the Bullet is the next best thing to have happened to mankind since sliced bread? No! Would I ever pick a bike over a sedan? Aw Hell No!! I always was, and always will be, a 'sedan-ist'. I want to do another mountain trip soon, however my wife is more keen on a beach trip next. We did finalize a deal in the end. One mountain, one beach, one mountain, and so on. I do have plans for a Bhutan trip next year. So to uphold the agreement, a beach trip will have to be squeezed in before that! Also, theres a Thanjavur-Trichy trip planned sometime next month. I'll be writing a travelogue on it once thats done. Thanks for spending your time going through this. Until next time, this is Jazz signing off!  Last edited by GeneralJazz : 20th November 2019 at 08:23. |
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21st November 2019, 09:40
| #20 |
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21st November 2019, 12:43
| #21 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bombay
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21st November 2019, 15:33
| #22 |
| Newbie Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: Hyderabad
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21st November 2019, 16:30
| #23 |
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21st November 2019, 17:36
| #24 |
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21st November 2019, 22:00
| #25 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Mar 2019 Location: KL08/Bangalore
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| Re: An adventure honeymoon: 1500 km bike ride through the Himalayas! Wow! This one is a true immersive and engaging travelogue. Nice writeup, details and pictures. The way everything was laid down, I felt like I was on a virtual tour.  By the way, happy married life ahead. You truly had a unique and eventful honeymoon! |
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22nd November 2019, 15:59
| #26 |
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22nd November 2019, 19:18
| #27 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Palakkad/Coimbatore
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22nd November 2019, 20:34
| #28 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: cochin
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| Re: An adventure honeymoon: 1500 km bike ride through the Himalayas! I started reading your travelogue while having dinner. By the time the dinner plate was wiped clean i had only reached a quarter of the travelogue report. Needless to say my fingers have dried up bits of morsel and curries and yet i didnt feel like getting up to wash my hands. I was that immersed in your trip report. BTW I am terribly exhausted now. Not because your post was lengthy and laggy but because i lived and felt the trip the way you mentioned it even getting tensed about whether I ( not a typo, meant I itself ) would make it out of the airport admist all the last minute chaos.Kudos for the excellent posts and hope to see more such gems from you !!!! Ohh forgot .. Happy Married life Buddy !!! |
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22nd November 2019, 23:00
| #29 | ||||||||
| BHPian | Re: An adventure honeymoon: 1500 km bike ride through the Himalayas! Quote:
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 Thanks a lot rijo_tj for the kind words! That was my intention as well. Years from now, when I go through this page, I want to re-live this trip! | ||||||||
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28th November 2019, 12:42
| #30 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: DEL, SFO
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| Re: An adventure honeymoon: A 1500 km trip through the Himalayas! Quote:
That structure is the Signature Bridge. It opened last year and now work is going on to install a glass viewing platform on the top. Last edited by Lobogris : 28th November 2019 at 12:48. | |
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