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Good... now it's time for the real show

Hooked and awaiting for update...

This blog is been written by wife - Anuradha and Me.

Preparation:

Gear – Helmets, protective jackets, woolen gloves, riding gloves, knee guards, raincoats, gumboots, thermal wear, woolen socks, sunglasses, saddle bag, tank bag

Bike Spares – Clutch cable, clutch liver, tyre tubes, headlight bulb, bike servicing

Foodstuff – Dry fruits, energy drink, oral rehydration solution

Medicines – AMS tablet (Diamox), Moov spray, general medicines for cold, cough, pain etc.

Bike insurance and other important documents

Digital Camera, DSLR Camera, lens and an extra SD card

Bikes: Royal Enfield Classic 350: Sanjay and Anuradha Wadhwani
Bajaj Pulsar 220: Aniruddha Kulkarni
Yamaha Fazer 150: Sumit Burman

Plan (expect changes as you read ): Day 1 coming soon

Day 1: Pune – Mumbai – en route Jammu

2.30 am on Friday, June 20, 2012…

We’re half awake waiting for the alarm to go off at 2.00am, which it eventually does. A mere formality , it is turned off at the first beep. After all, when the morning of your most exciting journey dawns, you need no alarm clock to wake you up…you already are in a dream! In our case, this journey was to the surrealistic Ladakh region.
A quick shower, a cup of coffee and checking the locks of doors and windows is what keeps us busy over the next half an hour.
At 2:30 am we get a call from our fellow traveler Aniruddha saying he’s in the cab and is reaching our home in the next few minutes. We assemble our bags and wait in anticipation…luckily the wait isn’t too long. The cab arrives and Sanjay and I (Anuradha) hop on, all set to pick up Sumit—the fourth member of our group. Another half an hour passes and our cab is cruising down the Pune-Mumbai expressway, all set to drive us at the Bandra Terminus. That’s where we are to board the Swaraj Express that will take us to Jammu.

About three hours later we’re seated in the train, accompanied by a middle-aged group of Amarnath yatris who are about to make a journey that’s just as exciting and brave. As the day chugs along much slower than our train, we begin to get a little impatient about the 1.5 day journey to Jammu. We cross Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, a little bit of Rajasthan, Delhi and even Punjab…but there’s no sign of rain anywhere. The weather is hot and we’re cursing ourselves for choosing to travel Second Class. But as is the case with time, it just passes by and we soon find ourselves welcoming day 2 of our journey.


Day 2: Reaching Jammu

8am, Saturday, July 21 2012…

We all wake up and realize that it’s just a question of biding time till 3pm. The unbroken wheat and grain fields pass us by in Punjab, slowly waning as we near Jammu. Here, the fields are replaced by dried up rivers with their beds lying bare for the passerby to gape at and say a thing or two about the grave lack of rain this season. Soon, our first destination approaches and we alight the train at Jammu.

While Sanjay and I wait at the platform with our luggage, Aniruddha and Sumit move ahead to find the Railway Parcel Office so that we can collect our motorbikes that we had dispatched earlier.



The plan is to collect the three beasts (or beauties if you so prefer!), strap on our bags and set off for Patnitop, 3 hours ahead of Jammu. This will help us save precious time when we set out for Srinagar the next morning.

Sumit and Aniruddha locate the Parcel Office and the three boys go to collect their respective bikes while I wait outside with our luggage. The wait is getting a little longer than I expected and just then I see Sanjay emerging from the Office with a rather grim look. “Our bike has reached safe, but they’re not handing it over to me because I’ve misplaced the Lorry Receipt (LR) ,” he says. “Oh, but can’t we prove that the bike is indeed ours by showing them the original documents and your ID proof?” I ask.
“No. They’re particularly strict in these parts and the only thing we can do is wait and ask someone to go to the parcel office, get a duplicate receipt made and courier it to us. But tomorrow being a Sunday, expect the courier to reach us only by Tuesday or Wednesday,” says Sanjay. That’s three days wasted, I thought to myself but put up a it’s-ok-it-happens-all-the-time face. We call up my brother who goes to the Parcel Office, but finds it closed post 5pm. In vain.
An hour later we’re all sitting in Shivam Lodge, which is a 5-minute walk from the Jammu railway station and brainstorming about what can be done next. At the end of it, for the lack of a better option, Aniruddha and Sumit concretize a plan of making a round trip to Amritsar and Wagah while we wait in Jammu and get matters sorted out. That’s better than all of us sitting and wasting three days in the hot and stuffy Jammu weather. The mutual consensus is also to ask Sanjay to give us all a treat as a compensation for the goof-up ! The restaurant at Shivam Lodge serves some great Mah ki Daal, Vegetables and home-style fulkas with desi ghee. We then call it a night.




Day 3....Suprise coming up

Why are pics coming in Installment ???

Day 3: does the wait continue ????

6am Sunday, July 22, 2012…

Aniruddha and Sumit rise early and set out for Amritsar while Sanjay and I decide to make a trip to the Parcel Office again and talk to the officials there to re-consider our case. In the meanwhile my father gets us in touch with a gentleman from the Ministry of Railways and our friends back in Pune are trying to figure out different ways to help.

We try calling a friend who was supposed to reach the Pune Railway Station…no answer. We’re getting desperate because it’s a Sunday and we fear that the Pune Parcel Office might also have limited business hours (if at all they open). We wait for an hour hoping to talk to the Station Master who doesn’t turn up till nearly 10am. Finally, we go back to the Parcel Office. This is what follows:

Parcel Officer: Baat hui Station Master se? (Did you manage to speak with the Station Master?)

We: Nahi, abhi aaye nahi. (He’s not in office yet.)

PO: Acchaa… (starts walking towards the bikes that are parked in the Parcel Office.)

PO: Isme se aapki bike kaunsi hai (which one of these is your bikes?)

We: Woh, Royal Enfield…

He goes closer and inspects the bike. Then, he removes a green coloured receipt that had been stuffed near the handle bar by the railway staff when the bike was packed in Pune before transportation. He takes the receipt and walks back to his counter.

PO: Accha yeh duplicate receipt toh hai bike ki…ek kaam karna padega…notary se ek affidavit banvao aur uske saath ye receipt attach karlo. Kaam ho jana chahiye . Main ek aadmi ko bhejta hoon jo aapko notary ke ghar leke jayega. Aapke friend ko bolo Pune station na jaaye.

We interpret that he is hinting that we’ll most likely get our bike, but we were too wary to believe it. So we decide to just go with the flow and see what happens. The Parcel Officer directs us to the desk of his crony who takes us to the home of a notary.

In the next few minutes we have the affidavit and photocopies of some documents he had asked for. We submit these and rather unexpectedly, he hands over the bike to us. Having anticipated at least 2-3 days before we would have the bike back, we’re a little numbed by the sudden change in the man’s stance and our streak of luck!

Thank yous said, we take the bike and start to decide what to do next. Aniruddha and Sumit have most probably reached Amritsar, so we send them a text informing them about the pleasant yet unexpected development. In the meanwhile Sanjay and I decide to set out for Patnitop and spend one night there so that the two of them can join us there the next day.

We go back to the hotel and order for a hearty Punjabi breakfast of Chana Bhatura. In the meanwhile Sanjay goes to the petrol station to fuel up the bike. We check out by 12:30 pm and with a wide smile set out on the actual adventure!!

Pitstop for some water in the humid afternoon...


Patnitop is the destination for today, but we reach it by 3 pm.


Some where near Patni top

We decide that if we ride on further, we could be closer to Srinagar. So ride we do! We cross Ramban and reach Banihal. The clock tells us it’s 6ish. So we decide to call it a night at the little town of Banihal at the Hotel Alpine (Rs700 per room).


Hotel Alpine (star in Banihal)

We freshen up and walk down the main street of the town and find a small eatery where we order Dahi Kadhi, Roti and Aloo sabzi. The bill for a three course meal for two people is Rs75 !

Marveling at the idyllic life in a small town, we stop by at a fruit seller’s cart to sample some yellow colored fruits that resemble oversized berries. It’s a yellow version of aloo bukhaara (plums) the fruit vendor tells us. We ask him to pack us some…which he promptly does. But as Sanjay pays him, he refuses to accept money. “Tum hamare gaon aaye ho. Thank you.” Since we insist he accepts a nominal amount with a smile. Back at the Hotel, we munch on some of those yellow aloo bukharas and then call it a night.

@Sanjay & @Anuradha.. Excellent Start! I am still disappointed that I couldn't join you guys.

Just a small request, Please add Engish Translation for Hindi you put in there. Some readers here might not be well versed with Hindi.

I am sure you had your set of fun...

Point noted

Day 4: Banihal - Gulmarg - Srinagar

Monday, July 23, 2012…5.30am

We rise to a bright morning as the sun is out really early. We haven’t had a single cloudy day since we reached here despite it being the peak of monsoon. Both of us are eager to make it to Srinagar as early as possible so that we can catch up on as much sightseeing as we can manage to squeeze in. As we move further from Banihal, it becomes more apparent that we are in the Kashmir Valley.

The beauty starts getting breathtaking, with the first rays of the morning sun getting sprinkled over mountain tops. The pine trees patches turning into different shades of green with the sunlight falling over them. The mist from dawn still hangs in the air. We stop for a few pictures, but later realize that no matter how many stops we take, they simply won’t be enough!




The weather is perfect for a steaming hot cup of coffee with some snacks for breakfast, but with the holy month of Ramazan being observed we’re not sure if we’ll be lucky to get authentic food from the region at this time. We stop for some more pictures and then head along in our search for a tea stop. All along the way we see BSF squads armed with metal detectors and accompanied by sniffer dogs. They’ve dispersed all around the highway looking for suspicious objects or people. We realize that the heightened security is probably owing to the Amarnath Yatra which is attended by lakhs of pilgrims annually. The pilgrims will be taking the NH1 route right up to Baltal ahead of Sonamarg, from where their arduous trek actually begins.

The road is bad in some patches but the scenic beauty more than compensates for the lack of good tarmac. A few kilometers later we come across some tents and a tea stall located just ahead of these tents. So our tea break finally happens well over an hour after we’ve left Banihal. The young lad at the tea stall washes our tea cups with steaming hot water and prepares fresh tea for us. We find out from him that these tents are for Amarnath yatris—hundreds of NGOs and volunteers put up these tents and roadside food stalls to serve the Amarnath yatris for free.

We’re sipping on some tea and just basking in the tender sunlight when a skinny man comes running towards us with a strange smile across his face. He looks at Sanjay and asks in Marathi. “Kuthun aahat tumhi, Pune?” (Where are you from..Pune?). Oh, so he’s noticed the MH number plate on our bike, we realize. We answer in the affirmative and he tells us he’s from Satara. A brief conversation follows and we learn that he’s the driver of a LMV and he’s driving a large group of pilgrims all the way from Maharashtra to Pehelgam, from where they are planning to start the Amarnath yatra. They’ve been on the road for 8 days and have covered Rajasthan and Amristar en route. The tea and conversation both end shortly and we wish the man luck, and ask him to drive safe.

We drive on, enjoying sights of the Valley coming to life. Sometimes, even an everyday phenomenon can be so fascinating for a traveler! At this point, we were passing by a LMV and we realize he’s asking us to stop and gesturing that we take a U-turn. Confused, we look backward only to see that a guard at a post is calling us. We turn back and reach the post where the guard asks us, “Kahan se ho?” (where are you from) to which we reply “Pune, Maharashtra”.
Guard: “Ok, Indian hi ho na?” (“So you’re an Indian, right”)
We: “Haan, haan” (Yes!)

Guard: “Yeh Foreigners Registration Post hai to note karna padta hai. Enjoy the beauty of Kashmir Valley!” (This is a Foreigners Registration Post so we need to keep a record.)

Strange conversation, we think to ourselves, as we move on. But these thoughts are overtaken by thoughts of the Jawahar Tunnel approaching. For some reason, we’re quite excited and nervous about the Jawahar tunnel that’s notorious for traffic jams. But it’s now that we realize what the early mover advantage means in the context of travel. We are the only vehicle passing the 2.8km long Jawahar tunnel! Needless to say, we’re thrilled and relieved at the same time.



As we close in on Srinagar, the civilization dramatically increases, and so do sightings of army men and convoys. We pass along beautiful fields, and a random house standing in between. Chinar and Willow trees line the roads, swaying softly every now and then.


Willow wood stacked up for manufacturing cricket bats

A few kilometers before Srinagar we see a sign that proudly proclaims, “The World’s Best Saffron is Grown Here”. It’s Pampore! Though we’re a tad late for the saffron harvest season, it takes only a little imagination to visualize how beautiful the open expanse of land on both sides of the road would look would lilac flowers sprouting from little green plants. We decide to fuel up here before reaching Srinagar.

In the meanwhile we learn that Aniruddha and Sumit have left Amritsar and are on the way to Srinagar. We expect it to be a 14-hour journey, which means they will reach only by 8ish.

With an entire day at hand, we are not sure what to do with our time. It’s just then that we see a sign board that says ‘Gulmarg 70kms”. Sanjay stops and asks what we should do, and we decide to take a detour to Gulmarg. By this time Sanjay’s stomach is growling and I feel a little hungry too. But it’s the month of Ramazan and we don’t find any restaurant open for breakfast! Luckily, a few kilometers down on the road to Gulmarg, we find a place where we get samosas and chole bhature for breakfast. Fuelled up, we set out for Gulmarg without making any more pit stops. The climb towards Gulmarg is beautiful with white wild flowers just proliferating everywhere. And as we reach the actual destination, the views seem as if they’re straight from a Yash Raj movie (which apparently, they actually are!).


Gumarg - Valley of flowers

At Gulmarg, we’re accosted by a boisterous group of elderly sardar uncles from Delhi. They’re pretty impressed by the fact that we’re travelling on a bike and are headed towards Ladakh. Among some random questions they ask us are, “Aapko yeh idea kaise aaya, bike pe travel karne ka?” (How did you stumble upon this idea of biking?”).
Once done, we hire a guide who helps us book gondola tickets. With his help, we manage to keep our luggage (saddle bag and tank bag) in a memorabilia store. We buy tickets for Section 1 as well as Section 2 (which is where the snow is, we’re told). The gondola sees quite a steep ascent and we’re both quite glued in to the sights below us.




We first head to Section 2 where we have to climb some more to see snow. There’s a lot of excitement as it’s Anuradha’s first snow experience. Our guide is a 60-year-old man who helps us climb the slippery sheets of snow rather easily. He even clicks some really cool pictures of us J.






After some 40-45 minutes we decide to move to Section 1. Since there’s no sightseeing at Section 1, we tell the guide to leave, so that he can get going with his business. We have lunch (aaloo paranthas and mutter aalo sabzi) at a small touristy restaurant here where a kid called Ulfat takes orders from customers while his father cooks meals. We explore the place just a little bit and then start our journey back to Srinagar. It takes us just over an hour to reach the capital of J&K.





After a little exploration, we check into Hotel Holiday Plaza at Rajbag, near Zero Bridge at Srinagar, where the owner—an elderly gentleman—gives us a great discount just because he’s impressed with us being bikers! With clean airy rooms and a duvet as soft a feathers, we know we’d sleep well after a long day on the road.

We check-in, freshen up and rest a little before venturing out for a cup of tea. It’s Iftar time and we spot a man grilling sheek kebabs on the roadside. We decide to try some…the kebabs are lightly spiced and tender, but have a few chewy chunks. What steals the show however are the two varieties of fresh apricot chutney—one with green chilli and one with red chilli—that accompany the kebabs. After a quick bite we head down the street and find a tea shop. Tea done, we’re back in the room and it’s around 8ish when Aniruddha and Sumit reach the hotel.

A 14 hour ride had left them tired and they take some time to freshen up before we head for dinner. Dinner is at a place called Biryani Hut just a stone’s throw from Holiday Plaza. We’re anticipating a rich Kashmiri meal in all its meaty glory…but when the biryani arrives in a bowl as tiny as a katori, we’re a little disappointed. And the biryani itself doesn’t do much to take our taste buds by storm! Needless to say it’s a meal that gets over quickly and we all call it a day.

Wah wah...excellent narration and pics! Lets see who finishes the log first. :P ;-)

Looks like we have a race on our hands!

Day 5: Around Srinagar

Tuesday, July 24, 2012…8am

It’s a lazy morning today because we’ve got the day to ourselves in Srinagar. On the agenda is some bike work, sightseeing and a wee bit of shopping. We start the day with breakfast near the Dal Lake and since it’s a sunny day, we decide to return for the Shikara ride in the evening.


First view of Dal Lake

The next stop is the old city area where we need to visit an Enfield showroom to get some spares for the bike in anticipation of our next day’s journey.


A view through window in the old city
We then walk around Residency Road and have lunch at a restaurant named Shilton on the busy street. It’s a sunny day and as we walk in, the air conditioned interiors give us some relief. We can’t help but notice that the interiors bear a striking resemblance to a Chinese gangster’s den straight from a Jackie Chan movie, with red walls and dim lights for added effect! We order some mutton Rogan Josh, a Kashmiri meat dish and rotis and it’s a filling meal that makes us rather drowsy. Back at the hotel we catch forty winks and then head out to the Dal Lake, and take the quintessential shikara ride.


Evening at Dal Lake



Old Man selling vegetable in Dal lake

It’s a lovely evening with the gentle gurgling of our boatman’s oar in the water and the sound of cameras clicking away. We stop for some Kahwa at a floating restaurant and then watch the sun go down. A little shopping for saffron and some gifts follows, and we then head for a regular Punjabi dinner at one of the many small restaurants dotting the road that passes along the lake. On the way back to the hotel we fuel up our bikes and then we’re off to bed.

The actual journey starts tomorrow