Name of the Trip:
Leh Trip/ Ya Ya Ya Trip/ PITB trip
Places Covered:
Bangalore - Srinagar - Sonmarg - Drass - Kargil - Leh - Khardung la - Nubra Valley - Pangong Tso - Tso Moriri - Manali - Chandigarh - Bangalore (7500+ Km; 9 days)
Mode of commute:
Plane, SUV, Shikara Boat, Enfield Bullet, White Water Raft
The Wanderers urf Protagonists:
The wife (Uma) who had meticulously planned the trip and without whom this trip wouldnt have been possible,
The (self declared) Chairman of the group urf CFO urf Madan,
Abi (of PITB fame) urf Abinaya,
The CBO (Chief Bargaining Officer) urf Sleep Mode urf Mallika and
last but not least, me.
INTRO:
Many times in the past, i had promised my ex-girlfriend that we would finish - one by one, the contents of our bucket list - the few things we needed to do before we kicked the bucket. And any talk of the bucket list would invariably include a few references to Leh/Ladakh. Over the years, the bucket list grew longer and my ex girlfriend became my wife. And about a year after the marraige, we decided to strike out leh/ladakh from the list.
Day 0
Getting 5 days leave was the easy part. All that needed to be done now, was to finish the work from home and email it to the boss before leaving Bangalore on saturday morning. Little did i know that it required me to sit all through friday night to finish the work. Half asleep, i clicked the send button at 3:00 AM and rushed to pack the bags. The fact that, the wife hadnt finished packing and that there was all of half an hr before the taxi arrived to pick us up were the small miracles of life. We finished packing and got ready by 3:40 by which time the taxi guy had honked.
Day 1 - Srinagar
We reached the Bangalore international airport to see 3 other groggy characters, pushing their luggage to the departure wing. We joined them and the 5 groggy characters headed for the security checks. The queue was long at the Indigo counter, as it was a connecting flight via Mumbai. Before boarding the plane at around 5:00 in the morning, we ran into Soniya Chadha at the terminal cafeteria, who had another flight to catch. The Chairman and I remember only little as to what happened after the sweet airhostess invited us into the plane. We were later informed, that even before the plane taxied onto the runway both of us were snoring away to glory. As i opened my eyes, the plane had already stopped over at Mumbai. We got down at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai for our rendezvous with Jovitha urf jamundi urf shendi urf jucita (God! how many names can one have!). Legend has it that Jucita is a hard to please and powerful demigod. But when appeased, she becomes an angel and showers her devotees with orange / pineapple juice. On this particular day, when we awakened her with our persistant calling (at 5.00 in the morning and that too on a Saturday) she was - surprise!!! - delighted and showered us with not only 8 glasses of orange / pineapple juice but she also got us the finest of Mumbai’s garma garam vada paav'. (7 days after the meeting, the wife still remembers the lingering taste.) After a photo-shoot session with her, it was time to say adieu.
After clearing the additional round of security checks for Srinagar passengers, we were finally in the plane. The Mumbai - Srinagar flight was comparatively sleepless. The seat to my right was still vacant as the plane sped down the runway. And on my left, (at the window seat - as always) my wife was curiously looking through the gaps in between the 2 front seats. What she was watching and what was to become our (including the chairman - who sat on the empty seat by my side and later Abi - who joined her hubby) entertainment system of the remaining flight, was the raunchy chat conversation that the girl sitting in front of us had stored in her cell which she was re-reading throughout the flight.
We didn’t notice the splendour of Srinagar airport much as we all went to PITT ("Piss in the toilet" - for the uninitiated) Much relieved and baggage in hand, we got a taxi from airport to TRC where our 2nd home was parked. Our second home was a Mahindra Scorpio - in which we spend a considerable part of our trip - driven by a ladakhi, Dhava (our pilot for the trip), now parked at TRC - outskirts of Srinagar city. Due to local union issues, the Leh registered vehicles are not permitted to wander around in Srinagar and vice versa. At the onset itself, we had clearly decided that we would book the plane tickets and the 4 wheeler in advance but NOT the stay, as we could bargain a hell of a lot at the hotels. So we searched for a decent place to stay (not "Hotel Decent" from Jab We Met - mind you) We spotted such a hotel - Hotel Prime. Chairman and I thought we had a good deal when we brought down the tariff rate from 1500 to 1000 per room. (Madan... looking back, we should have let CBO do the talking) We got out, had food at Krishna Dhabba near Dal Lake (the food was ok... but it had no salt) and set out to dal lake. Dal lake was a "5 min walk" according to any one we asked directions to, and after 20 mins, we saw a lot of house boats and ghat no. 1 (gate no. 1) of Dal lake. Shikara Boat drivers at the Ghat slurped in delight at the prospect of milking 5 plump tourists... and so the bargaining began from Rs. 1200 for 2 hrs. per shikara - which we reduced to Rs. 800 for all of us in 1 boat. Again we thought we had a good bargain.
DAL LAKE: Anyhow, even though, the Dal lake was more crowded than we assumed (with house boats, other tourists in shikaras and entire shops - in - boats) it was still picturesque with vibrant colours of the shikaras and house boats disrupting the calm blue of the lake. The many contrasting colours, shades and hues of the Dal lake especially viewed in the rays of the setting sun provides a lot of photo opportunities and we were guilty of making use of this to the max. We did miss a DSLR though. While the tourists in the shikaras are necessitated to sit in the boats for 2 hrs, various sellers bring/showcase their products in their shikaras which they "park" next to the tourists' shikaras. Products include jewellery, eatables, soft drinks and even freshly made steaming tea but all this at high/exorbitant rates. As the tourists cannot move from their shikaras' they become captive customers. (Please read Mr. Philip Kotlers upcoming book - Captive Customers ;) The ladies, with their resolve of steel, decided not to purchase anything on shikaras much to their husbands delight. Abi was constantly giving warnings and ultimatums to the Chairman not to dip his hand in the "fresh water" lake. But the Chairman was interested in the hydrella growing underneath the water. Finally the chairman's biology study was completed when he not only touched the water but also the hydrella, much to the dismay of Abi. In the meanwhile, it started drizzling. We also purchased grilled corn (from a vendor in a shikara) which tasted awesome in the cold weather that the rain brought along. Next, we parked our shikara next to a floating bakery and I introduced the gang to Kawah i.e.- "tea" in Kashmir (which is a blend of light green tea mixed with dry fruits) - one of my favourite drinks. Chairman refused to drink. All others were ready to experiment. On drinking, the wife thought it was OK. CBO believed it was sugar dissolved in water and on taking a sip, Abi wanted some real tea. So we got some pepsi for Chairman and normal tea for everyone else. As lights faded (it was 6 in the evening and it still looked like the 4 o'clock of Bangalore) we wound up the boat ride.
Back on the road, we tried getting photos clicked with traditional Kashmiri dresses which turned out to be a flop show as the photographers there were only interested in swindling tourist’s money. CBO had a tough time asking her photographer to delete the extra pictures he had taken. Some, where downright rude as well. Anyway looking back at the pictures taken, the wife actually looks like a Kashmiri girl!! After this, we had food from a nearby dhaaba the food was average (again.. there was no salt) and headed back to the hotel. I hit the bed and in no time was asleep. The next day, I got to know that the Chairman and the girls played UNO (Chairman’s favourite card game) until the fan’s regulator stopped working… not that it mattered.. it was cold anyway. At this everyone called it a day (or night) and hit the bed, thinking of all the wonderful places and sights and the not so wonderful people.
