Leh - Kargil - Drass - Srinagar - Jammu - Amritsar

  Amritsar, India
Monday, November 5, 2007

Itinary : Leh - Kargil - Drass - Srinagar - Jammu - Amritsar
Dates : 3rd November to 5th of November 2007
Mileage in India : 2900 km
Mileage so far : 9750 km
 
Since I started this loop, the nights are well below 0 degrees and I've been having a hard time starting my bike in the morning. Today was no exception and I did the same routine than the past 3 days, meaning pushing the GS under the sun, pouring a bucket of boiling water on the engine and waiting for 20 mins to start the engine...After this troublesome but necessary morning ritual, I headed towards Kargil by crossing a flat deserted road...Nice to ride in the early sunny morning with blue sky and little or no traffic...
 

Desert highway...

I'm single...Not too bad no?

Then I was back in the mountains again where I saw a Tata truck parked on the side of the road being repaired and decided to take advantage to stop for a little break. Never really got the chance to see the inside of a tata truck and I needed a cup of hot tea which I was almost sure they would offer me. And they did. So I took out my kitkats out, in exchange of the tea, and the traditional "conversation-questions" started...Which in order goes : "What the cost?", "you country?", "what the average?", "you come where?",...And they all seemed to be surprised that I manage to do the Manali-Leh road which normally is closed to traffic...No wonder I didn't see anyone starting from Keylong until Leh. Maybe only a handful of trucks transporting goods...Anyway, as the questions were going on, another truck stopped and the driver looked rather hyper when talking to me, but I quickly understood why when he offered me to smoke some illegal substance...The guy was actually driving his tata truck and smoking his hash at the same time! No wonder they sometime take the shortcut and end up 1 km down the mountain in the river once in a while...(By the way I refused the offer...). 
 

effort of the past 3 days reflected on my face...

Tata repair team!

Marlboro man...huh...Marlboro biker!

 
For the first time in this loop I actually got a bit scared while riding in the mountains because of the breathtaking drop offs and I was not really at ease...Well, the road is narrow and I was not really comfortable when finding myself nose to nose with trucks. And there are a hell of a lot of army trucks on this road...Actually there's been a lot of army trucks since Leh, when I crossed into Jammy & Kashmir province...Anyway, I used my horn on a regular basis when entering turns until it just stopped working...
 

Crazy army truck drivers...

The real stuff...

After all this stress, I started to get hungry and thought it was a good thing to start looking for a stall to eat...To be honest, I've been hungry since I left New Delhi...Indeed, the food has been a problem for me...Not that I'm difficult but there's definitely a choice and variety problem...So I've been eating roti (pancake) with vegetarian gravy for a week now and I can't take it anymore! And when I get really tired, I ask the very popular Maggie noodles that seems popular and that everyone seems to eat here...30 cents the bowl of noodle...The only time I adventured myself in something different was in Leh and I ate chicken Masala which cost me a night seating on the toilet bowl...After "Delhi belly", it's "Leh not OK"...So I stopped in this little town for a cup of noodles and I bumped again into the hash truck driver who offered me hash again! Which I refused again of course...I think he didn't remember that I met him half an hour before...My bike still triggers a lot of curiosity and this village was no exception, especially when I bumped in to this old men that could barely walk with the help of his stick and he still wanted to sit on the bike! Passion has no age! (special wink to Jean-Noel, best known as "papi" and to my friend Laurent, best known as "Barros").
 

Hash man on the left...

The universal passion of bikes...

Not happy...

So after a few giggles with the old man and a cup of Maggie noodles, I was back on the road again, heading towards Kargil. And the military presence is everywhere...Actually I realised that the towns are not towns but military camps where they build a local supermarket and coffee shop to satisfy the militaries demand...And I think that all the military schools are concentrated in this region as I've seen quite a number of them. All the towns, with no exception, have a military camp and you apparently have to register each time you go in and out. I have been a naughty and an undisciplined tourist as I've stopped at none of them...I must have crossed 20 check points between Leh and Kargil, and I couldn't imagine stopping at each one of them because I would waste too much time and expose myself to the same questions about bike price and consumption...So when I was passing the checkpoints, I would of course slow down and while the soldiers would have their mouth open looking at the bike, I would do an innocent waving of the hand...And it seemed to be working as no one ran after me (or shot me) and the gates would stay open at the exit of the towns...Then when I was reaching Kargil, riding along the ceasefire line which was 5 km away from the road on which I was riding on, you start seeing trenches, barb wires and bunkers...Hmm not comfort...Especially when I read this signboard along the road which said "caution, you are under enemy observation" and started to get paranoid...I was hoping that the Pakistani sniper watching me in his view finder was not telling himself that the Indian army has just invented a new mean of transportation and shoot me! Especially with the colour pattern that this GS has! 
 

Good to know...

Not good to know...

Typical army camp along the ceasefire line...

An "army town" in Kashmir...

 
Nevertheless, I managed to reach Kargil in one piece (and no holes in my jacket), and I arrived in this town that looked predominantly inhabited by muslims. There are pictures of the Ayatollah on the town's walls and the few women you see in the streets have their face covered, and some have their face completely covered including the eyes...So I did about 2 runs of the town and noticed that there were no comfortable hotel to stay in and I didn't feel comfortable sleeping in one of the guest houses along the "only" main street...It was 5h30 pm and I decided to head to Drass which is 60 km further, on the way to Srinagar. Had a couple of scares as I rode a bit nighttime and without low-beam light as it failed when in Pang (I was assured in Singapore that taking spare bulbs was useless as the BMW lights wouldn't fail...). Drass is the second coldest town in the world after a town in Syberia, but I was lucky as it was only minus 6 in the room...Luckily I invested in a minus 20 degrees sleeping bag when in Leh as I anticipated that I would sleep in an unheated room again, and I was right...Terribly cold and tiring night...Especially that I didn't sleep alone...Drass was a scary town but being smaller than Kargil, I didn't feel as unsafe...
 

My partner for the night...

I've had enough of this cold and I was seriously starting to dream of riding in the heat again! I didn't feel particularly comfortable in this part of Kashmir and so I decided during the night in Drass that I would skip staying in Srinagar and ride straight to Jammu which is normally a 2 day ride...But my guts was telling me that it was time to get out...So with ice hanging off my eyebrows, I took off the next morning at 6h30 am to try to reach Jammu in the evening. At my surprise the road was good, meaning with tarmac (and stones) for more than 50% of the time and I realised that I could reach Jammu if I didn't stop too much...Once again, I started the day in the mountain, accompanied of a lot of army trucks...And the "lonely planet" was right, the road between Drass and Sonmarg is the scariest road I've done so far...The road is 30 km of stone, sand, mud with some serious drop offs...The scariest is that at every 3 corners there's memorials with written on them : "In the memory of ....from the ....regiment...that lost his life in this turn while riding his jeep..."!!! And when you look down, it's a long way down...So I rode slowly and I told myself that they wouldn't even bother writing a memorial for me so the best was to keep the bike (and me) on the road! 
 

Where's the drop off?

Almost got my own memorial in this turn...

Scary Drass - Sonmarg "road"...

How to calm your need for speed....

Once you get out of Sonmarg and all the way up to Jammu, I was amazed by the number of soldiers on the road...They were absolutely everywhere...Not only in camps, but on the road all the way up to Jammu! Without joking, I must have seen at least one soldier every 200 meters! It was like a war zone! They were walking on the side of the road, in the fields, on top of houses, at rest areas, junctions,... It was a bit weird because the further we were from the ceasefire line, the more soldiers I saw...And I finally got an answer from the hotel owner when I arrived In Jammu. Actually, all the military equipments and soldiers sent into the different areas of Kashmir are dispatched from Jammu. So all thoses "guys" on the road are not here to protect from Pakistani infiltrations but to make sure that the convoy of trucks arrive safe and on time by making sure there were no traffic on the truck's path...And I can understand their presence because the road and traffic from Sonmarg to Jammu is like New Delhi except that the people have beards and green eyes. I don't understand why India doesn't give this part to Pakistan...After all there are more Pakistani-looking Muslims than followers of Shiva! One of the soldiers to whom I spoke admitted that they were more here as well for the Indian Muslim terrorists in the north than the Pakistani threat...
 

Guarding my bike!

you see this all along the road...

 
Stopped for 2 checkpoints today on my way from Drass to Jammu, not that I wanted to...but the guy was screaming at me as I was passing...And after all I had to stop at least one to see what they wanted...Nothing much actually...Just your passport to get a few details and that's about it. Oh and they want to know the price of the bike as well...Rather relaxed and friendly checkpoints.
 

My first checkpoint...

On my way to Jammu, I realised that I was going to make it before the night falls, so I decided to stop when I saw a sign board saying that it was the last view stop of the Kashmir valley before crossing the longest road tunnel of India. Unfortunately, once you pass Srinagar you are in the valley again and the pollution is back...So the only view I got was a big cloud...Funny picture...
 

My amazing last view of the Kashmir valley...

 
My last stop before reaching my hotel was when I saw a Cricket bat factory...I told myself that I was in the cricket country! You hear about cricket everywhere! And all the time! Even when you turn on the TV and switch to Espn or starsports, you expect an EPL game but it's cricket here instead...I'm starting to understand the rules...That's how much I'm exposed to it! So visited this factory and learned that this area is world famous for bat cricket manufacturing because it's the best area to find the raw material which is the wood specie. The guy told me a name which sounded like "Willo"...Interesting...He showed me the different types and quality of bats he produced from the cheap bat for the kids on the local market to the expensive international tournaments bats. Price range from 5 usd to 50 usd a bat. Surprisingly, unlike the American baseball bats, cricket bats are made of 2 pieces that are glued and consolidated with cement!
 

Cricket bat factory...

the stock...

the raw material...

 
I'm finally staying in a reasonable hotel in a small town called Patnitop, reasonable meaning no heater but with hot water...It's a nice little hotel on a mountain, quiet and the owner is nice. He's a Sikh and speaks fluent English so had a chat with him and took advantage of his good English to ask him to explain me Sikhism. Didn't really understand and the only thing I retained was there are gurus in the story and that Sikhs have to follow the "5 necessities" which are :
 
- To protect the head which explains the hair with the turban.
- To have the beard.
- To carry a special bracelet.
- To wear this "long-legged" underwear.
- To carry a knife inside his shirt.
 
Weird huh...So don't provoke a Sikh...He has a knife under his shirt...Maybe I can start my own religion then?? Those of you that want to follow Guru Christophe has :
 
- to protect your head with a helmet.
- to have dirt on your neck.
- to carry a "joe's bar" key chain.
- to not to wear underwear.
- to carry chain lube inside your shirt.
 
 
The loop is now finished and I really enjoyed it! It was fun but at the same time tiring. The riding is actually fun and exciting, but the most tiring was the lodging (no hot water and heater) and the food. Still no regrets and I would do it again! Not alone and not at this time of the year, but I would do it again! Especially that in this part on the country, there are humoristic signboards along the road that makes it fun to ride. The Indian ministry of transport seems to have a good "cheesy" sense of humour...I've taken pictures of a couple of them that you can enjoy below...I couldn't take pictures of all of them but others said : "gentle on my curves" or "drive on horse power, not Rhum power",...
 

signboard 1

Signboard 2

Signboard 3

Still a long way to go my friend...

 
My last riding day in India was from Patnitop to Amritsar, which is the capital of the Sihks and where you can visit the golden temple. It was a bit of a sad day as I was back to the crazy roads and traffic...Managed to get a few pictures which I failed to take before...But now that I'm more use to the attention and to the riots that my stops generate, I could get a few shots of the Indian driving experience...
 

Not impressed anymore...

Why cool grass when you can be on hot tarmac?

Waiting for the 10 km long train to pass...

 
Oh and I had to buy extra underwear as I ran out and found this one which I found comfortable and that fit me perfectly...
 

My favorite underwear brand!

So I met up with Kevin again today in Amritsar and we will cross the border tomorrow to Pakistan...We withdrew some rupees today in Amritsar to exchange against some US dollar to anticipate for Iran where it is apparently not possible to use your ATM card. Heard as well that there's a petrol shortage in Iran...Well it's not really a petrol shortage (because they have a lot!) but more a large demand due to the International pressures for Iran to abandon their nuclear program...So people are starting to do some reserve...Apparently at the Iran border crossing, the authorities will give tourists a "200-liters" voucher which is our maximum allowed for our stay in Iran and that you have to pay in advance. It will be more than enough for us... Fingers crossed that nothing will happen or start prior to our visit!
 
As for Pakistan, hopefully it's calmer than what we see on TV. One thing for sure is that I won't introduce myself as a lawyer...We are crossing first Lahore when we get to Pakistan, which seems to be a bit "hot" at the moment...So we decided to not stay too long and just go trough Pakistan as fast as possible. We'll also try to sleep outside the cities as much as we can. We planned to cross Pakistan in 5 days. There's a big chance that the police will escort us trough Pakistan apparently...Really don't know what to expect...