13th – 14th July 2008 ~ Srinagar – Udhampur  - Pathankot - Chandigarh

We left Srinagar in the morning. The day’s plan was to cover as much as we could.
I hardly had any clicks the next two days.  We had stopped for lunch near Patani Top. The weather was beautiful.

Photo courtesy: Pradeep.
We drove till Udhampur and decided to stay overnight. Next day from there instead of going to Jammu we took the Mansar Udhampur road. We kept on moving on NH44 till Pathankot. At Pathankot we took a diversion from Dasuya city to reach Chandigarh via Hoshiarpur. We reached Chandigarh late evening, after spending night at pradeep’s place next day we started back to our respective places.

12th July 2008 ~ Sonmarg – Srinagar

The day’s plan was to go to Srinagar. Morning we woke up, got ready and had breakfast.
We were not in a hurry as distance to cover was not much. We left Sonmarg by 10am.

It was beautiful day, though it kept drizzling once in a while.

I could see greenery where ever I could lay my eyes.

We crossed this river and I remembered this song..
ओ माझी रे, अपना किनारा, नदिया की धारा है ओ माझी रे

By 2pm we were already in Srinagar. A lot of Army personnel were roaming around and I was feeling a little uneasy, as it reminded me of the times during the  Godhara incident in Gujarat. Though I knew that it was pretty normal out there, having such heavy security.

Plan was to stay overnight and leave the next day. Found one place to stay on Boulevard Road.
After freshening up we went out. Enjoyed the view of Dal lake and the shikaras floating around.

Line of Houseboats standing next to each other.

It was quite an afternoon, people busy doing their daily chores

I found this interesting gentleman.

Instead of you going for shopping, shops come to you. There were also a shikara selling dresses.

Even a photo studio on water.

One could see the outlines of the fort on the hill behind.

After spending some good amount of time here, we suddenly realized we were hungry.
We walked down to Nathu sweets nearby. We had garama garam jalebi and snacks. After having our fill, we were back outside again.
I made a call back home as the mobile was still dead and I hadn’t had a word with them since we left Leh.
We decided to walk further up on the road and explore a bit.

“The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.”

A lovely view with mountains, clouds and reflection in lake water.

Fisherman trying his luck

We were near Darchh Bagh and could see Centaur Lake view on our right.

Cleaning work was going on in dal lake, and the aid came from Germany. Isn’t that irony?

It was almost evening now and the sky had started turning orange.

“In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.”

The sky was on fire. It was a magical golden evening.

It was past 7pm. Didn’t realize how time flew. Pradeep wanted to meet someone so we also tagged along.
After the meeting, others wanted to do some shopping while I enjoyed looking at people passing by on the street.
We had food and headed back to the hotel. Outside the hotel took one last photo of the shining trails in Dal Lake.

 

11th July 2008 ~ Lamayuru – Kargil – Drass - Sonmarg

I woke up in the morning with sunrays entering into my room. It was looking lovely out there.
I could see the moonland formations from my room window.

I could even see the monastery from my room and couldn’t resist taking a photo of it as well.

It was 5.30 am. We got ready and decided to visit the monastery.
Went outside the guesthouse and I could see mountains on the opposite side soaking in the lovely morning sun.

I could see a village below waiting for the sun rays to reach it.

 

“Between the ideas
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow”

Nitin was enjoying the morning view

We decided to go to the monastery.

Lamayuru Monastery

Courtyard with wall paintings.

Sunrays knocking on the entrance.

 

Pooja dhoop was swaying on morning rays, filling the whole place with a beautiful fragrance.

 

“(en)Light(ment) comes on its own, we just need to keep the windows OPEN.”

It was bright red all around

This monk was watching me clicking around. I am sure it wouldn’t be a new sight for him, but he kept looking constantly.

After spending a good half hour, we decided to move out to the courtyard.
There was a group of women who came in for early morning prayers. I got talking with them.

We came out. Lovely morning light!

After spending almost 2 hrs near the monastery it was breakfast time.
We decided to have breakfast at the guest house and then leave. It was almost nine by the time we left.

Looking at this scene I remembered - Miles to go before I sleep

We passed by Fotu La around 10. It was a nice sunny morning.
I could see layers and layers of mountains.

After a short break we kept driving, near Heniskot we saw lot of people passing by us dressed up.
We asked and came to know that they had a gathering nearby and some sort of celebration was happening.
Everyone was going there. And we were invited to come and enjoy. How could we miss such an opportunity?
Saw these three ladies ready for celebration.

This mother was also going there. I got fascinated by the way she was carrying her child. Each region has its own streak.

It is said – “A beautiful lady is an accident of nature. A beautiful old lady is a work of art.”

Young and old everyone was going..

I enjoyed clicking them as they passed by. I even met a ladakhi bride. All dressed up shy and coy.
I fell in love with her jewellery. I am a big fan of silver. And the butterfly in the neck she was wearing was just amazing.

Finally following the crowd, we reached the venue. People were pouring in from all directions.
A dance performance was about to begin. They were waiting for their turn.

Some tea and biscuit before dance.

An announcement before the performance started.

Finally music started.

And guys formed half circle and started moving.
They took small steps and swayed so slowly I almost kept waiting all the time for their next step. :)

After a while the ladies joined them.

I was really amazed by the head gear these ladies were wearing with turquois stones.

I took a close up of each, lovely dressing it was

Ladies had two kind of head gear, few with those turquois stones and few had a kind of a hat.
It was almost 12.30 by the time we left from there. It was a one of its kind experience.

It was almost 3 by the time we reached Kargil. There were strong winds and it looked like dust storm.
It looked like late evening even though it was still afternoon.

We kept moving further, a river giving us company.

Sky cleared up as we kept moving further

Weather was lovely, we kept moving.

There was a lovely evening light, had not realized what time it was thanks to the cloudy weather. It was almost six.

We were trying to move ahead with quick photo breaks as light was going down and we still had to cross Zoji La.

 

Long stretch of road leading into mountains.

When we passed by these shepherds it was almost 7pm.

 

In no time it started drizzling, and what we feared happened. I was just prying that it shouldn’t rain till we cross Zoji La.
Due to rain and fog visibility dropped drastically, which in turned slowed down our speed further.
We passed by Zoji La around 8. We could see lights of Sonmarg between passing fog.

It took more than half an hour to reach Sonmarg. Long day it was, had dinner and hit the bed directly.