La Revista: 21st May ’09, Delhi, 11.45pm

Whew! I made my longest journey by road, without rest. On the day before yesterday, the car came to pick us up at 4.30 in the evening from our hotel. The car was the promised Scorpio and it was as comfortable as expected. Shared our goodbye-hugs with Wolf and the two the two hotel-boys with whom we had become good friends (they claimed that we were very warm and friendly and that they enjoyed serving us. Actually it was we who enjoyed their efficient service.).
We reached Kargil by midnight. By then, as you must’ve guessed, I was fast asleep (this time in a much comfortable middle seat). I woke early yesterday morning before dawn, to find ourselves at Dras. Then, I learnt that we had been there since two in the morning. The route ahead had been blocked due to bad weather. We made use of this time by drinking “chai” and eating boiled eggs which made our breakfast, and clicking some even more beautiful photos of the snow peaked mountains which were just a stone’s throw away. We even heard rumours about the roads remaining closed for the rest of the day. Yet something deep within me told me that we would reach Delhi by the next day (i.e. today). Yes, the route was thrown open for vehicles at eight in the morning and we carried on with our journey.

If you think that by now we had seen all the good sceneries that were there to be seen (and clicked all their photos), then you could never be more mistaken. There was snow all around us except on the road on which we were travelling. And, the snow was slowly melting into water which often flowed over the road, to join the river which flowed alongside the road. We were crossing the Zoji la pass. I felt like as if we were travelling through a glacier. The route was dangerous, but I had one of the most exciting journeys till date.

We reached Srinagar late in the afternoon (after 2pm). After another hour of so, we were sitting in a car bound for Jammu. For the first time ever, I paid fifty bucks for a plate of “rajma-chawal” when we stopped for dinner at a road side “dhaba” at night (there was nothing else available). I slept while we travelled the rest of the way to Jammu. Travels by cars have the effect of sleeping pills on me. I realised that we reached Jammu when Palzer poked me to wake me up. It was well past midnight. (Oh! The car had also had a flat tyre along the way.). Luckily, we found a bus at that unearthly hour, and I went back to sleep again inside the bus. We reached Ludhiana early this morning, where we changed buses (into one bound for Delhi). As the day progressed, it began to get hotter and more humid. It felt like stepping out from a refrigerator into a frying pan. I could see from his face that Palzer’s condition was miserable. My case was not too different either. Both of us looked like as if we were retuning from a hard day’s labour inside coalmines. We reached Delhi at around two in the afternoon. We had been on the road continuously for more than forty five hours!
I don’t know when I will get another chance to go back to Ladakh. I rue the fact that I could not trek there. The trip may have gotten over, but the blue skies (and they actually appear blue), the crystal clear waters, the refreshing air and the warm-hearted people of those places will keep calling me back for the remaining portion of my life.