Far from the madding crowd - Red Hills Ooty

When Gods conspire against you there isn't much you can do. That was my feeling after my repeated attempts to undertake the Himalaya tour this summer failed. Lot of unavoidable factors came into play and by end April I gave up on the Himalayan tour. Instead I decided that I will undertake a small trip to Ooty. Not as a replacement for the Himalayas but more as an exploratory trip of this region. Turns out to be a lovely region and I enjoyed the trip thoroughly.

When I say Ooty, lot of experienced travellers must have felt, "What, Ooty and enjoyment? How can you enjoy in that crowd?" The secret was not to stay in Ooty but to stay far away. Around 28kms or so away. I had heard some good reports about this resort called Red Hills from my friend Andy and I looked it up in Outlook Traveller. I then called Vijaykumar, who owns this place, and made the necessary bookings. You can contact Vijaykumar at +91-9442254755. You can look up his web page at http://www.redhill-india.com/

I left home at around 6 am on the morning of 18th May and stopped at Kamat at Ramanagara on the way, as usual, for breakfast. Reached Ooty around 12:30. The roads were uniformly good except for a 10km stretch between Gundlupet and Bandipur. As usual, inside Bandipur we saw lot of spotted deer and black faced langurs. At Ooty I had some signal problems resulting in calling up Vijaykumar and getting the route. I finally got through to him and got the route from him. You need to get to a place called Emerald and after that the road is quite bad and there are two forest segments there. As usual Gayathri was not sure if we were on the right path. I too thought the same but told her we were going the correct way. Turned out I was right. We reached the Red Hills resort just after 2pm, in time for lunch.

The location of Red Hills resort is something to die for. It is an old fashioned British bungalow, sitting on a top of a hill, which overlooks the lovely Emerald Lake. We could understand why the lake was named Emerald when we climbed up towards Red Hills resort. The water has a green hue and the whole lake shines. One look at the lake and our tiredness vanished!! Surrounding the Red Hills resort are some tea plantations and a mountain, which we would climb the next day. The eye could see only greenery all around and the huge lake. Very soothing sight indeed. Our room was in the rear and we had the view of the mountain. We had our lunch, rested for some time and then went out for a small walk, taking a zillion photos on the way, according to Ranjani and Harini. ("Why do you keep shooting the same thing again and again", they continuously ask. It is difficult to explain the concept of bracketing to them. Especially when all the photos turn out bad!!!) It was cold in the evening, requiring sweaters to be worn. The dinner was great. Infact all meals were great. The Red Hills people have a fabulous cook.

The next day was our trek day.

All treks start the same way, with a lot of enthusiasm. All treks end the same way, "Are we ever going to reach our place?!!". The trek started with four of us and with our current 'neighbor's' family. Mrs.Palak came for the trek along with her two adorable daughters, Eesha and Rithika. The trek started with everyone being gung ho about it and that lasted for a whole of 10 mins or so till the steep climb started. The whole climb was accompanied by the expected exclamations. "I can't walk a step further", "We still have to climb some more?!!" "I think we have climbed enough. Let's get back" etc. I urged everyone saying that we had only 10 more mins of climb and kept repeating this at 10 mins interval. We came to a clearing and flat ground and took a rest. The guide showed the peak to all members and the exclamations started again. "No way can we climb that much", "You guys go and come down. We will wait here". The guide put a rest to the argument saying that we will not be coming down the same way and instead would be taking a route through the forest. I told everyone that it will be great walking through the forest though I had no clue how it would be!! Slowly and steadily we reached the summit and the view from there was definitely worth all the trouble. Perched on the summit, we could see hills surrounding us on all sides and way below two lovely lakes and two dams. The clouds were right in front of us and it was as if we were on the top of the world. The loneliness, the silence and the vast space spread out in front of us eased the physical pain. After taking in the scenery to our heart's content and resting for some time, we started our trek downwards. The downward trek is always more tricky than the upward one, especially when the soil is loose or if it had rained recently. The track in front of us met both the requirements!! As the guide had promised, we came into the forest and it was a nice feeling being there. It was dark, both due to the fact that the weather was cloudy and due to the tree cover. There were lots of insects which would bite us once in a while. Nothing serious but I could realise what the early guys who explored the Amazon must have gone through!! We would not have made it through the forest without a guide. The trail just vanishes or takes unexpected turns. Suddenly we would not see the people who went before us and we would shout. They would shout back and then we knew what route they had taken. Harini kept asking, "How much more?" and as you would have guessed, I kept saying, "10 more minutes." We landed at our resort after passing through some tea plantations. The trip had taken us more than 3hrs. The star of the trek was the 5 yr old Eesha, who climbed effortlessly.

There was a suggestion earlier that we trek down to the lake later in the day. It is supposed to be a 30 min trek. After the morning trek, everyone dreaded the word trek and the idea was vetoed. Instead we decided to drive to Parson Valley and Pothemedu. Both these places have huge lakes and there is a dam on each of these lakes. More than the lakes, it was the possibility of seeing some wildlife that excited me. Palak and his family came with us and it was a joy having them along. We got an excellent guide called Rajendran, an elderly and experienced person. The route initially is not very great but after some time the roads become better and we enter into the forest area. This area is adjacent to the Mukurthi National Park. The National Park itself is closed to visitors since the road inside has been washed away. Rajendran pointed out to a mountain and told us that we had climbed that summit, which was way way up. There was a collective gasp. The enormity of what was achieved stuck everyone only now!! After we had gone a few kms, Rajendran asked me not to honk as we were getting into the area which had wildlife. We reached the parson valley dam without seeing any wildlife except for a mangoose which ran across and which only Rajendran and I saw. At the dam, we saw a wild rabbit, a huge fellow, run into the forest. Everyone was exited seeing the rabbit. The dam is a nice one and the lake is huge. From this dam we started to the Pothemedu lake and dam. As we were cruising along, Rajendran asked me to stop and pointed into the trees and said, "Sambhar Deer." None of us could make out where they were. It slowly dawned on us that Rajendran was pointing to the next hill via the trees and there they were. Two Sambar deer which were grazing, stopped the activity and were looking in our direction. Though they were quite far away they could hear us and they watched us with interest. Slowly they left that place and we started towards the lake. It was a lovely lake and Rajendran said that had it not been for the clouds, the lake at sunset would be even better. I could imagine that.

After spending some time at the lake, we started back without realising that we were going to have a big wildlife encounter soon. As we drove all of us were looking for some animal or the other. As I turned a corner, right in front of the car was a herd of more than 30 bisons. They were on the road. They came in all sizes. Huge fellows and small fellows and lot in between. They had huge curved horns. The horns had great potential of hurting you. They were all standing in the middle and staring at the car. I stopped the car. Gayathri quickly brought up the window on her side. We started taking photos. Then I switched the camera to video mode and gave it to Rajendran to shoot. Gayathri was worried. "How do we get across?" Rajendran was an experienced guide and asked us not to worry. He told me to slowly move the car to the right, giving ample space on the left for the bison to move. I shifted my car to the right. The bisons slowly started moving to the left of the car. You can see they were also scared as the ran fast in order to cross the car. A few of the them ran, crossed the car in a hurry and were behind us now. Suddenly one bison decided that it was probably not safe to cross the car and after having come in line with the windows, turned sharply and went back to join the herd. After this maneuvour, the other bisons decided not to risk it and stood their ground and stared at us. Now we had reached an impasse in our peace talks!! I asked Rajendran what we should do. He asked me to honk and start moving slowly. I started the car and slowly crawled, honking once in a while. The bisons slowly started moving to my right and passing the car. Rajendran pointed to one huge fellow who was starting at us and didn't seem scared at all and said, "That is the leader. It is a male bison and is generally not afraid." His posture was such that he was looking at us as if we were some inferior beings. We passed without any more issues and later Rajendran told us how strong these bisons were and how they had killed a couple of people who happened to get down from their car. In our group I don't think anyone had that idea. One look at the horns was enough to deter any just adventurous ideas. On the way we saw another rabbit and Rajendran, who can pluck wildlife out of thin area, kept pointing to far away hills and showing us Sambhar Deer. There was no way that we could have seen any of the Sambhar Deer that day had it not been for Rajendran. The only sambhar we would have seen that night is the variety you mix with your rice!!

The next day I wanted to drive to the Upper Bhavani reservoir. I asked Rajendran to accompany us on the trip and he agreed. The initial part of the drive is through tea plantations and vegetable fields. You can see people growing cabbage, carrots and potatoes. After some time we come to a huge tea plantations. The hills surrounding you are full of tea plants. After crossing this plantation, we entered the forest area. Suddenly Rajendran pointed through the trees and said, "Sambhar". For the life of me, I could not see any deer. He again pointed and said, "It is drinking water". I could then see it. Rajendran had spotted the sambhar deer just back seeing its backside!! This guy was amazing. I got out of the car and saw into the trees. The deer turned and looked at me. He was a big fellow with big horns. Ranjani also got down and the deer was still staring at us. Before Gayathri could get down, it ran away but Gayathri and Harini could see it as it ran. After this forest stretch was another tea estate and after the tea estate was the last stretch of the forest before reaching the Upper Bhavani reservoir. As we were going through this forest area, we met some forest officials. They said that we should be careful as Elephants were sighted in this area. The reaction of Gayathri was predictable. "Lets turn around." We didn't and continued further. The forest in this area is not like that in Bandipur or Mudumalai. Those forests are neat, there are view lines and the forest is a bit away from the road. Here, the forest hugs you. It encloses you from all sides and you have the feeling of really being inside the stomach of the forest. Added to it the weather was cloudy and the feeling of this being a very personal forest increased. We reached Upper Bhavani reservoir without any more sightings of wild life.

At the reservoir, they wouldn't let is in because we did not have the required permits. They asked to come back and check after some time since some senior engineers were coming now. A forest guard suggested that we drive down the road and go see a smaller dam. It was drizzling lightly and we decided to take the advice. As we went down, the loneliness increased. Trees had fallen down and they have been cleared. No sign of any humans anywhere nearby, dark clouds, the thin drizzle, the forest around us and the potential of encountering an elephant or two!! It was turning scary for Gayathri and the kids. We reached the small lake on which there was a dam. Down below we could see a skeleton of a Sambhar deer. Rajendran said that the wild dogs must have attacked it and eaten it. We had our packed lunch there and started back to Upper Bhavani. On the way I spotted a Sambhar deer on my right. It was staring at us, then it jumped down and crossed the road and disappeard into the trees on my left. Everyone was thrilled seeing this.

When we reached Upper Bhavani reservoir again, they again said it was not possible for us to go to the dam. We need to walk down to the dam. So we asked permission to look at the lake and the dam from above. When we went in we couldn't see anything. Passing clouds had engulfed the whole area and all we could see was white all around. It was quite chill there. We waited for some time and then gave up. Rajendran was not happy saying that we had come all the way and not seen the dam. I asked him not to worry for the whole trip was about the drive and not the dam. As we were about to leave, it miraculously cleared. The clouds were blown away by the wind revealing outstanding scenery in front of us. First the lake became visible, then the dam and then a building in the other hill and then more hills all around. "Picturesque" said Gayathri and it was indeed a picturesque place. We imbibed the scenery to our heart's content and slowly the clouds started erasing the scenery and very quickly the whole scenery disappeared!! It was almost like a magic show with the magician briefly revealing the unexpected.

The drive back was lovely because we spotted a lot of wildlife. I mean, Rajendran spotted a lot of wildlife. We saw quite a few sambhar deers, we saw black monkeys. These are not black faced monkeys that you see in Mudumalai and Bandipur. These are black all over except for the beard and head which are white. At one point we saw a lot of them. We also sighted some wild hens and a rabbit in a tea garden. Not to mention a huge variety of birds. No bisons though. It looked to us that all bisons were in the Pothamedu area yesterday!!! The eventual day ended with us reaching the resort at around 6pm and having a nice dinner. We left for Bangalore the next day.

Red Hills is a lovely resort. The hosts, Vijaykumars, are very friendly and very professional. The cook is amazing. He has magic in his hands. Added to it, for children there is a very friendly dog, a German Shepard, named Moby. The favorite pass time of the dog is to fetch something. It generally gets a big stone in his mouth and deposits in front of you. Once you throw the stone away, it fetches it back. The children love it and the dog is absolutely friendly and also accompanies people on their trek up the mountain!!! There are also a couple of cats and a kitten which come to the dining hall in the night. The white one is very friendly and used to sit on Ranjani's lap most of the time and would lick your hand. The children had a ball with these pets. I would definitely recommend a trip to this place if you want a bit of solitude for a few days.

On to the forbidden land

"It is as safe as shopping in a Delhi mall", replied Rajesh Ojha, of Banjara Camps, when I asked him by mail if it was safe to go to Srinagar. I was not sure what he meant for the weekends at Big Bazar cannot be termed safe!! Anyway I concluded that he meant there would be no issue and decided on my trip. It would be Srinagar and from there by road to Leh.

Planning is very crucial when you undertake a trip like this. I am not talking about the actual travel between Srinagar and Leh. I was sure Rajesh would take care of it. My worry was internal planning. That is, keeping the whole thing a secret from the family. There was no way that I could have made this happen had my parents or Gayathri's parents had got an indication of what we were trying to do. Kashmir is forbidden territory and add Kargil to the mix and it becomes explosive. Hence I told everyone including Gayathri and kids that it was a secret project and told them to guess. For sake of misleading them, I told them we would be going to a desert in summer. Technically Ladakh is a high altitude desert. Ranjani had this in her text book and she said, "Lets not go to any desert. If at all you want to go to a desert, lets go to Ladakh. It is an high altitude desert." I did not reply.

So no one except me had a clue as to where we would be going and the guessing game was on. We landed in Delhi, had lunch that day with Ghate and family, then went to the Banjara Camps office where we met Rajesh Ojha. As we were discussing with him, he showed the picture of Pangong Tso lake and told the kids, "This is where you are going." All of them were excited since the secret was out. Rajesh realized he had made a mistake since I had told him about the surprise factor earlier. Anyway he kept the Srinagar part a secret.

It was when we were standing in a queue at the airport that Gayathri saw Srinagar on the display and asked, "Are we going to Srinagar?" I said yes and she was happy that she had guessed right. The weather was excellent in the sense that there were no clouds when we flew into Srinagar and we had a wonderful view of the Pir Panjal range. From the flight you can see how wide the valley of Srinagar is. In case you are flying from Delhi, ensure you get a window seat and pray for a clear sky. The view is fantabulous and I am sure no one would want to miss it.

The a/c inside the plane was not working properly and everyone was sweating profusely. We landed in Srinagar and when we stepped out of the plane, it was an exhilarating feeling. It was exactly opposite of how you feel when you step out of flight in Chennai. It would be cool inside the flight and the humidity hits you when you step out. In case of Srinagar, it was hot inside the plane and when we stepped out it was as if we have entered a city which was centrally air conditioned!! The feeling is indescribable. A lovely airport with the Pir Panjal range all around you.

We called our respective homes. As expected, they were taken aback when we said we were in Srinagar. The question was the same, is it safe there? Ofcourse, their worry increased when we told our route which included Kargil. We told them that things were fine and there wouldn't be any problems.

The driver and our guide were waiting for us. They took us to the boat house on the Nageen Lake. The boat is a huge one and fully grounded. You don't get much of a feeling of being on a boat. It was very well done boat and had a cable TV and all. There was a nice dining room as well. We had some biscuits and tea and started for a shikara ride on the Nageen lake. We could see lot of bird life along the lake. A guy came in another shikara and sold us some seeds. Generally you have lot of people selling lot of things in the lake.

Afternoon led us to the various gardens in Srinagar. Three gardens are very famous and we visited two of them. The gardens are well laid out and well maintained. The highlight of that evening was the visit to Pari Mahal. This is situated on a hillock and offers excellent view of the famous Dal Lake and the whole of Srinagar. I took quite a few photos from here. It was dark by the time we left Pari Mahal and landed up near our boat house. We needed to cross the lake and get to the other side to reach our boat house. It was pitch dark there and Gayathri was wondering if the boatman can see anything. He could and he got us to our boat house. It was different kind of experience, having a ride on the lake so late in the evening when you can see almost nothing. It was dinner and rest. Gulmarg was awaiting us the next day.

The Ski Capital of India

The Gondola ride is breathtaking and a not-to-be-missed ride, said one travel book. Well we did miss it going up. But we took another fascinating route up, which was to ride the horses.

The morning saw us head for Gulmarg. Before going there, I asked the driver to go to the bakery, where bought some of the delicious biscuits again for the journey. The journey, till you get close to Gulmarg, is nothing to shout about. Mostly dusty country side. The mountains start getting closer and taller as we get nearer to Gulmarg. The driver pointed to mountain range on the left side just before we got to Gulmarg and remarked that over the mountains was Pak Occupied Kashmir. We were really at the very border of India.

We started climbing the mountain. Stopped at a tea stall for some tea and our guide picked up a local guide. We also picked up some warm clothing and snow boots here. We started after the hot cup of chai and reached the base of Gulmarg, where the gondola starts. Gondola is the cable car which ferries people to the top of the mountain. Two mountains in fact. The first level is where people get off to go and play at the snow point or the glacier. The second level takes you to the top of the mountain range from where you can see the mountain range on the Pakistan side. We decided to take horses on our way up so that we can savor the scenery better and take the Gondola on the way down, so that we don't miss that experience either.

After some bargaining we got four horses and we started off the 5 km climb. Our guide trekked the mountain. As you climb the mountain, you realize how intelligent these horses are. They seem to know the route perfectly well. Each of the horses had a handler but not Harini's horse. The horse casually climbed the route without anyone telling it what to do. Added to it, the horses check how the surface is and then put their whole weight and their feet. There were many tricky places were we were not sure if the horses can cross but they did it and did it with ease. Another thing I noticed was when one horse saw another horse struggle at some place it took a small detour and avoided that stretch. Just like humans. Should actually say, better than humans.

The ride up was lovely. We first stopped near a stream and relaxed for some time. Then we stopped at tea stall. We got a panoramic view of the mountain range from here and also saw some great meadows in front of us. This area gets carpeted with snow during winter and this is the primary destination of all skiers in India it seems. After the rise of militancy, some place in Himachal has also started attracting skiers but if the magazines are to be believed, there is no place like Gulmarg to ski in India.

We finally reached our destination, the snow point. There were quite a few people there and we negotiated with some guys who had the snow sled. We walked up the slope and then we had to sit behind the guy on the sled as he ran the sled downwards. It was a terrific ride. The guys maneavour very well and all of us enjoyed it very much. You can climb even higher and come down but we were too tired to go higher than where we went. Higher up was a waterfall as well which we could see from a distance. The snow boots came in handy. After the sled ride we came to the gondola station and had our lunch there. Then it was time for the gondola ride. I wanted to go higher up to the next level of the mountain but it was getting late and hence we decided to go down. It was a great ride with us getting a panoramic view of the whole place. We got down and then started the ride back to the house boat and a well deserved rest.

Along the Sindh river - To the Path of Gold

"It seems to rain after 2pm. Yesterday we were completely drenched. But the experience of the seeing the place is worth it." This remark from another tourist hiked up my anticipation. We were going to Sonamarg, literally, the Path of Gold. It is a poor description of this glorious place. For what is the value of gold in face of such amazing beauty. (Ofcourse it helps us reach there :)

After saying goodbye to our host, we started off the the Shankaracharya temple, which is perched atop a hillock. It is said that Adi Shankara was here during his travels. The Shankaracharya temple is famous here and it was very crowded as well. The security is very tight. No vehicles are allowed after a certain point. You can image the level of security by the fact that a BSF jawan acts as the pujari and gives the prasad!! I don't know why it is so but it was a sardar jawan who gave us the prasad. The hill offers a lovely view of Srinagar. We met an elderly couple, who had also come from South, as a part of a large group. They were in Srinagar to visit this temple and were also going to Vaishno Devi.

We left for Sonmarg from here. I asked the driver to stop near some good bakery to buy biscuits to eat on the way. We bought some and went out of the city. Initially the scenery is nothing to shout about. It all changes after some time when you start seeing the Sindh river. You can clearly make out the meaning of white water when you see the Sindh. This is typical picture post card stuff. Green green trees all around and the white water of the river flowing furiously. We would not see such white water as the Sindh anywhere later in our journey. Driving here is such a pleasure with this type of scenery around you.

If I was happy with what I was seeing around I hadn't reckoned with what Sonamarg was to offer. I was dumbfounded when I saw my resort. Not exactly on seeing the resort but on seeing its location. The place where we were standing was a very wide valley. In front of us was the mountain range and behind the resort ran the Sindh river and far away were more mountains. The presence of many horse near the river added made the scenery very pastoral. From inside our room we could see the river and there was a small sitout where you could be one with the elements.

The major attraction of Sonamarg was the snowpoint or the glacier. This was supposed to around 3 to 4 kms from our resort. Initially we thought we would trek this distance but (as it happens most of the time) we went by car till around half a kilometer from the place, beyond which you cannot take the car. We hired some woolen overcoats and jerkins after some debate within ourselves. It was threatening to rain but would it? You can't be sure and so we went with the jerkins in our hand, ready to face any eventuality. We need to trek for some time before you reach the main snow point, where there was lot of activity happening. The crowd was too much and we decided not to worry about snow activities since we had done that in Gulmarg. Instead we went to another place where there was less snow but it was isolated. The trek was nice and thrilling to the kids since they had to cross the river on some very precarious bridges. Gayathri was scared but nothing happened. We saw one lady try to cross the river, which is shallow, stepping on some stones and falling down. It must have really been freezing cold there. The whole area is amazing. Secluded and away from the main road, this is another picture postcard area. Lovely green trees, a variety of them, and the clean clean river flowing between the mountains and lot of snow around. There are times when you feel that you don't need too much from life and being here you would get that feeling.

The kids played in the snow for some time, I took lot of photos and then we got back to the resort. The next day would take us over the Zozilla pass and to the Theater of War.

Zozilla - The first pass on the way

We started early in the morning. Our guide was saying that we need to leave early else we can be blocked just outside of Sonamarg. This is because the military convoys pass that way and the vehicle traffic on the other side is stopped till the convoy passes. The first vehicle in the convoy has a red flag and the last one has a green flag. You are expected to stop till the green flag bearing vehicle has passed you.

So off we started from Sonamarg and very soon started climbing a mountain. After some time our guide pointed us to the valley below and told us that it was the base camp for Amarnath Yatra. This was the Baltal base camp. The other route is via Pahalgam. Our guide showed us the route the yatris would take. It was between two mountains and it is supposed to continue for something like 18 kms or more. It was a wonderful sight. I guess you may have a different perspective when you actually walk that route but from high above it was lovely.

The Sindh river was flowing with us for quite some time. The road took us to the Zozilla pass. This was name which we had heard during the Kargil conflict. This was the first pass we crossed on our way to Leh from Srinagar. The pass is almost like a flat land. I was expecting to see two sides of mountain ranges from the pass but there was no such sight from the Zozilla pass. What was around was lot of snow. There were some lovely snow formations in the river. There would be a smooth chunk of snow in some very modernistic shape and would have an hole in the middle through which the cold waters of Sindh passed through. We got down here and walked around on the snow. It was freezing cold in that area. Our guide pointed to a soldier who was perched high atop a mountain, all alone. We waved to him and he waved back. Wonder how he is able to sustain himself there. It can get absolutely lonely there.

We crossed the Zozilla pass and after sometime I saw a creature, which seemed like a fox from a distance, run on the mountain. I asked others to look but the creature vanished. A few kilometers later we got our first good look at the Himalayan Marmot. It was not a fox but looks more like a beaver. We saw some stout fellows there. We were to see a lot more of them on our journey but nothing like seeing them for the first time. They were outside for a few seconds and then ran and vanished into their burrows. We stopped at an army place as we found a restroom there. I spoke to an army person who had come from Wynad in Kerala. That is an area I had visited and he was from Manantavady, another area I have been to. The driver found a skull of an Ibex, with horns and all. Harini caught hold of it and I took a couple of snaps.

Then we started for Drass and Kargil, names etched in every Indian consciousness

To the Theater of War

It is Kargil which evokes war memories in us but it was in Drass that the major battle was won. From what I heard Kargil town itself was probably not involved in any battle but Drass was the epicenter of a great battle which lead to the Indian forces capturing two strategic hills here. One of them, which we were seeing to our far left, was the Tiger Hill and straight ahead of us, behind the war memorial, was the Tololing hill.

We were getting hungry as we were approaching Kargil when our guide insisted that we stop at Drass and look at the war memorial. I should thank him for this. It gave us an idea of what the soldiers have achieved during the Kargil conflict and it also let us pay our humble respects to the memory of so many brave men who dies during the conflict.

Until you actually are at Drass, you will not realize the magnitude of what was done. The recapture of the Tololing hill is nothing short of a miracle. You will understand it when you see the hill. It is a hill which has no cover at all. I mean it is a hill with no major boulders, no trees or as the Americans would say it, no nothing. The enemy sitting at the top and probably having night scopes would find any soldier trying to get on the hill as easy target. There is no place to hide. Added to it, the hill offers a wonderful view of the highway. The highway that connects Srinagar to Leh. With bazookas or some rocket launchers, the enemy could blast any vehicle traversing this road and effectively blocking all access to Leh from Srinagar. I was intrigued and checked how the battle was won. From what I could understand, the Indian forces from an hill the other side of the highway started firing shells using the highly effective but unfortunately infamous Bofors guns. Under the cover of heavy shelling and braving the enemy fire, Indian soldiers climbed the hill and retook it. An feat of extraordinary courage. Our guide was saying how the engineers helped by building some makeshift bridges to help carry the Bofors guns to whichever place required.

The visit inside the memorial was a poignant one. Pictures of the hill and of soldiers who lost their lives during this battle are displayed here, as well as some new clippings. It also gives a list of those who were awarded the bravery awards. I came to know that when a soldier is awarded a Paramvir Chakra, he is above all ranks. In the sense that everyone in the army, including the Indian President, who is the C-in-C of the army, must salute him. It doesn't matter what his actual rank is within the army. All his superiors need to salute him. The pride with which the army maintains this place and their hospitality was very touching. They insisted that we have something cool to drink before we left there. Drass is supposed to be the second coldest place on the earth. The day we went was warm but in winter it snows a lot and the highway gets snowed out it seems. It is a tough place for the soldiers, given that they have to contend with the extreme weather and a hostile neighbor. My respect for the soldiers grew manifold after this visit.

We left the memorial in a quite mood to Kargil and reached there for lunch. When we called our respective homes, they were like, "What, you are in Kargil? Is it safe?" It is more than safe and I think after the Kargil war, there are probably few places in India which are safer. We had our lunch and came to the main marketplace to buy some stuff in the evening. Kargil is a stopover town and there is nothing you can consider as beautiful around here. It is a dusty town and the river which flows is muddy. Travellers come to this town enroute to Leh or Srinagar for a night halt but Kargil is more known as a night halt to reach the Zanskar area. Everyone halts here for the night before proceeding to Zanskar. That is a trip which I must do sometime in the future.

Alchi - The place to do nothing

"Till Mulbek you can see the Muslim influence", said our guide. "From there on it is Buddhist country". We were starting from Kargil. We cross the river and Mulbek was the first stop in the day. We were to climb two high passes and pass through some moonscapes before we would land in the quaint and quite village of Alchi.

At Mulbek we stopped to look at the rock carving of the future Buddha. I think the future Buddha is known by the name of Maitreya. Seemed a lot like Lord Shiva statue. Very close in style of the Hindu statues that you see. A couple of small shops are present near the rock carving. As usual, irrespective of where we stop, irrespective of when we have eaten, Rajani and Harini need to buy something from a shop when they see one. That is their strategy for keeping the economy healthy. So we bought some stuff here as well and started from Mulbek.

There were two passes on the way that we needed to cross, Namika La and Fotu La. Unlike other high altitude passes, these passes were dry and there was no snow anywhere around. A pass is supposed to help you cross from one side of the mountain range to another but at the passes that I have been earlier I have not been able to see both the sides clearly. In both these passes, you can stand besides the board which tells you the height of the pass (this is mandatory :) and you can see the ranges on both sides. The curving roads and the absolute lack of traffic of any sort heightens the sense of isolation. It is a lovely feeling , being there on the pass, with the wind blowing and absolute silence all around. Gayathri and I got down and took a few snaps. The kids were bored by the routine and sat in the car. There was a TV transmission tower on one of these passes.

From there we started for Lamayuru. You can see the Lamayuru monastery from a distance and it offers a lovely view. Most of the monasteries in Ladakh are built on the edge of the mountains. If you were to step out of any windows it is surely 'moksha' for you. The external facade of these monasteries is not very striking. They look like normal mud houses built on the ledge of some mountain. The exact location of these monasteries, which makes you feel that it can topple down anytime, and the fact that it is not one building but a cluster of buildings which gives them the grandeur when you view them from a distance. We reached the monastery and as usual, the inside was very colorful and attractive. The view from the monastery was lovely as could be expected. Ranjani and Harini did the thing of spinning the wheel. They were liking this. We had our lunch at a hotel adjoining the monastery. Though the service was slow the food was good.

Our stomachs now full, we started for Alchi. Lamayuru is famous for its moonscapes. This comes after you cross the monastery and proceed towards Alchi. A short distance after the monastery we saw many rock faces. It looks as if someone has carved faces of people on the rocks but in truth these are carved by the natural elements. There were many such 'modern art' pieces on the mountains there. Next came the moonscape. This is a large area, which is a part of these mountains, which are supposed to look like the surface of the moon. The color of this area differs from the adjoining mountains. It is very creamish in color and the surface is definitely strange to look at. As in many cases, no photograph can convey this strangeness. You need to be there to experience it.

We pass the moonscape and then starts the most fascinating and the frustrating part of that day's journey. The fascinating part first. As we drive along we start seeing mountains of different colors !! Looks like there are some mineral deposits in the rocks which give them color. Some of them give the mountain a reddish glow, while some give it a greenish tinge. Depending on how the light strikes them, you get to see different shades. Now we are passing through a passage between mountains, not exactly a valley. The whole atmosphere suddenly changes. There is absolute silence. Nothing except the sound of our vehicle. No evidence that any life form exists on this planet. It is as if we have come to a totally uninhabited planet without having to take a spaceship!! Gayathri echoes my thoughts, "Wow. This is so lonely. As if no one exists." Experiences like this are something worth dying for. Especially to city folks like me.

Then comes the frustrating part of the journey. When at a distance we can see the turn we need to take to reach Alchi, we notice a convoy in front of us. We are on a mountain road were passing a vehicle is difficult and the rule here is that if there is a convoy in front of you, you will not pass it, for security reasons. It seems that some minister is going to Ladakh that day and for some strange reason he requires a posse of armed guards in multiple guards to guard him in one of the safest places. So we crawl behind this cars, frustrated that we cannot move faster. The scenery is wonderful but the inability to pass a slow moving vehicle in front of you can give you an headache. Blame it on too much highway riding, if you will. Luckily for us this is not a Kerala highway where it is dusty and hot and you cannot pass !! The weather is cool and the scenery around is lovely so that saves the day and the headache. Finally we turn right while the convoy heads straight. The right turn gets us off the mountain and into vast space very typical of Ladakh. As few turns later, we enter the Alchi village.

Alchi is really small. There are very few houses and the monastery. We get to the hotel were we are to stay. They are still not fully ready. They don't anticipate the tourist rush till the first week of June so everything is still being done up. We dump our luggage and walk to the monastery. It is a lovely monstery and is well known in this part of Ladakh. There are some very old paintings, supposed to be done by Kashmiri painters. We speak with the monk there for some time and then come out. Gayathri and kids get back to the room while I walk around for some more time. The village ends after I cross a few houses!! I see some wonderful birds and there is quite a bit of greenery around. Looks like they cultivate peas here. At a distance I notice some ruined buildings. Must have been old forts or an old monastery which is in a state of disrepair. Alchi is a very small village but a very quite and peaceful one. I can imagine many people coming here to soothe their nerves. If you want to do absolutely nothing, Alchi is a very place to do it. I would highly recommend you to get to Alchi in case you are planning a Ladakh trip.

The next day would lead us to the highest motorable pass in the world.