The last few days have been rather exciting.
Last I wrote, I was in Lahore.
A few days ago, we were sat on the roof of our hotel eating breakfast and chatting. Marc, who I had last seen in Istanbul had arrived after his mammoth mission through Syria, Jorden, Egypt, Saudia Arabia and Iran and so had John and Bev who I last saw in Erzurum.
Snipers!
Whilst chatting away about nothing in particular we heard 'pop pop pop'. Automatic gunfire. We had heard it before in Quetta so thought nothing of it. Sometimes the Pakistanis get a bit excitied and fire into the air. Suddenly there was a 'whoomph'. That was a shotgun. It was close. More gunfire and explosions followed, only about 50m from our hotel. We clambered to look over the walled rooftop terrace and could see smoke. This was serious. After locking the hotel door and keeping our heads down to avoid the police swat teams moving across the roof we turned on the TV to find out what was going on.
At first, some people had apparently tried to run from the police and had been shot at... this didnt make sense? Why use grenades? Shortly the truth came out... some men had "barged" (term used by the newsreader) into the Police station down the road. Still this was not the truth. Eventually we learnt that several men and women had attacked the police station wearing suicide vests and carrying kaleshnikovs. Lahore was no longer the safe haven it was supposed to be. The worrying thing was that the Taliban had apparently cells in the supposedly safe haven of Punjab. It was time to leave Pakistan and forget about the Karakorum Highway, which is apparently in bad condition anyway thanks to the Chinese, and run to India.
Marc and I had visas but the other guys didn't so we had to go our seperate ways. Hopefully you are all keeping safe and I'll see you in India!
So Marc and I left for the border. We were through rather painlessly and after buying beer and whisky from the duty free - our first allowed alcohol we were in India.
After celebrating with said beer we headed for Amritsar and the Golden Temple, a Sikh Pilgramage site where free accomodation was on offer. When we arrived we were ushered with the bikes into a central courtyard filled with pilgrims trying to settle down for the night. To our surprise the guys in charge forced a lot of these guys to move out of the way, some of whom were crippled, just so that we could have somewhere safe and secure to park our bikes. They didnt seem to mind since a big bright orange KTM causes a lot of interest, especially since orange seems to be a holy colour. They might have thought we were gods.
We wandered around the temple and what a difference it was to the Muslim countries. I could wear shorts and women walked around without headscarfs. Everything was so relaxed and so friendly. It was incredibly relaxing with music playing from a live band in the temple. We went inside with the pilgirms and tried to mimic whatever they were doing, which included touching the doorstep before entering and leaving.
Everything at the temple is free, including food and accomodation especially for backpackers. We ate with several hundred other people on the floor of a large hall. The sweet rice was fantastic, the dahl not so. Stupidly I drank from a bowl of water that had been provided, not thinking since I was thirsty. Big misake. I would pay for that a couple of days later.
The next day we set off early, after being surrounded by another curious crowd of onlookers who just try to get as close as possibly and just stand there staring at you, even if you're just sat on the bike looking back at them. A surreal experience.
Our plan was to make our way north to Jammu and Kashmir to attempt the worlds highest motorable road from Leh to Manali before it closed because of the weather since it passes over 5000m+. Word was that it was already closed, others said it was still possible for private vehicles.
We tried to get to Srinagar in one day. The roads started flat and boring filled with trucks and the usual cows and rickshaws before getting twistier and twister. Suddenly monkeys appeared on the road to add to the chaos with the trucks. The roads were fantastic, it was like the Alps all over again. The KTM handled fantastically now I had fully working suspension again.
It took 2 days to get to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The road was brand new with almost all the way there and before passing into Kashmir valley we travelled through a tunnel, only one vehicle wide for at least 3 or 4 km. It was like travelling into a mine.
Marc makes a friend.
In Srinagar we were hassled by touts trying to get us to stay on a houseboat on the lake. They literally ran down the road after us but we found a hotel out of the way with secure parking.
That night the water from Amritsar caught up with me... it wasn't pretty. I spent the next day in bed. Marc spent the day making some woolen gloves up from wooley hats he bought. They look ridiculous.
Feeling better the next day we set off to Kargil. The scenery got better and better. Words cannot do it justice and pictures cannot show the beaty and majesty of the snow capped mountains.
From Kargil we went to Leh, and suddenly from Muslim Kashmir, we were in the land of Buddhists. Temples adorned the landscapes and faces changed from asian to oriental.
Children held their hands out to us as we passed for us to high five - much better than the stones they apparently throw on the Karakorom Highway.
The road to Leh is possibly one of the best I've ever ridden. At times the surface was aweful, but we flew over it on our rally bikes.
Along the way signs from the road building agency have little slogans like if married, divorce speed' and 'this is a higway not a runway'. Almost as if they had employed Master Yoda to write them. Some were quite spiritual, such as 'If you can dream it, you can do it'. After stopping to take a photo next to this fitting one I noticed I had a flat front tyre. What fun it is to change a tyre at 3000m altitude.
We went over a pass of 4096 meters. Higher than anything the alps have to offer. At one point a brand new road had been built, complete with road markings! Nowhere in India has road markings! It was literally like a racetrack.
We made it to Leh just as the Sun was setting and found a decent hotel with parking. At a restaurant last night I had chicken chowmein and dumplings. A wonderful change from curry.
Anyway, I'm off now to look at the monastry and to get news about the road onwards. Hopefully it's still open but we're really pushing it, it's very late in the year and snow is due any second. Hopefully not for a few more days.
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