[BeingCynical]

Day - 4 Continued

As if Mr. Murphy was waiting to smile on me. No sooner I said, the roads have improved, the J&K PWD chaps took humiliation in my statement and wanted to show me, who is the boss.





I immediately accepted my mistake for underestimating the PWD chaps and the roads improved a bit. But as punishment I was asked to negotiate some most disciplined creatures.


One of the most disciplined & innocent creatures



Good roads and great views continued for some more time.











To Be Continued...

[BeingCynical]

Day - 4 Continued

Now that we had some great views captured and posed enough, the search for a cup of tea started. But surprising enough we were yet to encounter on road side Tapri to satisfy our thirst. None the less we kept moving.
















Some construction may be

Encountered our first Risky Job of the tour finally



After driving for another 15 minutes and looking like a hawk towards every roadside shop we finally managed to find a small Dhaba that looked like serving Tea.




Can you spot the guy addressing the nature's call?




Some tea for the beast?

To Be Continued...

[tomraven99]

Is the Sardarshahar route you mentioned the same as Kishangarh Hanumangarh Bhatinda super highway?I thought this was the easiest and quickest way to Amritsar.
I had taken this route last year and the roads were superb all the way.

Delhi Jaipur route was a mess with heavy traffic jams.

[BeingCynical]

Originally Posted by tomraven99

Is the Sardarshahar route you mentioned the same as Kishangarh Hanumangarh Bhatinda super highway?I thought this was the easiest and quickest way to Amritsar.
I had taken this route last year and the roads were superb all the way.

Delhi Jaipur route was a mess with heavy traffic jams.

Routes after Sardasahar till Bhatinda and beyond is fine. The issue with me is the road till Sardasahar from Kishangarh. It is shortest but the roads are partially complete. I count at least 6 places where the traffic is diverted from the Highway through highway side towns. And how inner roads in these towns are needs no elaboration. Well dug up roads and unruly traffic rule the roost with crazy drivers throwing themselves from every possible direction including the sky. If that is not enough, the cattle class of such cities add insult to an already aggravated injury.

[embee]

Hi BC,
Congratulations on your trip. Hope you must have enjoyed a lot and have safely completed the same and thanks for sharing a multitude of pictures and also for the great narration.

Visiting Leh-Ladakh always has that strangely enchanting, soothing, almost mesmerizing effect..!!

Regards,
embee.

[motomaverick]

Nice travelogue and a perfect vehicle for Ladakh. Thanks for sharing and making us relieve our memories of 2013 drive.

This particular photo of the highway near Manor is almost similar in condition to what we experienced in 2013.




Even we stayed at Kingfisher Palace after being stuck for 4 hours in the Baruch jam. Yes its definitely a hotel that should be avoided. Here is our review

[deepv]

Great pictures & nice detailed travelogue .. BeingCynical!!

One of my friends from Pune is planning a trip to Ladakh ... this would be good reference.
Keep more of them coming!!!

[pgupta]

Great TL, thoroughly enjoying and thank you for sharing so many photos. Eagerly waiting for the rest..

[tomraven99]

Originally Posted by BeingCynical

I count at least 6 places where the traffic is diverted from the Highway through highway side towns.

There were no diversions last year if I remember correctly. Thanks for the update. Will avoid the route this year.

[BeingCynical]

Originally Posted by tomraven99

There were no diversions last year if I remember correctly. Thanks for the update. Will avoid the route this year.

Something so drastic can't happen in one year time. Did I take a wrong route? I am wondering now...

[JoseVijay]

What a Travelogue! Glued to this thread and waiting for the next set of posts and pics. Rated 5 stars

[BeingCynical]

Day - 4 Continued

Back after a break:

We finally got something that looked like serving tea but the shop owner was completely disinterested in having milk in the tea that he serves. I even asked if he knows something called Milk. Surprising enough he knows.




I got to know that there are so many companies in India that sell chips

So after a healthy tea break we moved again. Though the after effect of the tea was absolutely deplorable, scenic surroundings made the driving interesting.











We didn't had our breakfast hence we were little hungry. But there was nothing decent enough we found to have our breakfast. All hopes were stocked on Srinagar and the much famed non-veg delicacies.




Another Risky Job









To Be Continued...

[Srikji]

Loved the part about the trucks racing each other, hilarious stuff! Inspiring post, hoping to do a Chennai-Leh trip sometime in 2015.

[BeingCynical]

Day - 4 Continued

Drooling by just thinking about the food that awaiting us at Srinagar we kept moving. But persistent traffic and way too many Risky Jobs on road were making our progress that quick.









Found a view point somewhere and we three of us promptly started posing like seasoned models.


Yours Truly


Beast also posed

Finally we crossed Jawahar Tunnel and crossed over to Kashmir valley. And no sooner Titanic view point approached. Time for some more pose.




He posed for us too


Some pose Rajanikanth would be proud of


Yours Truly again






By the way it was pointing to the toilet near a bush but for which gender, not sure

To Be Continued...

[BeingCynical]

Day - 4 Continued

After learning about a gender called Gensts we moved ahead. Soon we were seen loitering around Srinagar




Srinagar is not far

Now hear comes the second heart-in-the-mouth moment for us. Barely 15 Km before we have the ever vigilant J&K police team scanning for potential terrorists & nuisance makers entering in. So we were promptly stopped and asked for all possible documents. Then the standard questionnaires starting with the purpose of visit went on. After five minutes of grilling we were allowed to enter Srinagar vicinity.

Since there is a police check vehicles from both the directions were travelling slowly with displaying all the manners which otherwise never would. Barely 1 Km from the police check post, there was a red color tempo parked on the road side. Just about when I was nearing the tempo a truck which was behaving gentle till then, suddenly tried to overtake a sumo with a speed that we generally associate with F1 cars. I was barely 20 meters from the truck when it suddenly appeared on my side of drive. I almost stood on the brake and hoped for some kind of miracle. In that fraction of a second period I mentally prepared myself for a badly crashed left side. It never looked practically possible to miss both the truck and the tempo parked on the right at the same time. Beast screeched at the best volume and skidded for some time before stopping. By Gods grace, the beast missed both the truck and the tempo. I don't know how but it missed.

Thoroughly shaken up I got of the road and took couple of deep breaths before moving again. Reached Srinagar after 30 minutes. The moment we parked the beast on the banks of Dal lake, we immediately attacked the first Pani-Puri vendor we saw. Gulped down couple of dozen of Pani-Puris each before we said, thats it.

Strolled for 15 minutes for the Pani-Puri to settle down and then made a move for Mughal Darwar. Ordered some chicken & mutton and polished them off within no time. Finished up the fulfilling meal with some yummy Ras-Malai.



To Be Continued...