Was informed the day before that there is some unrest / curfew in parts of Srinagar. However, since we wanted to go back a different route plus were thinking of visiting Wagah border, we decided to take our chances. The mechanic who serviced our bikes day before also was of the view that it may not be much of a concern since Srinagar is a large city and unrest may be in few areas. Hence decided to take Srinagar route. What we really faced will come later.
Again, after leisurely breakfast and chit chat, could leave the hotel by around 9 AM (first revised from 7 to 8 and then from 8 to 9). We were to miss riding with the Group and tension of tyre puncture etc was again back. The road is great for few kms and we got excited thinking that it may be such all the way. However, it was not to be. Though not as bad or difficult at the Manali-Leh, road till after Zozilla pass / Sonamarg is still having number of challenges. With lot of road construction work also going on, many of the places we were just riding on big rocks.
We stopped for our second breakfast (first was at Leh) and were surprised to note that the person managing the place was Marastrian - my wife was happy to be able to chat with someone in marathi (she is Maharastrian). He comes to the place for work during this period and after sept goes to Goa to work there. There are many people like him in this region. Even the help in hotel at Leh had come from Bihar for the tourist period.
We got petrol filled at Kargil (last fill was at Leh the day before). I was looking for a shop where I could buy RVM as I am not very comfortable in riding in mountains without one moreso now since traffic is more on this route and it is important to know when some vehicle wants to overtake us, but it was in vain.
The road after that is filled with army checkpost, even one board stating that we may be under observation of enemy. Most of the time on this road, I followed an army vehicle who finally got irritated and let us pass (though I was not looking to overtake him). We were continuously riding since we had left Leh and were tired hence decided to take a halt at Drass which we reached ~6:30 PM (which was the right thing to do which we realised next day as crossing Zozilla pass after daylight is certainly not advisable, more so on a bike).
We did not see the Drass memorial, which we had crossed on the way since it looked closed. Just after that we were stopped by an army vehicle - we were stopped because the driver was Maharastrian and seeing Mumbai number plate just wanted to have a chat :-). Again there was chit chat in marathi between my wife and him and I guess both were happy.
When we were in Leh, we got an impression that people in Drass are cheats who tend to fleece the tourists. The term used by guy was "Drass main chai ka daam bhi time ke saath badalta hai" - that depending on the time of the day and cold, people at drass charge different rates for tea. But our experience at Drass was complete opposite of it.
While searching for a hotel, we first went to see Hotel city view or something, which was quite horrible and shady. However, while parking the bike to see the hotel, we saw the board of J&K tourism hotel which was just next to it. Got a room there for Rs 400 which was quite nice. Plus there were lot of other tourists there, including families. The geyser in the room was not working but the caretaker was more than happy to provide hot water in buckets (initially asked us Rs 20 per bucket, but when he told that in other rooms the geyser works, he agreed to provide hot water free of cost since geyser not working was not our fault).
Since we had taken halt at respectable time, we thought to checking out the market before dinner. We went for a walk. We bought some fruits on the way and were informed that fruits / vegetables are bought from Srinagar. We went into a bakery to buy some water and tried the plain cake there. It was one of the freshest, softest cake that we had ever eaten and was such reasonably price (more than reasonably priced actually).
We had our dinner at a small eatery opposite to the hotel. The food was also yummy. Ate rajma which are called dal there. So when they dal chawal, they mean rajma - chawal. After good food and overall a very pleasant experience at Drass, we went off to sleep.