Kashmir, Curfew and a Ladakh trip

Everything needs a start.
We were a group of 10 scattered across Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. Bigger travel plans are hard to execute. Legend says that those Goa and Bangkok plans are still on. 😀 And a Ladakh trip planned for two weeks is no exception. We booked our flight tickets as the very first thing around mid of July because we all needed a grip of our plan. We decided not to opt for any trip packages but to go with the flow. This decision was made purely to experience a little more adventure. But we did make an itinerary on when and where we had to be. So we booked only the rental bikes required and we were all set for our trip which was supposed to start on 31st Aug. And out of all the possible routes options that were available to Ladakh, we decided to start from Srinagar. Little did we know that the President of India and Mr.Modi had other ideas. On 5th Aug, it was announced that the Article 370 was being scrapped. Tourists and pilgrims from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir were vacated and it went into a lock down. No phones and no internet!

Nobody had a clue on what was going on in Kashmir. There was chaos going on in the country with mixed emotions everywhere about the scrapping of Article 370. Politicians took a plunge on Twitter, Facebook and other social media talking about it except for Kashmir as section 144 was imposed there. No one outside J&K knew how the people in Kashmir were looking at the situation. Our whatsapp group started flooding. We were all discussing about it and was not sure how it was going to be in the upcoming days. We were doubtful if we would be able to do the trip. Since it was a complete lock down, we were not able to contact the bike rental guys to know the status. We talked about even cancelling our plan. But since it was 4 weeks before our actual trip day, we decided to sit back and wait, believing that everything will cool down eventually. We kept a threshold of 2 weeks and if we had no response we decided to take a decision on the trip.

Week 1 & 2: Complete lock down with no network whatsoever. We had put our preparations and purchase for the trip on hold until we were sure of going. We were constantly looking for some way of communication to know if something will turn positive. But nothing worked. It was all over news that even politicians who were trying to enter Kashmir were being sent back right from the airport.
Week 3: The restrictions were lifted in some places but Srinagar was still under curfew. It was told that network was being restored slowly. But we were not able to contact anyone. It was hard to decide anything because we weren’t sure of what could happen there and it was also a matter of safety. We started discussing about cancelling the tickets to Srinagar and thought about taking alternate route to Ladakh. But it was a high time that we made a proper plan again with only a week left. We had to re-book out flights and rental bikes again. We decided to wait for two more days to see if we could contact someone there. At the end of the 3rd week, the bike rental guys messaged us saying that we can still travel. Though normal life was not restored in Kashmir, he said that it wouldn’t be a problem and that tourists were being allowed into the city without any questions. It was a great relief to hear that the trip was doable.
Week 4: We did all our purchase and preparations in a hurry. And at the end of the week, we were all set. On 31st Aug we flew to Srinagar as per our inital plan.

We landed at Srinagar airport around 12.30 pm. The very first sight that we witnessed was a huge number of army men in the airport going out. They were not in their uniforms though. Maybe they were being brought to Srinagar from different states to handle the situation there. We weren’t sure. We collected our luggage and met with other friends who had landed earlier and were waiting inside the airport. We all left to the parking lot and found that the rental guys had sent their cabs to pick us up from the airport. It was a great gesture from them which we never expected. We got ourselves introduced to them and relaxed a bit talking about the situation there. Nothing bad so far, we thought. We started from the airport to the hotel rooms which was 12 kms away. This was when we came to know how bad the situation was inside Srinagar. The roads were empty with only few vehicles running here and there. The streets were heavily guarded by security forces. We were able to see them standing for every 100 meters and they were heavily armed. There were security blocks on the roads with patrol vehicles everywhere. It was like watching a hollywood military movie. We happened to pass through a market zone and it looked deserted. There was not even a single shop that was opened all the way till we reached the hotel rooms. We were talking to our driver to understand how the people inside were feeling about scrapping of article 370. He said some were in favor and some were against and that the local people in Srinagar were completely against it. He said the reason why all the shops were shut was because of that. We hardly saw a few medical shops opened and some street vendors selling fruits. Nothing more than that. It is important to note that these scenes that we witnessed were almost 25 days after Article 370 was scrapped.

We reached our hotel rooms after a 30 minutes drive. If watched from outside the gate, nobody can tell if the hotel was functioning or not. That was how discreet the hotel was operating. We were the only guests in that hotel that day. Our bikes were already ready and available in the parking. We were all hungry but the hotel staff said that there was no dining available because of the curfew and that we had to find something outside. But no restaurants were open. The bike rental guys were there and they offered to help us. They drove us a few kms away to a restaurant but it seemed to be closed. The driver got down, talked to some locals there and then we were taken inside what appeared to be a closed restaurant. We came to know from them that a few restaurants were operating behind closed doors. Somehow we managed to fill our hungry stomachs with whatever was available in the restaurant. After finishing our lunch they took us back to the hotel. We had a discussion about the bikes, accessories and settled up for it. The rental guy said that if we drove early in the morning, there would not be any problem for us to cross the city limit. He told that only Srinagar was under curfew and once we crossed the first 50 kms everything would be normal. So we decided to start towards Ladakh the next day morning.

We all spent our evening talking about each other’s college and school days. Talking and laughing over the memories burnt the time away so rapidly that we  didn’t realize it was almost dinner time which was another problem. The rental guys said they would arrange us food for the night and left earlier. We waited and waited but the food never came. So I took a bike and went outside with one of the hotel staff to see if we could get something to eat. I went back to the same hotel where we had lunch. But this time it was really closed. We searched for other restaurants that might be operating behind closed doors. But nothing was available. We enquired some guy if we could atleast manage to get some eggs. But no it was not happening. I returned back to the hotel empty handed. We asked the hotel staff if they could prepare something for us to eat. But they only had bread which they had arranged for our breakfast the next day morning. After a long discussion and seeing what was leftover in their kitchen, they said they could make some rice and dal and nothing more than that. We happily agreed. Hot steamed rice with dal and pickle seemed so full that night. Thanks to them! We didn’t sleep hungry. We had a good sleep that day.

With all this happening we still managed to do a wonderful trip to Ladakh covering more than 2600 kms. Our experience, stories and locations with some cool photos and videos will be coming up in more posts. Until then…

Update 1: So what happened the next day? Check this to know -> Srinagar to Kargil – Getting Leh’d Part 2