So here we are in Kashmir city of Srinagar, staying in a beautiful houseboat in Dal Lake overlooked by the Himalaya Mountains.
Let me back up a bit.
Last I left off, I mentioned going to the Taj Mahal. Well we went, and it is incredible. So ornate, so majestic. It almost loses some of is grandeur up close. There's not a whole lot I can say about it that does it justice. It's sad how even the Taj Mahal cannot escape the work of graffitiers. Carved in the white marble side of the building is a couple names. Damn kids.
On Thursday, we boarded a Kingfisher airways plane (yes, the same Kingfisher that makes beer!) and flew to Leh. Leh, is this awesome Himalayan town that is full of Tibetan refugees. The view of the mountains is breathtaking. The Himalayas are huge. I knew they were big, but I didn't expect them to be this big. So tall, So steep, so white. We had planned on renting motorcycles then on Friday, but it started snowing, and we figured driving motorcycles in the mountains while its snowing was going to be dangerous, so we didn't. Instead we visited this awesome Tibetan Palace overlooking the town. The problem is the Leh is 11,483 ft above sea level, so hiking was a bit more work than it should have been. We managed though.
Friday at 5:00pm we boarded a shared jeep (7 people total) and started the very long, kind of scary, drive to the Kashmir city of Srinagar where we are now. To give you an understanding of how long the drive was, we didn't get in until 11:00am the next morning. The drive is only 480km (280 miles), but the road is so rough, tight, windy, and steep that it took a long time. We drove on the worlds second highest highway (18,000ft) through the worlds second coldest inhabited place (Drass), and over the worlds most dangerous mountain pass (driving down single-lane switchbacks with no shoulder over a mile above the valley floor below.) We made it though, and wow!, Srinagar is a sight. Blue skies, mirror blue lake, green trees, mountains rising miles above in all directions.
We will be back in Delhi on Tuesday for a few hours before catching a train to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple.
www.goo
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Very cool adventures. Too bad about not being able to motorcycle in the mountains, but it sounds like you will have planty of stories to tell.
ReplyDeleteWow. All three of you kids tell such interesting travelogues. You could make a career out of world traveling and telling people about it ... but you'd have to bring me with.
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