travel with ashish kaul: This trip is for real. Anyone interested?
suru valley
ladakh
nun kun
kargil
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
This trip is for real. Anyone interested?
Yes this trip is on, whether anyone comes with me or not. I go sometime in July end leaving a drenched Bombay behind. Its funny. Even Bombay is best at this time. But then you know the Himalayas are something else....
Now trekking up on alpine parts, no matter how exotic, is too wet to be possible. But then there are those high altitude deserts - Ladakh and Zanskar in Kashmir and Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh - in the rain shadow parts at an average altitude of some 14000 feet that stretch the trekking season in the Himalayas into July / August. (An eerie pairing, if you consider that Zanskar is drier than Ladakh just as Spiti is drier than Lahaul) By the way, in the Jannat, the paradise called Kashmir, the monsoons don't play spoil sport on trekking. So thats an exception. But the militancy does! My original plan in fact combined the best of both worlds (I'll just reveal the final one...). As per that plan I would have landed in a cloudy Srinagar, got picked up by old para commando friend of mine and then gone with him in a jeep to his 'unit' on the LOC, at some 11,000 feet - a gorgeous place far beyond the Wular lake area. I would have then spent some time there and then travelled from Srinagar to Pahalgam by road. I would have walked by the Lidder and childhood memories would come flooding back... And then I would leave Pahalgam on the trek up on over a part of the trail that goes to Amarnath, but leave the trail somewhere near Sheshnag, gaining height rapidly while acclimatising slowly till the Boktal pass at a rarefied snowbound 5000 Metres! Once over the pass, I would enter the Suru Valley (yes the Suru Valley...), Dard country, a muslim oasis in the midst of Buddhist Ladakh, a remote and loony place by the river Suru - a verdant valley of astonishing beauty, from where the twin peaks of Nun and Kun rise above the Parchik glacier - a glacier that takes particular joy in chucking huge blocks of ice into the torrential river below, while mankind shudders at the sight.
Nun and Kun are incidentally the highest peaks in Kashmir and must be among the 10 most beautiful peaks in the world just as the Suru Valey might well be among the 5 most beautiful valleys in the world, just as Kashmir is the only jannat in world for what right do us lesser mortals have to argue with Mughal Emperors!
My para commando friend had the following cryptic take on my original plan:
1. That I am most welcome to spend time with him and that he was looking forward to picking me up at Srinagar
2. That the Wular area of Kashmir would blow my mind even though I have had the good fortune of seeing all the major superstars of the Himalayas.
3. That the idea of trekking from Pahalgam to Boktal pass would really further the cause of militancy in Kashmir and many would be grateful for my sacrifice and that naturally does not include my well wishers who would wonder why they ever thought I was sane.
4. That when the miltants fail to bomb the Amarnath Yatra because of the heavy Army deployment around it, they would thank me for my presence 5 miles of it in the beautiful meadows of Kashmir. They would also thank me for my Kashmiri Pandit surname. And this would be my shortcut to fame, when every paper in the country would show my picture - only my head and not my body since photographing a beheaded body is not of much use, when all you want to show is the face.
5. That the headlines would help the cause of Kashmir, though not the cause of adventure travel, when they read "Kashmir Pandit beheaded near Amarnath Yatra"
6. That I would do well to leave Pahalgam alone and instead accompany him to his unit in gorgeous Kashmir, if I didn't mind.
7. Thereafter, by all means, I could take the fantabulous Srinagar Leh road in the trans himalayas and then trek in either Ladakh or Zanskar.
To cut a long story short - I listened. And I understood. To his credit, he was rather graphic on the travel stages near Amarnath.
So I am now detailing out my trek in the Suru Valley and will head off over 16,000 feet to worship the only gods I know - the really high Himalayas. At the base camp of Nun Kun I will marvel for umpteenth time on the place that is Kashmir...
Anyone interested?
Now trekking up on alpine parts, no matter how exotic, is too wet to be possible. But then there are those high altitude deserts - Ladakh and Zanskar in Kashmir and Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh - in the rain shadow parts at an average altitude of some 14000 feet that stretch the trekking season in the Himalayas into July / August. (An eerie pairing, if you consider that Zanskar is drier than Ladakh just as Spiti is drier than Lahaul) By the way, in the Jannat, the paradise called Kashmir, the monsoons don't play spoil sport on trekking. So thats an exception. But the militancy does! My original plan in fact combined the best of both worlds (I'll just reveal the final one...). As per that plan I would have landed in a cloudy Srinagar, got picked up by old para commando friend of mine and then gone with him in a jeep to his 'unit' on the LOC, at some 11,000 feet - a gorgeous place far beyond the Wular lake area. I would have then spent some time there and then travelled from Srinagar to Pahalgam by road. I would have walked by the Lidder and childhood memories would come flooding back... And then I would leave Pahalgam on the trek up on over a part of the trail that goes to Amarnath, but leave the trail somewhere near Sheshnag, gaining height rapidly while acclimatising slowly till the Boktal pass at a rarefied snowbound 5000 Metres! Once over the pass, I would enter the Suru Valley (yes the Suru Valley...), Dard country, a muslim oasis in the midst of Buddhist Ladakh, a remote and loony place by the river Suru - a verdant valley of astonishing beauty, from where the twin peaks of Nun and Kun rise above the Parchik glacier - a glacier that takes particular joy in chucking huge blocks of ice into the torrential river below, while mankind shudders at the sight.
Nun and Kun are incidentally the highest peaks in Kashmir and must be among the 10 most beautiful peaks in the world just as the Suru Valey might well be among the 5 most beautiful valleys in the world, just as Kashmir is the only jannat in world for what right do us lesser mortals have to argue with Mughal Emperors!
My para commando friend had the following cryptic take on my original plan:
1. That I am most welcome to spend time with him and that he was looking forward to picking me up at Srinagar
2. That the Wular area of Kashmir would blow my mind even though I have had the good fortune of seeing all the major superstars of the Himalayas.
3. That the idea of trekking from Pahalgam to Boktal pass would really further the cause of militancy in Kashmir and many would be grateful for my sacrifice and that naturally does not include my well wishers who would wonder why they ever thought I was sane.
4. That when the miltants fail to bomb the Amarnath Yatra because of the heavy Army deployment around it, they would thank me for my presence 5 miles of it in the beautiful meadows of Kashmir. They would also thank me for my Kashmiri Pandit surname. And this would be my shortcut to fame, when every paper in the country would show my picture - only my head and not my body since photographing a beheaded body is not of much use, when all you want to show is the face.
5. That the headlines would help the cause of Kashmir, though not the cause of adventure travel, when they read "Kashmir Pandit beheaded near Amarnath Yatra"
6. That I would do well to leave Pahalgam alone and instead accompany him to his unit in gorgeous Kashmir, if I didn't mind.
7. Thereafter, by all means, I could take the fantabulous Srinagar Leh road in the trans himalayas and then trek in either Ladakh or Zanskar.
To cut a long story short - I listened. And I understood. To his credit, he was rather graphic on the travel stages near Amarnath.
So I am now detailing out my trek in the Suru Valley and will head off over 16,000 feet to worship the only gods I know - the really high Himalayas. At the base camp of Nun Kun I will marvel for umpteenth time on the place that is Kashmir...
Anyone interested?
Ashish Kaul
P.S. Has it occured to those who chance upon this blog, that you could use it to hunt out companions to travel with?
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Why travelwithashishkaul?
Why do I need this blog. The answer lies in my understanding or rather in my limited understanding of the medium of blogging. The answer also has to do with what I have experienced - that I have met so many interesting people while travelling, especially in the course of offbeat or unconventional travel. I have also often confronted the frsutration of finding likeminded company for offbeat travel plans. I have also seen that travel is the best context for enjoying the company of strangers. And that makes it so much more interesting. I hope this blog will help in this. I hope that thru this I will help others too find likeminded company for their travel as well.
You know at the back of my mind are a few trips:
1. Like climbing Imja Tse or Island Peak in Nepal is Sept / Oct
2. Like driving thru torrential monsoons of the Konkan coast
3. Like driving into Bhutan thru Phuntsling in the rains of the North East (these rains are different you know)
4. Like sleeping in tents by the Manali Leh Road, an Enfield by the side.
And so on.
Any takers?
Post your own ideas. And with travel with me or with someone likeminded on travelwithashishkaul
Ta Ta for now.
Tashi Delek!
You know at the back of my mind are a few trips:
1. Like climbing Imja Tse or Island Peak in Nepal is Sept / Oct
2. Like driving thru torrential monsoons of the Konkan coast
3. Like driving into Bhutan thru Phuntsling in the rains of the North East (these rains are different you know)
4. Like sleeping in tents by the Manali Leh Road, an Enfield by the side.
And so on.
Any takers?
Post your own ideas. And with travel with me or with someone likeminded on travelwithashishkaul
Ta Ta for now.
Tashi Delek!
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