My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and one of Phil's cousins were here visiting for almost two weeks, so after the usual Delhi sightseeing we took them north. Mostly because we've been really wanting to get there and they provided the excuse. We flew into
Leh, which is on the dry side of the Himalayas and predominately
Buddhist.
Then drove across the Indian state of
Jammu & Kashmir, ending up in Srinagar, which is on the wet side of the mountains with a Muslim population. Turns out "dry side" is a bit of an understatement. This area was barren. And absolutely stunning.
The road was crazy. Windy. Bumpy. Dusty. Narrow. We crossed one pass that was over 13,000 feet high. It was a 430km (270 mile) drive that took two 7 hour days to cover.
Luckily you could always get out and throw some rocks.
And there were
monasteries
and 25 foot Buddha statues carved into rock for pit stops.
There were checkpoints galore. The whole area is quite militarized, owing to border disputes with both Pakistan and China. At one, Phil's mom misplaced her passport, which resulted in our being stopped later by the military, their radioing back, finding it, and our waiting for another vehicle to bring it. The army guys were rewarded with photos, tales of her family in the US and red vines.
Eventually a truck arrived with the passport in hand.
We did the same hike in
Sonamarg, Kashmir on the way into Srinagar, that we did with my parents. And Phil got his turn to go to the early morning floating vegetable market on Dal Lake (Which is a lot cooler than that description sounds).
Then drove across the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir, ending up in Srinagar, which is on the wet side of the mountains with a Muslim population. Turns out "dry side" is a bit of an understatement. This area was barren. And absolutely stunning.
The road was crazy. Windy. Bumpy. Dusty. Narrow. We crossed one pass that was over 13,000 feet high. It was a 430km (270 mile) drive that took two 7 hour days to cover.
Luckily you could always get out and throw some rocks. 
And there were monasteries
and 25 foot Buddha statues carved into rock for pit stops.
There were checkpoints galore. The whole area is quite militarized, owing to border disputes with both Pakistan and China. At one, Phil's mom misplaced her passport, which resulted in our being stopped later by the military, their radioing back, finding it, and our waiting for another vehicle to bring it. The army guys were rewarded with photos, tales of her family in the US and red vines.
Eventually a truck arrived with the passport in hand.
We did the same hike in Sonamarg, Kashmir on the way into Srinagar, that we did with my parents. And Phil got his turn to go to the early morning floating vegetable market on Dal Lake (Which is a lot cooler than that description sounds).
4 comments:
Wow! That is awesome you got to go there. How long are you going to be in India. Kalani is thinking of going to visit my parents. Maybe he can head North to Delhi too.
That looks really, really cool. Good for you guys. What an adventure. And great pictures!
Quadruple WOW to the Blackburns. Thanks so much for putting up these posts, and for being so adventurous! Amazing terrain, and looks like such a great adventure for the boys. My favorite picture of all is Blackburn the Younger 'clearing rocks' from the road for your car to get through.
Nice pic of my mom and the army dudes. I still can't believe how that all worked out for her. You fail to describe in the blog the mini crisis that it all was. I'll never forget Shannon "I'm just glad it wasn't me." HA!
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