Lamayuru

The road from Kargil to Lamayuru passes through two passes - the beautiful Namika La and the highest point yet, Fotu La.

Namika La passes through the breathtaking Zanskar range, with the highest peaks Nun and Kun peaking through in the background.

At Fotu La we crossed the 4000m mark for the first time. On the other side of Fotu La is Lamayuru. It has an ancient monastery and was a very pretty small village. It was the most beautiful stopover in the trip - a beautiful little village, a stream in the valley, an ancient monastery and the wonderful people of Ladakh.

Lamayuru was so different from Kashmir, that it felt as if a new trip had started. The stream and its surroundings were teeming with bird life and I had a very fruitful morning birding there.

Exeunt Kashmir, Enter Ladakh

The J&KRTC buses were comfortable enough, but it was a bumpy 10 hour ride through the scariest road I've ever been on.

Once out of Srinagar, the road stuck to the banks of the rushing, gushing Sindh river all the way to Sonmarg. Sonmarg is a beautiful stop on this highway. In Summer there are innumerable streams coming down the lush green mountainside. Saw a lot of Gujar nomads with their sheep and cattle and their tent bases set up in the valley.

The Zoji La, the first of many high altitude passes to come was the scariest. At Zoji La, we left the green Sindh valley, and climbed up the the barren slopes of the pass. On the other side, we got down into the Drass valley and the first sight of Ladakh.
Huge rocky craggy mountains and green valleys.

At Drass we got a sight of Tiger Hill, the epicenter of the Kargil war. Kargil is a bustling town. On this journey, we left the land of the Kashmiris. The people of Kargil are from Baltistan, the Baltis.

Srinagar

The first thing that I noticed in Srinagar were the armed CRPF men. It takes some time to get used to seeing  a large number of guys in combat suits wielding huge guns and sandbags and barbed wire on every roadside.

The next thing I noticed were the Kashmiris - extremely good-looking people!
Srinagar itself is very beautiful, with its parks, green hills, beautiful people and of course, the Dal Lake.

Dal Lake lives up to its reputation.
Went for a 2 1/2 shikara ride in the Dal Lake. It was blissfully peaceful, with its huge swathes of Lotus flowers, Kingfishers fishing right next to the boat, the floating market, the boats filled with flowers and vegetables and the clear still water of the lake. The locals are proud of it, and they say that it is 'Jannat' - it surely felt like it!

Gulmarg, the famous ski-resort near Srinagar, is beautiful in Summer too. No wonder it was filled with tourists...and touts. Up in the Pir Pinjal hills, some 60km from Srinagar, Gulmarg has three levels of plateaus. There is a cable car that takes one up the hill to the higher plateaus. The views are breathtaking there, and the cable car ride is a must.

Gave a miss to the famous gardens and went to the Dachigam National Park, the Pari Mahal and Sankaracharya Temple - a 7th century Shiva temple that had breathtaking views of Srinagar. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed up there.