But Life Took This Path And Everything Is Different Now

On the one-way pass we had oncoming traffic. But not much. Some of it were the Israelis we had met in Manali.. The oncoming traffic also caused major traffic jams in the haipin bends.

We climbed higher and higher, and it was no longer green, but muddy and brown and cold. The road surface was rocky. Army trucks appeared in the mist. We overtook one-by-one. It was very steep. Once a soldier told us to wait. To let the army trucks pass. So one-by-one all the trucks overtook us again. I tentatively asked what the point was as I was just going to overtake all of them again, and almost all traffic consists of army trucks. He said there was an officer over there, and I must wait.

Trucks got stuck again. Sarita had to climb off and push me. Every vehicle was keeping a distance of about fifty meters, so that you had enough leeway to deal with clutch and gears. The scenery was so desolate and remote, with rocky outcrops like tombstones appearing through the rain on the sides. And just this lone cold army traffic slowly moving up. This was no place for tourists.

On the other side of the pass we passed nomad tents in bare valleys, bridges, and army transit camps, and army sectors, and army camps, and booms, and more forms, and soldiers, and horses, and the second coldest inhabitated place on earth. I was still in my sandals. And my wet gloves were freezing my hands. We passed the Italians I had met in Delhi and again on the road to Manali. On the road to Manali we lost them when we had a blowout. We were going to stick with them. It would have been us in that group of four motorbikes on the way to Kashmir if we had not had the puncture. But life took this path and everything is different now.

Sixty kilometers outside Kargil the landscape changed dramatically. It was noticeably warmer, we were in Ladakh now, and the mountains had turned to brown rock faces, an aquamarine river rushing rapids on the side, and all other colours vanished. And surprised us again in green trees lining the road, or green fields along the river only to disappear again. We saw a sign "You are under enemy observation".

We arrived in Kargil at nighttime.