05.06 "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"(The Smiths)/"Road To Nowhere"(Talking Heads)

Asia

India ->Kashmir

Jammu->Srinagar

We arrived to Jammu on schedule, 440am. I immediately thought of the movie "Soylent Green": there are always a lot of people on the floor on Indian train station… but here it was impressive: we had to walk through the maze left by people sleeping on the floor in what many times appeared as a random distribution… outside there was our "guide" waiting as expected; his job was to walk us 50 meters to the taxi/jeep stop and start discussing prices. We finally got in, but had to wait one hour until the jeep was full… then more price discussion… then some more minutes for no apparent reason… then more money coming and going… and then we go!

Enjoying a beautiful sunrise, we notice the driver turns on a crossing and starts driving on the wrong side of the road for about 2 km… but all was good! It's India, baby!

There were lots of monkeys by the road, but saw no road kills despite people throwing food at them. Clever bastards!

Another thing that we found amazing were the impressive routes and tunnels  being built... reminded me movies like Emmerich's "2012" where humans prepare for the Apocalypse!

All went relatively well until... flat tire

It is amazing how many military posts are in this region. As we waited for the tire to be changed, we heard gunshots on the distance. Also a lot of military trucks, more as we came closer to Kashmir.

Breakfast… deliciously unknowable; also fix tire… and cleaned air filter… long delay...

Look at this 5-Star roadside Hotel!

3 hours of drive so far; maybe 5 hours more…

The title song came to my mind as we were hugging and our driver was passing a car on the mountain road just before a curve…

"…and if a ten ton truck

Kills the both of us

To die by your side

Is such a heavenly way to die…"

Another stop for lunch. Again, strange carnivorous food and people eat with their fingers... I love it!!! }:-)

Back on the car, more driving... we start seeing snow at the peak of mountains

We get to a point where we have our passports checked:

"1840 meters above see (sic) level"

After that, we enter into a 2.5 km tunnel and emerge into the beautiful Kashmir Valley! Impressive!

Way later we stop for toll. Backing, a truck breaks left back lights if our car... that leads to a small fight.

We keep rolling... we finally seem to flow quickly until, about 65 km before Srinagar… huge clusterfuck!!

340pm… we get out, stretch… movement! We all jump in the car… the other line moves 1 car, ours none. Eventually we start moving.

Observation: we are not in the USA; you can't be a gentleman in a clusterfuck. 

Forty minutes later we're out! In the end, it wasn't that bad ;)

As with the whole trip, since we were tightly packed, sleeping implied close contact…

It is incredible how any day I drive in Chicago, Milwaukee or in between I see at least 1 accident. In all the days we've been in India, we've seen none. 

Now in Srinagar; the most notable: it is filled with military garrisons. 

We left the jeep at 6:04pm; got into another jeep and arrived to the houseboat at 6:45pm =>About 14 hours on a Road To Nowhere!

Boathouse... but the boat does not move; only rocks and creaks ;) At least we have a lovely view!

Every time w flush the toilet we hear a noise by the boat… interesting...

After a lovely dinner, we went to bed under the spell of calls to prayer… I'll talk about it as soon as I recover from this long day! Good night!