Travelogue

Part 1 - Pune to Srinagar

It occurred to me that while I had one of the best vacations earlier this year in the gloriously rugged terrains of Ladakh, I have never written about it. So I have decided to jot down my travels in a multi-part series imaginatively titled Travelogue. 

The original plan was hatched by my sister and brother-in-law (English really ought to come up with better kinship terms! Someone-in-law is such a mouthful.) which somehow evolved to include my mother and I. Dad, of course, had office and couldn't make it. So I applied for leave at my office and joined with full gusto in launching a reconnaissance of the region we were to visit. Planes were booked, hotels and home stays identified, places of interest marked and bags were packed. To my surprise, my leaves were granted by my boss (I was getting ready to grovel if needed). 

Planning the trip is often more fun than the actual trip. Your mind goes places, imagining the various sights to be beheld, the aromas of the local food, the sounds and smells of the locales amongst other experiences. Of course, there is the vague, niggling worry that the hotel room may only have a single 10 watt bulb to light the gloom and bed bugs that'll glut on your blood, that it'll rain orange-sized hailstones on the day you plan to see the beautiful, snow-covered peaks at Gulmarg, and that at any moment, protests would paralyse the transport industry which'll leave you stuck at the glorified bus terminus called Pune airport. So for several days before the trip, we diligently viewed hotel reviews online, checked the weather report for the region and followed the news regularly to put our minds at ease. 

I guess we spent most of the week before our departure in an orgy of buying stuff for the trip, while packing and unpacking items several times trying to decide if we'd need it during the trip. In any case, we departed for the airport with the entire winter wear section of Shopper's Stop and half a pharmacy's worth of medicines for every possible medical emergency we might face, from apoplexy and incontinence, to nausea and zits.

We took an early morning flight from Pune to Delhi, where we picked up my brother-in-law's parents. At the security check for our onward flight to Srinagar, I espied the team from AIB (if you haven't seen AIB's channel on YouTube yet, you should). 

The approach to Srinagar is splendid. The bird's eye view of the snow-capped mountains around the city, the verdant farms below, and spots of colour indicating houses was simply beautiful! It all looked very clean and fresh. We had a wobbly landing, but halted neatly at the terminal, which prompted a round of applause amongst the passengers.

We were greeted at the airport by our contact from the military, who picked up our bags from the conveyor belt and whisked us to the two military jeeps waiting for us outside. Most of our luggage and my bro-in-law were loaded in one of the vehicles, while the rest of us squeezed in the other. I had the unfortunate honour of being seated in the rear compartment of the vehicle, with the rest of our luggage. With military precision, they neatly folded me in the available 8 inches of space , and I spent the journey to our accommodation with my face pressed against the window, my breath fogging up the glass. 

But never mind, we had reached Srinagar! My holidays had begun.