Turkey - Cappadocia Ititnerary, Days 2 & 3 - Derinkuyu Underground Museum, Uchisar, Goreme Open Air Museum

Driving to Derinkuyu

Hello readers, apologies for the prolonged delay for my unfinished Turkey budget trip. Got busy in various engagements. I just want to dive in straight to our Day 2 itinerary in Cappadocia where had planned to to drive to Derinkuyu town where there is an ancient multi-storeyed underground city in the Nevsehir province. We had a typical Turkish breakfast (with most of the items missing) and left Goreme. It took about 45 minutes by car to reach Derinkuyu from Goreme. This underground city is said to have housed a population as large as 20,00 along with food & livestock & is almost 85 m deep. It has chapels, storage rooms.

Backpacking to Kalgha Village, Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh

It's been quite some time since I published about our backpacking trip to Chalal village & Kasol. So after spending idyllic 2 days vegging out in Chalal village, we were ready for the next leg of our backpacking trip and that was Kalgha. We packed our stuff & left for the bus stop as the next bus was to arrive soon at 10.50-11 am sharp. The weather was charming with the sun just warm enough not to make us sweat in that October early afternoon. Soon our public bus arrived & all of us were not expecting it in the condition it was when it arrived - crammed up with the villagers & the locals, along with a small kid (I mean a baby goat here :D). We could have left earlier as well to avoid the horde (classic mentality of the quintessential "middle class" families, more so when they are starting out young), the timing of the previous bus was 9.30 am but we were confident that we wouldn't be able to wake up so early.

Parvati River at Chalal

Nevertheless, we boarded our bus and pushed our way through the multitude and secured a standing spot near the window with support. The driver was one hell of a driver, I think all the mountainous drivers are - they drive though the perilous roads everyday every hour all around the year.

Kargil & Hundurmaan/Hundermaan, J & K, India

Rugged landscape of Ladakh

After an enthralling ride via Zoji-La and pumped up visit to Kargil War Memorial with the River Indus continuing to flow along-side us, we reached the hustling Kargil town at around 12 noon.

Entering Kargil town, crossing River Indus

My immediate yearning reaching the town was to have momos/dumplings (my absolute favorite which I had been craving for a pretty long time). The hotel which was booked for us was Hotel Siachen which was right at the marketplace, so in a way accessible to any restaurant if you are not keen to have food in the Hotel Siachen itself. We were quite exhausted, perplexed whether to do some sightseeing in Kargil or not.
Leaving that aside, we freshened up and suddenly realized that all of us are starving terribly so we left the hotel to search for a nearby restaurant to gorge on food (momos for myself). We did come across a very popular restaurant right near the end of the marketplace (I have forgotten the name) but unfortunately it was full & there was no space for the 6 of us (also, they had ran out of momos :P). So we tried our luck at another restaurant nearer to our restaurant. The first question on entering the restaurant was from my side to the attendant was whether they have momos or not, to which, much to my jubilation, he replied in the affirmative. Myself & my brother ordered 2 bowls of thukpas while the rest of the squad ordered simple daal & chawal. Now, I hadn't given much importance to this aspect but the people there (and within the restaurant itself) had a very strange odour exuding from them. I couldn't decide the source of the stink but it came crystal clear when the thukpas arrived. The restaurants there had no chicken items, all they had were lamb items. So we had ordered lamb thukpas and the malodour was intolerable. I just took one bite and couldn't put anymore inside my mouth. Thankfully my brother finished up the two bowls. Poor me - I had to share the daal & chawal with the rest of them (the daal was equally disastrous).

En-route Kargil via Zoji-La, J & K, India

After spending a night full of intolerable stomach aches & upsets, all of us except my school buddy; yes, because he had a paneer meal as dinner while the rest of us - the greedy ones, had a chicken meal as our dinner. The ordeal started at around 3 am and continued till 4 o'clock, and we were supposed to leave sharp at 5 am to avoid the traffic that usually occurs at Zoji-La due to wretched road conditions after the thawing of the snow. So after flushing out the disastrous nutrition we had the previous night, we got ready to leave our hotel and commence our next leg of the whole trip - Ladakh. Our driver took us along the precarious winding highway while we enjoyed some truly breathtaking landscapes.

First glimpse of Zoji-La

The view from Zoji-La just took our breath away, the view of Amarnath Yatra base camp at Baltal.

Amarnath Yatra base camp at Baltal

Sonamarg, J & K, India

Eventually, I come to our last leg of "Kashmir" trip. Now now, it doesn't mean that the trip was over. Actually, there are two regions of Jammu and Kashmir, rather two provinces- Kashmir Province and Ladakh Province. We left our hotel at Pahalgam at 3.30 am and waited at the exit point for the next few hours when finally Indian Army allowed all the tourist vehicles to leave Pahalgam at about 6.20 am, after ensuring that the route ahead is absolutely safe. Our driver probably had kept a brick on the accelerator as soon as we left Pahalgam. There was no stopping in between and finally we reached Srinagar at about 8.30-9-ish. We had some rest, a good breakfast and left for Sonamarg at around 10 am with another driver this time.

On our way to Sonamarg along Indus River

My school buddy was a bit shaken after the Pahalgam escapade, my feeling was more of empathy towards the residents of the 3 places we visited. The primary means of income for them is tourism. Without it, how much does the state earn from export business of shawls, carpets, wool etc? The children are always subjected to seeing security personnel patrolling the streets, the by-lanes, shopping centres. One thing is for sure- this will remain an international issue as long as human civilization will thrive in this world. Anyway, too much of philosophy.

Pahalgam, J & K, India

So I am back after quite a bit of a hiatus. Desperately needed some respite. Actually life has been a bit on the tougher side for these few months (it still is) but I hope we will sail through. Anyway, back to where I had left off.
So my school buddy was waiting for the opportune moment to blast us off for continuing our plan to come to Pahalgam as soon as we were denied exit out of main Pahalgam town so that we could proceed to our Hotel Green Height.

This was our view from Hotel Green Height, located at the outskirts of Pahalgam

We could not understand what might have caused the army/police to take such action and hence we went to Pahalgam Police station. The temperature slowly started plummeting & we started shivering. The guys came out of the police station with the news that there was a round of open fire and some terrorists as well as some jawans from our Indian Army were killed in the firing at Anantnag (a town famous for willow trees and cricket bats manufacturing hub) which is between Srinagar & Pahalgam & always a hot spot for terrorist activities), therefore nobody was being allowed to leave from Pahalgam lest they get trapped at Anantnag (all for the security of the tourists & blah blah). All our reasoning fell on deaf ears and we were left with no other option but to search for a hotel within Pahalgam in the main market. Meanwhile, our driver Khurshid left for Hotel Green Height to bring all our luggage. We roamed about the Pahalgam main market searching for a hotel. To be honest, I was quite pepped up to be a witness to how actual "adventure"would feel like (yes, many of my readers won't agree to it citing reasons like how it is quite painful to live/reside like this amidst so much distress & agitation years after years & I fully concur with them - it is indeed tiring to be amidst such turmoil years after years).

Backpacking to Chalal & Kasol-Parvati Valley

 I am damn serious of setting up my travel blog professionally and here comes my scribbles on our recent backpacking trip to Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Thank God my friend, who was supposed to this trip solo last year, missed it and so we tagged along with him this time. I will give him all the credit for his research and time invested in doing the research. Anyway, he has always been a very serious & studious fellow.So eventually I have determined that I won’t squander money anymore on some weekend getaways near Mumbai when I have more or less explored most of the beaches in Maharashtra (Maharashtra has unclean beaches except Ganpatiphule and Tarkarli), and also I have 2 days off for Diwali so scheduled of going somewhere in Northern India (I have been in a Himalayan hangover ever since we returned from the mind-boggling Kashmir & Ladakh expedition. It was my 1^st visit to any Himalayan region (yes I have never been to Darjeeling or Sikkim despite being a native from Kolkata, West Bengal). Usually the 2 days off for Diwali luckily falls on a Thursday and a Friday every year so if you take 3 days leave you get 9 days off including the previous week Saturday & Sunday.We left on a Friday evening for Delhi on Yuva Express from Bandra Terminus so that we reach Hazrat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) by morning, spend the whole day in Delhi and then leave for Barshaini via Bhuntar, Himachal Pradesh in the evening (at 6.40 pm) from ISBT Kashmere Gate. The programme was more or less this when we departed from Bombay. But after spending the whole night sitting upright on Yuva Express, we were bereft of a sound sleep and our bodies were hungry/thirsty for a good sleep. So I thought of editing the programme a little bit & called up my friend who lives in Kaushambi so that we could get fresh and get ample rest till evening at their place. We reached Hazrat Nizammudin the next morning at approx. 10 am, took a taxi and reached my friend’s place by 11 am. We were dead exhausted, drained off of our enthusiasm and what not. After a good hot bath and sumptuous lunch prepared by the newlywed couple, the irresistibly beguiling & seductive bed was already summoning to me “come to the bed my love, you need this bed, and this bed needs you”. I had a contented sleep; my nerves, my eyes were pacified & ready for the upcoming week of backpacking to Parvati Valley.We left Kaushambi in an Ola (shouldn’t have taken it, Delhi Metro was a far superior option), got stuck in the traffic for nearly half an hour just before ISNT Kashmere Gate (yes, got a glimpse of Delhi traffic too besides Mumbai traffic). We reached ISBT Kashmere Gate pretty much before time. Ours was a semi-deluxe Himachal Pradesh State Transport bus (we were fretting what “semi-deluxe” meant before we actually saw the bus, thanks to our past experience of chair-car seating in the Yuva Express). We didn’t contemplate that we would be in for a pleasant surprise when we boarded the semi-deluxe bus. The seats were quite comfortable and it could be bent backwards during sleeping. The bus was supposed to leave at 6.40 pm but it got late by 10 mins. Finally we hit the road but the bus got gridlocked in another nasty Delhi traffic for about another half an hour. The conductor switched off the lights inside the bus and everybody fell asleep (the seats were super comfy). At about 11.30 pm -12 midnight, the lights were switched on and the bus had halted for dinner. We had a simple Punjabi dinner (chhole bature and lassi) as we didn’t want to upset our bellies so soon. The dinner halt was for a good 40 mins, hence we didn’t have to hurry. After the dinner, the bus driver started his NFS tactics and we shut our eyes trusting our lives with him. My sleep got interrupted due to a steep bend, opened my eyes to see the silhouettes of the Pir-Panjal Himalayan range in the darkness with the Beas River flowing in the gorge along the road. It was quite cold inside the bus in spite of all the windows and the door being closed. I covered myself fully with my newly bought Pashmina shawl (from Kashmir) and fell asleep again only to wake up at about 8.20 am, when we reached Kullu Bus Stand/Depot. Now we could have got down at Bhuntar and boarded the bus for Barshaini from there but we went to Kullu as we wanted to make our return journey a bit more comfortable & also reach Delhi a bit earlier (instead of traveling the whole day on a Saturday and also our train was scheduled to leave on the same day in the evening so it would be an extremely hectic journey all the way from Kullu to Delhi and back to Mumbai). Since it was a Diwali week, online portal was closed for booking tickets on the day of Diwali (Friday) so the conductor suggested to get tickets directly from the Bus Stand, Kullu. But the person sitting at the ticket counter informed one cannot buy tickets in advance, hence we need to buy the ticket on the same day. We were disheartened a bit, nonetheless we boarded a bus till Bhuntar (it’s just half an hour bus journey from Kullu) and reached just in time to get a bus leaving for Barshaini.

Barshaini-Manikaran-Kullu bus route

The bus journey was quite exhilarating while we crossed an iron bridge over the confluence of Beas & Parvati river, took some stimulating sharp bends, waved to the ever-smiling and fulfilled village folks, halted while a flock of slow-moving goats waltzed by giving a damn to their surroundings while the Parvati River is flowing incessantly in the deep ravine on one side of the road. Finally we reached Kasol (mini Israel as many travelers have named this place) at about 11.10-11.30 am (forgot the exact time)

Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, India

The following spot in our itinerary was Gulmarg, located in a western direction from Srinagar and takes approximately 2 hours to reach. Now again we drove across certain locales where we could see the open hostility of the denizens and defiance to the Indian army and Indian administration- spray paintings, slogans like "India Go Back", "Azadi", "We Want Freedom" and so much more along these lines. We tried scrutinizing why there is such unrest amongst the people here, why are they hell bent in destroying such a beautiful place- a place which God indeed has moulded with all the time in his hands. Anyway after driving on Srinagar Baramulla road for nearly 1 hour we reached the bifurcation where going left would take us to Gulmarg while the right goes to Baramulla (another disturbed region which came into limelight again a few months back when the army of our respected neighboring country Pakistan attacked the villagers at Uri and killed many). We continued on the Srinagar Gulmarg road for another 1 hour approx. and finally reached the foothills of Gulmarg- a place named Tangmarg where our Kashmiri guide Ghulam made a deal with one his known people (who owns horses) to give all of us a ride to the end of the cable car stoppage and back to the base. We were unfortunate enough to miss the cable car ride as a few weeks earlier there had been an ill-fated mishap where a whole family from Delhi lost their lives when their cable car crashed into the deep valleys in Gulmarg. Hence the cable car services had been stopped.

On Srinagar Gulmarg Road

Gulmarg from Tangmarg

On the way to Gulmarg

We reached Gulmarg by our Innova but during winter, travelers need to climb up on horses only as the road from Tangmarg till Gulmarg is heavily covered with snow. There, mules (NOT horses) were waiting for us to take us to the top point where the cable car too goes.

San Antonio

It so happened one weekend during my sojourn in the US that PBnrg and me had this ebullient urge not to sit at home the whole day but go out somewhere- around Houston or far from Houston. Well, there is a saying "God proposes man disposes", PBnrg proposed a short trip to San Antonio and I disposed.. :) :D

Probashe

Solitude

Again after quite a hiatus. This time I am writing from the US. My second visit to foreign country after Malaysia. People say US is an evil country trying to rule the world. I don't care what this country is doing or not but surely it really cares for its people, its citizens. It works for them. The people here are way too broad minded ( if only the people back in my country were 0.1% broad minded as the people here...!!!)

Peeping