Trapped in Ladakh!

Jule!

Everthing seems to be colliding in Kashmir, worlds, religions, land, and people. Basically we seem to have run into a bit of a trouble spot. Just 2 days after we crossed over the Rohtung pass from Manali towards Leh, it was closed down due to some collapse or something. That was lucky we thought, but really that is more like bridge burnt as we won't be able to go back that way again. Now that we are in Leh in Ladakh (separate to Kashmir), there are only 2 roads out of it. the first is 3 days back over the mountain passes towards Manali which is closed off, the other is 4 days around to the west to Srinagar (capital of Kashmir) and Jammu inside Kashmir, which is what we had planned to do. Kashmir is safer now than it has been for years, and there has been very little disturbances for quite a while, but we just found out that the very day we crossed the Rohtang pass, violent protests involving killings began in Srinagar and are still going on now. Travellers are not going through there, and the advice is that we don't either. So as you can see we are in a bit of a predicament. Either we wait for the Rohtang pass to open again, or we wait for the situation in Srinagar to settle down. There is an airport here, but unfortunately we have the van to think about.

I'll give you a brief history of why there are so many problems in Kashmir. Basically it all goes back to the British - it had to really... Around 1600AD, the Brits arrived in India, and by 1858 they had formal control over an area extending to current day Pakistan and Bangladesh. When Independance from the Brits came in 1947, the Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus all wanted their own separate country state. The problem was that there were no clearly defined Muslim or Hindu areas, and when they drew the line separating Pakistan (Islamic state) from India (Hindu State), millions of people quickly tried to relocate to their 'side' of the line. Kashmir was Muslim dominated, but had a Hindu maharaja, so he under military pressure decided to sign his state on as part of India. Pakistan disputed this immediately and within 2 months of independance, they were at war with each other. Two years later, the UN stepped in and drew a line down the middle of Kashmir dividing it between the two countries as a temporary fix, but it has remained the same ever since. Neither country accept the line, they both want the whole lot, so they keep fighting over it. Muslim extremists have caused havoc in the area, committing repeated attacks on Hindu interests.

The incident this week was because there is a very holy Hindu site within the Muslim Kashmir, which thousands of Hindus make pilgrimage to every year. The Indian government transferred some surrounding land to the Hindu pilgrimage organisers so they could put up some huts and toilets for the pilgrims use. Now the Muslims feel very cheated of land, and it has kicked off major demonstrantions. Basically everyone in Kashmir hates Indians and Hindus, and would rather be part of Pakistan, but it's all just religious. Even though the area has been at peace for a while now, tensions run high and it just takes something pathetic to send it loopy. All the same it is causing us some problems as we have no way out of this valley.

After speaking with various other people, and looking up articles on the web, it seems that even a quick dash through Kashmir to get out of the valley would be out of the question. The police there say that tourists should stay as the violence is not directed at them, and they will be perfectly safe as there are large police forces gaurding the tourist spots and hotels. In contradiction I read one article in a Kashmiri newspaper that said that tourists were leaving in the middle of the night to escape Srinagar, So we thought that it must be pretty bad. Just how bad was realised when someone turned up at our guesthouse in Leh who had just come from Srinagar. He was there when the trouble started and tried to leave, but the so called police protection forced him at gunpoint to stay in a particular hotel and pay loads of money. He managed to sneak away in the middle of the night to get over here, but was quite a nasty experience.

There is one other way out, and that is to drive all the way back to just before the Rohtung pass, then take a left. This takes you down another valley on a very long detour of several days back around towards Delhi, but is apparently the worst road in India! Judging on how we managed on the Manali-Leh road, we think it might be pushing it a little!

That said, we are enjoying staying in Leh very much. It has a very pleasant cool climate (jumpers in the evenings), is sunny every day, has very interesting streets, shops and sights, and beautiful views. It's quite funny when you go to a restaurant here and order a beer though, as most of them don't appear to be licenced to sell alcahol, and they call it 'iced tea' along with a wink as a code word! They even bring it out in a tea pot which is quite amusing! When you've finished one, the waiter would come over and kind of snigger whilst saying "any more 'tea' sir?", as though he was a child with a big secret! Most of the restaurants are vegetarian here as well which is rather disapointing. I think it's because of all the hipppies that seem to be here in abundance smoking the green stuff and singing Bob Marley songs by the fire in ponchos! we feel like we are doing everything wrong ordering beer, and the meatiest dish on the menu!

Some other people have said that they think that the Rohtang pass is open again, but can potentially close at any moment, so I think that our only option is to go all the back the way we came, along the mountain passes back to Manali, and hope that the Rohtang pass is open when we get there. We are not particularly looking forward to it as the high passes are quite strenuous, and the high altitude makes you feel pretty rubbish at the best of times. Still, we will leave tomorrow (Tuesday), and hopefully arrive in Manali late on Thursday. Wish us luck!

We have also been re-thinking our plans to drive all the way down to the southern tip of India then up to Chennai to ship our van to Australia, as the time of year is quite horrible to be going to those parts. Instead we are thinking of just getting down to Mumbai, and shipping the van straight to New Zealand from there thus 'skipping' Australia! We will still fly to South East Asia, and spend some time in Thailand and Malaysia whilst the van is getting to NZ before joining it there.

The internet up here is awful, and we have been banned from uploading photos, so we'll add some lovely pics of Leh, stunning mountain views, ancient palaces etc in the next few days...

Max temp: 28 degrees
Altitude: 3650m/12,000 ft