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2003-07-28 / 29 - Kargil - Drass (Day 104-105)

The question of the day revolves on when we are allowed to go on to the next stop of Drass, which is one of the closest cities to the Pakistani border and one that has been shelled almost continuously for the last 13 years of hostilities between India and Pakistan. We have heard conflicting stories on when we are allowed some being the middle of the night and some saying anytime. While Steve gets his bike fixed, I go round to the army headquarters and the local police station to check when the road is open. While it is like picking teeth to get a clear answer, they both finally tell me that I can go to Drass at any time, though its all equally likely that I will be shelled on the way ¡V that's comforting to hear.

Its middle of the afternoon when Steve comes back and he has heard different things, apparently that one has to go in the middle of the night. Both of us are sure that we've extracted the correct information but we finally leave it to leaving in the middle of the night, which makes this another wasted day of sitting around in Kargil, which for some reason is a town which just grates on my nerves.

We are up, packed in the wee morning hours, and set out at 2:30am for Drass. Its pitch black there not being any streetlights and soon being out of town there were no lights at all. This is the first time both of us have ridden in India at night as its generally a life-shortening idea. A good percentage, perhaps 30% of Indian vehicles ride without lights, either they don't work or they don't turn them on even at night. This includes those large Tata trucks, which take up the entire road. Of course, there are the other fun things like cows, which are always on the road, people which will be on the road at any time of the day and the various road hazards themselves like bike-eating potholes, streams, sand etc. that is the standard fare. So setting out at 2:30 in the pitch black to try to dodge Pakistani shells was just a lovely thought and again I feel like I'm in Disneyland, perhaps on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride where the pirates are perched behind the stones shooting at me, except this time they are using real bullets and the Caribbean waters are as dangerous as the pirates themselves.

We ride staggering the lanes trying to light up as much of the road as possible and we are able to see enough to avoid the big hazards. We still come upon enough to keep the nerves tense though like large pools of water which simply reflect black in the night and we have no idea what is beneath, road, stones or potholes. Then we come upon a number of signs with the pleasant thought, "Danger, you are under Enemy Observation" and "Vehicles are not allowed to slow or stop in this area" the last presumably not to give them time to aim and get a clear shot. Lovely. Obviously it¡¦s a choice between a number of evils and we keep the speed well up knowing that we are the only points of light on the road and thus visible to "the enemy" - I kind of feel like I'm one of the strings of light in Missile Command heading for the city and just waiting for the crosshairs to come over me and blow me up.

We pass a sign that confusingly says, "Caution - you are out of danger" and that gives some sort of relief as we ride into Drass. As its 4:30 in the morning and we are riding into the "2nd Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth" we certainly feel the cold. I've put on all my clothes but that isn't helping that much and its simply freezing as we get closer to the town. Riding into town which is asleep we are facing the pleasant thought of sitting outside on some steps waiting for someone to open a Chai shop as there doesn't seem to be a soul up and open for business. We are all the way to the end of town and dreading that thought when we find one shop open and very happily sit down to work out the muscles and get warmed up with chai.

We wait until the sun comes up so that we can see the road and just sit around for a couple of hours until 6:30am. Trying to make the time useful I've walked into the village and am waiting for the sunrise to send its rays down onto the local mosque but after 40 mins of waiting, a cloud moves in front of the sun and I get nothing worthwhile in terms of a photo for my efforts. The sun up now we set off again on the second part of the road, which is the ride over the last pass at Zoji-La, and down into Srinagar.

We make it 20km over more rough roads and get pulled over at a check post. We tell them where we are going and they look at their watches and shake their heads - nope, not going now. The road is only open between 4:00am and 6:30am to vehicles going in this direction. We have missed the window by 30 mins and have to go back to Drass and wait until tomorrow. Its occurred to me that the road to Drass from Kargil is open anytime and it was this road that Steve was told had to be crossed at night but didn't get the instructions clear, which makes the midnight ride while exciting in hindsight rather foolish. We head back to Drass and climb into another local pit of a hotel to get some sleep.

There wasn't much to see in this little town though it did turn into a bustling little center, which was a dramatic change from the ghost town we rode in to. I get up and in my walk around two come to a local video store. These can be found in most towns but have almost no selection of western movies and rent only Bollywood films, which hold little interest for me. I do find a couple of films in English I haven't seen and rent them thinking that will be a way to pass the afternoon. Back in the hotel I load up the movies and it's the same story that has plagued me while in India - the disks are too scratched and worn to be read by my computer and it will try and try and eventually just spit them out. I guess I shouldn't complain about its just refusing to read the disk in that last time I tried to watch a movie in Bosco, it made it through an hour of Sixth Sense then refused to play the last 40 min which is even more frustrating. No TV and no movies since having HBO in Mandi is giving me the shakes of withdrawal though and I am starting to fantasize about McDonalds and Warner Village back in Taiwan.

With not much to do I have fallen asleep trying to read in the afternoon and am awoken to explosions which are shaking the hotel. I get up and look out the window to see a plume of dust rise on the hillside on the other side of the hotel followed a second later by another boom. I simply cannot believe I have actually put myself voluntarily in a place that is being shelled with live fire! Shell after shell hits the mountainside and since we are in a tight valley, I am guessing that the Pakistanis are simply lobbing them over the mountains, which would not seem to lead to a great deal of accuracy. The road in front of me has army vehicles screaming through the town one after another much faster then is safe for the trucks or the people of the village but apparently, they do not think this is the place to be right now either. I watch the shells fall for another 20 mins and then watch the town come out on to the streets again, obviously they'd all been hiding in their homes as well. I find later some shells have hit the road and that explains quite a bit about the road conditions for the ride.

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