Xplorider: July 2009

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Day 20 - Srinagar - Amitsar

Alex heading out from Srinagar to Amitsar, the road is good so we should be reach our destination Amitsar by 3.00pm

Musa as always the responsible sweeper

Green Valley of India

Green Valley view 2

Green Valley view 3

Green Valley view 4

Green Valley view 5

Green Valley view 6

Eddy as always sticks to Awang like a letch

Eddy passing through paddies fields

Eddy getting ready for a cigarette

Along the road to Amitsar, the army is all over places and maybe hundreds of them, we were wondering what happen?

We were stop by the army personal at their post...later on they let us pass after the permission from their superior.

Army control tunnel

The tunnel probably 3kms long

Again we were stop by the army, no photo....demanded the Sergent...he informed us briefly that they found something by the side of the road. We suspect it was a bomb...jokingly among 4 of us, the other one Alex taking a short nap on the bike

Out of sudden, we heard the big & loud explosion, managed to capture the photo while all the army paying full attention to the scene.....its not a joke...a real bomb...can you see the thick smokes in the middle of the photo?

Finally, we arrived at Amitsar, this is the must visit ' The Golden Temple'

Is this a real gold?, can we have some?

Me with the Golden Temple, everybody enter the temple barefooted and covers their head

Awang, you can take a holy bath here

Me with the temple guards

Awang & Alex with the temple guards

The woman's are preparing foods for the visitors

The girl in pink, she is cute....

Day 19 - Srinagar

The Promenade of Dal Lake

Dal Lake is world famous water body, 5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, is widely visited by the Indian visitor during summer.

Early morning 6.00am, calm water and no traffic

The catamaran is calls 'Shikaras', you have to bargain hard...in early morning the cost for 1 hour is IR50., as it get later part of the day, it can escalate to almost IR150.per hour.....so bargain for the best price.

Houseboat is very popular among the tourist in Srinagar, each houseboat have 3 rooms and a living room with a kitchen. Few hundreds of them in Dal Lake so don't rush to one, all looks the same...again bargain hard, Azman have to pays IR3500 per room per night....i think you can get it for around IR1800 - IR2300 per room per night.

Awang & me taking our evening sweet relaxing time touring on the Shikaras for 1 hour, we have a lot of fun. Please don't buy any beer from the floating boat....i tried to buy a can of beer....cost me IR350 (RM26.00) per bottle...no way...you keep your beer...

The police on patrol in the lake, apparently there are possibly muslim insurgent trying to cross to India via Kashmir from Pakistan

Fruits seller

Traffic chaos

Fishing in the lake

Many kind of birds in this lake

We almost finishes our Shikaras tour in the lake around 7.00pm

Monday, July 6, 2009

Day 18 - Khargil - Srinagar

Pakistan and India are still fighting over Kashmir for decades was because of the clean SACRED water. Is a source for LIFE, the water from the Himalaya range flows through India and enters Pakistan. If these two countries starts a war, Pakistan peoples will suffers if Indian blocks the water. Lets hope and pray that there no war between the 2 of the similar group of human beings.

Having cha & breads at local store

Alex chatting with Azman

Do you wishes you were there?
I never imagined it was such a spectacular and mind blowing place on the planet

1,000 - 2,000' deep on the left Cliff, quite scary

You believe me about the depth?

Alex and Awang have many fans in India

Cha break in Drass

Drass is second coolest inhabitant in the world, -60 degree Celsius in the winter, so where is the coolest inhabitant in the world? Siberia (if you remember the movie Helsinki)