The smell of saffron...

So we started the ride from Leh to Srinagar due west along the northern frontiers on a petulant morning, clouds hanging heavy and leaking drops every now and then. As usual it didn't have the guts to rain properly. Reached the lovely monastry at Lamayuru for one chai and got covered in dust by the time we reached our night halt at Kargil. Karigl is one stupid town real close to the line of control between India and Pakistan. Full on army presence starts here. Next morning we woke up with namaaz and saw these kinds of signs before we climed over Zojila pass to cross over into the Kashmir valley and in a flash the arid landscapes of Ladakh gave way to the meadows and coniferous trees of Kashmir. Bansi sang Shammi Kapoor songs all the way to Srinagar. Of course these kind of guys were all over the place so we just had to learn to erase them with one mental photoshop. In Srinagar we showed up at Mesha's place - Mesha our Kashmiri friend in Bangalore - her folks took such good care of us! We've had the most brilliant hosts on this trip starting with Ambu and Shalini in Delhi to Ajay's uncle and aunt in Chandigarh, then Dolma and Norboo in Ulley village and now Mesha parents in Srinagar. Full Kashmiri wazwan, we ate like pigs at every meal, put in a day trip to Gulmarg and one lovely morning shikara (boat ride) to the vegetable market on Dal lake. Srinagar is like a fortress though, soldiers with automatic weapons everywhere. In seperate incidents I got told I look like an Afghan terrorist and Bansi got told to chop off his sideburns while Ajay insisted his long hair was because he was brahmin. Eventually we left Srinagar yesterday and started heading south for the first time in this trip. Sigh... It also got hotter so we drank lots of beer. We eventually lost the soldiers and today we entered Punjab alon with the usual road side flora, fauna and signs. Tomorrow we'll check out Amritsar. I've heard great things about Amritsari fish but where does the fish come from?