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LEH BY THAR
This was our fourth visit to Ladakh and maiden one for my 4x4 petrol AT HT Thar. Our first visit was by our erstwhile Linea in 2011 via Srinagar. The second one was by XUV 5OO [2017, Manali]. The third one was by Nexon [2019, Sach Pass]. So, this time, I planned to drive to Ladakh via Kartarpur Corridor and Mughal [off-] Road.
A couple of months before the drive, I bought a 20-litre jerry can, a funnel and two plastic bags of 5 litre capacity each from amazon for carrying extra petrol for Leh-Hanle-Umling La-Hanle-Leh circuit.
One month before our scheduled departure, I had applied online for permission to visit Kartarpur Corridor with the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA], GoI. Kartarpur Corridor is a visa-free border crossing and religious corridor, connecting the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, near Lahore in Pakistan to Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district, Punjab, India. The registrations for me and my wife were successful and nothing happened thereafter. I lost my interest and forgot about visiting Kartarpur Corridor and made Plan B with Zanskar and without Kartarpur Corridor. About 10 days prior to our departure, I received a call from the Bangalore Basaveswara Nagar police station, asking me to visit them with identification documents. Immediately, I visited the police station and showed the documents to a police person in charge of computer operations there. He asked about my and my wife’s personal details and noted down. He told me he would visit my house within a couple of days to ‘verify’ the address, but did not come. Again, I lost interest in Kartarpur Corridor. On the eve of my departure, he visited my house, collected photocopies of our documents, photographs, got signed by me and wife on hand-written statements and left. I did not pay the police person. Even then, I was not sure of getting the permission from MHA. But, on 11 Sep 2023 evening, I got the electronic travel authorization [ETA] through email and sms during our stay at Dhar, MP. So, on that night, I booked for our stay at Amritsar, Dera Baba Nanak and Srinagar as per Plan A.
We [me and wife] left our Bangalore home by fully-loaded Thar on 10 Sep 2023 at 4 am to Aurangabad. We breakfasted at Anand Vihar, Hulikere and lunched at Preeti Dining Hall, Solapur with good MH thali. While entering MH, we were stopped by a friendly cop asking me, “Uncle, show me your DL only.” When I reached for my wallet, he told me to go. He was curious whether I was from the ‘force.’ When I replied in the negative, he smiled and allowed me to proceed. We were again stopped while entering Aurangabad. Another friendly cop asked, “Kaka, documents please.” He checked the documents and allowed me to go. We reached our hotel at 8 pm, ordered food from the room service and called it a day.
On the next day [11 Sep 2023], after a filling breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and continued our drive to Dhar, MP via Dhule. After descending the Kannad ghat, we were again stopped by cops. I was told that I drove at 60 kmph, where the speed limit was 40 kmph. They did not have any measuring device. Only my Thar was stopped, when other MH vehicles were overtaking me. I replied, I could not do even 20 kmph on that crater-filled horrible road, leave alone 40 kmph. Give me the challan and I would pay the fine. Then, he gave me an option of paying him any amount of my choice, considering him as my son! Finally, his boss intervened and allowed us to go without any monetary loss. A similar incident happened while exiting Jaipur towards Amritsar. A RJ cop stopped me for over-speeding. This time, his boss was sitting in the interceptor, watching all the vehicles going on that road. The boss-cop told me that I did 87 kmph against the maximum permissible 80 kmph. But, seeing me, he instructed his junior, ‘Saab ko jaane do’ [‘Let him go’]. Barring these two incidents, we were not troubled by cops/RTO anywhere.
At Amritsar, I parked Thar at the multi-level car parking near the Golden Temple, costing ₹ 60 for the overnight parking, walked to our hotel and checked in. On the next day, we visited the Golden Temple, where we had food at the langar and Jallianwalla Bagh. In the afternoon, we drove to Dera Baba Nanak and stayed at Corridor Inn. Mr Pali Bedi, the owner, was very helpful. He took care of our documentation required for the next day’s visit to Kartarpur Corridor.
On 15 Sep 2023, we left our hotel at 8 am and reached the passenger terminal building [PTB], a few km away, where I parked Thar by paying ₹ 50. We were the first ones to arrive. After verification of our documents, security check, immigration and customs checks, we were taken on a battery-operated vehicle upto the India-Pakistan border, where we got down and walked inside the Pakistan territory. We paid US $ 20 each to National Bank of Pakistan for entry and after security/immigration/customs checks, we boarded a bus that took us to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur, Pakistan, located about 4 km away. A Pakistan Ranger briefed us about the Gurudwara’s various parts and allowed us to go. We visited the Gurudwara and had food at the langar. We returned to PTB at 2 pm. During security check, a careless Indian lady security officer handed over my wife’s passport to another person and that person’s passport to me! I had to ask her to return my wife’s passport in exchange of the other person’s passport. Pakistan people and authorities were always smiling and friendlier than their Indian counterparts. Many Pakistan people asked me, ‘from which part of India’.
From PTB, we drove to our homestay at Jammu. We reached there by 6 pm. We walked to the nearby Pahalwan’s and had our dinner there. We left Jammu the next day [16 Sep 2023] early morning to Srinagar via Mughal Road with packed veg sandwiches for breakfast. The stretch from Akhnoor to Bafliaz [140 km] was in dreadful condition. We lunched at Rajouri and stopped for a few minutes at Peer ki Gali, which was crowded. We reached our homestay at Srinagar in the night, fully exhausted. After a good homely dinner, we slept. On the next day, we visited Hazratbal dargah and did some shopping.
On 18 Sep 2023, we did Srinagar-Leh in one tankful of petrol, reaching our hotel in the evening. Our Thar had a wash on the next day. We visited Siachen war memorial on 20 Sep 2023 via Khardung La and stayed at Sumur. On the next day, we wanted to drive to Pangong Tso, but due to road closure, we drove straight to Karu and stayed there. We visited Hemis Monastery.
On 22 Sep 2023, we drove to Hanle, checked into our homestay and visited Umling La and returned to Hanle for stay. The next day was very hectic. We left Hanle at 4 am, drove to Karu, filled up petrol, breakfasted and drove to our home stay at Keylong. The road from Pang to Sarchu was very bad. I engaged 4H many times on this stretch. We had a delicious dinner that night at the homestay.
On 24 Sep 2023 at 9 am, we left our Keylong homestay after breakfast, drove via Atal Tunnel, Manali, Naggar, Kullu, Kamand, Mandi, 5 tunnels of Swarghat and reached Karnal Haveli at 10 pm. We had dinner there and retired for the day.
Finally, the long highway drive started on the next day, via EPE, YE, Agra, Nagpur, Hyderabad ORR and we arrived at our home, sweet home on 28 Sep 2023 at 5:15 am, completing our 7,760 km happy and adventurous drive in 18 days. Our Thar did not give any trouble, no puncture, no accident, no breakdown and no monetary loss due to fine/police/RTO. I am thankful to all for reading this travelogue, comments and appreciation.
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