As a part of our project, two of us had to go to Kargil for field trip. We had to visit a hydram installation in Barso village and a micro hydropower unit at Bartoo village. We started from Leh at 8 am. We took a shared taxi to Kargil. The driver said it would take around 7 hours. Now Kargil is roughly 240 Km from Leh, and we would be travelling through winding hilly roads. We crossed two passes Lamayuru and Fotu La on the way to Kargil. Fotu La is where one would face almost 22 hair pin bends within half an hour. The journey through Fotu La was thrilling. The driver who was an ardent fan of Ladakhi music made us listen to the same Ladakhi song almost 20 times!!! We finally reached the Kargil office at around 4pm. Vegetarians would find it tough at Kargil if the roads don't open as it was in our case. Every hotel serves only rice and different varieties of mutton. After a search for half an hour we found a hotel that had rajma and rice too !!!
The next morning we started for the Bartoo village. The driver told us that the village was just 40 Km away from Kargil. But thanks to the roads' condition it took us almost 4 and half hours!!! to reach the village. We visited the installation sites, interacted with the operators and the locals there. Then we stayed at a house in the village. The villagers were very welcoming and hospitable. I drank lots and lots of salt tea (ya u heard it right, it was salt tea with butter added to it). The amount of tea I normally drink in a month, I drank in two days of my stay at the village!!! At night the temperature went down to almost minus 6 deg C. We were wrapped with three layers of blankets to keep ourselves warm.
The next morning we started back to Kargil on the 4 and half hour journey of 40 kms. Just as we reached Kargil we had a surprise waiting for us. Some truck driver had beaten up a police man and had damaged a police vehicle. This led to the police arresting him and this led to the transport strike. The news was that a riot could break out at any time. The Kargil office people asked us to get ready to leave for Leh immediately. They got us the first cab that they could and we started for Leh immediately. We were already terribly tired after our 4 hour gruelling journey from Bartoo village. Without even a rest for half an hour, we were now embarking on a 7 hour journey to Leh. We saw riot control police squad and military police teams all the way out of Kargil. We were denied permission to go to Leh via Batalik due to army convoy movements. So we had to once again cross the pass Fotu La. But this time we had to cross it in the dark. It was the most terrifying experience. We were travelling at roads on the hill that were just wide enough for an army truck. On one side was the towering rocks and on other side was a 3000 feet drop to the valley. We could almost hear each others' heart beat. The road was visible only to the extent the headlight was able to light up. This delayed our journey even more. Post this thrilling experience we finally reached Leh at around 11.30 pm. As soon as we reached the hostel I was totally drained out and fell on my bed !!!
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