Srinagar update , July 3rd

Poster davyd on IndiaMike brought the word from people just returned from Srinagar :

“..britons were more adventerous, visited jama masjid, and a little bit of the city but nothing was working, all shops were closed, rioting mobs were clashing with police. it left them with impression not unlike northern ireland. jeeps and buses with many difficulties sneak their way out to Jammu, but many got stoned.”

After more than a week of violent protests , hundreds wounded, and a small number of deaths a measure of calm has arrived in Srinagar after the decision to revoke the land grant to the Amarnath shrine organisation . According to the news schools , markets and transport are now running in the Vale.

Meanwhile conditions are unstable in Jammu for the very same reason. Curfew is still in place , and todays Tribune leads with the story “Jammu continues to burn” .

Update , July 5th: renewed clashes with police , 30 000 protesters on the streets of Srinagar… Tribune story

Update , July 8th : partial lift of curfew in Jammu , ATM´s and petrol pumps now running after a weeks hiatus.

Tibet Train , Revisited.

The March issue of High Altitude Medicine & Biology holds an interesting trip report from the Qinghai railway to Lhasa. It brings up the same reservations I held in my earlier post about the onboard oxygen system - and refutes them in some detail.

First of all it leaves speculation aside : John B. West brought along a oxygen meter , which actually showed somewhat better result than what has been said earlier. 24.1 to 25.3 per cent , comparable to what´s being served in recovery wards after routine anesthesia .

My practical reservations about this system could be summed in two simple questions : what happens when you pop off to the restaurant wagon , and the train stops to let off passengers . Opening the doors should mean that the atmosphere more or less instantly equalises with the outside.

The answer seems to be that they don´t open the doors , at least not for the first six hours :

“In fact , we only stopped three times between Golmud and Lhasa , and only at one of these did all the doors open so we could stretch our legs.At the other two apparently only one or two doors were opened for passengers who had arranged to leave or enter the train at that stop. “

Another interesting aspect is what it shows on the changes in modern China , which is illustrated by what is considered acceptable human cost : building the first highways in to Tibet came at a staggering cost in human lives , the Sichuan-Tibet road took 3000 lives , and the road between Xining and Jyekundo meant more than ten dead per kilometer. (See Losang´s article on the Tibet Highways. )

Today the Qinghai railway company claim, with support from the doctors responsible , that not a single worker has died from altitude sickness in what was the highest construction site in the world.

True or not , it is obvious that huge resources were put in place to achieve this goal. Workers had a minimum transport-only time of four days to the highest work sites , oxygen bars were rigged for recuperation … and large field oxygen generators were actually pumping oxygen to the drill face in the highest tunnels, to achieve a few percent increase in air breathed by the tunnel workers.

When all of this failed there was a willingness to pay another kind of price : doctors had and exercised a right to evacuate workers by helicopter , often based principally on a failed balance test.

(West´s editorial is at the moment available  on line , a description of the of the health/safety organisation during the construction can be glimpsed in this article ).

Manali-Rothang landslide

News talks about a landslide at Gulaba , blocking the road near Rothang La today. Tourists are .. perturbed , lovely word.

Hindustan-Tibet road blocked

Shimla, June 4
Traffic on the Hindustan-Tibet road has been disrupted since last night following a massive landslide triggered by heavy rains near Matiana, about 45 km from here.

The massive landslide took place at 8 pm last night leading to complete closure of vehicular traffic to Kinnaur and other areas. With the closure of the National Highway No. 22 the entire Kinnaur bound traffic, including HRTC buses, have been diverted via Basantpur. Work on clearing the road was still on as the PWD had pressed four bulldozers into service to clear debris from the road.

Full story

Manali-Leh buses running

..in spite of what ever you may have heard recently at the Manali Bus stand . Poster arijitchaki on IndiaMike became the first this year to report in arriving Leh with the HTRC Manali-Leh bus this year.

No word on the HPTDC buses (which don´t require a kidney belt ) yet, the official word

is that they start running July.

Chilling in Kargil : Tweaking the Srinagar-Leh road

The Srinagar-Leh road is the softest run to Leh , and probably the main source of the myth that going by land always is to be preferred. There are only a few factors to keep in mind .

Acclimatizing in Srinagar

… doesn´t work , period. Srinagar is just over 1500 meters , which means actually living there may give you a marginal advantage , for every one else nothing will happen. If you are setting off days for acclimatization , do it later/higher on the road. (Srinagar´s altitude is often said to be 1730 meters , one of many altitude related myths worthy of a separate post. Google Earth and Falling Rain

both place Srinagar around 1500. )

Acclimatizing in Kargil  (alt. 2700 )

is the main advantage of the Srinagar-Leh road. Acclimatization response is about nights spent : if you choose to do   a allnighter  taxi run Srinagar-Leh this is about the same as flying in.

Acclimatization before Leh

After Kargil this boils down to one option : Saspol , some four hundred meter lower than Leh. Very nice location , a meditation cave complex above the village  that has been exposed after the collapse of a cliff side, two guest houses from what I hear now - it´s been a while since I was there.

Srinagar safety situation

Regardless of the actual situation , you will hear from a large number of people trying to sell or just being clueless that the situation is pinky peach in Kashmir just now. Situation is a lot better at the moment , but be very careful who you listen to in this : they were saying exactly the same in  July 2006

, for example ( yes , after the 11th ) . Better in this context is a highly relative term , you will still find Kashmir  taking the lead in the warnings section of  any and all official Indian travel advice for some time to com.  You´ll find current  news updates from Srinagar here

Sleepless in Sarchu : Tweaking the Manali-Leh Highway

Sleepless in Sarchu : Tweaking the Manali-Leh Highway

The Manali-Leh is only one of four land routes to Leh. It is also the road you love to hate , if you recognise the early signs of hypoxia and altitude sickness.

Doing this rod you have two main options : basic risk reduction (which probably will spare you from anything more dramatic than headaches and mild nausea ) and tweaking the itinerary so that you are closer to full working order , every day.

BASIC RISK REDUCTION :

* Get a night in Keylong
* Don´t sleep in Sarchu , aka The Vomit Hilton

That´s all there is to it , really : with a night in Manali (2050) and the next in Keylong (just under 3100 ) , you´ll certainly feel better the night in Keylong than anyone flying in to Leh, from three reasons : Manali is higher than 1500 meters , Keylong is some 400 meters lower than Leh , and the Rothang La is 900 meters higher than Keylong. The second leg of the road is the real challenge , moving for a major part between the altitudes of Mont Blanc and Everest Base Camp but most people scrape by even when doing the the all night Manali-Leh run if they don´t get any lengthy delays at max altitude . This is an important caveat , I have experienced being snagged around five thousand meters twice , and the first time it involved dealing with an unconscious fellow passenger.

TWEAKS :

TWEAK # 1 : THIRD NIGHT RULE

The first major change that adaption to altitude brings about is the ability to hyperventilate , a change that you obviously want to be on the right side of before hitting the 5000+ passes . This shift occurs somewhere around the third night at altitude, 2000 to 3000 meters, for the large majority. The more time you´ve spent around 3000 , the better : always chose a night in Keylong over a night in Manali. After your three nights , safe ascent guide lines still apply : if you want to do Sarchu , do it on the return leg.

TWEAK # 2 : STARTING POINTS

The plane :
Acclimatization starts , very slowly , at 1500 meters altitude. A marginal tweak that comes in to play here is the time before Delhi : a long intercontinental flight can be a slight advantage , if you don´t faff about in Delhi. If you don´t have a clear goal with staying in Delhi, arrange your next leg of the trip beforehand : trains from the IIndia Rail site , buses via Redbus
SHIMLA

Shimla is at 2200 meters , and easily reached from Delhi : take the night train (22-ish) to Kalka , and the connecting toy train 5.30 , arriving in Shimla , lunch time. Overnight buses connect with Manali.

DHARAMSALA

Dhasa is at … well , to start with it´s spread out along a series of ridges . The highest sections are around 1800 meters , just over the threshold for acclimatization response. Don´t expect any substantial acclimatization effects from a short stay. On the other hand there are some treks starting here which will give you a definitive edge , like going to and staying overnight at Triund (2800-ish).

MANALI

Manali is at 2050 meters , a working but not ideal altitude to start acclimatization. The first tweak is to go on past Manali to Solang, some twenty klicks north , which lands you at 2500 meters.

Secondly you have Vashisht on the east side of the river : a lot lower than Solang , but still higher than Manali , and within backpacker budget.
The third possible tweak here is to take a day trip up to the Rothang . HPTDC buses makes daily runs in season.

Nathu La re-opens , border dispute continues

“Bilateral trade between India and China opened on Monday through the fabled Silk Road amid a fresh border row, with Beijing claiming a strip of land in Sikkim.

“Border trade was earlier scheduled to open on May 1 but was postponed after Beijing requested New Delhi to delay the start following landslides in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” said Ujwal Gurung, Sikkim’s director of industry and commerce.

“Formal trade for the current year began on Monday and would continue until Nov 30,” Gurung said.

The reopening of bilateral trade comes at a time when Beijing has once again raked up a border row by claiming a narrow strip of land near village Gyangyong in northern Sikkim..”

Full story

Manali-Leh : OPEN !

The official road  marker changed within the last hour : finally open,  no reservations.

Pstt ! The Manali-Leh road status is ..

.. disputed , in a new , fascinating way . Until now , it´s been fairly easy to describe the status of the Rothang La crossing in four stages :

1. Really , really closed

2. A path being cut over the worst stuff , crossable on foot ( as from March 18th )

3. First clearing of the road , crossable with light vehicles ( as reports over the last week) . Still flagged as closed , until deemed worthy of supporting heavy vehicles.

4. Buses start to run , and the road is flagged as officially open.

This year brings a new twist , though : the BRO and the HRTC arguing over the status of the road , as the first buses start running to Keylong :

“Kullu, May 10
The HRTC has started its bus operation from Keylong to Manali yesterday on trial basis though a few points on the 13,050-feet high Rohtang Pass were not good. This was stated by Devender Narang, regional manager, HRTC, Kullu, who also looks after the Keylong region here yesterday. The bus brought passengers from Keylong and reached Manali, he added.

The Border Road Organisation (BRO), the defence body looking after the Manali-Leh road, however, denied official opening of the Rohtang Pass for heavy vehicles.”

(And yes , the official road marker is still flagged as “closed” )

Source : The Tribune