kashmir area?!?!
 

hi all

the plan, nepal - india - kashmir area - china - tajikistan, sounds simple enough, but the whole kashmir area is much a headake as china, all ive been able to find out is that india and pakistan have been fighting over it for longer that ive been alive, sum maps say india owns it but the top bit is controlled by pakistan outhers its all pakistan's or india's and sum just make it a red zone with a big question mark in it??
so as you can gess any and all info will help weather you need a pakistan visa, is it safe to ride in that area as pakistan isnt the number one tourist spot at the moment for obvieous reasons, the karakoram highway is sounding a safe bet its just getting to it from northen india? cheers all

trev

Hey

Kashmir is safe these days and open for motorcycle travellers...the route you have to take is from delhii to manali in himachal and then to ladakh and then to Srinagar in kashmir or the other way round..you cannot enter pakistan or china from kashmir....if you want to cross over to pakistan you have to reach the official border crossing at Wagah in punjab which is little away from Kashmir...and from there you can travel to lahore in pakistan and other cities....entering china on a motorcycle is still a debate going on various threads in the forum....as of now it is not possible to cross to china from pakistan through the karkoram highway though some have done it in various ways...and karakoram highway is from pakistan to china and does not go through india....

contact if any more info is required

Happy motorcycling

Motorcycle-Pilgrim >> are you Srinidhi Raghavendra?
 

Motorcycle-Pilgrim >> are you Srinidhi Raghavendra? Just want to put a face to the icon,

Have read about your ride , have a good one!
Red Bull > Aka Hari :-)

Small addition: most of Kashmir is open. The area north of nubra valley is no go for citizens.
I'm sure you made your homework about when to go and the opening times fo the roads.

I have biked from Manali to Leh twice. It is quite simple. No hassles no paperwork, nothing just bought an enfield for cash & headed North. On the second trip I went Leh to Kargil and from Kargil to Padum in Zanskar, incredible. The I went down to srinighar and on to Jammu then over to Dharahmsala. No hassles at all. Kashmir is now very safe, at least along the roads. You have to go south to cross into Pakistan & then head up to Islamabad then Gilgit.

@ glasswave

how about petrol? I'd like to do the same route this year. my only concern is for many km do I have to carry petrol? where are the petrol stations in the the trip you described?

thanks

ralph

Went from Leh to Jammu last July.

While quite a few tourists go there now (many on Enfields too), you still can be on the wrong place at the wrong time. Other tourists told me of witnessing a firefight and a grenade being thrown at a bus and personally, I rode into some violent protests about 15 k south of Srinagar (they were friendly enough to us).

Lars

Manali to Leh, most folks carry an extra 10 liters, you'll likely not need it because now they are usually selling gas at Pang.

Gas points are Manali, Tandi (just before Keylang), and if you are lucky Pang (there are usually a few jeep cans full at the tea stalls). I think there is also gas in Upshi, but by the you are very close to Leh. We found gas along the way from leh to lamaryuru and in Kargil, but if you go to Padum you must be totally self sufficient.

You would be better off carrying spare petrol than buying if from locals who will charge extra and quality of petrol wouldn't be that good either.

The amount of petrol one needs to carry varies from bike to bike and also on the route one is planning to take. In both my previous trips to Ladakh I never needed to carry spare petrol and didn't even came close to the reserve and that includes Kargil - Padum - Kargil.

Having said that if you can post your itinerary and let me know which bike you will be using I can probably give you an estimate regarding how much petrol you might need.