Getting lost in Turtuk

My family goes mad every time I lose things. Especially my purse-wallet-keys which always go wandering and hiding in the strangest of places. Now that the girls keep taking me in charge they find it all the more frustrating.

It is probably sheer coincidence-or the fact that we have mirror personalities, the my elder one has to face more of these situations. I lose, and she was to bear with me.

And then she got lost with me-in Turtuk. A dot in the map of Ladakh. A breath-taking dot no doubt-but one at the remotest end of the country. One squeezed in between the world’s most formidable mountain (K2), the highest conflict zone in the world (Siachen) and the Shyok river (literal meaning-river of death).

Anyone would stop noticing the beauty and start panicking. Did I forget to mention that only some mobile networks work here (airtel and bsnl postpaids-we had neither) and they work only at some times?

How it happened:

When we entered the village, we were full of excitement.

After walking a long way through the mesmerizing views, I was done. I was anyway not at my best at this altitude with my asthma issues, and then the chill in the air and the long walk sapped me completely.

Most villagers we spoke to, said the best way to go back was using the same way we had hiked in.

No way, I would not do it. There had to be a shorter way!

A farmer pointed the opposite way-near the end of the slope. There are stairs there. They’ll take you straight down to the highway.

But our car and driver were where we had left them-near the bridge to the village. I insisted that my husband could go and get them till the highway, and I would take the shortcut and meet them there.

He tried to convince me to go back the known way-I insisted on using the new one. So he and the younger kid went back the long way. The elder one stayed behind to keep me safe and we walked towards the short-cut.

It was a straight, vertical walk down the rubble!

There was no way I could have walked down in my city shoes, I couldn’t even slide down and take the risk of ending up in Shyok. And of course, I couldn’t take my kid that way-even if she is a much better hiker than me.

So, we walked back-almost ran-to catch up with the other half of the family.

We couldn’t make it in time!

So now it was two of us at one end wondering where the car would be; and two in the car just finding out that there were multiple stairs leading down the mountain, and there was no way of predicting which one we would be using.

The kid was ballistic ( I know how it feels): This one time you don’t have a phone to lose- so you go and lose me instead!

There were no phones, but there were lots of helpful travelers. 

I requested each of them to inform the white Innova with number XXXX where we were waiting.

The last resort would have been to keep walking down the highway, hoping that somewhere, sometime, we'll spot our family.

It took another twenty minutes for the car to reach us. 

For some time we were all silent with the simmering tension, and then immensely thankful. 

It was quite a few hours before we could laugh about it.