Srinagar, Sept. 11 :     For nearly two months they were mesmerised by ?the war on the roof of the world?. Now they are on their way there, to see, touch and smell the land that was too beautiful to let go. Kargil, the theatre of war, is the latest happening tourist spot. At 8.15 am on Friday, a white-and-green State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) bus set off from Srinagar with the first lot of 25 tourists ? 11 from Bengal ? to Kargil. ?Kargil should be on the tourist map like Gulmarg and Pahalgam. My Kashmir trip will be incomplete without a visit to Kargil, where our jawans laid down their lives for the country,? said Bibhuti Bhusan Pramanik, who is from Diamond Harbour. Almost half way between Srinagar (234 km) and Leh (204 km), Kargil (9,000 ft) used to be little more than an overnight halt for most tourists. Before the insurgency in Kashmir escalated, European, American and Japanese tourists used Kargil as the take-off point for treks to the Zanskar Valley and the Nun-Kun peaks (about 21,000 ft). But with many countries warning tourists against visiting Kashmir, there is almost no traffic from the West. But the war and the hardsell by travel agents has made the tourist want to be where the soldier was during the conflict. They want to see the arid, inhospitable terrain, the smoky ridges, the heights from which the ?enemy? often fired at Indian soldiers shinnying up the incline. ?My only purpose of visiting Kashmir was to visit Drass and see Tiger Hill, places where our jawans fought to recapture territory,? said B. Pramanik. Dal Lake, shikara rides and the Lidder river gushing in Pahalgam is pass?. What is in is the 234-km route the SRTC bus is taking: Srinagar-Sonemarg-Zojila-Matayen-Pandrass-Drass-Kaksar-Kargil. Even the names resonate with the monstrous anger of guns. The ?battle zone? begins at Captan Mod, just before Zoji La, where the army runs a temple for all soldiers to pray in. All along the route the highway is marked by the insignia of war: regimental logos on barren hillsides, tombstones and, just before Kargil town, a memorial to an army signalman ? killed in the 1971 conflict ? where soldiers pay homage with tots of rum. The Kargil festival also began on Friday, but almost none of the tourists from Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra who filled the first bus were interested in the cultural programmes. For them it is the war zone or nothing. ?The response has been spontaneous, particularly from Bengal. Eleven of the 25 passengers are from Bengal. Next year, the rush will be bigger,? said Abdul Hamid, managing director of SRTC, which has launched ?tourism to Kargil? packages. This year, though, there is not much to lose: the road may close in October with the first snowfall. After a 12-hour journey, the bus halts in Kargil. The travellers will be put up in either of two hotels ? Siachen and D?Zojila ? in Kargil town or in tourist bungalows. Before Kargil the tourists will stop in Drass in a lush valley at 10,660 feet, where the army has a brigade headquarter. Tiger Hill, Phelong and the Tololing ridge reverberate with tales of heroism. The villages near Drass are still deserted. ?It is beautiful, an area of mountains and ridges,? says Hamid. But the tourists were not interested in the beauty. ?We will salute our soldiers,? said Pervez Khan, a resident of Barrackpore. This is adventure tourism with a difference: the adventure lies in the images in the mind. The lucky tourist can hope to return with a piece of shrapnel as a souvenir.