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- Shopping in Srinigar, Kashmir, India
- It Took Ingenuity to Get Back to Srinagar from Pahalgam
- The Muddy Trek back to Aru from Lidderwat, Kashmir
- A Miserable Day in Lidderwat - The Himalayas of Kashmir, India
- Trekking from Aru to Lidderwat, Kashmir, India
- Floating and Sightseeing on Dal Lake in Kashmir - Srinagar, India
- Visiting the Kashmiri Moghul Gardens, Srinagar, India
- The Manora Houseboat on Lake Dal in Kashmir - Srinagar, India
- Houseboats, Hiking and Trekking in Kashmir, India
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Back on the Manora Houseboat on Dal Lake, we inhaled a beer, bathed and chatted during dinner with Charlotte and Frances, crewel carpet buyers who come to Kashmir twice a year to consult with manufacturers and stock up to sell their wares in Europe. They gave us important pointers on what shops to visit and what to buy. Carpets and Pashminas have always been the big draws along with papier mache. Charlotte also suggested we don't eat the cake houseboy Sadiq made because the cream stands around in the heat all day. 'Nuff said.
Impossible for me to sleep at all while thoughts of carpets, papier mache, and who knows what else spun through my mind like a gerbil on a wheel. How in heavens name was I going to accomplish any shopping for five children and us in only a few short hours? We had an early flight to catch from Srinigar to Jaipur via Delhi today that gave me a minimal amount of time. Who knew if, or when, we'd ever have another chance to return to Kashmir. How prophetic that was!
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Another gorgeous morning with ample sunshine, no clouds and bright. Broke camp...View image... and headed downhill for 2-1/2 hours before reaching the trailhead in Pahalgram where a taxi was supposed to pick us up.
We sat around and waited. Took final photos of our wonderful group who worked so hard and took such good care of us while Sula walked into town to see what was happening. (This was all before cell phones. Does anyone even remember those days?) Sula returned with the news all roads were closed because of flooding. All-righty now. What to do. First, a walk into town to try and call Mercury Travel, our agent, but the phone lines were also down.
Continue reading "It Took Ingenuity to Get Back to Srinagar from Pahalgam" »
Woke up to sunshine, a little too late for us in the ball game! Had eggs and chapatis for breakfast and packed up. Talked to the couple traveling with their 5-year daughter all over India. They hiked quite a distance up past Lidderwat yesterday but then had to come down because a bridge was washed out. It is amazing and daunting how adventurous they are to even think of taking a child and also how little they travel with. This is definitely not my cup of tea. Even at this novice stage of adventure travel, I prefer having a cook and people tending to me. Hey...I cook and clean at home. Creating meals over a campfire is not a vacation in my book.
Ponies and what little belongings we had on their backs, it was time to retrace the route back to Aru. The mud we slogged through on the upward journey was nothing compared to coming down. ex-Marine took another header into the mud and I just slid and slipped my way down shouting "whoa...oops...damn..." and whatever else came out of my mouth as I tried to stay on my feet.
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Another depressing and unseasonably monsoonal day. With that, we told Sula that we give up. Let's head all the way back to Phalgram and we'll just find a hotel there because we're not going to sleep out Aru on wet ground again. Instead, Sula negotiated with the owner and we paid 30 rupees to move inside this hovel to occupy the big bare room with a filthy toilet you can sit on. We had planned on sleeping on the meats until the French lady told us about her experience of being bitten by fleas last night. If that didn't give me the heebie-jeebies, the young American told us mice run around the floor at night. That took care of that! Forget the mats instead Sula moved the erect tent from the porch to inside the room. At least, if we sleep inside in the tent, everything will be zipped up.
Saib'ra concocted eggs, toast and coffee for breakfast and set to work making the mid-morning snack before we even finished breakfast. The rest of the day was spent drying our clothes in front of a fire (or shall we say attempting to dry clothes, laid around in our sleeping bags and ate while listening to the rain come down.
Continue reading "A Miserable Day in Lidderwat - The Himalayas of Kashmir, India" »
It rained all night and was still raining when we woke up. Cook made breakfast and Sula decided to wait until 10:00 a.m. to see if the rain would stop. Out of luck on that, the crew broke camp...View image...and we set off to slog three miserable and very muddy hours to Lidderwat. The first section near Aru...View image... was open meadows that was just a sea of mud and impossible to get any footing. It was one step forward, slide back two...sideways and backwards. Sula gave me a hand several times to keep me from falling back down small inclines. ex-Marine took a nice fall in the mud and an old man took pity on me and gave me a walking stick as I slipped and slid through Aru.
It did stop raining for perhaps 15 minutes in the Aru area and we wolfed down a fast packed lunch with hard-boiled eggs, boiled potato, a lamb chop of all things, chocolate, cookies and can of apple juice between the cloudbursts and continued on...
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Other than sightseeing on land, we had an early morning shikara ride around Dal Lake, comprised of series of lakes, all leading into each other. The houseboat and local communities have lived for centuries on Dal Lake and some have probably never stepped foot on land. We poled along through quiet, tranquil bayous with willow trees, forests...View image... and acres of lotus gardens along with vegetable gardens leading down to the water. The Kashmiris went about their daily activities whether it was hanging laundry out to dry...View image, smoking water pipes...View image, or paying a visit to the Srinagar Post Office located at the very edge of Dal Lake.
There were tailors, men sitting on their porches, shops full of rugs and bakers. All sitting in tiny wooden shops on the lake edge, near picturesque vegetable gardens, acres of lotus gardens and wooden signs advertising their goods along the periphery...View image. The boatman poled for two hours through the maze of waterways while we just laid back and enjoyed the sights.
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I would think that every tourist visits at least one of the three Mughal Gardens located in the vicinity of Srinagar center. Your choices are: Nishat Bagh (Garden of Gladness) a long ride away; Cheshma Shahi, 9 km/6 miles from Srinigar center, or Shalimar Garden (also called Shalimar Bagh) around 15 km/9.3 miles away.
Our guide took us by taxi to Shalimar Bagh/Shalimar Garden and we entered the public gardens on the first terrace. Shalimar Garden is the most celebrated royal garden of Kashmir and dates back to the 6th century when it was a Hindu sacred site. The exquisite formal gardens were planted by Emperor Jahangir in 1619 for his wife, Empress Nur Jahan and has a large public audience hall where the emperor held daily court when in Kashmir, canals lined with fountains and four terraces separated by water channels.
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It is only a short 75-minute flight from Delhi to Srinagar. Now: Three very nice airlines, Spicejet, Kingfisher Air and Jet Airways fly here. Then: We had to fly junky Indian Airlines with a terrible safety record. Picked up at the airport and transfered to the shore of Dal Lake where our dedicated Manora Houseboat shikara and boatman...View image...stood waiting to pole us out to the boat. The shikaras have canopies, curtains and thick cushions that make you want to just lay back and regally order masses of servants around with a wave of the hand. The boatman poled us through the still waters past a busy floating bazaar, traffic jams of other shikaras, and lines of houseboats with names like "California," "New York," "Chicago," and "Persian Gulf." Hysterically funny...
The houseboats are permanently moored. Some, right at Srinagar's doorstep and others, 4-6 miles out in Dal Lake. They are decorated in what I'd call British Raj style with massive furniture and oriental rugs, have a dining room, living room, lounging area on the front deck and two to five bedrooms with modern bathrooms depending on the houseboat size. There is also a floating cookhouse in back. They do range in price and luxury. The majority of western tourists stay in the ones classified as Deluxe and Class A while a Class B boat will have less amenities and bedrooms.
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Before the violent troubles began in Kashmir in 1989, more than 500,000 tourists visited each year to float on picturesque Dal Lake and trek the alpine mountain trails that resemble Switzerland. ex-Marine (husband, Steve) and I were two of those tourists that took a chance on our first trip to India. What possessed me, I don't know but I am certainly glad we did. Who knew it would be over 20 years before the ensuing violence would die down enough to recommend visiting Kashmir?
The U.S. State Department notes...that the potential for terrorism remains and recommends that Americans avoid travel there...the United States Mission in India wishes to urgently remind all U.S. citizens resident in or traveling to India that there is a high threat from terrorism throughout India. The British Government states...We advise against all travel to, or through rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir other than Ladakh...high general threat from terrorism throughout India Despite all this, tourism has been steadily increasing and violence is at an all-time low. Only you can decide if the time is right but the information in these articles is what you may expect in Kashmir.
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