Heaven on Earth: Kashmir

“Gar firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto, hamin asto, hamin ast.”

Would have never known this to be true had I not seen it for myself. Let me begin with telling this to you, to really know how awesome this country is you should pay a visit to Kashmir! And I'll be honest with you I would have not gone, had a bunch of friends not gone there and come back happy and healthy ( A shout out to the travelers! You know who you are ;)) Also, to be even more honest this trip almost didn't happen, as when we had originally planned to go on the trip my MIL fell very ill, so we had to rush to Kolkata. The air tickets were non-refundable, but some stroke of luck; I had booked tickets on the airline in which my cousin happens to work, and by even more luck I remembered this fact just when it mattered the most. He did come to the rescue and got the non refundable non changeable tickets transferred to a later date, and so the trip did happen (Thank you Bro :)). And my MIL was also happy and healthy by then :).. That's what in normal parlance be called a Win-Win situation.

So we took this trip in the month of October, which is too late for flowers and too early for snow. Basically it was not the best time to go, but we went anyway. We followed the exact same itinerary my friends had followed, because we trust their judgement more than ours, with minor tweaks. First let me give a few tips:

1. The place is really expensive, so if you get a deal on hotels at least you shall be able to subsidize that. We used a website which had these huge discounts and we got rooms at awesome prices. (goibibo)

2.Also, home-stays are an option you should consider, we stayed at a home-stay for the first time and I can say that I didn't regret it! (Una Homestays) 

3. There are a lot of local rules that apply to tourists, so it is better that you hire a local guy as your driver as he also serves as a guide, and tells you where which rule applies and where you need to be careful and stuff like that

4. A lot of costs in Kashmir are fixed, cabs for instance. So it would be cheaper if you go in a bigger group as you would be able to capitalize on economies of scale (I'm an economics student, you can't take this away from me)

5. Food is expensive everywhere, so while you are paying a lot of money you better spend it at worthwhile places.

6. The weather is unpredictable, so be ready. Always carry an umbrella and a warm jacket.

7. Don't be all touristy and buy the usual. You never know if you're being sold real pashmina or fake. Having said that, I did buy one for my MIL :)

8. Kashmiri shop-keepers are sweet talking and very adamant in nature, don't give in to the sinking feeling. If you don't want something, you don't buy it. Period.

9. Alcohol is generally frowned upon in this area, for the sake of enjoying bliss of different kind, stay sober.

10. You would see army everywhere, don't panic and don't feel terrorized. There is peace in the valley, we roamed around Srinagar while the news channels were frantically reporting unrest, we came back unscratched.

Is it just me, or is my blog starting to give out useful tips? Probably I need to get more regular, to get over these rare pangs of thoughtful writing.

Me and these never ending prologues. So let's begin the journey. We landed in Srinagar in the afternoon, and headed straight for Gulmarg. Gulmarg, literally translates to the place with flowers. As I've already mentioned above, it was too late for flowers. But as its higher up than Sringar, the route was pretty and the air was fresh. We stopped at this really nice restaurant on driver's recommendation, we ordered local dishes and in all honesty they were nothing like I have ever tasted in my life. Wondering what it was? So if you are ever in Kashmir, and you happen to be a non-vegetarian, just pick and choose anything from the wazwaan and you shall not be disappointed. And, after every meal, you must drink the ever so delicious Kahwa. Enough about the food, how I always digest... err digress (joke in bad taste.. You think?) Moving on.. we finally reached Gulmarg, the sleepy town, who's claim to fame is all the movies shot there, the most recent one being Jab tak hai jaan. To be honest there is nothing much to do there in summers, except the gondola ride. Now the gondola has two phases, first one takes you to this flat grassland, where in Spring you would see lots and lots of flowers, but given we went later, we just saw grass. And then there is phase two, where you see snow. But as luck would have it, it was closed for public as they were installing new cable cars. Just our luck! Not to be deterred by the minor roadblock, we just reveled in the peace and quiet of the town. By the way, did you know, this is the place which has the biggest (probably the only government operated) ski institutes in India, and this place is thriving with activity during the winters, especially December thru March. A friendly advise, if you're not visiting Kashmir in any of these months, avoid Gulmarg. And, also, don't take the pony ride, its not worth it, just walk around that would be much more fun and we took a guide, though he was cheap, I don't think we really needed him.

Next stop, Pahalgam. Now this is what would have inspired Amir Khusrow to write the couplet. At least that is what I shall continue to believe till the end of my time. En-route we saw these amazing apple orchards, this is one thing we were perfectly on time for! This was the first time I saw apples, each branch had like a thousand shiny juicy delights hanging on it. Pahalgam was where we had booked the home stay, and I'm so glad we had decided to do so. But first a few negatives about the place, so there is a stay-order by the Kashmir government on any new construction in the area to stop it from being polluted, rightly so. But as a result, the house we stayed in was not brand new (to be read old), and felt like you were living in someone's house. In all fairness that's how its supposed to be. Second, we had reached Pahalgam a little after dark so we had real difficulty reaching the place. The lady owning the house was super caring and helpful, she had ensured a dinner and camp-fire for us. And the best thing was there was another couple in the house, and we hit it off instantly as they were Bongs (both, not one real and one pseudo like us) and fun. We bonded over the fire and then played some carrom, and told our stories. And then it was time to sleep. What an amazing decision it was to book the place was realized in the morning, when I woke up, and saw that the backyard had the Lidder river flowing in all its glory. And what's more I could go and sit by the rocks by just jumping the fence. And that's exactly what I did! I sat on a rock with my feet dipped in that cold water, all this while, the people staying in the fancy hotels looked at me with envious eyes, as they could not do so. Finally, the other three woke up, and we had this really nice breakfast, you could ask the care taker to make anything for you, and the guy was a really good cook. Made me appreciate the place even more, as we could have endless cups of tea, at any point in the day. Anyway, moving on, we next went on for the pony ride to Baisaran, now this pony ride you must not miss out on. For one thing its reasonable in terms of cost, and the other there is no other way to get to Baisaran. They would also offer some random other routes, stick to the main stream getting to Baisaran and back, as the other spots are not worth your while. I had so much fun on the ponies, for one I think my pony liked me, and two Sid's didn't and three the other guy (real tall big guy) screamed and shrilled like a girl!

Did I ever tell you, I want a pet horse? I don't think so. Yeah I want a pet horse, and a dog and also and elephant. Hmm.. come to think of it, I might want to own an entire zoo, if the opportunity ever presented itself. I'm not the most reasonable person when comes to desires, but then I'm allowed to want whatever I want.

Coming back to the valley, you start questioning your decision to get on the damn horse, the ride is that long and bumpy, but don't lose patience. After what seems like forever, the bouncing stops. The moment you get over the numbness, and move into the pasture, you would just gasp in awe of the beauty. They call it mini Switzerland, and I've been to Switzerland, I don't know why they do this, the place is beautiful beyond comparison, you don't need to belittle its beauty by comparing it to any other place in the world. The air was so fresh, the sun was warm and crispy, the rabbits and sheep made pretty faces and drew me towards them, so needless to say i had to get a photo with them. But more than anything, you just sit by the small rivulets and bask in the sun, and in the wandering thoughts appreciate the small things in life. We didn't want to go back, but the horses were timed.

 Reluctantly, we got back from the meadow. At least once during your stay, you must eat the locally caught fresh trout. There is nothing better tasting than a freshly caught fresh water fish. And needless to say that is exactly what we had. If you want the name of the place, its Trout Beat, but don't worry you wont miss it, there are not many places to eat in the small market. After this, we bade farewell to the lovely couple, and went on with the next thing on our agenda, which was exploring the pretty place a little bit more. You have to hire a local taxi to go beyond Pahalgam, even if you have your own vehicle, this is to provide livelihood to the locals, don't argue just go by the rules.

Now we went on further into the wilderness and the further we went, the prettier the place became. The river Lidder got more lustrous and noisy, the trees became greener and denser, and lets just say we became more and more impressed. So I'll tell you all the places we covered in this day trip: Aru Valley, Betaab Valley and the Chandanwadi.

In case you've watched Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and wondered where they got those scenic locations, Aru valley is your answer. As is the case with every place in kashmir, the guides point the locations and the movies you can see them in. Thankfully, due to the recent lot of film makers, this place has seen a spike in tourists. There are two ways you could enjoy the beauty of the valley, one is what we did, take a day trip, stop over at the view points chai dhabas and stuff. And the other is what the hippies who took the cab before us did, ask the cabby to drop you off at a flat land and camp for the night. If we had camping gear, we would have thought of doing it too (I would have, Sid would have panicked and ran). The effort Kashmir is putting to get back tourism becomes evident when you go to Betab valley. Now this place gets its name from the very famous Amrita Singh-Sunny Deol movie by the same name which was shot here back in the 80's. There is a Rs. 100 entry fee for this place, but you'll see why when you enter. They have this pristine river flowing through a albeit man-made but very pretty garden. They have put in so much effort into keeping the place clean, that they were taking the stones out from the river and replacing them with clean ones. And the result of this tedious exercise was for the lack of better words extra-ordinary! Oh Man that place! What bliss it was. And the last stop for this day trip was Chandanwadi, this is the spot where the Amarnath yatra starts every year. When we went it was not the time of the year yet, but we though of climbing up a few stairs just for the sake of it, and we could climb only a few steps, for the weight we carry. And with this last spot, we made the return to the pretty Pahalgam where the trout was waiting for us. I know I said you must have it once, but I said at least once.

By the time we got back to the hotel, our driver had filled us in on the recent happenings in the valley, and told us that if we start after dawn we might get stuck in the middle of riots. This was as there had been an incident in a village which lay on the way between Pahalgam and Srinagar. We're not the ones who take these warnings lightly. So when the driver said we need to start early, we did. Even though it was raining cats and dogs when we started, we stayed on track nonetheless. And I'm glad we took his advise, as once the day broke, we saw this huge line of trucks, refusing to go forward for the fear of being torched. We however, were out of the dangerous area, while the protesters were sleeping. And then we made it to the summer capital of J&K, Srinagar.

We had planned the trip in such a way, that we leave Srinagar for the last day, as our flight was from that airport. Owing to the protests we had reached Srinagar very early in the day and we were sleep deprived. So we figured, why not first take rest and then begin the sight-seeing as anyway it was raining. We bathed, ate breakfast, slept and even then the rains didn't stop; so we decided to get out any way. There was a curfew in the city that day, but that didn't mean the tourists couldn't be touristy, only the commercial places and the offices were closed, none of it of our interest. Our driver lived in Srinagar, hence he knew the places which would be open to public. We started with the Shankracharya Temple, one would think the rains would make the day gloomy, on the contrary it made it even more picturesque. We drove up the hill to the temple, on bright sunny days, you can see the entire lake from atop the hill, but it was raining and it was foggy so we saw a cloudy fluffy blanket over the lake, which was amazing. Post the temple, we went on to see all the gardens in the city, and I must say, this place was amazing. Even though it wasn't spring and the flowers were not in their full bloom, we were smitten. And a I just saw couple of pics on facebook from people who went recently(the right time to visit kashmir) and I was blown away! The list of gardens you must visit are as below:

1. Pari Mahal, this garden is atop a small hill and gives you a very beautiful view of the Dal lake

2. Chashme Shahi, this garden's claim to fame is the medicinal properties of the fresh water spirng. Apparently Jawahar Lal Nehru used to have this water brought to Delhi for his consumption

3. Shalimar and Nishat, both of these are huge gardens with the very kashmiri Chinar trees everywhere.

4. Tulip Garden, we couldn't visit as this is open only in spring. But from hearsay I know this is not to be missed.

We gave the shikara ride a miss because it was raining for most parts and also, the floating market was closed that day owing to the curfew. We ended the day with a few more delicacies from the wazwaan and again we were not disappointed. The next day, when we were to leave, the curfew had been lifted, the sun was shining at its full glory, the cab driver told us that the Gulmarg gondola had opened for the next phase, basically kashmir's way of saying want to bet you'll be back? You see I'm an eternal optimist. The glass is always half full, I didn't see it as the things we missed out on, i saw it as reasons to come back.

Oh Kashmir, you beauty. This blog was only to tell everyone that they must visit this paradise on earth, so they can come back to normalcy and gain back that lost grandeur it enjoyed a while ago.