Daniel Parecki

Well, we ended up in Kashmir after all. I don’t really know how that happened, but Casey had been pushing to go here months. Given that Kashmir is a conflict zone, its not the best place for a week adventure. Milli, our host in Delhi, warned us not to go to Srinagar unless we had someone we could trust, but Casey’s wish to see Kashmir overwhelmed her warning. We checked the news for current conflicts, but no violence had occurred in the past year, and there were no cases of westerners getting harmed. Even though there were some things that speak danger, I still felt at ease. The Indian government had Military personnel stationed at every rest stop, and huge army bases rested against the road to Srinagar. I sat in a house boat on Dal Lake and just paid for a week stay. On the road entering Srinagar an army tank proudly pointed its nuzzle toward incoming traffic. The Indian government is used primarily to keep the Kashmiri people under India reign. Many people we talked to said that they wanted to be their own country, and due to the violence they have suffered from the Indian military, I don’t blame them. Currently, there is not open conflict, but last summer over 100 students were killed by the military after protests brought thousands of locals to the streets. Pakistan also wants control of Kashmir, but the violence that ensues from that desire occurs only near the ever-changing border.

Casey and I got quite the tourist adventure in Srinagar. The twenty year old local that sold us the package was quite the salesman. He met us on the cab ride in to town and told us that he had a house boat for not too expensive, only 500 rs ($12) a night per person (I had heard estimates of house boats costing up to 3000 rs a night). After he brought us into his home (his family lives on the house boat as well) he served us tea and chatted for a while. Once we started talking business I saw that salesman in him shine. He immediately complemented us and formed a bond with us saying that he prefers to rent his home to non-indians since they are usually cleaner. And he said that he would work out a good price for us since we were students like him and have a low budget. He told us “honesty is the best policy,” as they say in Kashmir (no joke), and quickly began to up sell us on a four day hiking trip through the Himalayas. Now even though I saw his wiles at work I was still helpless to fight them.  Casey and I did manage to step aside for a quick private chat, but at that point we were both already sold. We ended up agreeing on a price of $355 each, which included a four day, three night hiking trip through the mountains, and four nights on the houseboat meals included. I heard later that that was a very good price in relation to the going rate.

The hiking was beautiful. We spent 5 hours the first day hiking uphill to get to the open plains. Fortunately, our guide, Sajad, hired local porters from the mountains who put our bags and tent on horses. Even with no backpacks the climb was incredibly exhausting. But once we got to the top, it was all worth it. Kashmiri nomads still live on the plains as they have lived for ages. They herd sheep and sleep in packed one room houses made from stones and sticks. At the end of our trek, we came upon a lake resting at a height of 12000 ft. Rich grass plains surrounded the lake on two sides and a glacier on the abutting mountain fed the lake. We stayed three nights up in the mountains, and both got sun burned despite wearing rain jackets and sun screen. One of the local boys took us to his home and introduced us to his family. They were incredibly excited to see westerners and offered us tea and flat bread. They became ecstatic when we offered to take pictures. They loved seeing themselves on our little digital screens. That seems to be one of the little peculiarities of Indians and Kashmiri all over. Even in Jammu, when people saw that we carried cameras they would beckon us over and ask to have their picture taken. They would look and themselves and their friends on the screen and yelp with laughter.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2011 at 3:27 am and is filed under Travel Blog: India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.