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Published: February 20th 2007
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Typical Street
Driving through Kashmir. Now I can honestly say that no where in India to date has been to over whelming, nothing over the top, unexpected or confronting. But for the first time I absolutely shit myself about being in Srinagar. I felt uncomfortable, scared and generally not safe. Now heading into Kashmir you here the stories about the trouble of past and present, Lonely Planet warns you to check the security status and states that the town has a highly visible army presence. Well that’s an understatement to say the least. The town/city is more like an army base. There are armed soldiers everywhere, literally stationed down the street every 20 meters, patrol bunkers at all intersections and heavy military searches upon entering certain areas or buildings. It’s not really a pleasant environment.
But I’ll start at the being and explain why I feel so uncomfortable, because, knowing me I’m totally exaggerating the circumstances, well maybe it’s because I’ve heard there’s trouble and just had a negative attitude from the start. Well the journey from Dharamsala, to Srinagar was a whooping 26 hours on bus. Yeah fun. Driving through the town of Jammu, then on to Srinagar, at one stage the trip winding
Not a Happy Camper
Tired and cold on the bus ride up. up the mountains through the Himalayas took 12 hours to travel 300 km. Ridiculous. Part of the reason is that because the road is so narrow it is only open in one direction so for 5 hours at 2am we sat on the side of the road and waited for the traffic direction to change so that we could proceed. Wankers, just build a wider road, it’s only the Himalayas for gods sake. Mind you they were thinking on the bright side at one point because on the way up instead of going around a mountain they literally punch a hole through a mountain, creating a tunnel which extends for about 5 km or something, suddenly opening to a valley deep in the Himalaya range, only to find yourself surrounded 360 degrees by white snow capped mountains. Awesome sight and provided some justification for all the shit. Then there the occupants of the bus, this is when the uncertainty started to kick in. Random guys, real dodgy looking kept coming up and siting next to me behaving all weird like. They were offering food but not eating themselves, and getting offended when I refused. Asking me for my name, address,
River Shacks being taken apart.
Not sure what was happening but crowds gathered as people were forced to dismantle their homes. job, parents names, jobs, how much money I and they earned, then to top it off asking me to write it all down on a piece of paper. I fobbed most of there questions off, with, unemployed, homeless and my name was Mr Andrew. It may seem like nothing but at the time, I was not thinking rationally. All I could conjure jump was that these people were going to kidnap me and hold me hostage. Serious, I was panicking. Don’t ask me why, its just the whole environment thing. Some may class this as inquisitive, i think terrorist fanatic, yes i know harsh. On any other day i probably would have thought they were lovely people, even shared a beer with them...although, they dont..drink....beer, oh well an experience.
Needless top say though I made it to Srinagar safely, sort of, only to be confronted by more hassles and blank malicious stares at the bus station. Throw that in with the army barrack like city views and I was in no mans land! Wicked. Its hard to describe the city but its what I imagine Pakistan or Afghanistan to be like. The country side is bleak, the people dull,
sky grey and bloody cold. Mind you this is called the summer escape and I happened to be here in winter so that probably didn’t help one bit. Also the day I arrive there was a murder in the morning of a local man who apparently according to the locals was gunned down in cold bloody by the army, while the army are claiming he was kill by guerilla mulisha men. Something dodgy went down anyway and people were not happy!
After settling in as much as I could, and keeping a close look over my shoulder every five minutes, I set off dodging the dodgy looking characters, fobbing off the extremely pushy Kashmiri touts, shop owners and just blokes who claim to "just want to be your friend" to explore the sights of the town, well, apparent sights. Srinagar is the summer retreat town for many Indians who flock here to escape the heat on the summer plains. The highlights or draw card is the ‘peaceful’ Dal Lake harboring a maze of channels, floating water gardens and of course the countless swarm of Kashmiri House Boats. The Lake is like a floating palace and contains an sea of
Main Street
Cold, wet and muddy. permanently moored boats, parked next to each other calmly balanced on the water. The boats are a flat bottom pine design, about 20 meters long, complete with living, dining, kitchen and bedrooms, in the midst of an Old English interior décor. The experience is supposed to be a real treat, floating on the water, isolated in the summer afternoons, but I kind of avoided the experience as well Me, Myself and I together, floating on a lake in the middle of winter probably would have been enough to put me over the edge. So I opted for a Shikara ride, being an Indian version of a Gondola, and explored the canals and lake that way. Although interesting and extremely fascinating, it was cold, wet, grey and miserable. When you compare it to the floating backwater experiences in Kerela, this place is like a concentration camp. Its definitely a place to visit during summer, because winter is not all that.
So to escape the misery of a dull, colorless city I headed a couple of hours north to Gulmarg, India’s major Ski Resort 2653 meters above sea level, fringed by snow capped pine forests. Now I haven’t seen snow like
Floating City.
House boats permanently moared on the river to create a floating township. this in years, there was about 4-6 foot of fresh powdery snow, blanketed white for as far as the eye can see. Mind you the conditions weren’t great for skiing as you could see more than 15 meters in front of your face. Now not that I’m a skier or anything but I was going to give it a bash, but well didn’t as well none of the lifts were working because of the conditions, and I really wanted to start at the top of the run, not, haha. I stuck with a few snow ball fights and general walking. It was just nice to be in snow. But speaking about how heavy the conditions were, 4 days before I got there was young Australia lad was killed in an avalanche while skiing, not sure if you guys heard about that at home. So all the lifts were closed for the time being, this included the Gulmarg Gondola Lift, the second highest in the world, which takes you to the top of the range. From Gulmarg (8700ft) to Kangdori (10050ft) to Afarwat(13500ft), where you are able to see the ranges stretching all the way to Pakastan. So again I was
How Romantic..not
I wondered if i'd make it off the boat or not. disappointed that I missed this, and again everyone says to come back in summer, the golf course is open then as well (of course one of the highest green in the world). Next time.
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