When the going gets tough, get a pony!

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We originally planned to spend around two months in the mountains, but we've overran in other places and four months isn't as long as it sounds.

Kashmir is the most northern state in India, bordering both Pakistan and China. Given the past tensions there's a very heavy military presence, there's literally soldiers with guns stood on most street corners in the capital, Srinagar.



For those who don't know, Kashmir is one of the most dangerous geopolitical flashpoints in the world. It's the reason India and Pakistan have been enemy’s since their independence. It's location makes it's a prime strategic location, militarily speaking.

I'm not sure on all the technicalities, but in 1947 when India and Pakistan became independent there were some states which were undecided on which country to join. The Indian government sent officials to each state in an attempt to convince them to join India instead of Pakistan. The ruling maharaja (King) of Kashmir at the time, Hari Singh, wasn't sure which to join. But when Islamic partisans from Pakistan crossed the border into Kashmir to encourage Hari to leave India, he became scared they would overthrow him if he joined Pakistan and so joined India.

Fighting ensued and in 1948 a ceasefire was agreed by the UN. At this point the issue should have been resolved because the UN mandated that the Kashmiris should be the deciders of their fate, however the Indian government hasn't to this day given them that choice.



The end of the war between Russia and Afghanistan in 1989 is blamed for the sudden rise of militancy in Kashmir, with mujahideen soldiers arriving. This and a growing discontent with Indian rule from the Kashmiris lead to violence in the area. The key incident happened in 1990 when the Indian army massacred over 100 protesters In cold blood, unprovoked.

A once thriving tourist industry among hippies was brought to an end in 1995 when five foreign tourists were kidnapped while trekking in Pahalgam by the extremist group Al-Faran, one was beheaded. The rest never found.

Tourism is slowly picking back up in the region, although Himachel Pradesh is the popular state of choice for mountains. With the current world situation it'll only take one small incident to scare tourists away.



In my last blog I mentioned that India has never attacked another country, while this may be true they're not as peaceful as they may seem. I'm not going to list all the atrocities that have been committed by both sides, if you're a certain age you'll probably know about them already. If not, that's what Google's for.



Now you know where we were, I'll start with what we did...



We'd got an overnight train to Jammu from Delhi, and from Jammu we got a jeep straight to Srinagar, the capital. We didn't really have too much of a plan for Kashmir, we just knew we wanted to trek and maybe ski, weather dependant.

Srinagar is situated on a kind of plateau, surrounded by mountains giving the impression of being in a massive bowl. The guide book listed staying on a houseboat on Dal Lake as one of the highlights of Kashmir, and despite us telling him not to, the guy who we booked the jeep with had organised someone to meet us and take us to their houseboat...however there's not a chance we were going to pay 1200rs per night! So we headed away from where we'd been dropped in the hope of finding the hostel I'd found online with a dorm.

At home there's a saying that you're never more than a metre away from a rat...in India I reckon you're never more than a metre away from someone trying to sell you something! As such we got cornered and after getting the price down to 300rs per night we headed for houseboat heaven sun, just behind the main row of houseboats so the noise of the city was blocked out, it was pretty nice.



One of the top tourist agendas in Srinagar is to get a Shikara around Dal Lake, so we did. A Shikara is a wooden boat with a bed and a roof...Google it...it'd be very romantic if you were with a partner. To be fair the whole houseboat thing would be very good for a couple. Luckily about five minutes into the Shikara ride, after me and Dave had realised this, a man appeared on a shop boat selling crisps, biscuits, toilet paper...and BEER! Nothing like a cold 8%!K(MISSING)ingfisher to take the romance level down.

The Shikara ride was definitely worth it, a beautiful view of the mountains and getting to see how people live on the lake. There's floating food boats making samosas, pakodas...etc, blokes going round on boats selling trinkets, blokes selling snacks and soft drinks and a floating clothes market. We even got chicken shish kebabs off a guy BBQing on his boat! Although Dave blamed the chicken for yet another onslaught of what seems to be continuous Delhi belly...enough about that though.

The government price for a shikara ride is 500rs per hour...we paid 400rs for four hours, bargain. It's amazing what prices you can get when you don't really want to do something.



There's a couple of mosques/temples to go and see, a fort and even Jesus' alleged grave. We heard the fort it occupied by the army so you can't visit, however a local said that foreign tourists don't have a problem going inside.

On my last trip I read a book called “Jesus lived in India”. It claims that in the 15 year period before the bible starts and even after the crucifixion he returned here. Basically when he first came, he was learning from Buddhists and Hindus, and also trying to teach others some of his lessons. He was chased away from India because he denounced the caste system (Hierarchy of class Indians are born into), this is when he returned to what is today Israel and Palestine. The bible happened, the crucifixion “happened”.

I say it in quotation marks because what happened according to “Jesus lived in India” and the Quran is the guy who stabbed Jesus and his boss were part of a secret group which believed in Jesus' teachings so they arranged for him to be stabbed in a place that wouldn't kill him. Then in the night took him away to a cave where shamans/doctors were waiting for him, they healed his wounds etc and a few days later they rolled the stone back on the cave and out walked Jesus.

He then had to get away from the area and he returned to India, with his mother Mary. Mary died along the way and is buried in Afghanistan (I think that's proven fact, or “fact” as this is religion).

He lived out the rest of his days in Kashmir and is buried in Srinagar, however the grave is closed to the public these days due to the influx of people coming to look after the Lonely Planet mentioned the story of Jesus being there.



There's remains of a Buddhist monastery on a hill where an important meeting to Buddhists took place in AD 80 and Jesus was apparently at the meeting. There's various people in various religions that all speak of a person like Jesus and the consensus is that they're all Jesus, just given different names by different society’s.



We came to the mountains to trek but not having much time we had to settle for a three day trek. The area “Naranag” sounds like something from The Lord of the Rings! And looked like it too. We paid 4000rs each for four days away, all food included, spare trekking gear and a shared jeep back.



For me the trekking was better than Nepal because there's not set trail, you're just out in the wild...and you don't have to walk up a hill to walk back down it!

But you do have to walk straight up a very steep hill for a full day. Dave couldn't make it up for whatever reason, whether it was illness or just being a p*ssy...I don't know (he was sick twice).



The first day we arrived we'd been told we would be trekking for two hours and then making camp...this was worded very well. It wasn't any trekking for the actual trek, just a walk up the river near where the guide lived.

Right next to the guide's (Akhter) house there's a stone temple that looks bigger than it is. Apparently it was built in ancient times by giants...which Is quite interesting because civilisations all over the world have spoke of ancient giants...



That night we decided to stay at Akhter's house rather than go and set a tent up etc. Luckily we didn't set off for the trek that day because we weren't prepared in the slightest! We'd been told our clothes and shoes would be warm enough. They weren't even warm enough for the bottom of the mountain, never mind the top!



We got extra coats and sleeping bags the day after for the trek, and paid an extra 1500rs to take an extra pony. This meant we had room for more sleeping bags, blankets and even air mattresses.

About 45 minutes into the trek (according to Dave, I think it was more like 10!) Dave was sick and was struggling to get up...so I had to descend about 2/300 metres to motivate him to keep going...it was a futile effort (he did struggle on a few hundred metres further up). Me and Akhter went ahead with the ponys, set up camp and Akhter went back for Dave with a pony for him to ride up instead. I'd just like to point out that other than Dave I only saw girls riding the ponys...



Anyway, we get to the camp site, wow. Snow capped mountains in every direction, the perfect view.

We camped that night, and it was a good job we took the extra pony. I was wearing socks, pyjama pants, joggers, a t-shirt, two jackets and two sleeping bags and I was only just warm!



The next day Dave stayed behind with the tent and me and Akhter set off for a mountain lake...which due to my poor footwear we couldn't reach because the snow was too deep! I did get to see the highest peak in the area though and got a nice taster for next time.



I plan on returning at some point in the not too distant future to do plenty of trekking in and around Kashmir, maybe spend a couple of weeks roaming the mountains and skiing. Three days wasn't enough!



Just to quickly go back to the conflict etc, Akhter was once taken by the Indian army at gun point and made to carry 25kg of their things in a bag while they trekked through the mountains for a week. His family didn't have a clue where he was...



The last day we descended the mountain and returned to Srinagar. If you're planning on trekking in Kashmir don't book anything anywhere! Find out the places to trek, go there and meet a guide. We didn't do it this way and got a decent price in Srinagar, but Akhter could've done it cheaper still, and I'd prefer my money to go to a person like that than a city type just trying to suck as much money from you as they can.



If you're interested, Akhter's details:

Mohammad Akhter Jagol

Naranag 191202

Ganderbal/ Jammu & Kashmir

India

[phone]

[phone]





Now onto Manali for a few days to chill before rushing over to Kolkata for the flight to Burma!

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