Blogs from Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia - page 5

Budget travellers can avoid the cost of flying in to Srinagar from Delhi by taking the winding road up from Jammu to observe the spectacular terraced agriculture and gushing river valleys of Kashmir state. It is a crammed highway, however, and the views can be eclipsed by outrageous and unnerving driving manoeuvres. Regarding the insurgency, the safest and quickest options are the somu mini-vans. Having completed mandatory registration with Indian officials, crossing into the Kashmir valley past the bright mustard fields and piles of Kashmir Willow cricket bats, approaching what has been in recent years the highest battlefield on earth, is a remarkable experience. Numerous proud signposts greeting you to “Kashmir Valley - Paradise on Earth” are often ironically framed by armed soldiers. If military presence deters you then Srinagar should be avoided. Throughout the valley ... read more

Dear all apologies for not writing for such a long time, but communications, electricity and water supplies are not necessarily reliable up here in the wilds of Gulmarg. we moved out of our cold damp hotel with the potentially dangerous gas heater, into a lovely warm hotel - POSHWAN,thats right, because we're so upper class. the room has a wood burner, a good hot shower, and also, get this, HBO. i'm not sure that we've ever watched so many films,getting proper cultured like. our forays out onto the mountain have also improved. we met a couple of welsh lads who took us out and showed us the ropes, increased our confidence on the mountain and took us on some amazing runs. the set up here is that the gondola takes you up to 13500ft, from there ... read more

Jesse, Nicole, Vrinda, Kim, and I headed up to Gulmarg in Kashmir for India's Republic Day Weekend. Upon arrival we had a late lunch at the Global Hotel restaurant. The food was decent and it felt like we were in a 1960s style Hookah Bar. There were a few foreigners running the place that had given up chasing the almighty dollar and decided to be ski bums. They put us up in rooms that cost Rs 1000 ($20.00) per night, food was about Rs 250 per meal ($5), and the gondola was Rs 150 per run ($3). If you eat three meals a day and ski 10 runs per day, it will cost you $65 per day including lodging. On days that you don't ski, it will cost you $35 per day. If you ski 10 ... read more

I realized when I did a blast email about my travels, I never mentioned where I am going and why. Until November 6th I will be traveling around India assisting photographer John Isaac with two photography workshops through the Maine Media Workshops. These are basically destination workshops where you go to photograph all hours of the day. Life couldnt get better, right? I am just arriving back from spending the past 7 days in Srinigar, Kashmir, an unbelievably beautiful part of India. The political history in Kashmir between Pakistan and India is quite long and complicated, and it has been politcally unstable for quite some time now. Although Indian military dominate every square inch of the land, guns held, hands in trigger, the Kashmiri's seem to live their normal day to day life. For the past ... read more

The end of Ramadan came with joy to the people of Kashmir and to me! I woke up the next morning and everyone was saying "Happy Eat Day", so I thought. I was excited to eat in company for the first time since I got there. I only shared dinner with them before. I later found out that the two day long festival following Ramadan is called 'Eid Mubarak' so what I was thinking was 'eat' was actually 'eid.' I found this absolutely hilarious when I saw the words on the television! The days were pretty quiet and relaxing. I did a lot of embroidery work and read the book, 'A Map of the World' It's a good read for sure. The second evening, I was wondering why everything was so quiet around the house. Most ... read more