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Published: September 11th 2006
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Pahalgam Family
Outside of their home It's been a while since our last blog as we've been in no where land. We had a great time in Macloud Gang and from there went up north to Kashmir. It was a dirty and death defying 12.5 hour taxi ride. Kashmir isn't the safest place and as soon as we crossed the border, things changed. Every 500m along the road were military people walking holding their semi-automatic rifles and patrolling the ditches, looking for who knows what. Kashmir is primarly a muslim area on the border with Pakistan and while it's technaically India, Pakistan wants it back and there are also militants who want it for themselves too. So there are Indian army patrols and checkpoints everywhere. But it is a beautiful area, no tourists (well we saw 4 in total over 10 days and they all stayed at our hostel), clean air, snow capped mountains, and it's a lot cooler. We initally wanted to go there to do some hiking but ended up getting rained out (and we didn't really feel safe enough to go hiking and camp overnight with milatants and who knows who else out there!) and then from the torential rain the roads were closed
so our 7 day trip turned into 10 days.
We went up to Kashmir with one of the guys, Golam, that owned the hostel we stayed at in Mcloud Gang, and his family lives in Kashmir and he had another guest house up there. We signed up for a trip to go hiking and camping, but we really didn't end up doing much of what we expected. We were there for 10 days and half of those it was raining really hard so Jarrod and I stayed indoors and read, played cards, and watched TV when the electricity was working. We did go for a few short walks (3 hours) and a horse ride (4 hours). Jarrod would have prefered to walk the horse rather than ride it. Your bum gets a bit sore to say the least. The stay was uneventful and not what we were expecting. But it was nice to get away from the crowds and honking horns. We were staying in a small town called Pahalgam - there was only one internet cafe a half hour walk away and it was closed most of the time. Deffinetly closed if it was raining. The staff at
Gypsie Girl Collecting Water
Gypies everywhere because they are moving south for winter the guesthouse were fantastic. Jarrod talked politics with one of the guys, muslim beliefs and terrorist stuff. We played some card games with them, had a couple of drinks and what not. One of the guys had an ounce and a half of Wiskey and that evening and next day he was hung. I don't think he really drinks that much.
The roads were a bit slow getting out of Kashmir because there were land slides and stuff from the rain. Travelling in a car is always an adventure. The road is winding up and down mountain sides with big cliffs and the drivers pass whenever they want. My stomach is in a knot the whole time because you think you're going to crash. On the way back, our driver took a corner to fast and sharp and the tire came off the rim. Oh, no problem, changed tires in 5 minutes flat. The road snakes up the mountain and our driver is peaking out from behind a truck wanting to pass on curves that "s" all the way up, you can't see if there is oncoming traffic, but you can blow the horn! The horn is a good
as seeing what's coming the opposite direction, really it is! You can pass on a blind corner as long as you press the horn! That's when Jarrod lost it and freaked out on the driver... I think specifically he said "If you put my fu*#ing life in danger, your life is going to be in danger when this taxi stops!"
Leaving we took a taxi car to the city of Jammu and were planning on catching a train from Jammu, but things didn't go as planned. Train was sold out from Jammu so we wanted to catch it from the next town the following day. As we're walking away from the train station in Jammu with our guide, Golam, (a muslim) another Israli girl traveller and Jarrod and I and the Police start to talk to us. They end up taking Golam away with them to the police station and Golam is clearly a bit worried and says to Jarrod "Come in with me, I don't want to go alone." Jarrod does't say anything back to him and doesn't leave me, because he's like, if Golam is worried, there's no way I'm leaving Carol by herself on the street.
So Jarrod, me and the Israli girl are waiting outside the police station for like 10 minutes and then the police officer invites us to stay and wait inside the court yard.... with the police dogs, great. The police officer explains to us, that Golam doesn't have proper ID and they suspect he is a militant. He shows us Golam's ID card...like we know what it's suppose to look like and we can read hindi. We start to get a bit worried, maybe the police think Golam is a militant or invading from Pakistan or something! After about a half hour, Golam emerges and starts to walk towards us only to be headlocked and forcefully pulled back into the station. Ok... starting to feel a bit nervous... thinking, should we stay, should we just leave him, are we going to get into trouble? A cup of dreadful chai tea and another 20 minutes pass and Golam gets out and is all buddy buddy with the police men, we say goodbye and leave. We get out of the police yard and Golam is clearly shooken up, and sheds a tear. He says that they wanted lots of money from him and
Pahalgam River
The river grew about 5 times it's size after it rained for 3 days were accusing him of being the boyfriend of the Israli girl. So, who do you beleive? The police man... is Golam really Golam? or, are the police corrupt and he did pay them? You just never know who to beleive in India.
Overall, the experience wasn't what I expected, but we learned a lot about Indian culture and that's always an experience in itself!
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Keely
non-member comment
The pictures are absolutely beautiful!! You guys be careful over there! Miss you!