Day 6 and 7 – Pahelgam

Pahelgam is a sleepy little town by the side of Lidder river. Most old (and even) new Hindi films are shot here. We reached around lunch time. As they say “Mumbai ka fashion aur Kashmir ka mausam ka koi guarantee nahi” – out of the blue it started raining in the afternoon. In an hour the rain disappeared. Undaunted (!) we ploughed through the rain :-) !We spent the evening strolling through the tiny market, where everyone hangs around. Needless to say, we had “special” Kashmiri dinner at a “special” place called Hotel Paradise. The kashmiri dum aloo with tandoori roti was to die for.

The Kashmiris are so hospitable, and such lovely people that it partially compensates for the lack of many facilities.

On Day 2, we went for a long morning walk and crossed the gushing river Lidder, and sauntered through a nearby village. We ended our walk with namkeen chai, a rather tasty pinkish brew, a tea preparation, with namkeen roti, a soft bread.

Post breakfast, we spent a most fascinating, and somewhat scary morning on pony back. The ponies were pretty sure-footed and had the reputation of being Amarnath horses which means they are hardy and can sustain 3 day long journeys on much steeper climbs, but there were times that they veered towards the edge of the cliff, and there were brief visions of taking flying tosses through the beautiful forests below. We ended up with completely sore arses, and only a boiling hot water bath later in the evening, with administration of several doses of water could cure our ailing posteriors. Our destination, the Kashmir Valley also called the Switzerland of India, is stunning and has beautiful grassy meadows encircled by the mountains.

A reward of a full course Kashmiri meal replete with Kashmiri yakhni (veg – nadru (lotus stem) and paneer, dum aloo, walnut sauce and rogan josh (meat preparation) at the poshest restaurant and hotel in Pahelgam, The Pahelgam Hotel, awaited us at the end of our bruising 3 ½ hour pony trip. After resting through the afternoon, we decided to record this, while nursing a grog and other spirits. Pahelgam is a dry state, being en route to holy Amarnath, so although we carried our own, this was something we had not quite budgeted for. We have carried the boom box and ipod nano, and are listening to Rabindra Sangeeth sung by a young man with a beautiful voice.

Tomorrow, we propose to spend the early part of the morning in the newly built 19 hole (!) ‘international’ golf course in Pahelgam, apparently the pride of the people here, as everyone including the taxi driver has been strongly recommending that we go.

On Public Demand

Here are two pics (1) Indira's new hair style and (2) Shah Jahan with Mumtaz on popular demand!

Day 5 - Higher altitude in Gulmarg

We took the Gondola (cable-car) to reach over 14000ft above the sea. It was covered with snow. We tried our luck with ski-ing with the help of a private trainer and loved it. Both have decided to join a Ski-camp in the beginning of 2012. This place was few hundred meters from the Line-of-control (LOC). After our arduous morning, we had the most amazing kashmiri khawa (tea with almonds, elaichi, and cinnamon) and kashmiri pilao laced with cashew and badam.

People who say that you just swing to Gulmarg and back remind me of Tarzan, they rush to the Gondola and rush back. Gulmarg has much more to offer – you have to stay for 2 days and we are so glad that we did.

We also re-discovered old Hindi cinema during the restful afternoons – with nyammade (our) villain of yesteryears, Ajit, interrupting the hero and heroine (yeng Dharmendra and Rakhee) from their emotional embrace with “abhi band karo, warna shortcut kar doonga”.

Day 4 - Gulmarg

Our drive to Gulmarg was smooth and scenic. Just before Gulmarg, is a place called Tangmarg, from where we bought delicious cherries - a full box of rich plum coloured ones, half of which I (indi) have single handedly devoured by dipping them in vodka cocktails!

Gulmarg is pretty – with green grassy meadows and long walks. The city is like a picture post card with huts that have green and red roofs. There is a 130 year old church made of grey stone, right in the middle of a golf course, which we reached after walking for nearly 2 hours.

There are about 3-4000 ponies in this tiny place during the day and the evenings are quite once again when they leave. Ponymen’s conversations are punctuated with hrrrumphs, to motivate ponies carrying kilos of human weight!

Day 3 - Still in Srinagar

Last evening, we experienced rains on the Dal lake followed by a brilliant double rainbow, of which you can see one in the picture.

Today we decided to shift to a "normal" hotel (Broadway) from the Houseboat. This is in the other and older part of Srinagar. We visited Jami Masjid (see pic) and Hazratbal shrine and had "Kashmiri lunch" at the famous Mughal Darbar. We are now in the heart of the city (with more armed men around us!). In the evening we went to the famous (or rather infamous!) Lal Chawk. Now we both know the magical properties of zafran and how to assess the quality of walnuts. Evening drinks at the bar (which is rare in this city) UNN DRES! Tomorrow we head to Gulmarg.

Day 2

Day 2 started with a long morning walk along the Dal lake. Rest of the day was spent in various Mughal gardens. Chesmashahi, Nishant garden and Shalimar garden. These are all sprawling beautiful gardens built in layers in the mountain. We also visited Pari mahal. It used to be a buddhist monaestery which was converted to a palace by the Mughals. The top banner picture of this blog is a panoramic view of Dal lake from Pari Mahal. We had the most divine Kashmiri food at Ahdoo’s. The day ended with Gustawa (meat balls cooked in curd and masala)

Day 1 in Srinagar

Hey! I met Kashmir-ki-kali - Anarkali!
Went for a long Shikara ride. First other Shikaras came and took pictures (as you can see). Some other shikara came to sell silver jewellery or Zafran. They even sell pakoras and Bhuttas on shikaras (both of which we polished off). Every square-inch of Dal lake is commercialised. More tomorrow.