Srinigar is about the same as last year. There is still Muslim/Hindu violence, so there are few tourists. That’s a good thing because if the Kashmiris can squeeze you for money, they’ll do it for all it’s worth. If no one is there, you have a chance not to get cheated. This time, the only thing that happened was Beatrice and I took that boat ride down the river from Srinigar that I told you about last year. (See the entry called “Srinigar”. I’ll put some pictures on here from this trip when we get to Leh.) The guys planned to bring us back to Srinigar in the morning of the third day, which didn’t seem like a whole three days and two nights. They wanted to be paid in full and we didn’t want to do that, so we had a heated exchange (normal conversation to a Kashmiri) and compromised. I probably could have held out for where I wanted to compromise, but he had a couple of cards I couldn’t trump, like none of the rickshaw guys would give us a ride to the bus stand until we reached an agreement. Well, anyway, that’s par for the course.
The ride was nice, for sure, and the guys did the work for sure. It’s really very beautiful along there. In fact, Kashmir is beautiful, even the parts that aren’t Ladakh. The vistas of green fields and marshland against a setting of snowcapped 20,000 ft moountains are spectacular. Like I said, pictures will come up when I get to Leh.
Originally, we were only going there for three days so that Beatrice could adjust to the elevation changes as you go to Ladakh, where some of the passes are around 17,000 ft. I had been talking about that boat trip last year, and she wanted to go, so we went. So, that was, what, about 6 days in and around Srinigar? After that we went up another rung of the altitude ladder to Gulmarg, which is at about 9100 feet.
Oh ho! There’s a card reader here in this dumpy internet place in Kargil, where we are spending the night during this two day bus ride to Leh. I’ll post a picture from our guesthouse window in Gulmarg.
Gurlmarg is a tourist destination for Indians. We were definitely the only two westerners there. Beatrice played it down, saying it’s billing as “paradise on Earth” was an extreme overstatement. Well, paradise is an exageration, but it’s a nice place to spend time. Could be worse. We hung around in the room, went out for a few little walks, and rented a couple of horses for a few hours one day. Beatrice needed to know if I could ride. I passed alright. And the ride through the forest was beautiful. Another day, we took a gondola ride up about halfway to the crest, and walked around up there. I was very bucolic, with the spring patures bright green, the sheep and shepherd boys lazing around in the sun, and us sitting on different high spots looking at scenery. Riding up was nice, though originally we were going to see if we were fit to trek next week. Nah.
Now we are headed for Leh, finally. It’s a beautiful, but slow two day bus ride from Sringar. We took a taxi from Gulmarg to Srinigar in order to catch the 8 AM bus, then rode that to Kargil, about halfway to Leh. We leave again at 4:30 in the morning. Ugh. Here’s a typical view along the way.
So, that’s the story for now. I’ll write again from Leh. I hope all is good with you.