Friday 17 August 2018

Sonamarg, J & K, India

Eventually, I come to our last leg of "Kashmir" trip. Now now, it doesn't mean that the trip was over. Actually, there are two regions of Jammu and Kashmir, rather two provinces- Kashmir Province and Ladakh Province. We left our hotel at Pahalgam at 3.30 am and waited at the exit point for the next few hours when finally Indian Army allowed all the tourist vehicles to leave Pahalgam at about 6.20 am, after ensuring that the route ahead is absolutely safe. Our driver probably had kept a brick on the accelerator as soon as we left Pahalgam. There was no stopping in between and finally we reached Srinagar at about 8.30-9-ish. We had some rest, a good breakfast and left for Sonamarg at around 10 am with another driver this time.
On our way to Sonamarg along Indus River



My school buddy was a bit shaken after the Pahalgam escapade, my feeling was more of empathy towards the residents of the 3 places we visited. The primary means of income for them is tourism. Without it, how much does the state earn from export business of shawls, carpets, wool etc? The children are always subjected to seeing security personnel patrolling the streets, the by-lanes, shopping centres. One thing is for sure- this will remain an international issue as long as human civilization will thrive in this world. Anyway, too much of philosophy.

Sunday 8 July 2018

Pahalgam, J & K, India

So I am back after quite a bit of a hiatus. Desperately needed some respite. Actually life has been a bit on the tougher side for these few months (it still is) but I hope we will sail through. Anyway, back to where I had left off.
So my school buddy was waiting for the opportune moment to blast us off for continuing our plan to come to Pahalgam as soon as we were denied exit out of main Pahalgam town so that we could proceed to our Hotel Green Height.
This was our view from Hotel Green Height, located at the outskirts of Pahalgam


We could not understand what might have caused the army/police to take such action and hence we went to Pahalgam Police station. The temperature slowly started plummeting & we started shivering. The guys came out of the police station with the news that there was a round of open fire and some terrorists as well as some jawans from our Indian Army were killed in the firing at Anantnag (a town famous for willow trees and cricket bats manufacturing hub) which is between Srinagar & Pahalgam & always a hot spot for terrorist activities), therefore nobody was being allowed to leave from Pahalgam lest they get trapped at Anantnag (all for the security of the tourists & blah blah). All our reasoning fell on deaf ears and we were left with no other option but to search for a hotel within Pahalgam in the main market. Meanwhile, our driver Khurshid left for Hotel Green Height to bring all our luggage. We roamed about the Pahalgam main market searching for a hotel. To be honest, I was quite pepped up to be a witness to how actual "adventure"would feel like (yes, many of my readers won't agree to it citing reasons like how it is quite painful to live/reside like this amidst so much distress & agitation years after years & I fully concur with them - it is indeed tiring to be amidst such turmoil years after years).