Traveling to Kashmir, a Piece of Heaven in The Conflict Area
By Wulandari Robyanti - October 13, 2018
I never noticed about Kashmir, until I decided to buy the cheap return tickets due to a mobile app's promotion to a country named "India". I was looking for some places to visit and I found a state named "Jammu and Kashmir". And here I was, going there with two of my friends, all girls, and this is the story about our trip.
Welcome to Kashmir! Some of you might already know that Kashmir is a conflict area, they are fighting for their freedom for decades. The first time you step your feet here, you will notice there is a lot of soldiers, every 10-50 meters. My friend in Kashmir said that they are “security”, but with guns. Even in the road, I found a vandalism said “Free my Kashmir!” with a drawing of a gun sign. Also, a truck that we passed by in the street, they wrote some words behind it: “Stop the innocent killing in my Kashmir!”.
Do you dare to go to Kashmir?? The answer is definitely “Yes! Why not??”
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| The pines, the river, the hills, oh, hello Kashmir! |
Welcome to Kashmir! Some of you might already know that Kashmir is a conflict area, they are fighting for their freedom for decades. The first time you step your feet here, you will notice there is a lot of soldiers, every 10-50 meters. My friend in Kashmir said that they are “security”, but with guns. Even in the road, I found a vandalism said “Free my Kashmir!” with a drawing of a gun sign. Also, a truck that we passed by in the street, they wrote some words behind it: “Stop the innocent killing in my Kashmir!”.
Do you dare to go to Kashmir?? The answer is definitely “Yes! Why not??”
Here is the thing, there might be a conflict area for decades, but it is safe for tourist. There might be a lot of soldiers that scares you, but the Kashmiri people was so nice to us. There might have one or two stories of chaotic conflict that you ever heard, but the view that Kashmir has to offer is worth a visit.
Whenever I said to people in India that I want to go to Kashmir, they said “oh, that’s heaven!”. And they were right, Kashmir was so beautiful, calming, and relaxing. Even I promise myself to go back when it comes to winter. It will be more magical, the mountains will be covered with snow and the river will be frozen.
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| The layered hills locted in Nara Nag |
How to Get There
You can take a flight directly from New Delhi, costed around 700-800k, or may be less than that if you don't hunt the tickets in the near time like me and my friends did. Search the available flights on skyscanner first. I recommend you to go by IndiGo airlines, nice service with a good price. I went by plane because I didn't have much time. Should you have more time in India, I recommend you to take a train because you won't miss the view along the journey with a train! But, booking a train ticket for us the foreign tourist is quiet tricky, I hope you are lucky enough!
What to Do
Actually, my to-go-list was about Gulmarg, Pahalgam, and Sonmarg. But, none of that three was visited by me. How funny, when you really wanted to go to some places, you took flight so far from Indonesia to India, had a local flight from Delhi to Srinagar, but things did not happen like you want! Hahaha, it was not a sad one tho, we substituted our destinations with others that not less beautiful.
We could not go to Gulmarg, Pahalgam, and Sonmarg due to a holy ceremony that was held when we were there. Therefore, most people didn’t recommend us to go. Actually, it was okay to go to Gulmarg. But.. Gulmarg was so expensive, yet we don’t get what we want. Our goal to go to Gulmarg was to have a snow experience there. Unfortunately, it was raining season, the snow has not appeared even on the peak of Gulmarg. We thought, someday we want to go back to Kashmir, so why don’t visit Gulmarg at the right time? As its alternative, we went to Nara Nag and Droo Padi, also had a local sightseeing tour in Srinagar.
After strolling around Srinagar, we stopped at a mosque because one of our friends wanted to do jumat prayer. FYI, woman in Kashmir also doing salat in masjid at that time, on Friday. I am not sure it is the same salat with the man do or not. They don't use mukennah, they just use their clothes because it is already the long ones and all of them wearing hijab. When I use mukennah in the houseboat, the houseboat staff was amazed by it, they said "Nice Dress!" lol xD. Since most of all Kashmiri people were Muslim (I mean, the point is: they can eat meat!! xD), I was so happy because of yeaah no vegan food with curry cuisine anymore! Hooraaay!
You also can visit Dal Lake when sunset or sunrise comes. It is like a big lake in the center of Srinagar city. We chose to stay at a houseboat so we can enjoy the Dal Lake view directly from the boat where we stayed. This is one of a photo captured from my houseboat. My morning view, my evening view, even if we were coming in winter, the mountains around Dal Lake would be covered by snow!
Camping at Nara Nag
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| At Pari Mahal, a garden located near from the city |
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| Kashmiri Traditional Clothes |
Srinagar Local Sightseeing
In Srinagar City, there were a lot of gardens, from small gardens till the big ones. We visited some of them, but unfortunately, we could not go to tulip garden because it was not blooming for this time. The photo above was taken at Pari Mahal, a garden in Srinagar, and I wore Kashmiri traditional clothes there.
After that, we went to a garden which I forgot what was the name of it, it had a flowing spring water there. We could wash our face with it or directly drink it, and it was so cold and fresh!
About the photo above, me and my friends were taking photos in the garden and immediately one and two kids gathered around us, and the numbers of people were going on and on, seems like all of them went to us and just smile and laugh with their language. We couldn’t communicate with each other because they didn’t speak English at all. Hence, all we could say was “Hi, assalamualaikum, nice to meet you!” with a happy smile and hope that they will understand hahaha.
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| One of photos with the locals, taken at that garden. Kashmiri people were just getting excited when meeting a foreign tourist. Unfortunately, the original file was lost, so I took from my Instagram story. Get to know more about my Kashmir trip on my IGS @wulandarirobyanti |
About the photo above, me and my friends were taking photos in the garden and immediately one and two kids gathered around us, and the numbers of people were going on and on, seems like all of them went to us and just smile and laugh with their language. We couldn’t communicate with each other because they didn’t speak English at all. Hence, all we could say was “Hi, assalamualaikum, nice to meet you!” with a happy smile and hope that they will understand hahaha.
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| A mosque we stopped by |
After strolling around Srinagar, we stopped at a mosque because one of our friends wanted to do jumat prayer. FYI, woman in Kashmir also doing salat in masjid at that time, on Friday. I am not sure it is the same salat with the man do or not. They don't use mukennah, they just use their clothes because it is already the long ones and all of them wearing hijab. When I use mukennah in the houseboat, the houseboat staff was amazed by it, they said "Nice Dress!" lol xD. Since most of all Kashmiri people were Muslim (I mean, the point is: they can eat meat!! xD), I was so happy because of yeaah no vegan food with curry cuisine anymore! Hooraaay!
You also can visit Dal Lake when sunset or sunrise comes. It is like a big lake in the center of Srinagar city. We chose to stay at a houseboat so we can enjoy the Dal Lake view directly from the boat where we stayed. This is one of a photo captured from my houseboat. My morning view, my evening view, even if we were coming in winter, the mountains around Dal Lake would be covered by snow!
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| View from the houseboat where we stayed |
Camping at Nara Nag
The next day, we went to Nara Nag. It was quite far from the city. We passed the winding rock with pines in both roadsides. We did a road trip with two friends from Kashmir, named Javed and Shafi. This is a view that welcomed us at the first we stepped the campsite. You can see, there was the layered hills, a bunch of pines, and fresh air with a sound of a flowing river below us.
In the morning, you will find the horse, cow, sheep, that feed their self in our campsite. The sun rose from behind the layered hills. What to do was just chilling and enjoying the view with a cup of chai.
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| This is where we built our tents and we camped here |
We built the tents, cooked, chilling, and taking some photos; definitely!
After that, we did tracking in Nara Nag, we visited a temple and explored Nara Nag a little further. With a good weather, we took a walk till it was 6 pm or 7 pm and went back to the camp. In there, the sun went down at 8 or 9 pm. It was a perfect night with good friends, good food, good music, good weather, good vibes, and also good view at the sky where the stars were so much and the moon shined brightly without any fog.
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| One of view we crossed through when we did tracking in Nara Nag |
In the morning, you will find the horse, cow, sheep, that feed their self in our campsite. The sun rose from behind the layered hills. What to do was just chilling and enjoying the view with a cup of chai.
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| Waking up with a view!
Switzerland View!
Going back from Nara Nag, we were heading to Doodhpathri. It was like a Switzerland kind of view! Lol, but seriously I never thought that this kind of place was able to see in India. Like, bud, what I thought about India was just the Taj Mahal and another pretty building and monuments, I got it wrong. India for me was a pretty big country with a complete tourist attraction that India had to offer. Amazing!  Doodhpathri for me was like a common Bollywood scene back then when we were kids! Don't you feel the same? Anyway, so many horses to be ridden by us there, with a little payment of course. I just paid around 50-150 rupees or maybe less than that, because we did bargaining so hard hahaha! This view was one of my goals to seek in Kashmir. It looks like Pahalgam or Sonmarg, but nearer from our previous destination. Go to Kashmir when winter, and you will find this place more beautiful! About the Cost
I can declare that living cost in Kashmir was quite cheap! I went there for 5 days and only expended around IDR 850k, including local transportations, meals, and houseboat. About the cost of meals, it was the same price with how you spend your money to have a lunch in your cafeteria at your campus, no worries. The transportation itself, I rent my friend's car, Javed's car, he drove us everywhere. It was not expensive tho, we only spent INR 300 for each person to be driven all day long when we were taking Srinagar local sightseeing tour. To go to Nara Nag, we spent around INR 2000-2300, including all of you need to camp: transportation with his car, meals, tent, and they were so kind to us!
About the houseboat, you can stay at Shamus Maqbool Houseboat, go to booking.com to make a reservation. It is owned and managed by my friends that I mentioned above, Javed and Shafi. I was amazed by the place where we stayed. Very good price with a good quality. Located at Dal Lake, you will get the best morning experience, a cold morning, foggy, and calming. In the evening, the sun will be warmly shining, such a perfect time to close the day with a glass of Kashmiri Kahwa and some biscuits.
I don't have any photo of the houseboat. But I recorded the video about it on my Instagram story. If you are interested to know about the details of this houseboat, kindly jump to my Instagram story highlight named "Kashmir". For the houseboat I mentioned above, I spent just about IDR 100k for 4 nights! A veeeeery good price! We rent a room for 4 nights, 3 persons, just about INR 1920. You guys can take a note to this houseboat if you are planning to go to Kashmir. Anyway, this long blog post is written in a coffee shop in Senayan, Central Jakarta, a city where I live my life for now. And this time, inside this mini coffee shop, all I am thinking about while sitting on my desk is my heartwarming experience in Kashmir: the shikara ride we took, the foggy morning we met, the sunset at 8pm, the cinnamon in our Kashmiri Kahwa, and the people who greeted us nicely with "Assalamualaikum" ☺. Feeling grateful for this experience. Thank you and see you again, Kashmir! PS: Most of the photos uploaded above taken from my Instagram account, several photos that still safely archived because it was uploaded on Instagram. I have a bunch of photos there, but I lose my phone, so yeah bye bye for some photos. The photo might lose, but the memory stays forever! Thank you for reading, ya! Every good wish,
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