Kashmir-Delhi-Agra trip - Day 2

Day 2 – 31 Jan 2010
So on Sunday we were off to Pahalgam in a hired Tavera. I was happy. Because absolutely no puke sensations. I was asked to take avomin an hour before breakfast and it worked! (Whether the pill worked physically or whether it worked on my mind, I don’t know :)) What more could I desire? Health, a blank head, happy co-travellers, a full stomach, a smooth-sailing Tavera and the freezing cold. I love the cold. Yeah even when the bed was chill and when I trembled and shivered during baths, I still enjoyed it.
Anyway off we were, but without L, who wanted to go to church.
The roads in Kashmir were pretty decent. Yeah often you do find filth or slush or jerky roads, but still I would overall rate them good. Whenever we traveled on road the scenes would comprise brown fields, the snow covered Himalayas in the far background, brownish-reddish bricked houses (I think they don’t paint their buildings at all) with slanting (erm.. what are they technically termed?) metal roofs, totally leafless apple and willow trees (cricket bats are made out of the willow wood), firan clad locals and other vehicles. Praise the Lord, there were hardly any other tourists.
Women are found moving freely too. No burqas or anything. They don’t seem to be too restricted. We even saw many going to college in the mornings. My! Kashmiri women are beautiful. Flawless fair skin, apple cheeks, rosy lips and firan-clad. Maybe a salwar kameez beneath it and a scarf round the head. Of course not everyone is beautiful, but many could give actresses or models a run for their money. Remember not a touch of make-up was used.
Men aren’t far behind either. Athletic, mountainous looks, chiseled faces. Very striking features sometimes… the eyes, nose, cheek bones. Our driver Fayaaz too was quite charismatic. I generally addressed them (shopkeepers, strangers etc) as bhaiyya and I regret it now :P.
Kids. Indescribably cute. Whenever any of us saw a lass or kid with red cheeks, he or she would exclaim “There! Apples!”; it was our code word ;). I wanted to take a snap with a dashing handsome, a beautiful one and a cutie. But I missed doing the first two though I had several opportunities.
Yeah so back to our road to Pahalgam. Enroute we saw glimpses of snow, scattered a little here and a little there. And then it grew more. And more. And more. Until all we could see was either white or green (from the fir and pine trees which also had snow sprinkled over them beautifully). A thin stream flowed by the side of the road that approached Pahalgam. The pebble-shaped rocks had layers of snow so artistically seated on them. Snow, snow everywhere.

That was my first glimpse of snow in my life. Again, isn’t that some sort of turning point in one’s life? :P I did not jump up in joy or scream in excitement or anything of that sort. In fact I felt a tad disappointed that I didn’t feel ecstatic. Throughout the trip, especially amidst snow, whenever I introspected a little, I did feel calm within. But it was also like there was an invisible layer between me and the external beauty and I felt like an observer. (Any opinions here?) I think I’m growing old :D
Anyway we did some walking around, some driving and again hopping into the snow, a few times. On the way we came across a few Kashmiri men relaxing under a tree. V decided to smoke with them and I wanted a snap with them. That’s where I came sliding down the tree’s roots because I couldn’t get a foothold.
There was one particularly smart, dashing, stylish man among them. And V told me I resemble him vaguely. I love V!! This is where I took in my first (and only) puff from a cigarette. Ah nothing worth mentioning about the ‘experience’.
So somewhere around here was Lidder Valley. I actually don’t know which place exactly was Lidder Valley ‘cause I didn’t ask :P. I won’t go into describing the places anymore. I’m struggling for words, pictures will give people a better idea (even our pictures don’t do justice, that’s when I decided it’s high time I improve my photography).
In between we began getting haunted by pony-wallahs. For more than half an hour, we were constantly pursued by two. Even when we had tea at a shop (the tea guy had such a sharp nose, handsome chap!) they didn’t give up. Finally we gave in. Rs.250 for a ride on a pony for about 2 hours. We went round the Pahalgam village and hutment area first. Somewhere here I decided to make a quick snowman :D. I haven’t got any appreciation for it so far :). But I don’t care! That’s what I could do with numb red fingers!

There was a ski area there, but we had decided we would ski at Gulmarg. My pony-wallah was a nice talkative man. So when queried he would tell me about their lifestyle. His children go to school; most people there earned their livelihood through ponies or shops. Since Pahalgam also falls in the route of the Amarnath Yatra, it receives a lot of pilgrims too. And many use ponies to travel to the cave. I think he said it took 3 days by pony and 5 days by foot to Amarnath and back from Pahalgam. Below the slopes, rice was cultivated. They have electricity, water and everything needed for day-to-day living. And the place was not very prone to militant attacks.
Our next stop was at the Shiva temple where pilgrims began the pilgrimage to Amarnath. Only Lord Shiva was there in his temple which too was snow-layered. We saw some monkeys around there. The poor things were red-faced, plumpy and huddling their limbs together.
Then we trotted back to the starting point. The problem is even after paying for whatever service you use, they ask for extra bakshish. Anyway we were invited to their homes too but we politely declined. We must’ve accepted it. It would’ve been nice to see a Kashmiri household.
We then happily devoured our packed lunch, washed our plates in an open pipe. ‘Normal’ water (which is not heated) is freezing cold and can hardly be touched. It turns the fingers almost numb, red and with a weird pain. Anyway we started back to Anantnag after that.
Very close to home was a place called Mattan where there was a Gurdwara. We just fed the fish in the tank there. Plumpy fellows. And then proceeded home.