Day 2
We got up early the second day, freshened up and looked out to the sweet Kashmiri morning, as described by our guide the previous day, who therefore was a bit late to pick us up from the hotel, as he chose to sleep in the comfort of his blanket at his home than getting up too early. As we gazed out through the window, birds cooed on Apple tree-tops for which Himalayan streams and rivers played the background score while snow-capped mountains glittered in the morning sun miles away. I would have forgotten that we were on earth, left with out the occasional call outs of the hotel staff to each other. The breakfast was not remarkable, except that the few pieces of aloo paratha and mango pickle served in a single plate for six of us, just ignited the sparks of appetite we had from getting up too early into a wild fire.
Our first destination was Sonmarg. Driver Mohammed took us through the picturesque terrain of Kashmir. On the whole way, military trucks, soldiers with long rifles on guard on the tops of buildings, men in caftan cloaks and women in traditional Muslim attires portrayed the typical Kashmiri village life. Roads in Kashmir maintain high standards for military movements.
We got out in a camp, where they conducted river rafting and it is one of the most unforgettable experience in the lives of us the three women. Our facilitator was a funny man who told us that had the boat crashed, we would soon have been washed away to Pakistan through the strong currents. Those rivers are embedded with thousands of rocks and the source of the freezing cold water is the melting ice of Himalayas which makes them dangerous to sport with. The facilitators were so trained and professional that none of us felt too scared about the adventure we were about to do.
We got photographed by their team during our rafting. We yelled, splashed water, hugged and tugged each other in exhilaration.
After getting dressed up in warm clothes, we continued our journey through iron bridges across rivers and beautiful villages.
Mohammed led us to an apple plantation, where we could see green unripened baby apples clinging onto their mother's arms branching across the whole place.
We reached Sonmarg after a long travel, but none of us felt exhausted. The next lap of our travel for the day was on horseback uphill. We rented boots, jackets and gloves from a small ramshackle shed to play in the snow. We bargained till we got a reasonable package for the horse-ride as well as for the protective thermal wears as advised priorly by Mohammed.
I managed to handle the horse alone after the initial ten minutes of horse back ride, therefore the horseman left me alone with my horse at times. I felt empathetic to the poor creatures panting beneath us as they climbed the rocky hilly pathways with the weights of us. The guides showed us few military camps as well as the shooting locations of Bajrangi Baijaan, a beautiful Hindi movie. Kashmiri people are extremely amiable to tourists, even though they never hide their aversion to anything related to army in public.
Our first snow was not a mind blowing sight as we expected as it was not the season of snow fall. All we could see and hold was some dirt colored snow at the foot of a mountain, yet we all had lots of fun as we ran through the snow, threw fistfuls of snow on each other, made snow man, photographed each other and slid from the top to the bottom of the mountain on a wooden sliding board. The only thing I could not stand was the crowds of guides, horsemen and photographers trying to hook customers to their services. We had Kashmiri kawa, a spicy kashmiri tea, the unique taste of Kashmir and hot cooked noodles from a tiny shop at the foot of the mountain which warmed up our cool bodies.
We reached on horseback to the place where Mohammed waited for us with his car after having enough fun in the snow. Our fun for that day was having an end, we sat in the car silently watching the silhouettes of pine trees and people fading infront of us as the car moved through the village. We reached the hotel in Sonmarg by late evening and slept like a log from the tiredness of the whole day's travel and ecstasy.
( To be continued)
