The last destination we visited was a small and very local village on the way from Sonamarg back to Srinagar. Unlike the other villages, this one felt way less influenced by tourism. Not knowing what to do or how to spend our last day, we stumbled upon a man who offered us to take us on a full-day hike up to the mountains where he would arrange a tent we could sleep in on the top of the mountain. It sounded too exciting to say no, despite the tight time frame - we had to be back for our flight from Srinagar early afternoon the following day.
We payed the local man 2000 rupees for the guided tour he offered us, and he brought two horses to carry all the equipment and bags for us. As always, the idea of hiking in the mountains sounded way more relaxing than it turned out to be - after 8 hours of hiking uphills (more like climbing) my legs could barely carry me. While locals were literally running up the mountain trails with their small horses, I was exhausted after just 10 minutes. Luckily there was a small shelter half way up where we could rest for a while and drink chai. I think I've never been as exhausted but also as relieved as I was when we finally reached the top.
It was almost dark when we came to the top of the mountain. Our local tour guide owned a small very primitive hut made of mud on the top of the mountain. Here he stayed with his family during the summer months when he brought his kettle up to the green fields to feed them grass. On the grass roof of his hut he set up the tent for us which was both practical and fairly safe too (knowing that there were bears in the area). The cows and sheep shared the hut with the family and had a shelter under half of the roof. A very practical solution as the animals helped keeping the hut warm (the smell was a bit hard to stand though..).
Our tour guide's sister-in-law cooked a nice dinner for us over open fire - no water or electricity here. The whole family including us were all squeezing together in a tiny room barely even the size of 10 square meters. His wife was sick with high fever and we offered her some paracetamol; something that no one had ever heard about there. It became obvious that if you got sick up here, you were pretty doomed. Especially if you were too sick to ride a horse 8 hours down the mountain. The life standards were so different up here from anything we were used to. I was still amazed by how such a nice life they had, despite their poverty. They lived a simple life close to the nature and their animals, without owning many material things. A good reminder for us in the West to sometimes question how much we actually need to own...
No one of the villagers could read or write, but some of them spoke surprisingly good English just from talking to tourists - which opened up the door for them to earn an income on tourists and improve their living standards. Our tour guide told us that for the money he earned by bringing tourists on these hiking trips, he could now afford to pay for his sons education so that he could learn how to write and read. "Now my children are teaching me how to write, it goes slowly", he explained to us.
The night was exciting but sleepless - the walls of the tent were simply too thin, and at times I thought animals were gonna attack us. And the monsoon rain surprised us in the middle of the night, making us soaking wet again.
Without barely getting any sleep, we had to get up at 5 am to hike all the way back down to the village where we left our motorbike. We had to drive back to Srinagar, return the motorbike and get to the airport to catch our flight back to Delhi. The hike downhills with the tight time frame was stressful and exhausting, and we had to run down most of the way. My legs were unbelievably sore from the day before and at one point I thought I wasn't gonna make it (I suffered from muscle pain many weeks after this hike).
Half way down we got caught in a heavy rain and eventually we were sliding down through the mud on all four legs and arms. But we made it down to the village and could pick up our motorbike. We made it just in time for our flight to Delhi, exhausted but happy.
Kashmir, such a beautiful place. I truly enjoyed my travels through these beautiful landscapes and in this unique nature. The only sad experience was the never ending conflict between Pakistan and India, and Kashmir being in the middle of a war zone. Who knows, maybe one day like the locals predicted, Kashmir will be independent.
If you are planning to travel to Kashmir, I'm happy to give you more advice and recommendations before your trip! (and I truly recoomend visiting Kashmir at one point in your life!).
Do you want to read more about my trips? Check out this post about our road trip in the north of Scandinavia here!