The next days we spent driving through the beautiful mountain areas of Kashmir, with a first stop in a small mountain village called Gulmarg. While driving there, the rain started pouring down and we got completely soaked. Another good advice if you are going to drive a bike (anywhere) in India during the monsoon season is to buy a raincoat. Luckily we did buy raincoats and were well prepared, but unluckily we bought cheap low quality ones, and got pretty soaked anyway. When we arrived in Gulmarg we were cold and wet and in need of a hot cup of chai. Immediately when we arrived in the village we got greeted by many friendly villagers who invited us into a small street kitchen for a (very much needed) hot cup of kashmiri chai (the kashmiri chai is even better than the normal tea - with a strong taste of cardamom).
Like always in India, the hotel next doors was owned by a brother, cousin or friend to the owner of the street kitchen and we got convinced to stay there overnight. The place was decent but very humid, and our soaked clothes and shoes didn't dry the slightest over the night... My second advice for monsoon season in India, is to bring enough dry clothes to change to wherever you go.
The temperature in Gulmarg was as expected much colder than on the lower altitude, and in combination with the humidity it felt freezing. I found a small second hand market where I could buy a thick jacket that kept me warm through the rest of the Himalayas.
After resting and warming up in the hotel while waiting for the rain to stop, we explored the mountain landscapes around Gulmarg. When we came back to our hotel it was already late and we ended up having dinner in one of the few restaurants that was open after darkness - which turned out to be the best dinner in India so far. The food was so simple and cheap but so delicious, it was truly the best butter paneer masala I'd ever tired.
The next day we were driving towards the village called Sonamarg. On the way there we stopped by another small rural village that we happened to pass by. These villagers were clearly not used to see western tourists (don't think they'd ever seen a foreigner before...), and all the villagers came out to the streets to see us looking both surprised and curious. I wanted to talk to them, but the language barrier was a bit of a problem. Somehow we managed to communicate with gestures and sounds, and we understood that some of the men in the village wanted to take us to the nearby lake. We followed them and they offered us a ride in their home built wooden boat. They took us around on the lake and showed us around. It was nice and interesting to experience their local way of transporting things on the lake, fishing and picking some kind of edible sea cucumbers (we assumed).
Back in the small village again, we got offered chai (of course) and cookies in one of the huts. The whole village squeezed together in the small hut to get a glimpse of us. They all still seemed endlessly curious to look at us. It was obvious how poor these families were, but still they offered us chai and showed a great hospitality and generosity. The people who have the least, usually turn out to be the most warm-hearted. I still wish I would have had something to offer them back, but with such limited luggage there wasn't much we could give them. I think I gave a hairbrush to a small girl who got super happy but can't remember for sure. Our passports were also interesting them a lot, and our camera. They were all very excited to pose in front of the camera when Sam took photos of them, and they wanted to look at them on the camera afterwards.
We said buy and thanked all the villagers for their incredible generosity. When we were driving out of the village, all the children came running after us waving.
The trip continued to one of the other must-to visit village in Kashmir besides Gulmarg; Sonamarg. The place is even more stunning than Gulmarg, with many nice hiking trails to explore. The first day we did a long hike through the mountains until we had a view over the famous glacier. Due to the high altitude the air was thin and the hike felt more exhausting because of it. By the time we finally got back to the village my legs were shaking.
The next day, still with sore muscles from the hike the day before, we did a shorter two hours hike up to another mountain. On the way back to the village from the mountain, we met a group of local nomads outside their tent. They were, as most of the people we met, welcoming and curious and invited us to sit down with them and have a cup of Kashmiri chai. They showed us their tents and it was interesting to see how simple they lived. They came here from surrounding villages to let their cows eat fresh grass and stayed in their tents during the whole summer season. When the winter came, these nomads would all return back to their home villages. But during the summer they would keep moving around with their tents to find green grass and better fields for their kettle.
As many locals in these mountain areas, these men had their horses to help carry equipment and sometimes ride on them. They made it clear with gestures and signs that they wanted me to ride on one of their horses, and a little bit nervous I eventually did. These horses were so small, but so strong - and surprisingly very good at climbing up the mountains and rocks.
After another cup of chai, we were thanking the generous nomads and continued the hike down to the village.
The next morning we were planning to continue the trip east on the mountain roads towards Leh Ladek. This turned out to be an insane plan, and we ended up turning around back towards Sonamarg just after an hour of driving our motorbike on these steep roads. The road between Srinagar and Leh is said to be one of the most dangerous roads in India, which we didn't know at the time. It was pretty clear after a while though, that continuing the drive on these roads would have been a suicide mission. The dirt road we were driving on was narrow and the higher up it continued, the more steep it got. Of course there were no fence and barely any space between the loose sand on the road and the steep edge. Since this road is only open 3 months per year (during the summer months) the traffic is crazy and many trucks with food and equipment are driving extremely fast. A few times we were driving close to the edge when we were meeting a truck trying to pass us and it was very scary. These trucks didn't slow down the slightest, forcing us even closer to the edge. Eventually the whole idea of driving on this road didn't feel adventures anymore, just very stupid. We turned around and returned to Sonamarg, and my heartbeats were slowly returning to normal again.
Are you curious to know how our trip in Kashmir continued? We only had a few more days left before we had to return to Delhi and fly to Bangkok for work.
Read my next blog post about our hikes in the Himalayas here!