On Monday morning we caught a rickshaw to the Golden Temple complex. The rickshaw dropped us off at the entrance near Jallianwala Bagh, a park commemorating Indians who were massacred by the British in 1919. We walked through the park briefly before going to the temple complex and joining the queue across the bridge to get into the Golden Temple. The top part of the temple was gilded with gold and the lower part was white marble panels decorated with marble inlaid flower and animal motifs (pietre dure like the Taj Mahal). Inside the temple were priests who were chanting continuously and this was broadcast throughout the temple complex through loudspeakers. We walked around each of the three levels and managed to get a few clandestine photos from the top. We left and did another circuit around the Pool of Nectar (Amrit Sarovar) taking in the scenery of people constantly moving and the Golden Temple changing as you moved around it. Then we visited the Sikh museum housed in the clock tower. It was a very bloody display of paintings and then for more recent incidents, photographs of various defeats and victories, and atrocities against the Sikhs. The major struggle seemed to have been with the Mughals who had tried to convert them to Islam.
The next afternoon we caught a bus to Jammu (Kashmir). Thankfully it was air-conditioned and it was really good – the only issue was that the seats we had been allocated were broken – so we were stuck in the full recline position for the entire journey. We dozed a little, read and watched the scenery change from dusty dry plains to wheat fields, mango orchards and rocky river beds. Suzie opted not to go to the toilet when we stopped about three hours into the journey – an action which she was to regret about 90 minutes later. When we finally arrived at the Jammu bus stand, she had to leap off the bus and find a dark corner to pee in (just like the Indians)!! It was late when we arrived at Jammu and we checked into the best of the grim hotels near the bus stand.
We woke up late on Wednesday morning, and headed down to the hotel lobby to have breakfast and use the WiFi. We ordered from the menu and they started to write it down for the waiter because he couldn't read the menu. After a while, they worked out that they were using the wrong menu and a new menu was produced. We ordered our items but when the food came the cornflakes came with hot milk and when the cheese and veg sandwich came out it came out without the veg. It was like an episode from Fawlty Towers!
We walked up the hill from the hotel and through a series of winding bazaars selling coal, dried fruits and nuts, cricket bats, jewellery, clothing including saris, shawls, pashminas, dental services, food stalls etc past a large temple until we eventually reached the Mubarak Mandi. This was the palace complex of the Dogra rajas and it was in a state of collapse although there was some restoration underway. We walked around and took some photos of the crumbling architecture. It was a pleasure walking in the cooler overcast conditions and we had an occasional small shower.
At dinner time we walked to the Jewel Gate and had "chicken fry" (whole chicken cut into small pieces and fried on a flat plate with onions, green capsicum and tomato) with rice at one of the street side Dhabas. It was so good that we had two servings – or two whole chickens (pigeon sized). We decided that it was one of the best dinners we'd had in India!
On Thursday morning, we travelled in a tempo (12 seater mini-van) to Srinagar. It was a shared vehicle so we had to wait until the tempo filled up before we could leave. We sat in the front of the tempo for over an hour watching a steady stream of people getting on and off buses and beggars walk past us. We really appreciated the scenic drive from Jammu to Srinagar – up the mountains and then down into the green lush Kashmir valley after the heat, dust and parched Indian landscapes that we've seen over the last 4 weeks. We wound through increasingly large mountains scarred by landslides and forested with large pine trees and other conifers. At one stage we passed a group of vultures on the ground and later we saw vultures floating past us on the air currents. The volume of traffic on the road was amazing with army convoys figuring prominently. We went past a couple of truck accidents which created traffic jams as one lane disappeared. Periodically we saw families walking along the road with various goats, sheep, and horses. Always there was a river in the valley below, sometimes we were driving along next to it and sometimes we were high above near the mountain tops. In one section there were large boulders, the size of houses strewn along the river bed illustrating the power of the floods from the melting snow. It rained in the latter half of the day and the mountains became markedly cooler and greener. Once we got through a 3km tunnel there was a Titanic viewpoint over the Kashmir Valley below but the view was obscured by cloud. When we reached the valley floor it was like a garden of Eden with beautiful rice fields and green trees everywhere. On both sides were large mountain ranges with snow ribbed on their flanks. The traffic seemed to get worse as we got closer to Srinagar, so we didn't arrive until 6.30 pm. It was really cold and this was the first time that we were happy to check into a hotel room without air-conditioning!
We had a restful Friday and spent some time walking around the lake and tourist area of Srinagar. When we left the hotel a lot of the shops seemed to be closed. We walked to the Tourist Reception Centre and at the market place there was a stand-off between police in riot gear and a crowd of youths. We found out that all the shops were closed because there was a hartkal (general strike).
On Saturday morning, we walked to the Kashmir Government Arts Emporium on Residency Road. It had an Oxford like gate house entry. We spent quite a bit of time there looking at beautiful Kashmiri silk carpets. Then we caught a rickshaw to the Khanqah of Shah-i-Hamadan – a muslim meeting hall in the old city. It was painted in really garish gloss colours. We saw a man beating some puppies there – he chased one under a set of stairs and beat it until it bled. Then we walked to Pir Dasgir Sahib – a shrine to a sufi saint. This was also painted in really garish gloss finish paint. After that we went to Rozabal – supposedly the shrine's crypt contains the grave of Jesus Christ. Naqshband Sahib was the next mosque that we visited – it was beautifully proportioned and uncoloured with alternating layers of wood and brick to dissipate the force of earthquakes. There were carved wooden bells hanging from each corner of the eaves. On the way to the Jama Masjid, we saw that some young people had blocked off some roads using stones and logs and were chasing any motorised vehicles who attempted to use the roads with large cudgels. However, we walked into the mosque complex without any trouble. It was a large enclosed courtyard with a pool in the middle. There were 378 roof support columns, each fashioned from the trunk of a single Deodar (Cedar) tree. Monumental brick gatehouses marked the four cardinal directions. We went and had lunch at a bakery and while we were there we saw the police chasing a crowd of youths who were throwing stones at their vehicles. After lunch we walked to the Makhdoom Sahib shrine below the Hari Parbat fort. We walked through the shrine past the ruined mosque of Akhund Mullah Shah built in 1649. Then we caught a rickshaw to Hazratbal mosque which supposedly holds a beard hair of the prophet Mohammed. We walked through the bazaar area on the banks of the Dal Lake with fantastic views across the lake of the snow capped mountains on the other side.
On Sunday we were both feeling pretty tired so we decided to have a rest day today. We had breakfast in the garden because it was sunny and warm. It felt quite strange because a few days ago we were doing anything to avoid the sunshine and yet now, we were actively seeking it. After breakfast, we chatted to a couple of tourists and then we went with Farouk (the hotel owner) in a car to have a look at some carpets but they seemed to be lesser quality. Some of the roads had been blocked off so we had to go through some narrow alleys. In one of them we had a real issue as there were large buses and sedans going in the opposite directions that were not able to pass. We ended up having to pull over in a bay while the drivers organised themselves. We got dropped off right near the Mughal Darbar where we had some morning tea/lunch of chicken patties, walnut brownie, and macaroons and then we went to a supermarket to buy some toiletries and food. We walked through the bright, colourful Sunday market on Residency Road and went back to the Government Emporium to have another look at the carpets we had selected. Then we collected our laundry and walked along the Boulevard trying to tee up a couple of tourists to share the day trip to Naramarg Valley, one of four valleys in Kashmir and it felt like it was trying to rain. The mountains in the distance still had sunlight on them and the snow looked spectacular against the dark mountains with storm clouds all around.
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