On Monday morning we got up early for our day trip to Naranag. We drove past green rice fields and then the Sindh River and turned off at Kagan to head up the Naranag Valley. We climbed gradually at first on a decent road with houses and small farms. As we climbed we could see the river below, houses and terraced fields on the opposite side of the valley and the conifer trees appeared in a dark green band. Below was the lighter green and gold of the deciduous trees and above was the rock and snow above the tree line. We passed a small village with houses with wooden "tile" roofs and a section lifted open to let out the smoke of the cooking fire. The track got really rough and the houses and terrace fields ended. The road ended at a ruined Hindu temple with spectacular views of mountains on either side and also further down the valley. We walked along a well defined path with 12 year old Nawaz as our guide. We saw a couple of locals and a few shaggy goats. The water in the river was very clear and clean and was running fast. We saw a few monkeys but they were very wary and scampered off despite our offer of a banana. There were beautiful flowers in bloom and the trees were all coming out in fresh foliage. We could understand why the locals describe it as heaven on earth. We came across small glaciers melting into the river. These were at the base of gullies in the mountain with waterfalls flowing down from melting snow. They disappeared under the ice into the river. We came to a split in the valley with a solid bridge where Nawaz told us there was a big problem. He told us we needed to go back to the temple! When we wanted to continue he said he was sick! We told him to go back to the temple and continued on our own - another Indian tourist scam. We took the bridge and headed along the track on the right hand valley. The scenery was truly beautiful and we saw no-one for hours. We crossed the river on a couple of small bridges made with wood and tied with bark and flexible new growth branches. The wood pieces moved as you walked on them but it was pretty safe. Massive rock walls rose up in some places and we came across a group of vultures feeding on a dead goat. We saw many structures with earthen roofs that must house shepherds and stock in the winter time but all was quiet and deserted. We passed a landslide in one spot where the path had collapsed into the river below. We also walked on one section which was built out from the cliff with a basic wooden walk way. We had to cross a couple of small glaciers which were surprisingly easy to walk on although it was a bit worrying to see some sections collapsed as the ice melted. The valley seemed to go on forever and we could see bigger mountains ahead covered in snow. Below the conifer line, some places looked like alpine meadows – just green grass. On the way back we bumped into a few local women who had been gathering green spinach in the forest. One showed us a strange mushroom she had collected. She had henna coloured fingernails and large gold jewellery on either nostril. The older lady had very long hair tied behind her with assorted bric a brac tied onto the end. We drove back to Srinagar after arguing with the guide's father about the payment (as usual). It was beautiful all the way with the apple and cherry tree orchards, yellow mustard seed terrace fields and dark spiky conifers full of cones.
We spent most of Tuesday walking around town looking at carpets in various stores before going back to the Government Emporium to check that we still liked the carpets that we had previously selected.
It was raining on Wednesday morning so we were at a bit of a loss. Our hotel owner on hearing that we were interested in carpets organised for us to visit his "nephew" Saboor's warehouse. Saboor showed us a tool with a magnifying glass used for counting knots per square inch (KPSI). He showed us how to tell the difference between a real silk carpet and a rayon carpet by using a needle to remove a strand from a knot and then burning it. The silk thread smelled like burning hair while the rayon thread smelled like burning paper. We spent the next few hours looking at a series of carpets. When none of the carpets that he showed us were suitable, Saboor made a few frantic calls on his mobile to line up some more carpets for us to view and then he took us in his car to a couple of other showrooms, where again we saw carpets that weren't quite right. After seeing all of the Saboor's carpets which were substantially cheaper, we decided that we should go back to the Government Emporium to see if we could negotiate with them further. We borrowed Saboor's knot counting tool and used it to count the knots on the carpets at the emporium where we found that the carpets we were interested in were not 676 knots per square inch but 576. This did give us more leverage with the Emporium and they did drop their price but it was still higher than Saboor's price. Saboor then took us to the showroom of a weaver who supplied the Emporium. We had tea with cakes and biscuits and half an hour later, four of the carpets that we had been shown at the Emporium were delivered and shown to us. Unfortunately the ones that we wanted were not there because the Emporium wanted to hold them for us and would only release them when we left Srinagar! We agreed that we would trust Saboor to obtain the carpets on our behalf.
On Thursday morning we went to Saboor's showroom to finalise our carpet purchase. After finalising the paperwork, Saboor took us for a drive through the old city stopping at a couple of places so that we could see the whole carpet making process. Our first stop was the weavers, where we saw two weavers knotting furiously on large primitive looking looms. The ivory coloured silk warp appeared to be strung across two large wooden logs and the weavers were using coloured skeins of silk for the knots. Saboor stopped outside a house where there were two large uncut carpets hung over a fence to dry. Inside the courtyard we saw a big stone bath filled with water and detergent next to a flat concrete surface. Two men were washing a carpet. One man would tip buckets of water from the bath over the uncut carpet while the other man used a metal scraper to scrub and push the water out of the carpet. Finally, we saw the cutting process which begins when the carpet is partly dry. This was done by hand using a specially shaped pair of scissors. You could see the detailed pattern emerging when the blotchy looking pile was cut. When this is complete the carpet is hung again to dry out properly and then there is a second cut which further brings out the detail.
In the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk and headed off up the hill to the Hindu temple on the top. It was a steep track with some beautiful sprays of flowers and the view becoming progressively better. We could see down onto the town and Dal Gate, the long stretch of water with houseboats on one side and the Boulevard on the other. The track led up to an army point on top and then around to the temple behind. It was built from stone with the obligatory lingam, Brahmin, copper cobra etc. The place was alive with Indian tourists enjoying the views over Dal Lake and across to the mountains all around. We walked back down via the winding road and the trees and flowers were exceptional. When we reached the bottom we continued walking right around the lake to the Mughal Garden Nishat Bagh. This took us almost two hours and when we got there we were tired. On the way we saw great views of the lake and the mountains. The lake seemed to have a problem with weed and many people were occupied with fishing out the weed and filling up trucks to take it away. We saw some ducks, geese, fishermen in small boats cooking food and smoking hookahs. On the other side of the road we saw waterways filled with small canoes and plots of land full of vegetables growing.
The Mughal Garden was very pretty with terraced flower gardens and waterways with the mountains providing a scenic backdrop. We were pretty exhausted and spent most of our time there sitting front of the waterways near the entrance watching large buses decanting hordes of Indian tourists. When it started to get cold, we caught a rickshaw back into town to have dinner.
At 7.00 am on Friday morning we left for Kargil in a Sumo (jeep). We followed the same route that we took to Narinag but instead of turning off at Kagan we continued straight on to Sonamarg. We saw the small local horses/ponies trotting around on and off the road. The mountains were typical Kashmir with armies of conifers marching up the steep slopes. We stopped at Sonamarg for a cup of tea. On the way to Drass we drove through the Zoji La pass which zig zagged precariously up the mountain with a sheer drop on one side. There was lots of melting ice and in parts the road was carved through glaciers. Just after we got through the pass, our jeep lost a wheel, but luckily we were able to continue on with a spare. Our driver Bilal was convinced that the jeep had been sabotaged??? We went through an army checkpoint where Keith was busted taking a photo. We had to present our passports and fill out a form and the other passengers had to produce their ID cards. The scenery had completely changed from a lush green to a dry brown rock with hardly any vegetation. We saw a ground cover of tiny yellow flowers growing straight out of the earth. We followed the Suru river with some tributaries that came from Pakistan. Occasionally we came to sections which were terraced. We saw green poplars and apricot trees in blossom. We went through a couple more checkpoints and arrived at Kargil at 2.30 pm.
The next morning we walked around to the taxi stand to arrange a vehicle to Leh. The landscape was incredible with huge mountains but very little water so they were mostly decomposed stone of varying hues of brown, green and purple. In the valleys was far less water but still there were some terraced fields and some poplar and fruit trees. However the land seemed much poorer. The villages started to display the Buddhist prayer flags and ruined stupas appeared by the roadside. There were bundles of sticks, tree trunks skinned of bark and animal fodder stored on roofs. We saw yaks for the first time, beautiful partridge, goats and crows. We stopped at Mulbekh to see a 1000 year old gompa (monastery) with a great Buddha carving in the rock. We arrived in Leh at 3-30pm – and it was very cold and windy. Leh looked like a beautiful small town with the gompa high above and interesting Tibetan arts and crafts. We went to a pharmacy where for the princely sum of AUD 7.74, we purchased 100 Doxycyclin (anti-malaria) tablets, 20 paracetamol tablets, 20 ciprofloxacin (antibiotic for stomach bugs) tablets and 16 strepsils – all without a prescription!
On Sunday morning we walked to the main bazaar to check out flights to Dehli. To our horror, we found the cheapest flight was on the 5th May for Rs 5,257 – thereafter the price doubled. We decided to change our plans and use the next couple of days for day trips. On the way to the travel agent, we went past a wheat field that was being manually ploughed with the help of two sturdy yaks. We booked a trip to Somgum (the confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers) and Alchi, and another trip to the monasteries at Shey, Thiksey, Hemis, Chemday and Stakna. We decided to make the most of the sunshine and climb up to the Leh Palace and the Tsemo (Victory) Fort. We walked back through the main bazaar and took the path behind the Jama Masjid. It only took about 5 to 10 minutes to climb up through some stone alleyways past some mud brick houses to the Leh Palace. We walked around the building and then found the trail up the hillside to the fort. This was a little more challenging as the ground was loose and it was a little steeper. We had to keep stopping to rest – probably because of the altitude. The 360° views from the fort were magnificent. We were surrounded by snow capped mountains and could see the Leh valley below. We met three Indian army soldiers who helped us up the rickety ladders to the top of the white washed ruins. We came down a different route and walked past some bakers who were making the Ladakhi roti (flat crispy bread) using a tandoor oven by sticking the dough rounds to the side. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with our diary and photos.
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