Backpacking in the World's Most Militarised Zone: A friendly palindrome

I remember when I used to be a tourist and travel to fancy places. In 2016, I went on my first solo journey to Kashmir. It was the same time of the year when Kashmir was all over the news for its riots by locals. I still went there in December 2016 to celebrate new year’s eve in the valley. There I met a fourteen years old kid who was selling chocolates in Gulmarg. I gave him my phone for a few minutes while I was tying up my shoe laces and he clicked the below pictures which I realised when I came back home.

It was 2 years later in 2018 when I started traveling more often and shared this picture on social media and One day I got a random call from this guy calling me asking when am I visiting again as he would love to meet me. Since that day he would call me once in a week to ask when am I coming. Everyone told me not to go there as it was dangerous. A very few people who would dare to go there are the ones with their personal guides. I believe as a tourist you miss out the real picture and its beauty for that place. I am a solo traveller who likes to travel like a local who would stay there in ordinary local houses, explore the real beauty of kashmir, and they would serve me my vegetarian food and enjoy their famous non-vegetarian dish “Gushtaba”. Another reason is I couldn’t afford to pay for the taxi as I am a budget traveller. So, I just tried my luck with it and hoped I would make it.

So, did I. I packed my bag, took a bus for an overnight journey to Jammu and then again took another bus ride to Banihal. From here, I took a train to Mazhom which is a few kilometres from Tangmarg. This was the first time I got to know about trains in the valley.

I de-boarded the train and went outside, took a long breath and felt my own presence in the beautiful Kashmir this view reminded me the famous quote about kashmir by Aamir Khusroo

“Gar firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto, hamin asto, hamin ast”

This is what you see as you take your first step in heaven on earth. I took a shared taxi for fifty rupees to get to Tangmarg which was my next destination. I stayed in a J & K tourism guest house for only 300 rupees per night in a big dorm.

This was the exact place where I stayed in 2016 and made another local friend. Tangmarg is about 12 kilometres from Gulmarg. Tangmarg is relatively cheaper and has more options to stay than Gulmarg which is why I stayed to make it my base and continue my travelling to Gulmarg for the next two days. Before that I covered another beautiful destination which was very close to tangmarg. Drung is the foothills of the Sunshine peak and it is pretty famous for adventure lovers including the RedBull adventures sports team who shot their snowboarding videos from Sunshine peak to Drung.

After a tiring day full of intense travelling, I rested in the guest room and prepared myself for the next day's adventure in Gulmarg. I was very excited as I had been there earlier and I wanted to hike to that same Alpather Lake where I was back in 2016.

The next morning, I took the shared taxi to Gulmarg and met my friend who was waiting for me up there. We were having a good face to face conversation after 2016 over a glass of traditional Kashimiri beverage “Kahwa”.

Thereafter, we roamed around the skiing spot where I could see very young kids skiing. This was very interesting to me as when I was here for the last time the very same ground serves as a golf course in the summer and skiing destination in the winter.

I continued my journey to the world's highest gondola. It’s more than 14000 feet above the sea level. There are two phases of Gulmarg gondola. Most people only cover the first phase as there are tourist services available easily.

The second phase is at a higher altitude and has a very scenic view of Sunshine peak on the left and floating Zozila peak on the right.

Upon reaching to the top looking down to LOC gazing at the last India Army Bunker in the snow capped mountains. Soldiers in complete isolation. This is the place where snow is measured in metres not in feet. One wrong step might kill you and keep you stranded for hours until you will be seen by the next visitor hopefully. This is About 1 kms hike from Gondola phase 2 and it’s sunset peak which is also known by the name of Vale of Kashmir, standing tall at a height of 15568 ft above the sea level. Everything gets too slow at this height except the fast blowing chilly winds that might give you frostbite if you are not careful.

Whenever I reach this much height, I tend to figure out if it goes any higher and yes, it does,

So, I continued my hike for another one kilometre to the top. The most challenging part was when you can’t make a grip on settled snow and you tend to slip. So, When I was about to give I noticed another hiker from Australia who was wearing the professional snow hiking shoes. It was only two of us hiking that day. I had a small talk with him and I continued hiking following his trail.

After another two kilometre hike, we reached the top of the mountain and could see the Alpather lake which was completely submerged in snow. This is very nostalgic for me to stand there after four years and it’s never enough

We are very much sceptical about travelling to Kashmir. I think this is all because what we see in the news or read in the newspaper everyday. I have been to kashmir twice now. For the first time in 2016 when I celebrated new year in Kashmir among the locals where they would serve me my vegetarian food and enjoyed their famous non-vegetarian dish “Gushtaba”. It was the very same year when Burhan Vani was killed by Indian army. My second visit is from this year. If I compare these two visits, I don’t find a single difference other than more convenient roads and more snow. After my recent visit to Kashmir, I got a lot of questions to be answered by people such as

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didn’t you find unsafe in Kashmir?

Is the Internet working in Kashmir?

Is Kashmir safe for tourists?

Were Kashmiris friendly with you?

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I travelled to Kashmir solo. It is just like the way I travelled in 2016. I travelled in their trains, local buses like a local Kashmiri. I would always find myself amongst local Kashmiris who would always be there to help me out when I needed. I would always go to one single restaurant in Tangmarg who served me food and in fact gave me discounts a couple of times. Kashmir is Safe and Kashimiris are very humble to travellers like me. In fact, when I was coming back I made another list of places to cover in Kashmir with help of a guy travelling with me in a local bus. He gave me his phone and asked me to call him whenever I am back in Kashmir. This is how I found another friend in Kashmir.