Kashmir-Pahalgam

On Day 3, we went to Pahalgam. We stayed at Baisaran. It is not impressive looking but the friendliness of the staff and the quality of food more than make up for that. I enjoyed my stay there.

By now, I had figured out the third point that distinguishes Kashmir from other places-most people are extremely humble, friendly and extrovert. Ofcourse, they can’t afford to not be so since their earning mostly comes from the tourism industry, still it was such a refreshing feeling to feel welcomed everywhere we went! That’s one thing that you won’t find in Kolkata-everyone here thinks he/she owns the world….rude^infinity!

Once again, we had to go sightseeing on ponies. This time, my ma smartly backed out. I think the pony-helper took us through a shortcut, since the road was so dangerous! Going uphill was relatively simpler but there came a time, when the pony was going downhill, that I had to close my eyes-Just imagine my condition and try to visualize it-I am at the top of the hill, I can clearly see the bottom, the slope is extremely steep, so my pony is practically travelling vertically downwards…one wrong step and the pony will stumble and if it stumbles, I’ll tumble down...so, my life is totally dependent on a pony whose intelligence is undoubtedly lesser than mine. :D. In moments like these, you forget that you ever hated your life.

The ponies took us to the Baisaran Park and the Valley of Kashmir-both are breathtaking. They made our difficult pony-journey absolutely worthwhile. In Kashmir Valley, we had coffee at one small shop. That particular moment has become my most surreal experience of the whole journey-I really don’t know why..it was just very special.

The pony-guy told us how poorly they are paid , even though their job is so difficult. We felt so bad for both him and the underfed ponies...so, father over-tipped him!This incident made me see how important education is and how lucky we all are.

We missed out many tourist places since we just had one day. Like Gulmarg, you need a lot more time than that to see the entire place..and Pahalgam is worth all the time that you spend seeing it!