Krishnaganga, Gurez Valley

19 June

Once again hello everyone. 

Reading the title if you have started wondering whether this is going to be a political opinion post then you are wrong. As I mentioned in my last blog, last month I travelled to the valley of Kashmir. And just like after every travel, I was about to pen down my experience. But then I thought, when I was thinking of making plans to visit Kashmir, the very first question that came to my mind was - Is it a safe place for travel? That's why let me begin this trip diary trying to address this question itself.

In one word the answer is YES. And that's a yes in bold letters. And I will explain the rationale behind this. In fact Kashmir is the safest place in the whole of India for female travelers ( any age).  I have travelled extensively across India and outside India. So when I say it is safest, you can try to believe me. I never felt this safe travelling on remote roads, spending night in a deserted tourist hut without any power and walking down to locals homes without even giving a second thought. I stay in Pune which is relatively a safe place for women but still I would say Kashmir is where even a solo woman traveler would not feel any scare, even if she is walking down a forest road at sundown.

I usually plan all my trips by myself - starting from hotel to vehicle to food to sightseeing - everything is meticulously planned months ahead and I keep an excel sheet handy with all the necessary information. Planning a trip yourself might be a lot of hassle but I feel it gives me a lot of flexibility in terms of what I want to do on a trip. Plus getting a package trip from any operator doesn't feel like a good deal to me because it offers limited customizations. When I started planning for Kashmir initially I thought I will go to the standard tourist destinations - Pahalgam- Betaab Valley, Sonmarg, Gulmarg etc. But then the more I started reading about these places and the travel details from fellow travelers I noticed a couple of things - 

• they are usually overcrowded 
• you need to take pony ride to reach the sightseeing points 
• highly overpriced 
• touts make your life horrible. 

Considering all of these points I was almost about to drop my travel plans for Kashmir. But then fortunately I came across a post on FB which was taking about some remote places of Kashmir and they looked absolutely stunning. After some intense research on the places I decided to go for it. But since these were a little remote places and this was my first time in the valley which is often touted by the media as the hotbed of various unrests and violence - I thought it was safe to go for a tour operator who would know the pulse of the place better than a tourist like me visiting for the first time. And if in the worst scenario any issue happens at least there will be some accountability on the part of the operator to get us back to safety.

Interesting to note is that my travel to the valley was scheduled a few days after the release of  The Kashmir Files, a film on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in the 1990s which took the country by storm. The very natural thought lingering on my mind was, even though I have heard the valley is safe, considering the current situation and the news of violence that I was reading everyday in the newspaper, should I postpone or cancel my trip. My thoughts were further fueled by the fact that I was going to travel with my senior citizen mom and it would be just the two of us on this trip. Heaven forbid if some unrest happens how would I cope with it in an unknown land?

I think by now you can resonate to some of my concerns. And apart from all this the most sensitive question was, post Kashmir files, as a non muslim, will I be welcomed or resented? My mother was very concerned about this. Which is very obvious because she keeps reading these news pieces which always magnified what was happening in the valley. But I decided that since I have put in so much money into this trip, lets just make it happen and be positive. 

I kept telling me All is well , All is well until we reached Srinagar. There were a few minor hiccups like flight delays which kind of made me anxious (superstitious - at the start of trip things going wrong!) but I decided to hang in their with my positive beliefs a bit longer. 

We landed in Srinagar and the first thing that mesmerized us was the beauty of the land. I have earlier mentioned that my first look of the Shillong airport ( Meghalaya trip) took my breath away with the beauty. The same happened in Srinagar. The moment we left the airport premises natural beauty literally engulfed us. Our driverji - Khursheed Bhai was a soft spoken helpful gentleman and that calmed down my anxious nerves a bit. At least I did not feel threatened by the man on the wheels. The second interesting thing in Kashmir is that every place is very meticulously monitored by the army and the police. It was normal to see army men walking down the road in military trucks holding guns. Srinagar especially has a lot of surveillance for obvious reasons. But once you go to the border areas you will find army check posts at regular intervals and patrolling vehicles on the road. You need to submit all your details at every checkpoint and they keep a close monitor on who is entering and exiting, how many ladies are there, what is the purpose of visit, where are you coming from and your aadhar details. Hence even if you wish you can not be unsafe, they will track you down if you get into any kind of trouble anywhere. 

I don't know why , I was partially expecting to see some reactions/signs of post Kashmir Files impact in Srinagar. But the city didn't have any traces of any unrest. It was a normal day like any other city where everyone was going about their business. If it was not for the beautiful Shikaras lined along the boulevard or the towering Nanga Parbat mountains, you would feel that this is just another city in India. There was no trace of any tension anywhere. 

Gurez Village

Once we travelled out of Srinagar towards Gurez which was the most remote place on our list, we got to know how the real Kashmir is. And it was poles opposite to what the media makes you believe. Unlike what we believe that Hindus are not welcome here, let me tell you most of the locals are not at all bothered about your religion. There was only one occasion where a local asked us whether we were Muslim. when we said no, she simply said okay, koi baat nahi. No reaction or further questions post that on our religion. It was as normal as my mother tongue is Bengali while theirs's is Kashmiri. Some of the locals also told us, that all these stories are made up by the politicians for vested interests, the people here live harmoniously with all religions and there is no distinguishing. We found this to be very true. There was no religious bigotism. If I go to any other place in any other city in any Muslim specific area, I would feel that I am standing out. But here I never for once felt that I am travelling in a completely Muslim dominated state. People were more than welcoming. We got invited to local's homes on multiple occasions. The ladies here were especially friendly with us and shared so much about their life over chai sessions. Sitting with the locals in their homes didn't feel weird even for a second.

Now coming to dressing in Kashmir when you are travelling. Surprisingly, this is the only place in India where I didn't get stared or ogled by any random guy even if I was in a decent jeans and tee. This was surprising because ladies in kashmir after a certain age always wear burkas in some form or pherans and cover their head. So being in jeans and tee ideally should attract eyeballs but that didn't happen. I felt that as long as you are wearing decent clothes it doesn't matter if you go around in jeans or a dress. Yes there are places like dargah's where you need to follow a certain dress code. But apart from that you would not feel uncomfortable in any attire if you walk around the city or even in the villages. 

We went to areas from where you could see the India Pakistan border. There was a place named Sheikpura ahead of Gurez where there was only a couple of government places to stay. We could see how he people of these remote villages liked to see visitors. they felt good when travelers form around the world would visit them.  The caretaker told us before covid there was a lady solo traveler who stayed in that place for a couple of night all by herself. This further emphasized the fact that there is a lot of solo lady travelers who are venturing out in even remote locations across this valley without any fear. 

Chandigam, Lolab Valley

Let me talk about a few more things to give you an idea about how critical a women's safety is considered here. We stayed in a tourist hut in a place called Reshwari. Electricity is a major problem in Kashmir and more so in the remote areas. It comes for only some stipulated hours and rest of the times either things run on backup or you remain in the dark. This was a big govt. guest house but the infrastructure was pretty poor and they did not have any backup. So post 7 PM when it was pitch dark and only one emergency light at our disposal, my mom was getting a little jittery. The additional point was that we were the only two boarders that day in the entire premise apart from the caretaker and our driverji. But since the caretaker was an ex-armyman I was not much scared. Plus I thought that since it was a government hut, obviously even the officials knew we were coming. But later in the night when we asked the caretaker why there was no other boarders he said, there is a group of campers but they were not allowed inside the premise today. the reason is that there is a rule for that property set up the SP- if there is only female boarders any day they do not allow any other male boarders in the premise that particular day to ensure safety. Even if it means loss of revenue. We were surprised to note that. Also, there is a forest guest house almost adjacent to this place. So earlier in the evening, the forest guest house officials had come to this tourist hut and we happened to talk to some of them. One of the official gave his phone number to us and said if there is any need anytime we can give him a call. And after this he gave us a call in the night to check if we are okay and then till the time we were in Kashmir everyday he checked on us whether we were doing alright. That is the kind of hospitality you would see in real Kashmir. I say real Kashmir which means when you are travelling to all these rural remote places. The people in Srinagar, we found were more commercialized in their approaches and the human touch was slightly missing. Since there is so much tourist influx they behave just like you would see in normal tourist places. I am not sure how it is in the other popular tourist destinations like Pahalgam, Gulamarg but all the places we went to like Gurez, Bangus and Lolab valley we found the people with soul as beautiful as the place itself.

We also met a solo woman traveler Maria in our next destination which was Chandigam. She has been doing solo trips in the Valley for past 4 years and she spoke about how amazing her experience has been. In fact we resonated the same views about how safe the whole valley is especially when you go remote. She accounted many of her travel stories in which she got assisted by the village folks or tourist polices whenever she needed any help. We agreed that the people of Kashmir were more beautiful inside out than the land itself and no where else in India did we experience this kind of heartfelt hospitality.

So you see things are very different when you actually are in Kashmir. It is different and refreshingly good compared to some other big cities. They might not have advanced infrastructure, high rises, state of art transport, fancy malls etc. But the people here carry a lot of love and respect for you as an individual and more as a women. Even if they are in burkhas, the women here are quite empowered and educated. And this reflects well on their overall society and the way they behave towards women. Interestingly every time I told anyone in the villages that I am from Pune, they actually knew Pune is part of Maharashtra and near to Mumbai.  Even housewives who have not stepped out of their villages in the entire life, knew where Pune was! This is how well read the people of the valley are. 

When travelling to remote Kashmir I would recommend to interact with the locals and villagers as much as you can. Apart form getting to know their culture and life up close, you will end up making so many connections who will ensure you are safe while you are there in their place. I will be writing in more details about my overall experience of the valley in my upcoming tour diary. But just as a signing off note I want to say that this place is rightly called as the Jannat on earth ( paradise on earth) and you can definitely visit this place without any fear in your heart. 

Other blogs in the Kashmir series:

1. Is Kashmir safe for travelers?
2. What to pack for Kashmir in May -June ( for Gurez- bangus - Lolab circuit)
3. Kashmir Diaries - Day 1 : Pune to Srinagar | Nishat Bagh
4. Kashmir Diaries -Day 2: Srinagar to Gurez| Razdan Pass | Krishnaganga 
5. Kashmir Dairies - Day 3 : Walking around Gurez Village
6. My Top Favorite Foods From Kashmir - Part 1
7. My Favorite Food from Kashmir - Part 2 (Second Trip To Kashmir - October)