Is it good Idea to travel Srinagar-Gulmarg-Pahalgam in Dec 09

pankajsingh.af

Hi All,

i have been a silent member of this site and this is my first post, seeking guidance from peoples experience.


I am planning a 5nite-6days trip to Srinagar
to visit Srinagar-Gulmarg-Pahalgam-sonmarg in Dec 09 with my wife.
Exact travel dates are 9-th to 14th.

but as per inputs i am little apprehensive about the normal status of security at kashmir. People tell that everywhere Police is stationed and you can't roam around freely as a civilian.

Can anyone who has traveled recently confirm that.

Also is it fine to travel at this time of year

Thanks in advance, anticipating replies from senior members.

Regards,
Pankaj Singh

Golden Chapati

The FCO advises against all travel to that region. If you do decide to travel there, only commute to Srinagar by plane. In reality, then I spent three weeks there and drove around on a bright yellow bullet and found people to be very friendly, especially towards the interior (Pahalgam/Aru in particular).

Civil unrest is the main issue these days, so it is best to avoid angry mobs. The only problem I experienced was when I was on route to Jammu and was caught in civil unrest. Apparently someone was shot and there was a backlash. The army were everywhere but did not confront the mob, a few Indians on pulsars spoke to the army and said it was them who were far more in danger of attack than a westerner.

The general rule is that westerners are not targeted and the real danger is getting caught unfortunately between violence between the army and the locals. In Srinagar, most of the unrest occurs within the limits of the old city. Around Dal Lake and the tourist orientated areas, it is as safe as anywhere else. People in Pahalgam and Aru seemed happy to see westerners around, since we've become a bit of a novelty in that region during the last fifteen years.

This was my experience anyway. Just remember to check your insurance companies stance on Kashmir, since many of them (mine included) will not cover you in regions that are advised against by the FCO.

Anymore questions, or advice on where to stay, please IM me.

Ms Princess W

As a resident here I don't see any activity regarding unrest where I live (in the Nishat area near Dal Lake) and have had absolutely no restrictions on movement anywhere around the city in the 7 months I've lived here. My Kashmiri husband goes about freely without problems as well. I'm quite sure you'll encounter nothing untoward on your visit here unless something extremely major occurs, and even moreso certain you'll have none of this kind of difficulty in places like Pahalgam.

Radjesh

I was there in June 2008, it was one of the best trips I undertook. Yes there are a lot of policemen around, but they'll hardly bother you until something major happens as Ms Princess W says. And that too, they might ask you a few routine questions (I was asked once when returning to Srinagar from Gulmarg, as there was large scale security owing to the Amarnath Yatra)

But I have to say I was amazed by the sheer number of Indian tourists when I was there !!

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MY 2008 KASHMIR TRIP

gnumoon

Kashmir is generally safe. You can look it up on the internet and maybe 1 guy in 40 years lost his life there. It was an Israeli military guy in a fight. 3 Norwegians were lost 20 years ago in the mountains hundreds of kilometers away from any populated place.
Srinagar valley is fine. I was there in the 70's and I was there in the 90's and I am living there now. I return there in December 2009 with my 7 year-old son. I stay with the Tapa family. They have 3 houseboats on Nagin Lake which is quieter and cleaner than Dahl Lake. contact +91-94190-55388 It is safer than anywhere and on a houseboat you are completely safe. All the movie theatres are open and people can assemble in large groups now, but the JK Police and other military orgs guard public buildings and post offices and banks just like in Madrid Spain or in Athens or anywhere in the world where security is serious. There used to be checkpoints everywhere but now only at the airport and an occasional random roadside check-Just like in Mexice except they're polite and respectful to foreigners.
You'll be one of very few tourists so it will be very interesting. If the snow is right, there will be skiing and snowboarding an hour or two away from Srinagar. Occasionally the road gets impassable for a day or so...No big deal.
Good Luck
Gnumoon
You can snowboard just 5 minutes from Nagin Lake on a hill if you can't get to the places you named. They do have some nice resorts now in the mountains but the snow isn't always quite right for skiing. It's nothing like Colorado or Northern California or Switzerland but I like it a lot.
Gnumoon

vistet

Past history , but not that past : the one (or another ) Israeli lost his life breaking free of kidnappers in the nineties , and the Norwegian Hans Christian Oströ was kidnapped near Pahalgam in -95 together with five other angrezis : one managed to run away , Oströ was decapitated near Pahalgam , the others are obviously also dead by now.

In the more recent history , a number of Indian tourists were targeted and killed in the summer -06 , and the Tourist Reception Centre has been hit both before and after that.

There have been a number of grenade attacks this year as well ( and a car bomb ) , one of them at Dal Gate , unclear if the tourist bus in place was the intended target or not.

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high road to ..

Ms Princess W

I figured you'd pipe in here, Vistet.

For the record, the day of the incident reported in DalGate, I was in DalGate the entire day shopping for a new digital camera. Saw and heard nothing where I was, which was on the main road facing the lake.

Gnumoon, I wasn't sure what you meant - are you living here now and returning to US in December, or the other way around? LOL....

vistet

OK . I´ll bite : which date are you referring to ?

Ms Princess W

June 19th this past summer.

vistet

The grenade attack on Friday 19th at Dal Gate was widely publized , several different sources, the casualty (the one who died , not the others ) was named , and there was unsettling photographs afterwards as well.