13 posts tagged “kashmir”
Ben took to it like a duck to water. I fell on my bum, time and time again. I got in a bit of a grump – I understood the principles, but couldn’t get my body to respond in the way that I wanted it to. Determined not to give up, I went back out the next day. It wasn’t until I started telling my tutor that I wanted to take it slow that I finally began to get somewhere, slowly building up my skill and confidence rather than whizzing down from the top of the hill like he wanted me to do. The last day was a triumph, with no falls – so I quit while I was ahead! Ben ended the week learning to slalom – smug bugger.
Time for another of those holidays within a holiday. No school for a week - instead a trip to the mountains to go skiing. Now, neither Ben or I were particularly keen on the idea of skiing, but we jumped at the opportunity to see more of the country. Our 9 hour drive gave us plenty of amazing sights - roads clinging to the sides of mountains, beautiful peaks and valleys, a 2.6km tunnel, lots of men with guns and some hair-raising driving. We only had dad, the 3 littlest kids and another visitor, Kyle, with us. The drive provided plenty of time for reading stories, sleeping (!) and learning more about Kashmir. When we finally arrived in Gulmarg, I wasn't at all surprised to discover that the tourist office didn't know we were coming - despite having booked and paid. There ensued lots of talking, shuffling around and finally being shown into 2 huts for the night before we could move to a bigger one the next day.
The locals near us are very resourceful with the products they produce - they need to be. Many of them are making their own tents, shoes, rugs, blankets, hay bags, reins etc. I've learnt how to make naros - braids used for holding up your shalwa (trousers), haning up curtains or any other number of uses. They're just like North West Morris slings!.
No we didn't ride them! The family that we're staying with have 2 horses that they hope to train up for pony-trekking. Despite the kids' keenness for us to have a go, we declined. They need a bit more training first! One nearly kicked me as they were trying to fit the bridle and the other threw off the oldest girl when she was riding it! On top of that, there was someone else's horse in the field that was just vicious. It was running up to those on foot and kicking when they tried to shoo it away. Ben and I, who aren't fans of horses at the best of times, were rather terrified.
"Uncle" Ben (we're Uncle Ben and Auntie Emma here) and I have declared roti time our favourite time of the day. School is done, we've finished playing games outside and we all get to sit down together to drink Lipton chai (Ben and I are slowly becoming addicted) and eat rotis with honey on. Mid afternoon, the roti man comes round shouting "roti, roti", which everyone in the house goes round repeating. Ben enjoys going out and trying to communicate sufficiently to buy the day's rotis.
Jammu is known as the city of temples, and here are just a few examples that we saw. The orange one lit up with lights when it got dark, slightly resembling a fair ground ride in the process.
