Kashmir Cultural Heritage Tour – May 2010
Posted on 15. Feb, 2010 by David in Blog, Culture, Kashmir, Tours
Looking for a unique and authentic cultural experience for 2010? Check out our Kashmir cultural heritage tour being run from May 12th-20th.
Surrounded by the Himalayas, the Valley of Kashmir offers beautiful landscapes as well as a fun and rich culture to experience. Through this tour we’ll help you enjoy some of the best that Kashmir has to offer.
The group size will be limited to 4-6 participants, so check out the full tour details on our cultural tours page.
Harissa – Only In The Winter
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Food/Drink, Kashmir, Winter
Winter in Kashmir provides an opportunity to enjoy harissa, a unique Kashmiri dish. Harissa is only made during the cold winter months, and it usually is found early in the morning in little cafes packed with men enjoying this special food. Women also enjoy it as families occasionally prepare and serve it in their homes.
Harissa is somewhat hard to describe. It’s basically meat (mutton) cooked for a long time and then pulled off the bone. This very soft meat is then mixed with some uncooked rice, water, and spices. The mixture is stirred and stirred until it becomes mushy and smooth. To serve, hot oil is poured on top and then you scoop it up with fresh bread from the bakery.
If you’re visiting Kashmir in the wintertime you should definitely ask a local to take you to a harissa shop as it’s a fun experience only found in this time of year.
Earlier this month I went with a Kashmiri friend to a popular harissa shop in the old city near the shrine of Shah Hamdan. My photos didn’t turn out too great as the shop was a little steamy and my camera lens got fogged up, but here are some pics plus an extra one I took a while back at a neighbor’s house.
Don’t Tear It Down!
Posted on 24. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Books, Culture, Kashmir
Before leaving Kashmir recently I stopped by the office of the J&K chapter of Intach to gather some info related to heritage walks in the old city area of Srinagar. While there I checked out an interesting book called “Don’t Tear It Down! Preserving the Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture of Kashmir” by Rudolph Langenbach.
The book argues that the older, traditional design of many Kashmiri homes and buildings is much more resistant to falling apart from earthquakes than most of the more “modern” buildings being built in place of the older ones. There are several fascinating pictures in the book illustrating this point.
This is a great book for those interested in architecture, especially as it relates to areas prone to earthquakes. For other tourists to Kashmir the book may be interesting just to see some of the old photos from the Srinagar area compared to today.
You find the book online at various places, including amazon.com, and on this website as an e-book.
Kashmiri Kahwa Chai Recipe
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Food/Drink, Kashmir
A while back I had written about the different types of chai people in Kashmir drink. One of them was Kahwa, sometimes called Kashmiri chai.
As a further resource for you avid chai drinkers out there, here’s a Kahwa recipe written up by my wife.
Boil 4 cups of water with green cardamom (3-4 pods, cracked), cinnamon stick (1/2 inch piece), and 2 tablespoons sugar for 5-10 minutes or until fragrant. Take off heat and add 3 teaspoons loose green tea and cover for 1-2 mins – just until color turns slightly darker. Strain and serve with slivered almonds in bottom of cup and sugar to taste (no milk).
For saffron Kahwa, instead of adding green tea use 2-3 strands of saffron and cover for 2-3 mins or until color turns golden. Strain and serve with slivered almonds and sugar to taste (no milk).
Making Kahwa is an art so experiment with amounts of spices until you come up with your favorite way to make it. You may like certain spices stronger or more/less sugar, and color is also important. Saffron Kahwa has the golden color so depending on the quality and source of the saffron you may need more/less or longer time covered. Regular Kahwa is usually not too dark in color and especially not too brown from cinnamon so experiment to see how adjusting the cinnamon affects color. If color is too dark, try adding a drop of lemon juice (a trick I learned from a Kashmiri friend).
Enjoy!
Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh is Full
Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by David in Blog, Kashmir, Lumen Dei, Photography, Tours
In keeping up with the popularity of the 2009 Lumen Dei photo tour, Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh 2010 reached the full number of applicants in a mere four days. Wow, I’ll do business any day with Matt Brandon and David duChemin, our wonderful lead photographers for the tour!
If you missed out, well, we’re still keeping the applications open for a waiting list in case one of the original 8 participants needs to cancel. In fact, last year we had two participants who needed to cancel but we were able to quickly fill those spots due to others who had expressed interest in joining.
So if you’re interested in being on a waiting list for Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh, go ahead and fill out the online application. Once we receive it we’ll let you know your place in line.
Update: the name of this Lumen Dei tour has been revised since we now are offering a second one in 2010 for the Kumbh Mela in April.
Announcing Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by David in Blog, Kashmir, Lumen Dei, News, Photography, Tours
I’m excited to announce that we’re now taking applications for Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh 2010! The previous Lumen Dei tour sold out in 3 days so don’t wait long if you’d like to join Matt Brandon and David duChemin for this excellent photo workshop & tour.
As implied by the name, Kashmir and Ladakh will be the featured destinations, and the tour will run from September 12th to 25th, 2010. The rest of the details and online application can be found on the Lumen Dei tour HERE.
Update: the name of this Lumen Dei tour has been revised since we now are offering a second one in 2010 for the Kumbh Mela in April.
Fall Colors of Kashmir
Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by David in Blog, Fall, Kashmir
Yesterday’s cold weather brought a sudden change to the nice fall weather we’ve been enjoying in Kashmir. After a long dry spell we finally had lots of rain and even snow along with the mountain tops surrounding Srinagar.
So before winter completely sets in I wanted to share some recent photos from the fall. They show what many consider one of the highlights of fall in Kashmir – the changing of the chinar leaves from green to a nice fall red.
With fall almost over for 2009, let us know how we can help you experience the fall beauty of Kashmir for 2010. You can join us for a culture tour in the fall of 2010, or we can arrange something custom for you too.
Pre-Paid Mobile Service Banned
Posted on 31. Oct, 2009 by David in Blog, Kashmir, News
Starting from November 1, pre-paid mobile connections will be banned for Jammu and Kashmir state. The Indian government is banning these types of connections as a security precaution. You can read more HERE and HERE.
This is very big news for Kashmiris, as there are almost 4 million pre-paid users in the state. Many of my Kashmiri friends today were trying to figure out what they would do as getting a post-paid connection will be more expensive for them. While I have a post-paid account, I’m wondering how I’m going to get a hold of people in the future. I would bet the majority of numbers in my phone are pre-paid numbers and not everyone has a landline phone at home.
Now it looks like the main option for international tourists needing to use a phone in Kashmir will be to head to the nearest STD phone shop/stand (unless you have intl roaming on your phone). As far as I’m aware if you buy a pre-paid mobile connection somewhere else in India the service won’t work once you cross into Kashmir.
Manasbal and Wular Lake Day Trip
Posted on 18. Oct, 2009 by David in Blog, Kashmir, Things To Do, Travel
Recently I went with some friends on a road trip to check out two lakes north of Srinagar, Manasbal and Wular Lakes. It’s a fairly easy trip with great views of the countryside outside of Srinagar. While we made the trip in the fall, I think it would make an even nicer day trip in the spring as the mountains and rice fields would be much greener.
Manasbal Lake is about a 1 hour drive north of Srinagar. The J&K Tourism Dept has made a lot of recent upgrades around the lake, building a walkway around it along with a nice park. Like Dal Lake there are shikaras available to enjoy a relaxing ride on the lake. However, Manasbal is much quieter and a pleasant getaway from busy city of Srinagar.
Beautiful Manasbal Lake
Park entrance at Manasbal Lake
Ancient Hindu Temple at Manasbal Lake
Peaceful and quiet Manasbal Lake
Wular Lake is often referred to as one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes. It’s about another hour north from Manasbal. We only drove around the eastern side of the lake to Bandipora, and there wasn’t much water left to look at. I hear the western side has much more water. The region has had very little rain this year with some areas suffering from a drought. Because of that this side of Wular Lake looked more like a flat marshy plain than a large lake. The town of Bandipora has a lively square in the middle with several restaurants all serving the standard Kashmiri cuisine.
Marshy area at Wular Lake that used to be under water
Hopefully it's still possible to save some of this lake
More marsh with some water at Wular Lake
Srinagar Airport Departure Info
Posted on 28. Sep, 2009 by David in Airport, Blog, Kashmir, Tips, Travel
Here’s the follow-up to the previous post about the Srinagar Airport, this time with departure info.
The first thing you’ll notice about departing from the Srinagar Airport is the high level of security checks to pass through. You’ll need a print out of your ticket/itinerary to show the security forces at the first gate. Before you get to the actual airport you’ll need to have all your bags (checked and carry-on) scanned at a screening post. From there you proceed to the airport where they’ll be scanned again right after you walk in the entrance.
One confusing thing about flying out of Srinagar for many tourists is the question of whether or not you can bring a carry-on bag with you. Most of the airlines have signs at their check-in counters indicating that no carry-on baggage is allowed for the flights from Srinagar. From what I understand this rule used to be strict in the 1990s, but at the present time is no longer enforced (especially for electronics, valuables, or delicate items).
What we tell our groups is that they can bring a carry-on bag, but they should take out any batteries (mainly from cameras) and put those in their checked bags. Your carry-on bag will be opened and inspected when you go through security to the boarding gate area, so if there’s anything you don’t want security officials sorting through then put that in your checked bag as well.
The airport is still undergoing some construction so changes will likely happen, but here are the facilities currently available inside the departure terminal.
- Restaurant – upstairs; has a small selection of some veg and non-veg items
- Snack shops – downstairs; mainly chips + cold drinks or instant chai; there is one inside the departure gate area after security but it mainly has drinks with less food snacks
- Bathrooms – both before and after the security check for the gate area
- Internet access – the back of the snack shop before the gate area has 3 computers that you can get online with for 80 Rupees/hour, no wifi at this point
- Kashmiri shawls and handicrafts shop
- J&K Agro shop with nuts, honey, and even canned wazwan from Kashmir
- Smoking room
- Child care and nursing mothers room
- Jewelry shop
- Medical room
- Foreign exchange counter, but the rates here are pretty bad
Just as with arrivals, all foreign tourists departing from the airport need to fill out an FRO (Foreign Registration Office) form with their passport/visa info along with details of their visit to Kashmir. The FRO counter is next to the jewelry shop and the foreign exchange counter.
The final thing to keep in mind when flying out of the Srinagar airport is that you need to identify your checked baggage before boarding the plane. After you go through the security check into the departure gate area, you’ll usually be asked by an airline official if you’ve identified your checked bag yet. Currently the place to do that is out an exit to the left following the security check (don’t worry, there are signs). You’ll go outside to where the baggage handlers for the various airlines have all the checked bags lined up. Just find your bags and have one of handlers for your airline mark the baggage claims tags on both your bags and your boarding pass. After that you can head back in to the departure gate and wait for your flight to start boarding.
