Frontier Treks & Tours India

Tourists in a foreign destination like Kashmir naturally have lots of questions. Where is this, what is that, how much is this, and why do they do it that way?!

Sometimes you can find answers to your questions in a guidebook or online forum. However, searching for information and answers by asking the local community offers a more rewarding and interactive experience even if it might draw you out of your comfort zone a little.

Asking a Kashmiri about something you don’t know can be a fun experience that provides you with more than just the answer you were looking for. One of our tour participants once asked a Kashmiri man to explain how a traditional samovar was used and he ended up going to that man’s home to see a samovar and drink chai!

With this in mind, here are a few suggestions to help you get the most out of asking questions when visiting North India and Kashmir.

Ask the same question to more than one person. I think this is a common mistake made by tourists. The problem with asking only one person is you can’t be sure of the answer given to you. From my experience in Kashmir people would rather give you some type of answer than tell you they don’t know. That can lead to some pretty inaccurate answers! Also, some people give more descriptive answers than others so by asking the same thing to a variety of people you can get a more complete picture of the information you’re seeking.

Try rewording the question. If you don’t seem to be getting what you’re looking for then maybe the way you are phrasing the question isn’t being understood. We encourage our groups to ask locals how to say some basic phrases and greetings in Kashmiri. Several groups would ask people, “How do you greet someone in Kashmiri?” Almost all of them were given the answer of “As-Salamu Alaykum” which is the traditional Arabic greeting that Kashmiri Muslims use. They were rarely given the Kashmiri expressions that typically follow the Arabic greeting. So we changed the way they asked the question to how do you ask someone in Kashmiri, “How are you?” Now they almost always get the desired answer.

There may not be a “right” answer. A friend recently asked a group of about ten Kashmiri guys how much he should pay for something. He got ten different answers followed by a debate among the ten guys regarding whose answer was more correct! This might seem like a downside to asking multiple people the same question, but discovering that there are differing views regarding the answer to your question can help you learn more about a place than simply trying to find the one “right” answer. Listening to a group of Kashmiri men debate with each other is also far more entertaining than any guidebook!

There appears to have been a change to the maximum withdrawal limit for ATMs in Srinagar, Kashmir. Previously most ATMs would allow foreign bank cards to take out up to 20,000 Rupees (currently ~$450 USD) in one transaction. Now that limit is 10,000 Rupees max per transaction.

I’ve noticed this at several of the most common ATMs in town, such as J&K Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC, Yes Bank, and ICICI Bank. I don’t know if this change is also true for other ATMs in the Kashmir Valley outside of Srinagar, but I would assume that to be the case until I hear otherwise.

However, if you still need to take out more than 10,000 Rupees, it is possible by just doing two transactions. It may cost you more in bank fees if your bank charges a flat fee per ATM transaction, but you’ll still be able to buy that fancy Kashmiri carpet or pashmina shawl that every Kashmiri salesmen will be happy to sell you!

January can be a bad month for fog at the New Delhi airport, causing all kinds of flight delays. Last week my family and I ended up being in the international airport from midnight until 9am due to a 7 (!!) hour delay from heavy fog. Ahh, family fun, especially with a 15 month old!

So after that experience, here’s a quick list of the top 6 things you can do to kill time when delayed at the New Delhi international airport:

6. Take advantage of the free wifi to get online and email/blog/tweet/facebook your friends or family to tell them you’ll be late but not to worry because you have this top 6 list.

5. People watch and try to guess what countries all the various people in the airport are from without knowing what flight they’re waiting to get on. See if your guess is right if they approach you to ask why you’re staring at them.

4. Check out the departures screen and see if you can correctly identify the countries for each of the destination cities listed. If you’re a geography expert, then the additional options are guessing the time zone and longitude/latitude of the destination cities.

3. Count how many times an airline announces the “last and final” departure announcement for a flight to see which airline is the biggest offender of this loudspeaker abuse.

2. When an airline repeatedly pages someone’s name to come and board their flight that is departing, try to find that person or try to convince the airline staff to leave without them.

1. When the above options have been exhausted and you’re still waiting, go to Cafe Ritazza in the waiting area and buy yourself one of the jumbo super-sized Toblerone bars they sell. Chocolate makes everything seem better.

Recently I was flying out of the New Delhi international airport and saw something I hadn’t noticed before – a post office.

If you still need to mail some postcards or letters out to friends and family, or even if you have extra bags and want to ship them home this little post office can take of that for you. You can call the office on this number, 011 25652323, if you need any further information on their services at the airport.

The post office is somewhat obscure, so to find it head all the way to the left in the area where the various airline check-in counters are. It’s before you go through immigration. There’s a section of shops near the end on the left side, and the post office is at the back of this section.

Update August 2010: With the opening of the new Terminal 3 at the Delhi airport, there no longer appears to be a post office at the international terminal. Will keep you posted here if that changes.

Tomorrow in Kashmir Muslims will begin celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of the biggest religious holidays of the year for Muslims around the world. If you’re a tourist visiting Kashmir at this time, or somewhere else in the Muslim world, it’s helpful to be aware of these types of holidays.

Imagine a foreign tourist coming to America the day before the big Thanksgiving holiday and not knowing about it beforehand. They might wonder why airports are so crowded on Wednesday, why so many things are closed on Thursday, or what the deal is with all these huge sales happening on Friday!

When you’re planning a trip to another country, it can be a good idea to see if any local holidays happen to fall during the dates you’re considering. Holidays can greatly affect travel plans in both positive and negative ways. If something happens to be closed on a particular holiday that you wanted or needed to visit that would be frustrating to discover when you get there. On the other hand, you can experience a culture/place in a whole new way when you’re there for a special holiday. If you’re lucky you may even get invited to share in the holiday with locals you meet!

India has lots of holidays, and many of the major holidays are religious ones celebrated by the diverse religions found in India – Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, etc. An important Muslim holiday may not affect things as much in a predominantly Hindu area or vice versa.

For a good list of the major public holidays observed in India, check out this helpful page from Wikipedia here.

For Kashmir the main Islamic holidays to keep in mind for 2010 are the fasting month of Ramadan and the two Eid celebrations. In 2010 Ramadan is estimated to be from August 11th to September 9th, and since this is the fasting month it definitely affects the options for lunch when you’re in Kashmir. Eid ul-Fitr is held at the end of Ramadan, estimated for September 10th, and then Eid al-Adha is estimated for November 16th.

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.

The Srinagar Airport has been undergoing lots of changes the last couple years due to construction of the new airport on the same site as the old one. Here’s the latest info on what you can expect on arrival at the airport. I’ll share info for the departure side of the airport in the next post.

When you fly into Srinagar, all foreign tourists will need to fill out an FRO (Foreign Registration Office) form before leaving the baggage claim area. Don’t worry about figuring out where to get the form, the FRO officials will usually spot the foreigners and come up to you with it. The form mainly asks for your passport/visa info, dates for your arrival into India and Kashmir, plus where you’ll be staying.

Currently all passengers coming into the airport also need to fill out a health form as part of the H1N1 flu screening.

Bathrooms are available in the baggage claim area as well as near the exit of the arrival hall before you leave the airport building.

There is a J&K Tourism office just behind the baggage claim carousels. They have various brochures on tourist places in Kashmir plus a nice map of Srinagar that you can buy for 10 Rupees.

After the baggage claim area there are counters for houseboat and hotel reservations, pre-paid taxi service, and a bus service from the airport to the Tourist Reception Center (TRC) near Dal Gate.

I’ve never used the houseboat reservations counter. From what I’ve heard if you book there you’ll pay high rates, so I don’t recommend it. Of course, my suggestion would be to book with us as we work with an excellent and trustworthy boat , but if you’re looking on your own it’s better to get in town and hire a shikara (water taxi) to take you around and look at different boats before making a reservation.

At the pre-paid taxi counter you can get a good rate for a taxi to take you into town. Currently a taxi from the airport to the Boulevard area by Dal Gate and all the way down to Nehru Park shouldn’t be more than 400 Rupees. You pay at this counter, they give you a receipt, and then when you go out of the airport you head down to the left to the taxi stand near the main parking lot. You can show your receipt to the drivers standing around there and one of them will then take you in his taxi. There’s nothing else to pay unless you want to tip the driver.

There was no one at the bus service counter when I was there recently, and I haven’t used it before. According to the J&K Tourism website this bus service to the TRC costs 250 Rupees, although I can’t guarantee how current that info is.

Near the pre-paid taxi counter is a ticket counter for the Gulmarg Gondola. If you’re planning to visit Gulmarg and take a ride up the gondola this could save you some time so you don’t have to wait in the ticket lines at Gulmarg.

When you walk out of the airport there will be a crowd of people outside. Most are taxi drivers waiting to pick people up or looking to find tourists that need rides. There also will be the J&K Tourist Police, and they’re watching out for any foreign visitors to collect their info before they leave the airport. They mainly want to know your name, what country you’re from, and where you’ll be staying. However, they don’t give you any of their contact info in case you needed to reach them for assistance. To get that, you can find phone numbers for the Tourist Police on the back the brochures from the J&K Tourism office back in baggage claim.

Hope this is helpful, and I’ll write about the departure side of the airport next.

After writing last week’s post about exchanging money at the Delhi airport, I remembered another helpful tip regarding Indian Rupees.

Make sure you check for torn/taped bills that you might be given when exchanging money as well as when you’re getting change from a shop. A torn bill that has been taped may be accepted for use in your home country, but not in India. If you notice one, just hand it back to whoever gave it to you and ask for one that isn’t torn. You don’t want to wind up with one of these in your wallet:

Look closely, do you notice the tape on the 500 bill?

One trick in checking for a taped bill is to look at the back of the bills, as that usually is where the tape is placed. Sometimes you may not notice it when looking at the front, which is how I apparently got the 500 bill shown above!

(Updated August 2010 to reflect changes after the opening of Delhi’s new international Terminal 3.)

I’m often asked before groups come about how soon they’ll be able to exchange money when they arrive in Delhi or if it’s possible to do it upon arrival at the Delhi international airport.

You can exchange foreign currency for Indian Rupees both before and after customs in the arrival hall of Terminal 3. In the baggage claim area before customs there is a Thomas Cook counter (toward the right) and a Central Bank of India counter (toward the left). I believe the latter does not charge a commission fee for the exchange. Both counters should be open 24 hours, which is helpful since most international flights get into Delhi late at night or after midnight. Outside of customs there are also two more counters, Thomas Cook and Central Bank of India again.

The new Terminal 3 also features ATMs both before and after customs. When I recently passed through the terminal these ATMs weren’t installed yet but they are listed on the map so should be there soon if they aren’t already. The ATM in the old terminal limited transactions to 5000 Rupees (just over $100 USD currently), but I’m not sure yet if a similar limit is one these new ATMs.

The airport website provides this interactive map showing the locations of foreign exchange counters and ATMs.

Changing money at the airport can be helpful in case you need some Rupees before you’re able to go to an ATM or other bank exchange office near whatever place you’re staying at in Delhi. I’ve heard & read that the exchange rates in the airport aren’t always as good as what you get at a bank office in town. However, I haven’t always found this to be true.