29th of May, 2023.
Hitchhiking in India: Sonamarg
I am planning on going to this place called Gurez, simply because it supposed to be a nice valley, with great views of Jammu and Kashmir. But soon I figure that it is quite difficult to go all the way there, because very few people go that way.
After a long day, with small lifts here and there, I only manage to arrive to a place called Bandipora, covering miserable 60 Km. I walk a lot towards the end of the town. I am hitchhiking uphill and there are almost no cars coming. It is about to get dark so I decide to ask the locals if I can stay with someone. I ask in a small shop, where a man is the owner. He cannot really understand English but manage to understand me, and says I can come and stay with his family. We first pick up his son from school and then go to his house.
His wife prepares a wonderful meal for me and soon after I go to sleep. Next morning, after some tea and local bread, the owner of the shop takes me back to where I was hitchhiking yesterday, but he doesn’t open the shop, because it is too early, so he goes back home.
I start to hitchhike, but after a long time without any cars coming, and the few ones not stopping, after a lot of consideration, I decide to quit on Gurez Valley and go to my next destination. The bad weather and the shy drops of rain which keep coming and going, contribute to my decision.
I walk back down hill, wondering what is the best way to get back to Srinagar. My next destination is actually Ladakh, the town called Leh. But on my way there, I will cover, still, a long part of Jammu and Kashmir.
Easily enough, a nice couple stops quite soon and they are going to Srinagar. Yay! The husband is extremely polite and even though he cannot speak much English, he is asking me some questions and we chat a little bit. They drop me off in an intersection in Srinagar but not before showing me on Google Maps where should I head to.
Inside Srinagar, two very nice Sikh guys drive me a bit further outside town.
Walking and holding my sign at the same time, a car with two young guys stops. Muzamir and his friend are super friendly and enchanted by my story and my travels. Muzamir says he would like to go travelling but he has responsibilities to his family. They are both very sweet and I am glad that they picked me up so they can, at least, meet someone who is travelling like this and might feel inspired to do the same in the future.
When they have to go in a different direction, they buy me some bananas and peanuts. It is so sweet of them!
I am quite hungry actually so I eat some bananas and some peanuts before carrying on.
A senior man, with a fair knowledge of the road, stop his car and tells me he can take me to the main highway. It’s nice to chat with him, even though for a short period of time. When he drops me off by the highway, it starts to rain but a nice man from a fruit stand tells me I can hide under his stand, but I only leave my backpacks under it and with my rain cover on, I keep on hitchhiking.
Two friends, Riaz and Dias, going to Sonamarg, stop their car and take me. Sonamarg is the next “big” stop on the way to Leh. Even though is only a bit over 2 hours driving, it takes longer for us because of the bad weather.
When we get there, there is a road block. That would be the first one of many to come on my journey to Ladakh and back. The guys can keep going because they have a contract with a company (Riaz is a lawyer and Diaz works with construction), and they prove that to the police officers. I have to stay and wait until tomorrow morning, when the road will be open again. There are some people also waiting, but I am not sure what they are waiting for.
It is raining a little bit and there isn’t even a place where I can shield myself from the rain. It seems like it will get dark soon, we are slightly in the middle of nowhere (actually we are outside Sonamarg), and I have no idea what am I going to do.
Questioning the police officers, luckily, I am heard by Khalid, a young man who came here to help his boss to get across the road block. He listens carefully to my story and promises he will help me. I follow him to the small village nearby, actually, the outskirts of Sonamarg, where some food stands, hotels and shops await truck drivers and travellers. Khalid takes me to a storage room where mattresses and blankets lay on. There is also some cooking utensils and some food. I tell him it will do, and after dropping off my stuff, he introduces me to Firduz, a young man who will help me around while Khalid must go somewhere. Firduz takes me to eat something.
The scene which follows is very interesting. We walk into this kind of village, and it is filled with men. It seems that there are only men around here. A lot of them are truck drivers, waiting outside town to carry on with their journey early morning. Most of them are muslins too, dressed in traditional clothes and bearing a long beard. I feel like in a movie, and a very stereotyped one, where all these men would be bad guys, doing something wrong, planning something wrong, and keen to harm someone just for fun. Laugh. That is so the opposite of what happens. And most importantly, of how I feel about it. While we are walking around and then enter a small restaurant, I don’t have a minimum feeling of danger, or as I was been watched and could be harmed. Everybody seems to be taking care of their own business, and when the men in the restaurant finally interact with me, is with respect and out of curiosity. They ask me questions about what I am doing and where I am from. So, again, I break all those stereotypes we see in some many movies. Well, actually not me, them. And it is great!
Firduz manage to ask the cook to prepare a veggie biryani for me. Apparently, they were not very familiar with that possibility. It is steaming hot when it comes to my table and it is delicious. The name of the restaurant is Delhi Darbaar Hotel. So, if you are ever in the outskirts of Sonamarg, you should check it out. The food is great and the people too.
After I go to sleep, something weird actually happen. For the whole time I was talking with Khalid, he seemed like a reasonable man, with an enough open mind. So, I don’t know what came over his mind when he came to the storage room at night, and ask if it was OK for him to sleep there too. I would like to believe his story, that he could not stay in the hotel, but unfortunately, my heart tells me different, and I am normally not wrong when it comes to my instincts. Nothing happen, of course, he doesn’t do or say anything, but I wish he hadn’t come in first place.
Next morning, I leave early, hoping I could start my journey to Ladakh soon enough to get there before evening time. I was so wrong…
10 Years Around the World 