For those of you who know Jon and Becki here's the latest very scary installment in their adventures:
I know we said we weren't going to be emailing all the time.... but we
have had such a mad, scary, unbelievable couple of days we just had to
email you all and tell you.
Well, as you know, me and Jon never do things by halves. When we last
emailed, we had just completed 2 days in Delhi, been shopping and done a
tour of the city. s you know our next move was a 2 day tip to the
Himalayas.
Basically, we were totally mis-sold the trip, the tourist office told us
we were going to the Hichmal Pradesh which is in North India, but is
still covered by the normal laws as the rest of India. Anyway, these
tourist guys were complete con-artists, they didnt give us our flight
tickets until the mornign of the flight, even then it was only a flight
going out, not a return. now alarm bells should have started ringing by
that stage, even more so when we looked at the ticket and it was going
to Srinagar, which is in bl00dy KASHMIR!! I had initial doubts about
going, but we'd paid 200quid already for the trip, and we didnt want to
lose our money. We asked several guides and workers at the airport, who
told us "yeah that area is fine now, you dont have to worry", so we
hopped on the plane up to the Himalayas.
When we arrived, it was like we'd just landed in Baghdad. It was a
dark, cold, rainy day (we were told it would be warm), the streets were
dirty, crowded, everyone looked depressed and it was very intimidating.
We had a car pick us up from the airport, and we were staying about
40mins away. As we drove through the towns, we could see army guards
with guns on every corner, peering into cars to see who we were. Not a
very pleasant experience for any trvaller let alone two newbies who only
left Watford 2 days ago hahaha.
Anyway we arrived, we were stayhing on a houseboat on Lake Nageen. The
place looked intimidating from the start, dark, gloomy, totally out in
the sticks with no other buildings around. We went in to be greeting by
the manager "hello madam/sir!!! welcome! welcome!" Everything seemed ok
at first, we had some breakfast, some Kashmir tea, we chatted and agreed
to make the best of it and have a relaxing couple of days. Then the
manager comes back in... "ok so lets talk about the tours you are going
to do".. errr No we haven't booked any tours?! Plus we couldnt afford
anything extra so we told him this straight away. This did not go down
well. "STUPID F.CKING ENGLISH!!! You think 200 pound will get you a
flight and a stay up here? You buy the tours!! Basically he was trying
to force us to pay him more than a thousand pounds to book up a month
tour of India after this trip. We were as polite as we could be,
explaining we had only come up here for a relaxing couple of days and
didnt want to pay anymore. He then threatened us with our flight home..
"Either you pay me now or you will not be leavign Kashmir. I know
everyone here, the police, the army, you will have much trouble if you
do not cooperate". OH SH1T!! We were thinking, it was like the film
"Hostel" where the two backpackers slowly realise they are being held
hostage and things are not workign out as they seem. I could see us
being chopped up into little pieces and thrown into the lake that night.
The manager became more and more irate as we pleaded with him that we
just wanted our return flight and to leave there and then. He threw his
credit and ID cards at us and said "Dont you know who I am?!! I am a
big name round here, if you cross me I will call the police in here
right now and there will be a lot of trouble". He then threatened Jon
with "I will smash you in" and he was a big guy with lots of other men
otuside. We were getting really scared at this point, I was almost in
tears, we were shaking. There seemed to be no way out. We finally
agreed to pay him another 16000 rupees (about another 200 quid) for two
tours over the next couple of days in kashmir. This seemed to calm him
and he gave us his word that he would give us our flight tickets when we
paid him that night.
Cue a very scared Bec and Jon, shivering in the freezing cold, sitting
in a houseboat on a lake in Kashmir thinking to ourselves "what the hell
have we got ourselves into". We knew this could turn serious, it's one
thing getting into trouble in London, its another totally different
thing when you are stuck in the middle of the Himalayas. (type in
Kashmir and trouble in Google and you will see how bad the situation is
out there).
We spent the night wide awake scared out of our wits incase anything
else happened. The next morning we met more tourists also staying
there. We managed to whisper to them about our problems and it seemed
they had all had the same thing. They had all been told they were going
somewhere else, and somehow ended up here. They had all been forced to
sign up to the India tour, paying another 1000-2000 pounds to the
manager.
Yesterday (19th Nov) we went on the tour that we had paid for. It was
to see a mountain village called Sonomarg, high up in the Himalaya
range. I can't deny that this was amazing, we saw some beautiful
sights, met the local village people, rode on a horse up into the
mountains, and had lunch in a gypsy house. BUT... this enjoyment was
all marred by the fact that we had been forced to do these tours in such
intimidating and expensive circumstances.
We arrived back at the boats later that night, some of the other staff
were trying to convince us to stay another night (NO WAY - not if you
paid us). Luckily we had our plane tickets by this point so we told
them our friend was picking us up(Darsh I told them it was your
brother!). Thankfully the manager did not bother with us anymore (he
must have realised we were sh1t scared and penniless so couldnt get
anymore out of us.
This morning we woke up, praying that everythign went smoothly. We
crept around until 10am then asked for a lift to the airport. Once
again they tried to deter us "oh just stay a while, your lift will be
here soon". NO we told them, we want it now! Thankfully they gave in
and a car took us to the airport, where we had to endue the most
rigourous security checks I've ever seen. The place was filled with
army, they were very intimidating and me and Jon finally gave sighs of
relief when the plane took off.
We met another couple on our flight who had stayed at the same place.
They had not been given their return tickets until they had paid another
thousand pounds for more tours. They literally were being told they
couldnt leave until they had agreed to it. So, in the grand scale of
things, me and Jon got off lightly, we lost a few hundred pounds and had
a very scary experience, but money is nothing when you think about how
bad it could have been
I cant really explain in words how scared we were, it was like being in
a film. Several tourists in the past had been abducted and never found
in Kashmir, and we were both having terrifying thoughts about us going
the same way. It seems we were just the victims of a ring of corrupt
tour agents who use intimidation to get money out of innocent touirists,
but at the time it felt like our lives were in danger.
Anyhow... everything is fine now. Thankfully the plane took off and
landed in Delhi an hour later. We are now sitting in the main tourist
part of Delhi, near the train station. Our hotel is a dump, it is dirty
and with no aircon, but I was the happiest girl on earth when we finally
checked into our own room. (Jo you would absolutely HATE! it here...
its your idea of hell haha)
We have booked a train to Agra at 6am tomorrow morning, then we check
into the 5* Murghal Sheraton resort (cant wait)for a day and a night for
Jon's birthday (thanks everyone who said Happy Birthday). Then we have
another day of sightseeing round Agra before getting another train to
Jaipur in Rajasthan on the 23rd.
Even though the last couple of days have been terrifying, we were scared
sh1tless... everything is back on track now. We are with lots of other
backpackers so we're more at ease. We smell though, haven't had a
proper shower in a week almost (Sar those headbands have come in handy
;o)) Looking forward to a day of luxury tomorrow.
It would be easy for people to think "how on earth did they end up in
such a mess"... but the Tourism company was listed in Lonely Planet,
plus we asked loads of people about Kashmir now and they said it was
safe. My advice is to always check your embassy online, we done this
after we had arrived and it had warnings about travelling there. Still,
you live and learn hey?!
We have some FAB pictures which we will upload tomorrow and put on our
blog www.jonandbecdoasia.blogspot.com
Hope everyone is well. Happy Birthday Siff, I love you and miss you
LOADS.
Mum - I will call you at home tomorrrow night, text me if you're not
going to be in... miss you too xxxxxxxxxx
Bec (and Jon sitting beside me dictating heheheh)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I know we said we weren't going to be emailing all the time.... but we
have had such a mad, scary, unbelievable couple of days we just had to
email you all and tell you.
Well, as you know, me and Jon never do things by halves. When we last
emailed, we had just completed 2 days in Delhi, been shopping and done a
tour of the city. s you know our next move was a 2 day tip to the
Himalayas.
Basically, we were totally mis-sold the trip, the tourist office told us
we were going to the Hichmal Pradesh which is in North India, but is
still covered by the normal laws as the rest of India. Anyway, these
tourist guys were complete con-artists, they didnt give us our flight
tickets until the mornign of the flight, even then it was only a flight
going out, not a return. now alarm bells should have started ringing by
that stage, even more so when we looked at the ticket and it was going
to Srinagar, which is in bl00dy KASHMIR!! I had initial doubts about
going, but we'd paid 200quid already for the trip, and we didnt want to
lose our money. We asked several guides and workers at the airport, who
told us "yeah that area is fine now, you dont have to worry", so we
hopped on the plane up to the Himalayas.
When we arrived, it was like we'd just landed in Baghdad. It was a
dark, cold, rainy day (we were told it would be warm), the streets were
dirty, crowded, everyone looked depressed and it was very intimidating.
We had a car pick us up from the airport, and we were staying about
40mins away. As we drove through the towns, we could see army guards
with guns on every corner, peering into cars to see who we were. Not a
very pleasant experience for any trvaller let alone two newbies who only
left Watford 2 days ago hahaha.
Anyway we arrived, we were stayhing on a houseboat on Lake Nageen. The
place looked intimidating from the start, dark, gloomy, totally out in
the sticks with no other buildings around. We went in to be greeting by
the manager "hello madam/sir!!! welcome! welcome!" Everything seemed ok
at first, we had some breakfast, some Kashmir tea, we chatted and agreed
to make the best of it and have a relaxing couple of days. Then the
manager comes back in... "ok so lets talk about the tours you are going
to do".. errr No we haven't booked any tours?! Plus we couldnt afford
anything extra so we told him this straight away. This did not go down
well. "STUPID F.CKING ENGLISH!!! You think 200 pound will get you a
flight and a stay up here? You buy the tours!! Basically he was trying
to force us to pay him more than a thousand pounds to book up a month
tour of India after this trip. We were as polite as we could be,
explaining we had only come up here for a relaxing couple of days and
didnt want to pay anymore. He then threatened us with our flight home..
"Either you pay me now or you will not be leavign Kashmir. I know
everyone here, the police, the army, you will have much trouble if you
do not cooperate". OH SH1T!! We were thinking, it was like the film
"Hostel" where the two backpackers slowly realise they are being held
hostage and things are not workign out as they seem. I could see us
being chopped up into little pieces and thrown into the lake that night.
The manager became more and more irate as we pleaded with him that we
just wanted our return flight and to leave there and then. He threw his
credit and ID cards at us and said "Dont you know who I am?!! I am a
big name round here, if you cross me I will call the police in here
right now and there will be a lot of trouble". He then threatened Jon
with "I will smash you in" and he was a big guy with lots of other men
otuside. We were getting really scared at this point, I was almost in
tears, we were shaking. There seemed to be no way out. We finally
agreed to pay him another 16000 rupees (about another 200 quid) for two
tours over the next couple of days in kashmir. This seemed to calm him
and he gave us his word that he would give us our flight tickets when we
paid him that night.
Cue a very scared Bec and Jon, shivering in the freezing cold, sitting
in a houseboat on a lake in Kashmir thinking to ourselves "what the hell
have we got ourselves into". We knew this could turn serious, it's one
thing getting into trouble in London, its another totally different
thing when you are stuck in the middle of the Himalayas. (type in
Kashmir and trouble in Google and you will see how bad the situation is
out there).
We spent the night wide awake scared out of our wits incase anything
else happened. The next morning we met more tourists also staying
there. We managed to whisper to them about our problems and it seemed
they had all had the same thing. They had all been told they were going
somewhere else, and somehow ended up here. They had all been forced to
sign up to the India tour, paying another 1000-2000 pounds to the
manager.
Yesterday (19th Nov) we went on the tour that we had paid for. It was
to see a mountain village called Sonomarg, high up in the Himalaya
range. I can't deny that this was amazing, we saw some beautiful
sights, met the local village people, rode on a horse up into the
mountains, and had lunch in a gypsy house. BUT... this enjoyment was
all marred by the fact that we had been forced to do these tours in such
intimidating and expensive circumstances.
We arrived back at the boats later that night, some of the other staff
were trying to convince us to stay another night (NO WAY - not if you
paid us). Luckily we had our plane tickets by this point so we told
them our friend was picking us up(Darsh I told them it was your
brother!). Thankfully the manager did not bother with us anymore (he
must have realised we were sh1t scared and penniless so couldnt get
anymore out of us.
This morning we woke up, praying that everythign went smoothly. We
crept around until 10am then asked for a lift to the airport. Once
again they tried to deter us "oh just stay a while, your lift will be
here soon". NO we told them, we want it now! Thankfully they gave in
and a car took us to the airport, where we had to endue the most
rigourous security checks I've ever seen. The place was filled with
army, they were very intimidating and me and Jon finally gave sighs of
relief when the plane took off.
We met another couple on our flight who had stayed at the same place.
They had not been given their return tickets until they had paid another
thousand pounds for more tours. They literally were being told they
couldnt leave until they had agreed to it. So, in the grand scale of
things, me and Jon got off lightly, we lost a few hundred pounds and had
a very scary experience, but money is nothing when you think about how
bad it could have been
I cant really explain in words how scared we were, it was like being in
a film. Several tourists in the past had been abducted and never found
in Kashmir, and we were both having terrifying thoughts about us going
the same way. It seems we were just the victims of a ring of corrupt
tour agents who use intimidation to get money out of innocent touirists,
but at the time it felt like our lives were in danger.
Anyhow... everything is fine now. Thankfully the plane took off and
landed in Delhi an hour later. We are now sitting in the main tourist
part of Delhi, near the train station. Our hotel is a dump, it is dirty
and with no aircon, but I was the happiest girl on earth when we finally
checked into our own room. (Jo you would absolutely HATE! it here...
its your idea of hell haha)
We have booked a train to Agra at 6am tomorrow morning, then we check
into the 5* Murghal Sheraton resort (cant wait)for a day and a night for
Jon's birthday (thanks everyone who said Happy Birthday). Then we have
another day of sightseeing round Agra before getting another train to
Jaipur in Rajasthan on the 23rd.
Even though the last couple of days have been terrifying, we were scared
sh1tless... everything is back on track now. We are with lots of other
backpackers so we're more at ease. We smell though, haven't had a
proper shower in a week almost (Sar those headbands have come in handy
;o)) Looking forward to a day of luxury tomorrow.
It would be easy for people to think "how on earth did they end up in
such a mess"... but the Tourism company was listed in Lonely Planet,
plus we asked loads of people about Kashmir now and they said it was
safe. My advice is to always check your embassy online, we done this
after we had arrived and it had warnings about travelling there. Still,
you live and learn hey?!
We have some FAB pictures which we will upload tomorrow and put on our
blog www.jonandbecdoasia.blogspot.com
Hope everyone is well. Happy Birthday Siff, I love you and miss you
LOADS.
Mum - I will call you at home tomorrrow night, text me if you're not
going to be in... miss you too xxxxxxxxxx
Bec (and Jon sitting beside me dictating heheheh)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
