Things to do in Jammu & Kashmir
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La Pizzeria
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Pizza
Leh’s most attractively appointed garden restaurant is considerably pricier than most other eateries, but well worth the extra for thin-crust pizzas, excellent pumpkin soup (Rs90), tajines, tandoori dishes or even trout in brandy sauce. Beer is also served (Rs 150).
reviewed
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Gesmo
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Other
Loveable old-fashioned traveller haunt, with gingham tablecloths, checkerboard ceilings, and a range of cakes and breakfasts supplementing good-value curries.
reviewed
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Summer Harvest
Top-notch Indian and Chinese food, cold beers and international sports on the TV attract travellers to this warm and inviting restaurant.
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Dal Lake
Dal Lake is Srinagar's jewel, a vast, mirror-flat sheet of water reflecting the carved wooden balconies of the houseboats and the misty peaks of the Pir Panjal mountains. Flotillas of gaily painted shikaras (gondola-like taxi boats) skiff around the lake, transporting goods to market, children to school and travellers from houseboat to shore. If you want to photograph the lake, bring a long lens and a polarising filter to cut down the glare from the water.
Most visitors to Srinagar stay out on Dal Lake in one of the delightful houseboats left behind from the Raj, but landlubbers can hire shikaras for tours around the lake, visiting floating gardens and the floating flower…
reviewed
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Ladakh Art Palace
Leh is packed with souvenir shops. There are some wonderful things on offer - from thangkas (Buddhist cloth paintings) and Ladakhi hats to heavy turquoise jewellery and wooden choktse (Tibetan tables) - but be aware that many souvenirs are trucked in from China, Kashmir and Nepal, providing little benefit to local people.
Probably the best selection in town is at Ladakh Art Palace, but prices are somewhat inflated.
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Splash Adventures
In summer, agencies like Splash Adven-tures, offer daily rafting excursions through splendid canyon scenery from Phey to Nimmu (for beginners, grade I/II, Rs650 to Rs850) and from Chiling to Nimmu (grade II/III, Rs1200 to Rs1400). Prepare to get very wet. By pre-arrangement, more serious multiday rafting trips are possible for experienced rafters on the Indus, climaxing with grade IV sections around Skurbuchan.
reviewed
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KC Garden Restaurant
One of Changspa’s liveliest evening spots, KC’s is the pickup point for all-night full-moon parties (Rs400 including transport; full-moon night May to August). Movies are projected at 8pm several nights weekly.
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Shamyana Restaurant
Set back from the Blvd, Shamyana serves up top-notch Mughlai and Chinese food in a bright, comfortable dining room. The house rogon josh (lamb and tomato curry) is a veritable feast.
reviewed
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Lamayuru Restaurant
Surrounded by other similar backpacker eateries, this is a plain but very reliable place for good inexpensive Indian, Chinese and international snacks.
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Neha Snacks
Locals flock to this Punjabi place for pure-veg snacks like channa puri (chickpea curry with bread) and Indian sweets.
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Grill-N-Curry
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Other
Climb two flights of metal steps for un-usual palace views, then stay for the rich, spicy mushroom caju masala (Rs90).
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Tibetan Kitchen
Evening tables should be booked in the afternoon (in person) at this classy restaurant at the Hotel Tso-Kar. The menu has lots of Tibetan specialities like sha bakleh (bread stuffed with meat) and ruchowtse (cheese and vegetable momos in soup), but no alcohol.
reviewed
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Leh View Restaurant
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Balti
A Kashmiri-owned place with meaty Kashmiri curries as well as the usual traveller fare. Go up to the roof terrace for dinner with a view.
reviewed
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Khanqah of Shah-i-Hamadan
With frontage and interiors covered in elaborately coloured wood carvings and papier-mâché reliefs, this distinctively spired 1730s Khanqah of Shah-i-Hamadan is Srinagar’s most beautiful historic building. Non-Muslim visitors can peek through the door but may not enter. The building stands on the site of one of Kashmir’s first mosques, founded by Persian saint Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani. Nicknamed ‘Shah’, Hamadani had arrived in 1372, one of 700 refugees fleeing Timur’s conquest of Iran. He is said to have converted 37,000 people to Sufi Islam, and it’s also likely that his retinue introduced Kashmiris to the Persian art of fine carpet-making.
reviewed
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Stok Palace
Ladakh’s former royal family were stripped of their power in 1846 and now live a comparatively modest life, dividing their time between a private mansion in Manali and the stately Stok Palace. Vaguely potala-like and with wobbly, colourful window frames, the palace is photogenic despite a giant telecommunication tower that looms directly behind. The stylish palace cafeteria has a great open terrace. Above, several rooms on two levels form the palace museum displaying family treasures, including the queen’s ancient turquoise-and-gold yub-jhur (crown) and a photo of the young king in sneakers.
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Leh Palace
Construction of the nine-storey dun-coloured Leh Palace started in 1553. Built by the Buddhist kings of Ladakh, it was once the world’s highest building and bears more than a passing similarity to the Potala Palace in Lhasa (Tibet). The very sturdy walls are mostly unadorned and a few interior sections remain in a state of partial collapse; only the palace prayer room gives any sense of former grandeur. Nonetheless it’s gently thrilling to weave your way through the maze of dark corridors, hidden stairways and makeshift ladders to reach the rooftop for great views across the city. Carry a torch and watch out for holes in the floor.
reviewed
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Makhdoom Sahib Shrine
Hindus believe that towering Hari Parbat Hill was the island where Sharika (Durga) defeated the lake demon Jalodabhava, while Muslims pay homage at the vast Makhdoom Sahib Shrine, dedicated to a Sufi saint who helped the spread of Islam in Kashmir. A flight of stone steps climbs up to the shrine and descends towards Dal Lake, passing the ruined mosque of Akhund Mulla Shah, built by Shah Jahan's son Dara Shikoh in 1649.
The hill is topped by the imposing Hari Parbat Fort, now occupied by the Indian Army. Around the base of the hill are the remains of the old city walls, built by Akbar in the 1590s.
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Hari Parbat Hill
Hindus believe that towering Hari Parbat Hill was the island where Sharika (Durga) defeated the lake demon Jalodabhava, while Muslims pay homage at the vast Makhdoom Sahib shrine, dedicated to a Sufi saint who helped the spread of Islam in Kashmir. A flight of stone steps climbs up to the shrine and descends towards Dal Lake, passing the ruined mosque of Akhund Mulla Shah, built by Shah Jahan's son Dara Shikoh in 1649.
The hill is topped by the imposing Hari Parbat Fort, now occupied by the Indian Army. Around the base of the hill are the remains of the old city walls, built by Akbar in the 1590s.
reviewed
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Spituk Gompa
Founded in the late 14th century as See-Thub (‘Exemplary’) Monastery, the extensive Gelukpa-order Spituk Gompa is incongruously perched overlooking the end of Leh airport (don’t photograph the militarily sensitive runway, soldiers are watching). The gompa’s multiple mudbrick buildings tumble appealingly down a steep hillock towards Spituk village on the Indus riverbank. Behind its central, gilt-roofed Skodong Lakhang shrine, the very colourful Chikang hosts a yellow- hatted statue of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), who inspired Gelukpa Buddhism.
reviewed
