After studying your guidebook, you decide to take an excursion to Gulmarg to see the beautiful meadows and mountains. From Srinigar you arrange to hire a car for the day and are on your way, passing poplars and rice paddies of unbelievable shades of green.
A pony ride
seems like a fine way to see the beautiful countryside, and your driver
knows just where to take you. Following an extended bargaining session,
you agree on a price and the man readies a pony for you. You cross a stream
on a wooden bridge, and then enter the forest, the man walking beside you.
As the trail climbs, the man occasionally prods the tired animal to make
it move faster.
The pony knows the trail, which takes you to the top of a ridge and then into a meadow filled with flowers. As you near the starting point, the pony speeds up on its own, even breaking into a trot when the pasture comes into view. After a lunch of pakoras and ketchup thoughtfully packed by Akbar, you walk into the meadow, away from the crowds of Indian tourists...
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