A Holiday in the Happy Valley

Appendix IV

It may interest any one intending a trip to Kashmir to see a note of reasonable expenses as incurred by two people during a nine-month absence from England. Therefore I append a précis of ours.

It is to be remembered that a saving might be effected in many particulars by any one knowing something of the country. We had to buy our experience. Fully £10 or £12 could be saved in wages, as at first we had a fighting tail like “Ta Phairson” of “four-and-twenty men and five-and-thirty pipers”—and pipers have to be paid! We also hired tents when we did not really require them. Against these outgoings, however, it should be borne in mind that, thanks to the kindness of friends, we paid a merely nominal rent for a “State” hut at Gulmarg. At Abbotabad, Jaipur, and Udaipur, also, we had no hotel bills to meet.

Précis of Expenses — Two Persons

LONDON TO KARACHI (25 Days)

	£	s. d.	£	s.	d.
Half-Return fares, 1st class, London to Trieste,
and thence by Austrian Lloyd (unaccelerated)	60	0 0
Hotels, sleeping-car, gratuities, wine bills, &c.	16	15 0
Baggage expenses	8	15 7
		—————	85	10	7

BOMBAY TO LONDON (25 Days)

Share of fares	60	0	0
Hotel expenses and sundries, as before	10	6	8
Baggage expenses, dock dues, &c.	17	11	4
—————	87	18	0

KARACHI TO SRINAGAR (16 Days)

Rail and baggage expenses to Pindi	12	6 8
Landau and two ekkas to Srinagar, inclusive of
gratuities, tolls, &c.	10	10 8
Hotels, Dàk bungalows, &c.	13	18 9
Duty on firearms (repayable on leaving)	1	16 8
Resais, waterproof for luggage, kettles, &c.	1	19 3
Servant’s fare to Karachi, wages, &c.	2	12 8
		————— 43	4		8
Carry forward		216 13		3

EXPENSES IN KASHMIR (6 Months)

	£	s. d. £	s.	d.
Brought forward		216 13	3
Food, wine, washing, cigars, &c.	72	7 3
Wages, inclusive of various clothes	42	9 9
Amusements, golf and tennis subscriptions, &c.	11	7 2
Hire of boats, tents and equipment	17	6 5
Transport coolies and ponies	33	14 11
Hire of hut at Gulmarg	5	6 8
Sundry furniture, cooking gear, yakdans, &c.	9	0 8
		—————- 191	12	10

BARAMULA TO BOMBAY (1 Month)

Landau and four ekkas, with gratuities and tolls.	13 14	0
Dâk bungalows, hotels, &c.	18 5	8
Wages, inclusive of gratuities	6 14	0
Rail, Pindi to Bombay (viâ Udaipur)	16 17	0
Baggage	5 2	8
Hire of carriages, &c.	1 4	11
	—————	61	18	3
Loss by exchange on cheques.			5	19	7
Total			476	3	11