The very first thing that I can remember about Kashmir is our lesson in 7th class telugu text book “Kashmira Darsanam”. Since then, deep inside my heart I always wanted to visit Kashmir and enjoy its natural beauty as described by the author. Second thing I could remember is about my question posed to my father long time back, ” Dad, why don’t we give Kashmir to Pakistan? why do we always fight for that? “. I think I got the perfect answer to my question now !

OK, enough of abstract..let me start with my “Kashmira Darsanam” now !

Guess what! I started this blog before our kashmir trip and showed it to my friends as well so that I shall be obliged to complete it. Let me first set expectations, I don’t think words are sufficient to describe Kashmir(alekhya :P). I am just trying to check my vocabulary by writing this blog ! Please bear with me for some time !

Special thanks to Nayani Krishna kumari garu for the title and the lesson !!

Now the story starts..

After long persistence from my side, my parents agreed for trip to Kashmir this summer. I contacted Hindu Helpline for our tour plan(One of our relatives suggested that). They have provided us their volunteer details in Srinagar(Mr.Preetam Singh). He has provided us a tour package of 8500rs(hotel+conveyance) per person for 5 days/4 nights trip. Then booked our flight tickets, which costed us around 35k per person.(It may cost even less if you plan your journey 2 months before). Thats about planning part for those who want to visit Kashmir in near future.

We started around 6.30am from Hyderabad airport, changed flight at Delhi and then reached Srinagar by 12:30pm. The airport is pretty small one.Yaa after seeing Delhi and Hyderabad airports, it will definitely look very small. The first thing that I saw in srinagar outside airport is Indian flag !
I felt really proud that this beautiful place is part of our country. Our driver waited for us with this 🙂

I always waited for a day when someone holds name plate with my name on it, waiting for me at airport. It is one of my fantasies fulfilled (may be due to effect of movies). That was really a great feeling..But yes “s” should be present inplace of “r”.It was cloudy and cool by that time in the afternoon. He took us to our hotel, had lunch(garam parathas) and started our local trip in Srinagar.

DAY1

Mughal Gardens
It started with Mughal Gardens located on a hill. It is very colourful with lot of beautiful flowers and scenic views of Srinagar city.(Must visit place)

PariMahal(The Fairies’ Abode)

Our next destination is PariMahal which is situated on top of a mountain overlooking the Dal lake. It has a charmingly laid out garden. Couldn’t spend much time there because of rain. It has a seven terraced garden which has been laid out step by step at each level. There are dungeons at each level which take you to next level. It’s architecture is very peculiar and interesting. It is like golconda fort with exotic views of Srinagar city and Dal lake. I got a chance to take a photo with Kashmiri attire here for 50rs That was real fun in rain.

Nishat Bagh
It is called “garden of bliss”,situated on the banks of Dal lake, with mountains as its backdrop. It provides magnificent view of the lake and the snow capped Pir Panjal mountain range. Somehow I liked Mughal gardens more than this one. It was designed by Asaf Khan, brother of NurJahan.

All these gardens are the Mughal Emperor’s concept and are today very popular places for picnics. On the way, we saw Tulip garden, but it was completely empty as the Tulips season just ended. It was a great disappointment for us.

We got completely drenched in rain by then, and couldn’t see anything else. Reached hotel and pushed ourselves under large rasoi. It was too cold that day due to rain.

This was the end of our DAY1 in Srinagar.

DAY2

Our destination of the day was Pahalgam ! It is one of the most beautiful valleys of Kashmir. It falls enroute to famous “Amarnath cave” and base camps have been laid there for the tourists. Amarnath route wasn’t opened by then, else there would be large number of people there. Mighty river Lidder took us all the way to Pahalgam. Rafting on lidder would be real adventurous one, but I missed it as we weren’t prepared for it (need extra pair of clothes as you will be completely wet). Strange thing here in J&K is that, you need to pay some amount whenever you enter new district(toll amount). Not sure why there was such a system but our driver stopped at multiple places and paid the toll amount during our journey. On the way, we passed by Saffron fields(kumkum puvvu), one of the costliest spices.

For the first time, I got onto a horse there !! I was really scared of that, but there was a ghoda vala beside my horse who assured my safety. The horse travelled up the mountain on a route which is really scary. My parents went back in the middle but I continued my journey till the end for around 3hrs on the horse. Rain followed us that day as well. Riding horse in rain was also fun ! though a bit scary. Travelled up above the mountain to witness spectacular view of the valley. My ghoda vala is very young, he was studying 10th class there and it was his part time job. Horse ride costed us 1000rs/- per person, which is not really reasonable price.

Then had late lunch and started back to Srinagar along with a foreigner who stayed at that place alone for 1 month(dont know why). He wanted to go back to Srinagar and our driver gave him lift for 500rs 😛 We didn’t object as our car(sorry mini van) has lot of place inside (EECO). Bought some shawls and cap there. Costs are quite reasonable but need to bargain for sure.

DAY3

Gulmarg

I can say that it was the best day of our trip. It is one of the most appreciated tourist spots in kashmir. The drive to Gulmarg was filled with huge trees(Devdaru, I recalled our lesson) all around. It gives you a feel that you are travelling inside a forest. Gulmarg is rightly called as “Meadow of flowers”. We had to wait in a long queue there to take Gondola ride(cable car). It has the world’s highest Gondola and world’s highest golf course. For people planning to visit, take the tickets for Gondola in advance at Tourist reception center or you can as well book an online ticket for it. Even online tickets need to be exchanged with original tickets there but the rush is less in that queue. We waited around 2hrs there for tickets(Rs.300) and to get in a gondola. But wait is really worthy. Cable car experience is really good.There are about 100 cable cars running there at a rate of 1 gondola per min. Six members can fit in one gondola and it is completely closed. It took us to the top of a mountain(phase1).

There is another level which is phase2 (500rs ticket) which is completely covered with snow. We need a separate ticket for that from phase1. We just went till phase1. It was spectacular view.

We then trekked upto the place where could see ice and played there for sometime. It gave us a wonderful feeling of being in “Him”alayas 🙂 After that, we had our lunch at “Moon star vegetarian Dhaba” in between ice ! I had maggi and my parents had Kashmiri pulao(spl dish there), which is very oily and bad. Our gondola ticket is valid limited time, so we returned back to go down and now the queue is less(no wonder ). We looked around the places there and slowly started or journey back to Srinagar. We just started in car and it started raining..Thank God!! We were saved that day !!

Now comes the most beautiful experience of our journey. We could see a BIG FULL RAINBOW in between two mountains. That was very very amazing and we felt really lucky to see that. It lasted for around 20 mins ! WOW was the only word I could say for about 10 mins !!

Dal Lake Shikhara Ride

Finally we got sometime for ride on Dal lake. I cannot call it a lake, it is as mighty as river !
Shikhara boats are well decorated with music system and other facilities..Dal lake is also well maintainted. Wish Hussainsagar could also be developed and well maintained just like Dal lake.
There are floating banks, shopping centers, cafetaria etc..on boats which sail parallely along with our boat if we are interested to take any. Dal lake is like a small self-sufficient village with almost all facilities in it. Shops, food, hospital, post office etc are mobile floating on Dal lake. Potato, tomato, pumpkin, cucumber, radish and lots of other vegetables are also grown there, cultivation of the floating gardens which also lie as part of the lake is another interesting feature.

Spread all across the banks of Dal lake, we can see various kinds of house boats with all facilities. I thought that house boats are mobile, but to my surprise they are stationery and tied to the bank of Dal lake. At the end of the Shikhara trip, we reached a shopping street(on water) called “Meena Bazar”, where the artifacts and handlooms made by local village people are sold. We went to a shop there and took bedsheets and blanket. All cards are accepted and home delivery is also possible option there. We spent around 2 hours sailing on Dal lake(costed us Rs.500/- for three).

DAY 4

Sonamarg

Sonamarg, which means ‘meadow of gold’ has, as its backdrop, snowy mountains against a cerulean sky. It is situated in the Sindh valley at a height of 8950 feet.The Sindh river starts there and flows all along the way till Srinagar, which provides us a very scenic view. Journey to Sonamarg is a wonderful experience with huge mountains and one side and light greenish color Sindh river on the other side. These are the tallest mountains I have ever seen till now. Snow is furnished all over the road like a white carpet. We stopped at a small cottage for tea. Surrounded by tall hills, with a stream flowing very close to the restaurant cottage, dotted by Chinar and pine trees the place was very scenic.

Ponies can be hired for the trip up to Thajiwas glacier a major attraction in Sonamarg. After horse riding at Pahalgam, we were not very much interested to do that again. Another option is to take Tata sumos till the glacier(500rs per head for 4kms, which is too costly). Before heading out we “rented” warm overcoats and boots from Sonamarg. We had to trek uphill over rocks to reach the tip of the glacier.Even the trek of 2-3 kms is tiring but definitely worth the view. The sun rays falling on the snow capped mountains reflect a golden sparkle, giving the hill station its name. We had maggi there and it is yummy 🙂

This valley lies at the foot of the Zojila, only a day’s journey away from the sacred cave of Amarnath is a base camp for Amarnath yatra. A large number of Hindi movies have been pictured in the serene beauties of Sonamarg.

Shalimar Bagh

Evening we reached Shalimar Bagh, the garden which we missed on Day1. It was built by Emperor Jehangir for his wife NurJehan. It is a beautiful garden with gardens and lakes. Couldn’t explore much of this as we reached the gardens at its closing time. Had quick look at flowers there and came back.

DAY 5

Going back from Srinagar 😦 I didn’t realize that I was so attached to nature there. Found it very difficult to leave the place. Finally bid farewell to Srinagar and reached airport. There are three levels of security checking at airport. I want to go back to this place again and I hope will go 🙂