Though I have visited Kashmir 3 years back with my parents, I always wanted to come back to this beautiful place. Lot of things have changed in these 3 years. I got married and I convinced my husband for a Kashmir trip as he has never seen Himalayas. This time we didn’t want to miss Tulip garden, so we planned our trip around 2nd week of April.

I already started jumping in the flight itself on the first sight of Himalayas. It was awesome, I never felt that I have visited this place earlier. It looked so different.

This picture is not during landing, but its the picture taken after we crossed Jammu, on the way to Srinagar. Initially, we felt that the plane is flying at a smaller height, but later realized that the Himalayas are very tall to be visible from the normal flight height.

The airport remained same, but the view of Himalayas from the airport is simply stunning. All the mountains have snow peaks. We quickly dropped our luggage in our hotel (JH Bazaz), which is in walking distance from Dal Lake and started our trip to Tulip garden. Stay+Travel package provided by the hotel costed us 10k each for 5 days.

 

Tulip carpets on the foot of Himalayas looked mesmerizing. I couldn’t resist clicking photos.

Dal lake is beautiful too. Went on Shikhara ride across the Dal lake and its so calm and peaceful this time without much crowd.

Day2- Sonamarg

Drive to Sonamarg is too good, Himalayas on one side and the fresh pure Sindh river on the other side. We got to see mustard fields also on the way.

The road to Sonamarg is NH1, which goes till Leh. All those who go to Leh from Srinagar on road trip will touch this beautiful place. The highway is blocked after a point due to snow. We had to take a horse to go ahead (which is not really required), but it was okay.

 

 

Though you can see snow all over, its not that cold as it was sunny.

Day3- Gulmarg

If Sonamarg has lifted our spirits to a level, Gulmarg is two levels more than that. Gulmarg is full of snow everywhere, even before we reach Gondola/cable car. This is how it looked where the vehicles stop.

You can see clearly see the difference in photos of cable car, from my May visit and April visit photos.

We took Gondola till phase2 this time and it is simply breath taking.

We could see the Pakistan border from there and our Indian soliders camp.

Can you believe we are above clouds, amidst fresh snow? We spent lot of time just jumping around, enjoying the views, throwing snow etc..I didn’t feel like coming back from that place at all.

I am filling this entire blog with photos 🙂 I am not able to resist doing that!

We reached Phase-1 in our return journey and there are many skiing activities going on there, we didn’t try any, just enjoyed the serenity of the place.

Day4- Yousmarg

I have changed the place this time as I felt there is nothing much in Pahalgam during last visit. But I regret this mistake, mainly because Yousmarg road is not that good, its a bad ghat road, the roads are small. The only variation in this road is that, its filled with apple trees on both sides. We couldn’t see apples as that is not the season. May be this place is not worth a visit in April.

Forgot to mention about our driver Abdul bhai. He was a wonderful guide and told us lot of stories from his life which made our ride very interesting. He called me “Panditayin”, as he thinks that I resemble Kashmiri Pandit.

Day5- Bye Kashmir

We visited Kashmir Zoo on the outskirts of Srinagar and Tulip garden once again and reached airport.

Leaving Kashmir is always tough for me. Somehow I feel so attached to this place. Its like being in a different world. I couldn’t think of anything related to my work or normal life when I was here. Its a completely different experience this time and lot of memories. Our hotel owner took great care of us, we are overwhelmed by their hospitality. Food is also too good in the hotel that we never went outside anywhere for dinner. Abdul Bhai invited us to stay in his house for our next Kashmir Visit.

Bye Kashmir..I will miss you, hope i will come back again..

Note: For all those you are planning to visit Kashmir to see snow, I would suggest April 2nd/3rd week is ideal. You can see Tulips and lot of fresh snow everywhere 🙂

Except Tulips, all other gardens are empty in April, as that was not flowering season yet. You can see other flowers in May.