My trip to kashmir

I always believed myself to be a ‘non traveler’. I preferred watching places through my very own Idiot Box. But now, thankyou to my darling hubby dearry! I love travelling, not frequent though, but yes occasionally would be just perfect! And my vacation to Kashmir would be the exact reason for this huge change!

To begin with, it was in the month of august that we and a few of our friends planned this trip. And the day arrived; YEI! Were we so exited? All of us, even my 4 year old angel, didn’t mind getting up at 3 in the morning to catch our flight from Bangalore to Delhi. The airport was as usual teeming and finally we boarded our Air India Flight. Unlike the repute, there were quite some young gorgeous airhostesses at our service despite their sporadic boorish attitude. I say so because, during our flight, one of our friend’s 2year old daughter, spilled water on her seat and the air hostess marched in to make a few rude comments. For heaven’s Sake she’s just a 2 year old girl! Anyways, we reached Delhi and while waiting for our next flight to Srinagar, my husband asked me to inform our loved ones back home that as ‘pre-paid mobile services’ are banned in Kashmir; we would be ‘out of reach’ for the rest of our retreat. I frankly thought he was teasing me when he mentioned about this previously, as he often pranks me, but this was true as Kashmir is a very sensitive place. In our next flight, Spice Jet, we reached Srinagar. The airport was quite small and not fancy at all. In the departure area, people crammed full receiving their kith and kin and we were searching for our travel agent guy who was to receive us at the airport.

 

Hazratbal darga

  



The sun was scorching and it felt as if each of sun’s rays were piercing through our skin. ‘Kashmir and this hot?’ we all mumbled unpleasantly getting into our rented cars. People there, looked very different from the rest of the Indians. They more resemble Egyptians. Fair, sharp features and their accent were more English. I gazed at every place I saw as we approached our destination. Our travel agent guy had already planned out our trip and so dropped us at a restaurant promising to unload our luggage at the boat house we were to stay that night. After a relishing lunch, we all set to begin our sightseeing. We began our trip, visiting the famous Hazratbal darga. But unlucky me, I didn’t bring a scarf to cover my head so, couldn’t enter. Our next destination was a Mughal garden named ‘Shalimar’. It was beautiful! Gorgeous flowers, trees, sceneries… it was a beautiful place. But coming from the ‘city of gardens’ it wasn’t worth it. The driver kept taking us to 2 or 3 gardens till we finally demanded, ‘that’s enough for today, and we did rather go back to our boat house’.

DAL Lake

Here we were at the banks of the Dal Lake gazing at the beautiful dusk scenery, where lighted house boats houses anchored on the other end and a few shikkaras with passengers wandered the golden lake. Simply beyond words, the tint of gold in the sky and the lake alike along with glitter like lights from the boat houses far away, made the scene as a true ‘heaven on earth’ moment. I mesmerizingly travelled in the shikkara to our house boat. But the ‘aha’ moment ended the minute we saw our house boat. The house boat as though was gorgeous and was more like a wooden palace. The water in which it is located was ‘YUCK!’ filled with filth and green algae. As a mother and a wife, I was worried about my family’s health but was left with no choice but to live through it. The inside of the boat house was fine and so we didn’t have much of an issue for the night.



GULBARGA



Next day we got up at 6 in the morning to get set for our trip. But while leaving the boat house, a Kashmiri mouse fell in love with my hand bad and presented me a big hole in it! I at least hope it enjoyed its bite. Anyways, I some how managed. While arranging the shikkara to get off the other end, we realized that the shikkara guy was trying to swindle us of money. After long heated hours of arguments we some how managed to get ashore. These shikkara guys are mostly very uncouth people, must say! Moving on, we were then taken to our hotel rooms where we were to stay for our next days in Kashmir. Our next destination was ‘GULBARGHA’. Having already taken the tickets to its famous ‘Rope way’, we set off our journey. On the way, we saw the most popular fresh, pale colored Kashmiri apples. I don’t remember exactly how much we bought but yes enough to last the whole day. Munching on the gorgeous and yum apples we reached Gulbarga. As soon as we reached the spot, we were encircled with people demanding us to hire their horses to the Gulbarga rope way. Being warned earlier, we ignored their requests and enjoyed our every step to the top. We just went on the 1st phase of the rope way and relished a nice picnic lunch there. The panoramic beauty there was astounding too; lush green grassland, evenly grown over a large horizon of uneven land, horses grazing over them with light blue sky above them. It took the rest of the day as we reached back to our hotel rooms. The hotel staffs welcomed the tired us with a savoring dinner to nibble on. After which we fell over our beds to relive the beautiful day in our dreams.

Apples

The alarm rang at 6 and we, who usually find it lazy to get up at this hour, jumped off the bed to get ready. After having our breakfast with the rest of our friends we set our destination to ‘PEHELGHAM’. On the way, we stopped by a small orchard. There we saw many varieties of apples, pomegranates, guavas, grapes, all dangling from their trees and plants. The orchard owners were so good at heart that they explained each and every detail about the fruits and also answered a few of my silly questions. It feels so good to meet such good people. Continuing our journey for quite a while more, we reached our destination. Reaching there, the climate wasn’t as the rest of Srinagar. It was cold, some what similar to what we expected Kashmir to be. On the way, we rode along a river flowing at full speed besides us. There were rafting points in the middle. At PEHELGHAM, we hired a different cab to see the “attraction points”. At first we went to a place where the road to “AMAR YATRA” ends. I felt pleased to have had the opportunity to touch the holy waters of the river LIDDER. The views on the way to the tip was spellbinding, nature’s Magic would be the right word. On our way down, we stopped by a garden called “BETAB” garden. The garden is named after a Bollywood movie Betab, shot there. We all played in the waters of Lidder River passing at a slower pace through this garden. It was chilling cold and the feeling was nothing less than standing on ice. While returning to the spot where our other cabs were waiting, we visited another spot with a beautiful view; I have now forgotten the name though. Returning home and enjoying a wonderful dinner we were all set to pack and get our sleeps for our return to Bangalore the next day.



pehelgham

 In the morning, all packed and dressed, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and bid them a good bye. On the way to the airport, I gazed out the window to see the last of Kashmir in this trip. The security check ups at Srinagar were much stronger than any we had experienced before. But without much trouble we flew back to Delhi and from Delhi to Bangalore on the same day. Landing in Bangalore, I rang up my parents to let them know of our arrival. Sighing of relief, they were happy to know we were safe. In the flight, my daughter who was happy and giggling anxiously told me, “Mamma, after visiting our home here in Bangalore, can we go back to Kashmir please?” Smiling at my little angel I realized that Kashmir has cast its magic on her too the manner it had done on all of us!