A trip to the heaven on earth – Kashmir – Day 5-6

We had just two more days before we say good bye to such a wonderful place. For day 5 in Kashmir, we didn't have any plans set. But talking to others in our camp night before, we came to know about 2-3 places which we could visit. We got up early to catch the sun rise, even though you can see the light but sun came out late as we were in a valley. So we roamed around the camp itself capturing the beauty all around.

House opposite our camp

Some fields around the camp

Little after sun rise, we were just lazying around the camp, listening to the river flowing at the back. All in all just chilling. We thought of going for para gliding but it seemed experience for just 5 min ride. After relaxing breakfast, we headed to Pahalgam town. We hired a taxi from taxi stand to take us to our destination for today "Sinthan Top". Its one of the highest peaks in the area at 12500 ft. This place is about 100 km from Pahalgam. One the way, the terrain kept changing, we saw apple orchards, walnut trees, small mountains, steep climbs, huge mountains covered with pine trees all around. The view was worth every second. 

Once we reached Sinthan top, the first feeling we got was of extreme cold. Even though it was peak afternoon with sun over our head, the temperature was about 5 deg C. With cold, it was quite windy too. There was not many tourists at that place. 

View of Sinthan top from base

To reach the top of the mountain we climbed for about 1500ft. It was quite difficult owing to the cold wind. My ears started to hurt as I forgot my cap in the camp :(. 

Trying to cover my ears with others scarf

After some struggle we reached the top, but the climb is all worth it once we reach there. The view all around is just majestic. Snow clad mountains are visible on one side with lower mountains covered in green and on the other side winding road was visible.

View from Sinthan top

Winding roads

We enjoyed the view there, but seriously we could not stand there for more than 15 mins. We climbed down to see a beautiful glacier lake. 

Glacier lake

We had maggi and tea (best food at hills) at the small stall there and started our return journey. On the way back, we decided to visit 2-3 places. 

First one was the Kokernag, it has a mughal garden. I wasn't very keen on garden as we had seen enough in Srinagar, but still we went ahead. But once I went in, seeing the garden it looked like its a must visit. This garden is much more bigger in its size compared to one in Srinagar. Also it has a natural river stream flowing inside, which is broken into various smaller steams all through out the garden. There were huge willow and chinar trees. The garden has a nice element of small bridges built over the stream to reach small islands. We actually ended up spending much more time in there but it was all worth it. 

Water stream in the garden

Bridge over the stream

Willow trees in the garden

Next we saw Martand Sun temple but we didn't go inside. This is the same place where the Shahid kapoor's movie Haider was shot. Next we went to another Sun temple, which is very unique as it has gurudwara in the same premises, temple of Shiva, Ram etc. It has a huge pond with thousands of fishes in it. At this place, we observed people of all the cast and creed. There was no differentiation, all were equal. Such harmonious places in Kashmir are a rare sight. 

By this time, it started to get dark, we headed back to our camp. One the way, we also saw the dargah where song from Bagrangi Bhaijan is shot ( yes I know I am a movie buff :)). We reached our camp late to get a view of the camp fire which was already lit. New foreign tourist have come to the camp today, we chatted with them for some time, had dinner and took some star gazing photo before calling it a day. 

Stars from the camp

Day 6, we had only half a day before we head to the airport. We roamed around in Aru valley and did some shopping for dry fruits in Pahalgam. We had lunch at a south Indian restaurant. There are many good and famous restaurants in Pahalgam.

Aru Valley view

Aru Valley view

This is how our trip to heaven on earth came to an end. The memories of this place will always remain with us. Thank you for reading our journey experience.

Some notes:

1. Paragliding is expensive because there are only two vendors
2. From Aru valley to Pahalgam, there are shared taxis available which are quite cheap and convenient.

A trip to the heaven on earth – Kashmir – Day 4

Day 4 was very unpredictable for us. The initial plan was to go to Gulmarg and return from there to reach Pahalgam for our night stay. But over past 2-3 days we have been hearing from various tourists about not so good experience in Gulmarg. Basically Gulmarg has Asia's highest and longest cable car project. Its in 2 phases and from people's experience we came to know that there is nothing much at phase one currently and to see some snow or good view we need to go to phase 2. Another feedback we got was of the taxi drivers/sledge workers/pony owners etc. that they are very rude to tourists and would pester you to the core to take their services. So finally the night before we decided to drop Gulmarg and directly go to Pahalgam. This I would say was one of our best decision.

One the way to Pahalgam, we stopped at Awantipura ruins, its a small place but worth spending 15-20 mins there. 

Awantipura ruins at the back

We also got fascinated to talk to a apple orchard owner and getting to know the details from plantation to exports. Both the side of the road were just full of apple orchards. Once approaching Phalagam, we were too elated to see the clear lidder river flowing. We stepped down near to the river and enjoyed in the chilled water for some time ( we didn't play any game there as it was too cold :) )

Lidder river on the way

We reached about 2 in the afternoon at Pahalgam. Again here the taxi driver dropped us at the taxi stand from where we need to take local taxi/pony to go around places. There was a view point about 2 km from the taxi stand which is usually covered by pony. We decided to walk to that point. Once we started walking, all pony owners started discouraging us first and later forcing us to take their pony. The heights was when they followed us for 45 mins with their ponies and kept irritating. We told them that we will not need it. This really pissed us off and we lost our mood half the way to even go that place. This was the only bad experience we had in our whole trip. Finally they left us alone, we enjoyed the pine forest and a valley there. But we were really excited to reach out new stop of next 2 nights. A camp 15km from Palagam - place is called Aru valley. As we have heard lots of stuff about this place, out expectations were really high.  

We reached our camp and we were just speechless to see the beauty around. It was a view we just wanted to drink with our eyes. I don't think even cameras can do justice to such beauty. Seeing that place I was very relieved as it had gone beyond our expectations. Camp was very basic in its facilities and has lidder river flowing at the back. All the sides it was surrounded by mountains which were having pine tree at lower levels and they were snow clad at the top. The air was so fresh, sound of river flowing at the back was very relaxing.

Camp panoramic view 

Aru Valley

And just than to make the while experience much better, it started to drizzle. We enjoyed snacks in rain and than we headed to Aru village which is at a walk able distance. On the way we say a small bridge over the lidder river and it view just looked so perfect- a river stream flowing between the mountains and the tree all around. I truly call Aru valley heaven on earth. 

View from the brigade

Once we reached the village we roamed around the mountains, saw paragliding being done by others. We went to a small shop to buy souvenirs. We headed back to camp as it started getting dark. At night there is a camp fire also organized as it really becomes cold. We enjoyed our delicious dinner there around the camp fire. We chatted with the co-occupants of the camp and their experiences in Kashmir. We even tried to capture the stars in the clear sky but could not do justice to it as we didn't have that kind of lenses or equipment. 

Aru Valley

We were told by various people that Pahalgam is famous for bollywood movie shooting. If you are a bollywood movie buff like me, then some of the recently movie shot here are Highway, Bajrangi Bhaijaan etc. In our 2 day stay there we even saw a telugu movie and bajaj motorcycle ad being shot there. 

Some notes :

1. Gondole ride tickets can be booked online. Each phase cost around Rs. 800.

2. Drop a comment if you need details of the accommodations. 

3. Buying thinks from a small place has its own advantage, those people dont cheat much, also they dont have to pay commission so they dont charge exorbitant price.

4. In Aru valley, only BSNL mobile network works.

Link to day 5-6 : http://manyrainbowsofmylife.blogspot.in/2016/07/a-trip-to-heaven-on-earth-kashmir-day-5.html

A trip to the heaven on earth – Kashmir – Day 3

3rd day, we wanted to go away from the hot weather of Sringar. So we headed to Sonamarg. About 80kms from Srinagar, a drive would take 2-3 hrs owning to huge traffic on the way.
Once we reached Sonamarg, taxi dropped us at the taxi stand, to move beyond we needed to hire a local Sonamarg taxi. It didn't seem right to me, but that's how the taxi association work in and around Srinagar, that Srinagar taxi will only get tourist to a place, from where local taxi needs to be hired for local sight seeing. 

After settling the logistics we went to Zero point. Zero point is on the same route which leads to Leh from Srinagar. The road till Zero point is not good, we passed Baltal (place where Amarnath yatra starts), Zojila pass and other scenic points. Every few meters the scene was changing on the way and each view was better than the last one. We were all mesmerized and our eyes were just wide open to absorb the beauty.
Once we reached Zero point, it was too crowded, so we asked our driver to take us to Gumri which is further 2 km from there. Gumri is a military check post and also has a war memorial. Near to this place also, there are glaciers and glacier lake where we enjoyed alot. The view has everything from mountains covered green at lower levels, snow at the higher levels. We even played silly in that freezing water of glacier lake to keep our feet in it for a long as possible. :) . As there were not many people there, it was a nice experience. It was cold and windy there, but snow jackets and boots were not required. 

Majestic View - Sonamarg 

View on the way to Zero point, Its a valley of Baltal

View on the way to Zero point

War memorial at Gumri

View of lake at Gumri. At back Army camp can be seen

View at Gumri

We even had some snacks - maggi , samosa , tea etc. in the military canteen. As we came back to Zero point, people with sledges, snow scooters, horses started coming to us. As we were not interested we just roamed around for some time and started driving back to Sonamarg. While returning traffic was really horrible on a small road and it took 2 hrs to cover that 30 km. We started back towards Srinagar around 7 in the evening and reached by Srinagar at dinner time. 

Some notes:

1. Don't take snow jackets and boot in this weather from Sonamarg. You can find them at Zero point if required.

2. Plan to stay over night in Sonamarg to enjoy the beauty all around.

3. In Sonamarg, there is another glacier other than Zero point, Thajiwas. That is about a km to two from Sonamarg. If time permits, this place can also be visited.
4. Visit TRC at Sonamarg to find out the taxi rate for various places.

Link to Day- 4 : http://manyrainbowsofmylife.blogspot.in/2016/07/a-trip-to-heaven-on-earth-kashmir-day-4.html

A trip to the heaven on earth – Kashmir – Day 2

Next day, we thought of taking it easy by going for local sightseeing within Srinagar.  We had breakfast in houseboat and started on our day trip.  It was too hot a day in Srinagar which is not an appropriate weather to roam around. Here are the places we went in same order:

     1.  Hazratbal Shrine: It’s a huge and beautiful shrine. It is very famous as it contains a hair of Holy Prophet Muhammad. There was sense of peace there. We stayed there for some time. We started chatting with a person sitting inside. He was so humble and welcoming. And that’s true for most of the kashmiri people, they are really nice and helpful people.

                                 

     2.   Next we went to various garden which Srinagar is famous for – Shalimar Bagh, Nishat bagh, Mugal garden. These gardens were very similar to each other having mugal architecture. There were lots of flowers, fountains around and chinar trees in these gardens. As it was too hot, we saw some kids enjoying in water there but we didn’t enjoy these garden very much. But I bet in other seasons like autumn when chinar leaves turn red, purple, all these gardens would definitely be much more beautiful. 

                                           
    
3.   Next we went to Chashme Shahi garden. This place is famous for spring and many people were drinking and filling the water there. It’s a very small garden otherwise.
     

     4.  Next we went to Pari Mahal (near to Chashme Shahi). This is a place with seven terraced gardens. There is nothing much to do there. But it gives a nice view of complete Srinagar city. You will get a view of a huge golf course from there. 

     5.    We were tried by then and headed to our last stop - Shankaracharya Temple. This is on a hill top with a shivling there, a very small temple. We had to climb stairs to reach to the temple. It also had nice view of Srinagar city.

It became quite hectic because of hot weather. We went to back to houseboat. After freshen up, we decided to take the shikara ride in Nagin lake. The ride was very beautiful, serene and relaxing. After about two hrs. we headed back to houseboat to call it a day.

                                 

Some notes :

      1.       Shankaracharya Temple closes at 5, so make sure to reach on time there.

      2.       Do shikara ride in Dal lake also, we could not do it because of lack of time.

    Link to Day -3 : http://manyrainbowsofmylife.blogspot.in/2016/07/a-trip-to-heaven-on-earth-kashmir-day-3.html

A trip to the heaven on earth – Kashmir – DAY 1

I feel really special to start blogging with my most recent holiday visit and that too to a place which is heaven on earth – Yes Kashmir.  So lets start the blogging journey.

This was an impromptu plan to go to Srinagar and whole planning began just 10 days before actual travel date. We 4 traveled to Jammu from where we headed to Srinagar by Road.

Now to travel from Jammu to Srinagar, the prices varies for the taxi, they quote as they like. So to rescue from these prices, we went to TRC (tourist center by government). Sometimes, it amazes me that in some sector we trust government running agency much more than the private agencies and specially on this trip I had come across it a lot of times where government assurance was required for a tourist who has limited information about the local rates. So we got a deal that same taxi will take us around in Srinagar and nearby places for next 4 days. It definitely help by doing some home before heading to the location.

We were now all set to leave Jammu at about 8 in the morning. The drive is not a very beautiful one till the time you are in Jammu area. For food we stopped near lunch near Peerah. It was a small place overlooking a huge dam but the food (rajma-chawal, a specialty there) was really good. As we crossed the Jawaharlal tunnel and entered the Kashmir area, the scene started to change a bit. But for a month of June, it was too hot to enjoy the scenic beauty. Even then we stopped for some of the view points and also got some fresh fruits of hills.  

                                   

There was a change in the complete terrain as we approach Srinagar. There were willows everywhere. We also saw the town where most of the cricket bats are manufactured. Then there was a place where saffron grows. This is not the season for saffron, but we could see the barren field spread till the horizon. We finally reached Srinagar and to our house boat around 5:30 in the evening. Our house boat was not in Dal lake but in Nagin lake. We chose Nagin lake, as it is much more calmer, not many shikara people to disturb you all the time with their sale and it was also clean. The view from the house boat was just majestic. If someone prefers serenity, silence, Nagin lake is the option. But if you like hustle-bustle you might enjoy Dal lake. Whole evening, we just enjoyed the views which made us forget about over long and tiring journey.

                                  

Some tips:

1.        Have booking beforehand for the houseboat. Don’t get carried away by the drivers as they are trying to get commission by placing you in a houseboat they are related to. Avoid that, else you will end up not having a good experience.
2.       Don’t buy at any place, drivers ask for dry fruits/saffron etc. They will take you to expensive places and you might feel cheated. I am not saying all will have similar experience, but better safe than sorry.
3.        At most of the places within city or on highway, there was army/CRPF patrolling, this is a very different sight but we all know the tensions there. 

    Link to Day-2 : http://manyrainbowsofmylife.blogspot.in/2016/07/a-trip-to-heaven-on-earth-kashmir-day-2.html