A Trip to The Valley

What a wonderful week I just had! It was a truly worth remembering trip to the northern most state of the country, they call it the Paradise on Earth - Jammu and Kashmir. The tour was planned 6 months in advance and with all arrangements done we were raring to go.

We camped at a friend's place overnight and left early morning to board 5:30 am flight to Jammu. Our first stop of the trip was a pilgrimage to Vaishnodevi Temple. This temple is located in Katra town of Jammu state and lacs of people visit here every year to worship the Mother Goddess of Shakti. We started the journey to the temple at 5pm and climbed approx. 14kms to reach the holy shrine. The scene at the top was one which we had not anticipated, the rush was maddening and it seemed to be a total system failure. The only option for us was to break the queue in order to get in quickly and we were just lucky to be able to do so. The hard task of descending through staircases had us drained off completely and the entire journey took about 12 hours. For many it was 5am when they reached hotel, for some it was 6 in the morning. Hence it took us little time to wrap ourselves under the bed cover to get that valuable sleep as this was only the first step of our long long visit of the entire state.
At around noon time after having lunch we checked out of Hotel Ambica to start the fun part of the road trip to Kashmir. The hotel owner (uncle) had arranged Toyota Innova cab along with an exceptionally friendly driver. We reached a hill station Patnitop late in the evening. The rooms in the Hotel Forest View at Patnitop were well furnished and they provided us with really good snacks and tea. We then wandered around to the near by forest area and clicked some photographs. Next morning we covered another temple and one of the state owned JKTDC gardens in Patnitop area. The 'kulches' of Patnitop still waters my mouth :P

We continued our journey ahead and made a few notable stops - Bannihal and Qazigund. The highlights of these stops were the beautiful dam view behind the dhaba at Bannihal and the 2.5km tunnel road at Qazigund. Our first halt in Kashmir was another hill station named Pahalgam. The climate at Pahalgam was pleasantly chill and the structure of the wood house that we stayed in ensured that we felt warm enough at night. We explored the near by area and came across the Pahalgam river. Our interaction with local people gave us an idea about our activities for the next morning. We hired five horses in morning for our sight seeing - the first point in Pahalgam was Kanimarg, place where the huge boulders from the mountain top trickled down and got settled creating a flat land. Then our well trained horses stopped at the waterfall point. The sound of the water fall was harsh yet it made us feel so good to be there. . After spending considerable time we went further up to 3rd point called as Kashmir point. Here we ordered for a Kehwa (kashmiri tea) and posed for a few photographs with a sheep. The next point was Dagger point. As explained by our local guide this point has the hidden story for a well known phrase 'to kill two birds with one stone'. Our last stop was to the most beautiful place I had seen so far in my life. This place known as Baisaran or Kashmir's Switzerland has been shot in many of the Bollywood movies. White and Brown Mountains, Blue skies and Pine trees with vast green lands provided a perfect setting for capturing images to replicate MS Windows wallpapers.
The Baisaran had caught my attention and left me gasping. So I thought! I still had to see two more sceneries which were equally important and beautiful. But before that we paid a short visit to a Aru Wildlife Park which was home to only 3 animals - a deer, a leopard and an Asiatic Bear. We then reached Betaab Valley, the place has derived its name from the movie Betaab which was completely shot in this locale. We then proceeded to Chandanwari also known as base camp for Amarnath Yatra. As soon as we reached the place it started raining and we had to take shelter beneath a shop. We could see the ice melting from the mountain and flowing to small rivulets. We were eager to go and grab ice in our hands and we duly obliged once the rains stopped. This place has given us inspiration for our next 35km trekking trip to Amarnath Yatra.

Next day early morning we had to check out from Pine Cliff resort at Pahalgam and make a long journey to Gulmarg. We had been forewarned about the threat of horsemen and small traders at Gulmarg. As soon as we stepped out of the cab they started following us and insisting to take their services. We declined and headed straight to Gondola Cable Car ticket counter. Our spirits were dampened when we learnt that the second tier of the rope way car was not working properly due to weather conditions. We had to satisfy ourselves with whatever half way journey we made using the cable car. We reached Srinagar late in evening after shopping spree for loved ones from the Kashmir Arts Emporium.

The Taimoor Hotel in Srinagar was situated in Muslim dominated area and the smell of kebabs and tandooris for the Iftaar party gave us a kick. We freshened up quickly and were out in the streets of Srinagar hunting for a good kebab restaurant. Next day morning we left for Sonamarg, another place where we had to do horse riding. :( Through the ride to the top of mountain we saw locales where famous Bollywood films have been shot - Satte pe Satta, Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Fanaa. Finally we reached point where we had to walk the ice bridge. We also had hired for sledge to race down the icy slope.

The 2nd morning in Srinagar was meant to cover the local areas. We started off with a Shikara ride on Dal Lake. What a beautiful lake! It really seemed like being in heaven. The house boats with all kinds of fancy names were parked at the edges of the lake. The vendors chased down our shikara to sell jewellery and other items. Again here we saw the sets of TV serials and movies which have been shot in back drop of Dal Lake. We got down and visited the Nehru Garden inside the lake and saw various types of flowers, each one breath taking than the previous one. Also at the lake there was a swimming competition being held by some school for its students and the chief guest motivated the students to complete the race by a well written speech. A few of my friends took a jetty ride in Dal Lake while I preferred to sleep in the slow and serene shikara. We were then taken to a shop which sold jackets and blankets. Once again we emptied our deep wallets by selecting warm clothes of our choice and asked the shopkeeper to deliver it to our home in Mumbai. It was late in afternoon and we still had lot of places to cover, one of them being Shankaracharya Temple. We then had quick meal and headed off to series of palace gardens. From Chashmeshahi garden to Pari Mahal to Nishat Garden, each garden offered unique view of the Srinagar city and had range of flora and fauna on display. These gardens also had natural springs and water flowed through the center of each gardens. We ended up our Srinagar journey by visiting the Hazratbal Mosque and praying to Allah and watch the interior beauty of the mosque at the closest. This was our last night of the trip.

I feel truly blessed to have been part of this trip. No words are enough to express what I saw with my own eyes. The picturesque images of mountains, trees, skies, rivers, lakes, temples, horses and everything else have been imprinted on my soul.

Synopsis of the vacation trip
Places Visited: Katra, Patnitop, Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Srinagar
Dates: 14th AUG 2011 - 21st AUG 2011
Click here for My Nikon Pics : https://picasaweb.google.com/115737735341877165595/JammuKashmirTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCNnCybCBzKGp0gE