Hello friends, today I am going to share one of the best tour ever had. It was the tour of “Heaven”. You are right this was the tour of Kashmir (INDIA). Earlier I was planning to go to Kashmir with my family in October 2010 but due to bad situation in Srinagar I cancelled the plan. And finally I went there with my friend Abhay, who also belongs to Lucknow the capital of Uttar Pradesh. Well Lucknow is also a tourist place as it has the great taste for every segment of tourist & also world famous for its Mughlai Cuisine.
We were actually planning to visit Kashmir in January but due to our busy schedule we were not able to go & suddenly in February just before 2 days we decided to go. So we started our journey on 8th Feb. But frankly I would say it was our luck that we got the confirmed ticket. Now without wasting time I should start telling about the tour… here it goes…
Day 01 (8th Feb 2011)
We started our day by catching the train for Jammu. Rest of the day we enjoyed traveling in train. Many different stations were passing threw. At night we slept on our berths.
Day 02 (9th Feb 2011)
Today we woke up early as our berths were the lower one and there was quite disturbing and noisy too. We got little sad after knowing that due to bad weather, traffic from Jammu to Srinagar is closed today. Sometimes due to heavy snowfall/rain traffic become closed & open only one side on alternative days . But still we were waiting for the train to reach Jammu asap. Our friend Tabish was there to receive us. We reached Jammu at around 9:30 AM. Tabish welcomed us on station and took us to the taxi stand to catch the taxi for Srinagar if possible as one of his friend was in the taxi business. Fortunately we came to know that traffic from Jammu to Srinagar has just started . We had a cup of tea with him and with his goodwill we got 2 front seats in a Tata Winger with 50% discounted fare. We moved at 10:30 AM from Jammu. On the way we had some snacks and had our lunch at Peera a small village which is famous for Rajma Rice. It was really very tasty. When we reached Patnitop we were surprise to see that it was totally covered with snow. At around 4:30 PM we reached the Jawahar Tunnel (2.7 KM Long) which was also covered with snow and the weather was very cold. We reached Anantnag (which is also known as Islamabad by the locals) at around 6:00 PM in the evening. At around 6:30 PM we reached Awantipur and we were stuck in 15 KM long traffic jam. That's why we reached Srinagar at 8:30 PM. We stayed in Kohlee Hotel and had our dinner at Krishna Dhaba (it was a pure vegetarian restaurant 7 the food was really very tasty). Overnight at hotel.
Day 03 (10th Feb 2011)
Today we started our day without having any plan. At 10:00 AM we were out and were roaming on the road as we were not aware about any place, even we didn’t knew that which way is the city he he he he he….. We met one auto driver Miraj who offered us for the local sightseeing for full day. We went Shankracharya Temple, Chasma-E-Shahi, Pari Mahal, Botanical Garden, Nishat Garden, Shalimar Garden, Hazratbal. We asked him to let us taste the Kahwa (famous Kashmiri Tea) but he told that actual Kahwa will not be available in any hotel or so, as it has been made only in local houses. Later on our driver offered us a cup of Kahwa with his family. We went their home and met with his wife, mother & daughter, they all were well educated & his house was very beautiful located in the banks if Dal Lake, overall felt very happy to see a happy family. They also offered us for lunch but we decided to taste some local food in market & had our lunch at Khayam Chowk which is famous for traditional Kashmiri Non-Veg. After sometime our auto driver dropped us back at our hotel. At around 5:30 PM we went out to checkout local streets. We went to Dal Gate area, incidentally we met a Shikara Wala and he offered us a round trip of Dal Lake & between the shikara ride we saw a houseboat, we finalised it by one look as it was very beautiful. Then we went to the lake market following with Nehru Garden and Floating Garden. He dropped us back in Dal Gate at 8:00 PM. We packed our dinner and went to our hotel. Overnight at hotel.
Day 04 (11th Feb 2011)
Today we checked out from hotel at 8:00 AM and Mr. Bilal (houseboat owner) was there to pick our luggage. Yesterday local political leaders have announced ‘Kashmir Bandh’ for today that is why we have decided to go to Gulmarg in early morning. Then again yesterday’s auto driver was there to drop us at Batmalu (Srinagar local Taxi Stand). From there we got sumo to Tangmarg. We reached there in approx 1 Hr. From Tangmarg we got another sumo for Gulmarg which was around 15 KM (30 Min) and the tyres of sumo were covered with steel chains as there was snow on the road. On the way to Gulmarg we saw huge snow covering all things. When we reached Gulmarg lots of touts gathered around us offering different services, but we decided not to take any one of them and start walking towards the famous Gondola (cable car) station. There was around 3 feet snow on the roads. We took 2 tickets for half ride to Kungdoor. It was very exiting. We saw lots of professional skiers skiing on the way. We reached at Kungdoor and start playing with snow, it was like we reached fairy land, and everything was white & beautiful. Then we sat at the local snack bar and had maggi with cold drinks. Suddenly clouds gathered and covered whole area. We were not able to see anything as it was so dense and the wind was too fast. Some gutsy professional were going on the second part of Gandola as it was on more height and has a wide range of skiing, earlier we also planned to go to the second ride but after seeing the weather we cancelled it as we were not able to see the view from there. We took lots of snaps there. At around 2 pm suddenly light snowfall started. We were much exited to see the snow fall. One officer of tourist police told us that it might convert into heavy snow fall in the evening. He also told us that yesterday one foreigner tourist was dump in heavy snow after an avalanche. He was rescued from 6 feet deep. As we have to go back to the Srinagar so we came back to the base of Gandola. All the trees, huts, cars were covered with snow. We had a cup of tea and came back to Tangmarg to catch the sumo for Srinagar. As there was a Bandh in Kashmir and the tourists were very less so lots of taxi touts were there to pressurize us to book a full taxi but we wait for some time and got shared one for Srinagar. We came to Dal Gate and had some local non-veg street food. We took the same Shikara which we hired yesterday as he was waiting for us because we told him that we will come again tomorrow. Today we took longer ride Char Chinar. It was very light moment and we were just feeling the silence, we boozed at Shikara. Weather was just above the freezing point. Then we went to our house boat at 7:30 PM. It was like we were checking in a 5 Star Hotel. We sat on the lobby area which was open and chat with the boat owner. Later on we sat on the porch and boozed. Mr. Bilal was a very gentleman later on his father joined us too, they were not boozing with us but they gave proper time to us. At 10:00 PM we had our dinner (home made chicken) which was already told at the evening on telephone. The owner arranges to prepare it in his kitchen. It was very tasty. Then we went to our room and slept. Overnight at houseboat.
Day 05 (12th Feb 2011)
Today we woke early and saw it was raining out and the whole sky was covered with dark clouds. We had our breakfast in our room and checked out from the boat at around 11:00 AM. We catch a sumo for Anantnag and from there we got next sumo for Pahalgam. We reached there at 2:30 PM. Again it was snow every where. We saw the whole market which was close like curfew, but later on came to know that due to extreme cold weather the markets are closed. There were hardly a very few tourist just because of weather. Only locals were roaming on the streets. 2-3 daily needs shops were open and one PCO was open. We made a call to our homes as our mobiles were not working there. We got a room in a tourist guest house which was on the bank of Lidder River and was covered with snow. We checked in and had a cup of tea with maggie. The temperature was in minus. After some time we went to see local area. It was very beautiful and scenic around. All the mountains were covered with heavy snow. We came back after taking some pictures. Our guest house owner told us that all the roads are closed just 6 Km away, before Chandanwari as there is 12 feet of snow over there. We were feeling very cold there and we can’t even sit or stand. We were just inside our blankets. The noise of water flowing in the river was making the atmosphere adventurous. We ask him to prepare a chicken for us; we also help him to make our dinner & had dinner in our rooms. You can say the candle light dinner as the power cut problem was there. At around 10:30 PM we slept with hot water bottle & 2 blankets. Overnight at guest house.
Day 06 (13th Feb 2011)
Today we woke up at around 09:00 AM and had our breakfast in our room itself as it was too cold out there. After that we had some photos at the river side. It was raining at that time; our guest house owner told us that snow fall happened last night. We were feeling very cold so we decided to move back to Jammu. We packed our bags and checked out from the guest house. We were standing at the taxi stand for a shared taxi; suddenly one driver came to us and said he will drop us to Jammu. We sat in his taxi and the adventure starts… We were alone in the taxi as there was no one to go to Jammu. When we reached Anantnag some locals told us that the highway is closed today because of bad weather and no traffic is allowed to Jammu. We were surprised to see that our driver managed to cross every check post. Near Jawahar Tunnel we saw three types of weather. At one side it was sunny, at other side it was raining badly and there were 2 rainbows touching each other. After few Km there was a heavy snow fall. We were surprise to see that no security was there at the tunnel just because of heavy snow fall. After crossing the tunnel we stop for a while to have some photos with snow fall. When we reached to the area which was known as Khooni Nalla our driver told us that at the time of rains the landslides blocks the roads. And guess what, it was raining badly. We were sitting quite and were scared; all the big and small stones were falling on the roads even some of them fall at our cab too. Our driver was driving nicely and we were out of that area very soon but we realized that why local police doesn’t allow the vehicles at the time of bad weather and it is advisable too that in case of bad weather ‘do not’ travel at all. Then we had our lunch in a restaurant. After some time we reached Patnitop. Snow was falling in the whole area. We stuck in a traffic jam as one truck felt down from the road and the cranes were pulling it up. After 1 Hr we again started and reached Jammu at around 10:00 PM. It was raining continuously. We went to our friend’s house and slept. Overnight at our friend’s residence.
Day 07 (14th Feb 2011)
Today after breakfast our friend offered us to visit his factory. It was near Pakistan border. We went there and came to know that today is an anniversary of the factory. We stayed there whole day and had our lunch there. We came back in the evening and had dinner with our friend and went to Jammu station to catch a train. At around 11:00 PM we catch our train & reached Lucknow at around 03:00 PM next day with lots of unforgettable memories.
In this form we were at the end of the fantastic tour of Kashmir. It was wonderful and very soon we will again go to Kashmir ‘A Real Heaven on Earth’.
You can watch our trip photographs on the below link
https://picasaweb.google.com/114772223251128029153/KashmirATripToHeavenFeb2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLaTq-7jzYf8PQ#
AV
We were actually planning to visit Kashmir in January but due to our busy schedule we were not able to go & suddenly in February just before 2 days we decided to go. So we started our journey on 8th Feb. But frankly I would say it was our luck that we got the confirmed ticket. Now without wasting time I should start telling about the tour… here it goes…
Day 01 (8th Feb 2011)
We started our day by catching the train for Jammu. Rest of the day we enjoyed traveling in train. Many different stations were passing threw. At night we slept on our berths.
Day 02 (9th Feb 2011)
Today we woke up early as our berths were the lower one and there was quite disturbing and noisy too. We got little sad after knowing that due to bad weather, traffic from Jammu to Srinagar is closed today. Sometimes due to heavy snowfall/rain traffic become closed & open only one side on alternative days . But still we were waiting for the train to reach Jammu asap. Our friend Tabish was there to receive us. We reached Jammu at around 9:30 AM. Tabish welcomed us on station and took us to the taxi stand to catch the taxi for Srinagar if possible as one of his friend was in the taxi business. Fortunately we came to know that traffic from Jammu to Srinagar has just started . We had a cup of tea with him and with his goodwill we got 2 front seats in a Tata Winger with 50% discounted fare. We moved at 10:30 AM from Jammu. On the way we had some snacks and had our lunch at Peera a small village which is famous for Rajma Rice. It was really very tasty. When we reached Patnitop we were surprise to see that it was totally covered with snow. At around 4:30 PM we reached the Jawahar Tunnel (2.7 KM Long) which was also covered with snow and the weather was very cold. We reached Anantnag (which is also known as Islamabad by the locals) at around 6:00 PM in the evening. At around 6:30 PM we reached Awantipur and we were stuck in 15 KM long traffic jam. That's why we reached Srinagar at 8:30 PM. We stayed in Kohlee Hotel and had our dinner at Krishna Dhaba (it was a pure vegetarian restaurant 7 the food was really very tasty). Overnight at hotel.
Day 03 (10th Feb 2011)
Today we started our day without having any plan. At 10:00 AM we were out and were roaming on the road as we were not aware about any place, even we didn’t knew that which way is the city he he he he he….. We met one auto driver Miraj who offered us for the local sightseeing for full day. We went Shankracharya Temple, Chasma-E-Shahi, Pari Mahal, Botanical Garden, Nishat Garden, Shalimar Garden, Hazratbal. We asked him to let us taste the Kahwa (famous Kashmiri Tea) but he told that actual Kahwa will not be available in any hotel or so, as it has been made only in local houses. Later on our driver offered us a cup of Kahwa with his family. We went their home and met with his wife, mother & daughter, they all were well educated & his house was very beautiful located in the banks if Dal Lake, overall felt very happy to see a happy family. They also offered us for lunch but we decided to taste some local food in market & had our lunch at Khayam Chowk which is famous for traditional Kashmiri Non-Veg. After sometime our auto driver dropped us back at our hotel. At around 5:30 PM we went out to checkout local streets. We went to Dal Gate area, incidentally we met a Shikara Wala and he offered us a round trip of Dal Lake & between the shikara ride we saw a houseboat, we finalised it by one look as it was very beautiful. Then we went to the lake market following with Nehru Garden and Floating Garden. He dropped us back in Dal Gate at 8:00 PM. We packed our dinner and went to our hotel. Overnight at hotel.
Day 04 (11th Feb 2011)
Today we checked out from hotel at 8:00 AM and Mr. Bilal (houseboat owner) was there to pick our luggage. Yesterday local political leaders have announced ‘Kashmir Bandh’ for today that is why we have decided to go to Gulmarg in early morning. Then again yesterday’s auto driver was there to drop us at Batmalu (Srinagar local Taxi Stand). From there we got sumo to Tangmarg. We reached there in approx 1 Hr. From Tangmarg we got another sumo for Gulmarg which was around 15 KM (30 Min) and the tyres of sumo were covered with steel chains as there was snow on the road. On the way to Gulmarg we saw huge snow covering all things. When we reached Gulmarg lots of touts gathered around us offering different services, but we decided not to take any one of them and start walking towards the famous Gondola (cable car) station. There was around 3 feet snow on the roads. We took 2 tickets for half ride to Kungdoor. It was very exiting. We saw lots of professional skiers skiing on the way. We reached at Kungdoor and start playing with snow, it was like we reached fairy land, and everything was white & beautiful. Then we sat at the local snack bar and had maggi with cold drinks. Suddenly clouds gathered and covered whole area. We were not able to see anything as it was so dense and the wind was too fast. Some gutsy professional were going on the second part of Gandola as it was on more height and has a wide range of skiing, earlier we also planned to go to the second ride but after seeing the weather we cancelled it as we were not able to see the view from there. We took lots of snaps there. At around 2 pm suddenly light snowfall started. We were much exited to see the snow fall. One officer of tourist police told us that it might convert into heavy snow fall in the evening. He also told us that yesterday one foreigner tourist was dump in heavy snow after an avalanche. He was rescued from 6 feet deep. As we have to go back to the Srinagar so we came back to the base of Gandola. All the trees, huts, cars were covered with snow. We had a cup of tea and came back to Tangmarg to catch the sumo for Srinagar. As there was a Bandh in Kashmir and the tourists were very less so lots of taxi touts were there to pressurize us to book a full taxi but we wait for some time and got shared one for Srinagar. We came to Dal Gate and had some local non-veg street food. We took the same Shikara which we hired yesterday as he was waiting for us because we told him that we will come again tomorrow. Today we took longer ride Char Chinar. It was very light moment and we were just feeling the silence, we boozed at Shikara. Weather was just above the freezing point. Then we went to our house boat at 7:30 PM. It was like we were checking in a 5 Star Hotel. We sat on the lobby area which was open and chat with the boat owner. Later on we sat on the porch and boozed. Mr. Bilal was a very gentleman later on his father joined us too, they were not boozing with us but they gave proper time to us. At 10:00 PM we had our dinner (home made chicken) which was already told at the evening on telephone. The owner arranges to prepare it in his kitchen. It was very tasty. Then we went to our room and slept. Overnight at houseboat.
Day 05 (12th Feb 2011)
Today we woke early and saw it was raining out and the whole sky was covered with dark clouds. We had our breakfast in our room and checked out from the boat at around 11:00 AM. We catch a sumo for Anantnag and from there we got next sumo for Pahalgam. We reached there at 2:30 PM. Again it was snow every where. We saw the whole market which was close like curfew, but later on came to know that due to extreme cold weather the markets are closed. There were hardly a very few tourist just because of weather. Only locals were roaming on the streets. 2-3 daily needs shops were open and one PCO was open. We made a call to our homes as our mobiles were not working there. We got a room in a tourist guest house which was on the bank of Lidder River and was covered with snow. We checked in and had a cup of tea with maggie. The temperature was in minus. After some time we went to see local area. It was very beautiful and scenic around. All the mountains were covered with heavy snow. We came back after taking some pictures. Our guest house owner told us that all the roads are closed just 6 Km away, before Chandanwari as there is 12 feet of snow over there. We were feeling very cold there and we can’t even sit or stand. We were just inside our blankets. The noise of water flowing in the river was making the atmosphere adventurous. We ask him to prepare a chicken for us; we also help him to make our dinner & had dinner in our rooms. You can say the candle light dinner as the power cut problem was there. At around 10:30 PM we slept with hot water bottle & 2 blankets. Overnight at guest house.
Day 06 (13th Feb 2011)
Today we woke up at around 09:00 AM and had our breakfast in our room itself as it was too cold out there. After that we had some photos at the river side. It was raining at that time; our guest house owner told us that snow fall happened last night. We were feeling very cold so we decided to move back to Jammu. We packed our bags and checked out from the guest house. We were standing at the taxi stand for a shared taxi; suddenly one driver came to us and said he will drop us to Jammu. We sat in his taxi and the adventure starts… We were alone in the taxi as there was no one to go to Jammu. When we reached Anantnag some locals told us that the highway is closed today because of bad weather and no traffic is allowed to Jammu. We were surprised to see that our driver managed to cross every check post. Near Jawahar Tunnel we saw three types of weather. At one side it was sunny, at other side it was raining badly and there were 2 rainbows touching each other. After few Km there was a heavy snow fall. We were surprise to see that no security was there at the tunnel just because of heavy snow fall. After crossing the tunnel we stop for a while to have some photos with snow fall. When we reached to the area which was known as Khooni Nalla our driver told us that at the time of rains the landslides blocks the roads. And guess what, it was raining badly. We were sitting quite and were scared; all the big and small stones were falling on the roads even some of them fall at our cab too. Our driver was driving nicely and we were out of that area very soon but we realized that why local police doesn’t allow the vehicles at the time of bad weather and it is advisable too that in case of bad weather ‘do not’ travel at all. Then we had our lunch in a restaurant. After some time we reached Patnitop. Snow was falling in the whole area. We stuck in a traffic jam as one truck felt down from the road and the cranes were pulling it up. After 1 Hr we again started and reached Jammu at around 10:00 PM. It was raining continuously. We went to our friend’s house and slept. Overnight at our friend’s residence.
Day 07 (14th Feb 2011)
Today after breakfast our friend offered us to visit his factory. It was near Pakistan border. We went there and came to know that today is an anniversary of the factory. We stayed there whole day and had our lunch there. We came back in the evening and had dinner with our friend and went to Jammu station to catch a train. At around 11:00 PM we catch our train & reached Lucknow at around 03:00 PM next day with lots of unforgettable memories.
In this form we were at the end of the fantastic tour of Kashmir. It was wonderful and very soon we will again go to Kashmir ‘A Real Heaven on Earth’.
You can watch our trip photographs on the below link
https://picasaweb.google.com/114772223251128029153/KashmirATripToHeavenFeb2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLaTq-7jzYf8PQ#
AV
