A trip that will remain in my memory for ever. Kashmir is rightly called 'A Paradise on Earth'. Everyone who has been there, knows it.
Funnily enough it wasn't in our plans at all to go to Kashmir or even anywhere at all for summer break. Suffering from
wilting July heat I urged my husband that we should take kids somewhere cool for a short trip. We hadn't planned anything. I thought of Shimla which wouldn't
take much time out of my schedule. But a weather check turned out a rainy week
prediction. My husband suggested out of the blue we opt for Kashmir.
Things
moved fast. One day I was talking to DH about going and by evening we had the
tickets booked and by next afternoon, excited and breathless we were landing at
Srinagar. After checking in, we took off and enjoyed the shikara ride on Dal
lake.
Next up was
a fifteen minute stop at Chashme shahi.
With beautiful flowers in the garden.And refreshing ..brr.. cold water.
The curving road went back and on towards the lake. A cool breeze had started
tinged with the scent of flowers. The road wound round the water and we clicked
on the lake-marks that the shikara rower and guide had pointed out.
Nishat Bagh
was our next spot. Imagined the moguls roaming the grounds :)
The next day brought an uphill curving road ride to Gulmarg. The slopes were dotted with flowers. White ones looked like snow drops. Delphiniums abounded. Enjoyed the views
During the horse ride, the guide pointed out the sites for movie
shots. This is where 'Hum tum ik kamre mein band ho' from film Bobby was shot according to him.
Pahalgam is
not to be missed.
After the ride the day before, we were tired of and allergic to horse rides but the trail would take two hours on foot, our driver told us. Still we were brave enough to set off. However it
was so steep and we were unconditioned, so were soon out of breath. Plus we
couldn't make out the trail by ourselves. The villagers helped but soon the
spot was totally deserted.
So we succumbed to the guide's persuasions and again mounted on ponies.
The trail
wound continuously upward. Frightening at places as the edge of the foot wide
trail dropped precariously away to running stream below. Too tightly holding on
to the horse to click pics so managed only few.
At the end
of a grueling half an hour we reached the mini Switzerland. Ah, sheer natural loveliness!
However, the way downward
was even worse than up - at least for me! Kids told me they enjoyed it. The horses were
stepping on dusty slope with steps for horses carved in spots in between the hardened roots of trees. Horses proceeded step by step following each other.
Almost vertically downward or so it looked and I closed my eyes when it became too steep and just prayed. The guide brought us out to vista of Kashmir valley. We looked at it from the edge of the out-curving road.
He aimed us
to go right down the dropaway edge and I could only say you mean go down where?
Here? Here was no place but air. Anyway his implicit faith in the horse and
obvious un-maneuverability on foot had me sighing and submitting. Again hung on
for dear life. Though if you tore away to glance at the views they were amazing! Tall green trees. The running stream over the stones way down below. The green slopes. The cool still air which can't be described, only felt. The only
thing was you couldn't keep from gasping at the steep downward direction. At
least I couldn't. My daughter was blithe later. She thoroughly enjoyed it. And
son was also pretty cool. So maybe it's just me getting old!
Then the
horse suddenly seemed to go mad and walk right into the river. While I panicked
the guide was insouciant as ever. I realized belatedly the animals needed
watering.
Later we
had to stop for rafting. Which was really out of this world! So much fun. Here's a short video.
On the way
back our driver took us to apple gardens.
He asked us
if we had tried kehwa, the Kashmiri tea and we said yes, over at Nehru park in the lake. But he
sneered at that and took us to a stall by the numerous dry fruit shops lining
the road. It was indeed quite different there, tasting great with the crushed
almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, saffron and other spices. We went in the shop and
bought dried figs and blackberry. Also saffron which Pampore is famous for.
The next
morning we went to Shankaryacharya temple. The only pic I have is the sighting
we did from Dal Lake as camera wasn't allowed inside.
All in all it was a great trip. Here's some shopping I did. Though I was short of time to do much.
So how did
you spend your vacation? Do share.
Ciao!
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ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful photographs!!! I bet the trip was worth it even with the almost vertical climb/descent. I'd have been hanging on for all I was worth too! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jemi! Thank you. Yes, now I'm safely back I can say it was definitely worth it :)So glad you stopped by.
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