Well, Yes, i don't know where to start, on our promise to travel annually, me and my best friend, gave it a try to travel along with our hubbies. Amidst the corona scare and the location based panics, we decided to not take chance venturing around in Kashmir alone... But let's get sorted that the panics created about the location is all hyped and no such scare was acquainted by us...The best part of our trip was our guide, cab driver, who made sure we had a time of our life...He made sure he was our personal photographer, made sure we ate at best outlets, and one thing he kept repeating was you are our guest you are our responsibility, don't worry and just enjoy...must mention him here Mr. Mohd Shafi a big Thank You. (In his words: Didi aap tension kyu leta ho, tum hamare kashmir mein aya ab sab bhul jao aur majja karo, tension ab main lunga) And it truly makes sense that experiencing the place with the locals is the best one!
Waking up from an nice deep sleep and to an awesome view....the night had got a little longer to make up with the tiredness of previous day...Without wasting much of time we had our yummy hot breakie, where we tried the kashmiri bread which are round in shape and little thick, and you will find most of the locals eating it...!!!
Without wasting further time...our guide took us to the gandola ride...Around Rs 750 per ticket for to and fro ride.....After taking the tickets and completing the covid precautions and check formalities we headed to our ride...Believe me it was unbelievable to be on a gandola with that scenic beauty around....Just by being on the ride was a treat to our eyes....We reached Phase 1...and the view was to die for...It had snowed heavily in the morning, until our eyes reached we could just see snow....and we had our guides waiting for the skii...Today we were little more confident than yesterday and probably more excited for ski lessons...as the slopes were steep, view was amazing and it was continuously snowing, making it more difficult to even attempt it...We started our skii rides...The thrill was next level we fell the first time on the steep slope as it went zooooommmm and we didnt know what happened in few seconds...Here came the time and we were taught ploughing and moves to reduce the speed on the slopes...and some of us learnt really soon. Once you start to know you can control your ski, the feeling on being on that white powder is beyond imagination...One thing is best there we shall get tired skiing but they wont stop unless we wish to do so... The snowfall was very heavy that day, rescue team was on duty...
Adding to our disappointment due to bad weather we couldn't head to phase 2 and do other snow activities which was getting scarier...It was afternoon and don't remember after how many rounds like 30 or so...we were dead tired and hungry...we were taken by our guide to a small dhaba where again we had pulav and dum aloo ... and as a travel mandate we gulped on maggi too..the dum aloo tasted better here...!!! By the time we were done with a petit lunch, the weather outside got little better...we took back the gandola rides and headed back to Gulmarg base....We were still little hungry and were craving the hot kahwa at Bhat Dhaba we had day before, reaching the dhaba we had awesome paneer, bread pakodas and hot kahwa.....It was almost evening.....We decide to chill the other part of the evening in our hotel and headed to our rooms....A child within us wanted to make a snowman ...It was snow everywhere, just outside our room we made a snowman, played some music, chit chatted over the experience and discussing on coming again for a ski course...Later we had our dinner at our hotel restaurant..spicy and yummy food and it was a good night time!!!
Well we started from Mumbai really early, 5 am flight, as excited as ever. Airports weren't so quite, people maintained social distancing, no crowd gathers, we did our check-ins smoothly and boarded the flight. Must say being one of the longest routes within India, the flight was very smooth and we had a safe landing at Srinagar airport at 8 am. Experiencing extremes of the climate from hottest to the coldest...Getting in from almost 30 degrees to 6 degrees was an a bt expected transition...We met our guide and we proceeded our journey to one of the best places which has a special place in my heart 'Gulmarg'...The journey from Srinagar airport to Gulmarg is of about 2- 2.5 hours. Passing by the Srinagar city, with small one or two storey apartments on both sides, not very urbanised, spotted military frequently, and none of the shops were opened due to winters, they generally open at 10 am or so.... Since we had a morning flight we were super hungry and being in the Kashmiri city, we were longing to binge on some Pahadi breakfast....Based on the little bit of research about the pit stops for good vegetarian food, we decided to halt at Raja Dhaba on the way heading towards Gulmarg.
All excited we ordered Paneer, Gobi, Mulli, Aloo Paratha all what he could get us...and needles to say Chane(chole) ...After a while, he got them all together, well we had a little difficulty to figure out which one is which paratha. We had an illusion of expectation vs reality there...We were expecting our parathas to be more filled with the respective stuffing, however they were so flat we couldn't make out, but they were yummy and we managed to gobble them all. Upon further request of getting them customized with more filling, he smilingly got them, which almost took our hearts away... And after our filling breakfast we got into our Innova and started the journey ahead....
We reached Tanmarg, wherein, we were taken by our guide to rent coats, boots and gloves, as in Gulmarg with its high snow levels , its difficult to venture in your normal sports shoes....Normally this guides have their tie-ups and they make sure we get the best things and we had to pay an affordable rent of Rs. 2000 for 4 coats, 4 pair of boots for 2 days...From Tanmarg, normal cabs are not allowed, since the roads are curvy and snow clad, Gulmarg union cars with chains are allowed.. We hardly spotted any snow till we reached Tanmarg...however the moment curvy journey towards Gulmarg commenced our eyes were sinking into the postcards always saw of the snow clad surrounding and getting back to life to actually visualize it....We urged to stop on the way to click some pics...However, as assured our guide took us to the best place for pics commonly known as Zig point...he helped us click few good pics and we proceeded ahead...Containing our excitement to get down at every beautiful spot we located..we reached our hotel - Nedous...and to our surprise we got an upgrade and a beautiful cottage with 2 bed rooms and one small common area was allotted and all we could see was 6-7ft infinity ice all over....
Due to paucity of time we got ready in our boots and coats and rushed to eat lunch at some local dhaba in Gulmarg petit market.
It was 1:30 pm and we reached Bhat Dhaba and as an awesome host our guide ordered for us Kashmiri Pulav and Dum Aloo, so the suspense gets over and we binge on the scrumptious food....Its rightly said when you are hungry, you like it all....but here we took the best memories along....While leaving the dhaba we were treated with hot kashmiri kahwa, that's what the weather demanded too..!!!
Further not wasting too much time...we headed for the most awaited part of the trip Skiiiinnngg...there will be like too many guides running behind you for your ski adventure....We booked 2 days skii (first day at Gulmarg and day 2 at Phase 1) for Rs. 3000 per person...The Ski lessons began..initially we could barely take the weight of the ski and stand and walk....however in no time with the guides help and too much to our thrill we could venture on flat and very little sloppy surface....and its rightly said its an addiction..the feeling of moving smoothly on the ice clad surface on those skiis made life worth living and learning new things....As it was our first day we walked a bit, fell many times, but we headed back to our rooms with lovely memories....Few of us had dinner at hotel and enjoyed the yummy dal makhani and i slept the moment we reached to our room....early to rise early to bed.... What a satisfying day it was...!!!!!
Waking up from one of the chilliest night at Pahalgham...It was an nice early morning...we were up and ready 6:30 am, as we had to head Srinagar, do some sight seeing and our flight back was scheduled at 3, so had to reach airport by 1 pm...To our drivers surprise we were ready and to push back soon,...we had to wake them up.....We started our journey back to Srinagar...on the way at Phulwama, we also witnessed the entire convoy of India army...that was a different feeling....Upon reaching Srinagar we did breakfast some hot samosas and Kahwa, (for the trip days chai had been replaced by Kahwa) and then as a pure tourist at heart we religiously headed to Dal lake for our Shikara ride and a small ride....It was a good feeling to see floating market, medical store and for some it was their home...Reminiscing some bollywood movie scenes and a brief chat on our shikara ride...We headed to Srinagar sightseeing...We were doing things as locals do...looking for local bakeries, we didn't find any vegetarian ones though, roaming on the roads, tried one of their mostly talked about street food Masale, which had mixed reviews within group....Also tried their famous halwa puri and nadru (lotus stem) chips...After heavy lunch at a local small dhaba near airport we headed for check in....Indeed the experience was worth living and enjoying because we had our guide all along the trip and he kept all our wishes to things as locals as well as tourists....After Checking in at airport after many security checks...we had our moods off already...who likes to return from a trip...However it was March 10 and Corona scare had began to rise, we were extra cautious on the way back. We friends couldn't feel the 3 hour long travel between Srinagar to Mumbai at all as we revisited our pics talked about the experiences...No trip is dull if you take it with your best friend.... and once again I would repeat Its difficult to forget first love and your first trip to Kashmir....With a promise to return to Gulmarg, Signing Off...Chao..Hope you had a great experience reading this...Until we get to travel lets talk about travel!!!!
Good Morning....It was time to say goodbye to Gulmarg...and we still feel we could have stayed a day more, it's a place which wasn't going to be enough ever....After our looooongg breakfast...we were headed towards next tourist destination of Kashmir-Pahalgham.....We had planned to visit an off beat location Yousmarg, however due to bad weather and excess snow, the roads to Yousmarg were shut...and hence we closed on Pahalgham...It was about 4-5 hours drive from Gulmarg to Pahalgham...until we crossed Gulamrg it was snowy both sides....then the patch was a little dry, the season wasn't complementing to visit other parts of Kashmir....Enroute we didn't find many restaurants, we were binging on snacks we had packed the typical Thepla khakra without which any Indian traveller is handicapped on his trips...After reaching Pahalgham, comes the most adventurous part, we had booked JKTDC hotel for Yousmurg, for which they gave us a transfer at Pahalgham...Upon reaching we got know there's nobody staying in that hotel, and we were only people...the scariness had started to creep in...however we checked in...Unlike Gulmarg the rooms weren't having central heaters, small heaters and hot bags, which initially had no impact on the outside cold....We were hungry and headed for lunch...not many places or shops were open, not many tourist were around...it seems to be bad choice of doing Pahalgham in that season...We had lunch in Dana Pani a newly opened veg restaurant and happen to eat local Nadru Yakhni, it was delicious...and the food was pretty good...After lunch, we headed for some sight seeing we went to Aru Valley and Betaab valley....Views were amazing...Valleys cladded partially with snow...gave us some breathtaking views...Locals aren't as friendly as Gulmarg, but didn't cause any harm....It was already evening...the market was a long patch but 80% of the shops weren't open..It seems they come only during tourist season. Just wandering around a bit, we had dinner at Dana Pani again and headed back to our hotel....Which at night looked scary as it was on height and lights were really dim and there was nobody staying around...The staff was co-operative and ensure we get whatever was needed.
