It was an exhilarating experience to be in close proximity to Himalayas. I have a great fascination for these huge mountains and considered myself lucky to get an opportunity to visit this state finally with the help of an Army friend.
Reached Jammu airport on 1st Aug and Colonel S was there to greet us. The entire trip was organised by him with the help of My Trip.com. We had a car arranged for us for our entire trip. Our driver, Rajiv, a young guy in his twenties took us to Katra from where we were supposed to take the chopper to Vaishnodevi temple. We reached Katra by afternoon but unfortunately due to bad weather chopper was not flying on that day.
We were unable to understand why on such a sunny day, chopper was not functional. We tried to figure this out by talking to Deccan guys who quite subtly told us to trust them as they knew better than us about the weather.
Due to rest of day plan, Colonel hired 2 army ponies to take us to the temple without wasting time. In my wildest dreams, I never realised that a Pony ride will turn out to be a nightmare !!!
It seemed Mata Vaishnodevi was in no mood to make our trip easy and pleasant as we thought it would be. As we climbed up, the weather started to play havoc. First, the visibility was reduced to zero and then all of a sudden huge downpour made it difficult for us to manoeuvre our ponies through the crowd. Luckily both myself and Tapashi had our raincoats and we managed to continue our journey.
Finally after 2 hours on the pony, we reached our destination. The whole temple complex was completely wet. We had to be careful walking as there was danger of slipping along the way. We were greeted by another gentlemen from the army who had our Darshan tickets ready. We followed him to the temple and were pleasantly surprised to see absolutely no crowd at sanctum sanctorum.
Mata Vaishnodevi finally blessed us with good Darshan after our gruelling experience on the pony.
The climb down on the pony is the worse than uphill. I decided to mentally switch off from thinking too much of the pain that my buttocks were going through while going down. My strong recommendation to people thinking of a pony ride is to walk, if possible and if not, use the Palki. Pony rides are OK if the entire ride is less than 1 hour and the ride is on the plains !
Finally at 8 PM, we managed to reach Katra where our driver was waiting to take us to Patni Top resort for our night stay.
Both of us were so tired and dead after the whole day trip that we just slumped our bodies on the backseat and made our way to Patni top. We were under the impression that it was 56 kms from Katra but came to know finally while checking-in at midnight from the hotel staff that it is 89 kms !
Needless to say, both of us did not have any energy left to take a shower or brush our teeth. We dumped our luggage and went off to sleep with horse shit smelling, only to wake up at 6 am to realise and appreciate the beauty of this quiet place.
We definitely wished we
could stay for another night at this beautiful place but unfortunately due to our schedule, we had to leave the place at 10:30 AM to start on our next leg of journey to be in Pahalgam. Pahalgam is in Kashmir valley and one has to cross the 3 km tunnel to enter into Kashmir from Jammu. Pahalgam is 96 km away from Srinagar at height of 2195 mtrs in "Liddar Valley". Place is cool and known for its natural beauty. It is surrounded by high peaks of mountains and the place we stayed in "Mount View" has good view of the Liddar river and the mountains in front.
From Pahalgam it is worth a trip to Chandanwari (resting point for Amarnath Yatris) and Aru (proununced as "Addo"). One can take a pony ride to Kashmir Valley, Baisaran and Banyahal. We were at Pahalgam for 2 nights. One could hear the chopper taking Amarnath Yatris to Panchtarni from morning till afternoon.
After enjoying Pahalgam, we drove down to Sonmarg which is at a height of 2667 mtrs on Srinagar-Leh Road. Indus River flows close by and the hotel we stayed in had a good view of the Thajawas Glacier. On our way, we got to see ruins of Awantipur. The archaeologists believe that 2 temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Shiva was built in 9th Century by King Avantivarman.
Hotel Sonmarg Glacier had all the comforts and good dining. On reaching, we immediately went to enjoy the beauty of
the Glaciers. Since next day was our day for Amarnath Yatra, both of us wanted to retire early to ensure we were up at 3 AM to get ready for the trip. 5th of Aug was last day of the Yatra and the most auspicious day (full moon day)
Early morning, we made our way to Baltal from where we were supposed to take chopper to Panchtarni. We were keeping our fingers crossed on the weather. Our Army friend had made arrangements with the pilot of chopper to take us on the 1st flight.
I had the privilege to be on the chopper by the pilot seat who was an ex-army colonel. I was excited as a kid to be viewing the valley at close quarters from the chopper as it made its way to Panchtarni. One could view the Amarnath Yatra route from the top and it definitely did not look an easy one. In less than 5 mns we landed at Panchtarni.
Since temple was closing at 12 in the noon, we had to take a Palki to reach on time. The view of the mountains is heavenly which can only be experienced by one and no amount of words would help to describe its beauty. Amarnath Cave is 12,758 feet hight and cave itself is 60 feet long and 30 feet wide. Below the cave, Amar Ganga flows where pilgrims take bath before entering the cave. We had a good darshan and felt blessed to have seen the ice lingam from close quarters.
After 2 nights at Sonmarg, we made our way to Srinagar where we were supposed to stay in Houseboat "Canberra" for 2 nights. The moment we arrived at Srinagar, there was some tension on the outskirts and we had to go via by-lanes to Dal Lake. The houseboat was beautiful and looked almost like a palace inside with exquisitely carved furniture.
Unfortunately, we did not find our houseboat Manager very homely and he seemed to ignore aspects of good hospitality. He and his wife never bothered to find out if we wanted lunch or dinner. We decided to have our dinner at Shamiana restaurant on Dal Lake road instead of having to remind the Manager every time.
While taking a Shikara ride in the evening, the cloud started gathering and in less than half an hour, we were welcomed with strong winds and rain. Luckily our one hour Shikara ride came to an end before getting caught in the downpour. We had yummy Afghani Chicken at Shamiana and around 9:30 PM decided to go back to our houseboat. More surprises were awaiting us as there was no power and the Manager informed that he will switch off the generator by 10:30PM which meant no fans for us !
It seemed that he was more interested in saving money than treating guests well. We decided to leave for Gulmarg the next day itself as we were not enjoying our stay at houseboat. Come morning, we left the place before 9 AM. While in Srinagar, we visited Shankaracharya temple, Mughal Gardens, Chasma Shahi, Lal Chowk, old Srinagar town etc.
In the old town, we could see a pakistani flag hoisted on top of a building ! It was a surprise to hear a chef informing us that Dr. Manmohan Singh from India visited them recently !! We asked him innocently if he was part of India or Pakistan to which he informed that youngsters do not want to be part of India or Pakistan but are looking forward to a Azad Kashmir which will be a separate country. The Army feels that most of their powers have been taken away by Government and they have to turn a blind eye to certain disturbing events in the state. If only they were given power, they can turn things around within months.
We were too happy to leave Srinagar and reach Gulmarg which is also known as "Valley of Flowers" situated at a height of 2730 mts. We stayed at Heevan Retreat which is nicely placed and very close to the Gondola (cable car). Since this was our last place to relax, both me and my friend decided to take it easy and enjoy the pristine beauty. The next day we took the Gondola to Khilanmarg and the Alpathar range from where one could see the LOC
. We also freaked out on the sledge.
While in Kashmir one should definitely not miss Kashmiri Wazawan. We tried out Rista (Lamb meat balls), Mutton Roganjosh, mirchi Korma but missed savouring the Gustaba. One can also enjoy Kashmir tea "Kahwa" which has "Kesar" and dry fruit pieces in it. They do not use tea leaves.
On the whole it was a memorable trip for me and Tapashi.
Reached Jammu airport on 1st Aug and Colonel S was there to greet us. The entire trip was organised by him with the help of My Trip.com. We had a car arranged for us for our entire trip. Our driver, Rajiv, a young guy in his twenties took us to Katra from where we were supposed to take the chopper to Vaishnodevi temple. We reached Katra by afternoon but unfortunately due to bad weather chopper was not flying on that day.
We were unable to understand why on such a sunny day, chopper was not functional. We tried to figure this out by talking to Deccan guys who quite subtly told us to trust them as they knew better than us about the weather.
Due to rest of day plan, Colonel hired 2 army ponies to take us to the temple without wasting time. In my wildest dreams, I never realised that a Pony ride will turn out to be a nightmare !!!
It seemed Mata Vaishnodevi was in no mood to make our trip easy and pleasant as we thought it would be. As we climbed up, the weather started to play havoc. First, the visibility was reduced to zero and then all of a sudden huge downpour made it difficult for us to manoeuvre our ponies through the crowd. Luckily both myself and Tapashi had our raincoats and we managed to continue our journey.
Finally after 2 hours on the pony, we reached our destination. The whole temple complex was completely wet. We had to be careful walking as there was danger of slipping along the way. We were greeted by another gentlemen from the army who had our Darshan tickets ready. We followed him to the temple and were pleasantly surprised to see absolutely no crowd at sanctum sanctorum.
Mata Vaishnodevi finally blessed us with good Darshan after our gruelling experience on the pony.
The climb down on the pony is the worse than uphill. I decided to mentally switch off from thinking too much of the pain that my buttocks were going through while going down. My strong recommendation to people thinking of a pony ride is to walk, if possible and if not, use the Palki. Pony rides are OK if the entire ride is less than 1 hour and the ride is on the plains !
Finally at 8 PM, we managed to reach Katra where our driver was waiting to take us to Patni Top resort for our night stay.
Both of us were so tired and dead after the whole day trip that we just slumped our bodies on the backseat and made our way to Patni top. We were under the impression that it was 56 kms from Katra but came to know finally while checking-in at midnight from the hotel staff that it is 89 kms !
Needless to say, both of us did not have any energy left to take a shower or brush our teeth. We dumped our luggage and went off to sleep with horse shit smelling, only to wake up at 6 am to realise and appreciate the beauty of this quiet place.
We definitely wished we
could stay for another night at this beautiful place but unfortunately due to our schedule, we had to leave the place at 10:30 AM to start on our next leg of journey to be in Pahalgam. Pahalgam is in Kashmir valley and one has to cross the 3 km tunnel to enter into Kashmir from Jammu. Pahalgam is 96 km away from Srinagar at height of 2195 mtrs in "Liddar Valley". Place is cool and known for its natural beauty. It is surrounded by high peaks of mountains and the place we stayed in "Mount View" has good view of the Liddar river and the mountains in front.
From Pahalgam it is worth a trip to Chandanwari (resting point for Amarnath Yatris) and Aru (proununced as "Addo"). One can take a pony ride to Kashmir Valley, Baisaran and Banyahal. We were at Pahalgam for 2 nights. One could hear the chopper taking Amarnath Yatris to Panchtarni from morning till afternoon.
After enjoying Pahalgam, we drove down to Sonmarg which is at a height of 2667 mtrs on Srinagar-Leh Road. Indus River flows close by and the hotel we stayed in had a good view of the Thajawas Glacier. On our way, we got to see ruins of Awantipur. The archaeologists believe that 2 temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Shiva was built in 9th Century by King Avantivarman.
Hotel Sonmarg Glacier had all the comforts and good dining. On reaching, we immediately went to enjoy the beauty of
the Glaciers. Since next day was our day for Amarnath Yatra, both of us wanted to retire early to ensure we were up at 3 AM to get ready for the trip. 5th of Aug was last day of the Yatra and the most auspicious day (full moon day)Early morning, we made our way to Baltal from where we were supposed to take chopper to Panchtarni. We were keeping our fingers crossed on the weather. Our Army friend had made arrangements with the pilot of chopper to take us on the 1st flight.
I had the privilege to be on the chopper by the pilot seat who was an ex-army colonel. I was excited as a kid to be viewing the valley at close quarters from the chopper as it made its way to Panchtarni. One could view the Amarnath Yatra route from the top and it definitely did not look an easy one. In less than 5 mns we landed at Panchtarni.
Since temple was closing at 12 in the noon, we had to take a Palki to reach on time. The view of the mountains is heavenly which can only be experienced by one and no amount of words would help to describe its beauty. Amarnath Cave is 12,758 feet hight and cave itself is 60 feet long and 30 feet wide. Below the cave, Amar Ganga flows where pilgrims take bath before entering the cave. We had a good darshan and felt blessed to have seen the ice lingam from close quarters.
After 2 nights at Sonmarg, we made our way to Srinagar where we were supposed to stay in Houseboat "Canberra" for 2 nights. The moment we arrived at Srinagar, there was some tension on the outskirts and we had to go via by-lanes to Dal Lake. The houseboat was beautiful and looked almost like a palace inside with exquisitely carved furniture.
Unfortunately, we did not find our houseboat Manager very homely and he seemed to ignore aspects of good hospitality. He and his wife never bothered to find out if we wanted lunch or dinner. We decided to have our dinner at Shamiana restaurant on Dal Lake road instead of having to remind the Manager every time.
While taking a Shikara ride in the evening, the cloud started gathering and in less than half an hour, we were welcomed with strong winds and rain. Luckily our one hour Shikara ride came to an end before getting caught in the downpour. We had yummy Afghani Chicken at Shamiana and around 9:30 PM decided to go back to our houseboat. More surprises were awaiting us as there was no power and the Manager informed that he will switch off the generator by 10:30PM which meant no fans for us !
It seemed that he was more interested in saving money than treating guests well. We decided to leave for Gulmarg the next day itself as we were not enjoying our stay at houseboat. Come morning, we left the place before 9 AM. While in Srinagar, we visited Shankaracharya temple, Mughal Gardens, Chasma Shahi, Lal Chowk, old Srinagar town etc.
In the old town, we could see a pakistani flag hoisted on top of a building ! It was a surprise to hear a chef informing us that Dr. Manmohan Singh from India visited them recently !! We asked him innocently if he was part of India or Pakistan to which he informed that youngsters do not want to be part of India or Pakistan but are looking forward to a Azad Kashmir which will be a separate country. The Army feels that most of their powers have been taken away by Government and they have to turn a blind eye to certain disturbing events in the state. If only they were given power, they can turn things around within months.
We were too happy to leave Srinagar and reach Gulmarg which is also known as "Valley of Flowers" situated at a height of 2730 mts. We stayed at Heevan Retreat which is nicely placed and very close to the Gondola (cable car). Since this was our last place to relax, both me and my friend decided to take it easy and enjoy the pristine beauty. The next day we took the Gondola to Khilanmarg and the Alpathar range from where one could see the LOC
. We also freaked out on the sledge.While in Kashmir one should definitely not miss Kashmiri Wazawan. We tried out Rista (Lamb meat balls), Mutton Roganjosh, mirchi Korma but missed savouring the Gustaba. One can also enjoy Kashmir tea "Kahwa" which has "Kesar" and dry fruit pieces in it. They do not use tea leaves.
On the whole it was a memorable trip for me and Tapashi.
