Kashmir Vacation Chronicles ...

Back from a week's vacation in Kashmir. "Beautiful"is all i could sum up when i think of the scenery i saw in Kashmir, because words fail me, the place is just heaven on earth for its beauty. Snow clad mountains even in summer!, gushing rivers (perfectly suited for river rafting!), green fields filled with sarsoan (mustard) and even the ones which had Saffron grown on them, this place has it all.

Our trip was not off to a great start , as we had planned to take our darling daughter on a long distance train trip as she has never experienced one so far in her life. As fate would have it our train was delayed by 2 hours, reason  1st AC coach had some technical problems and our tickets had been unceremoniously shifted to 2 tier AC without even bothering to keep the confirmed ticket holders of 1st AC boogey informed!

Since the train was running 2 hours late all along, we missed our transit flight from Delhi - Srinagar, and were left with no option but to stay overnight at Delhi, this was sort of blessing in disguise , as we got the chance to visit few places in Delhi, my first ever visit to the Capital!

First we went to the Red Fort ; Amazing architecture and such foresight! Kudos to the creators.

 Then we got a glimpse of Majestic India Gate ! Being there in the place and reading out the names of  martyrs, en carved in the stones of the structure, gave us goosebumps. Jai Jawan!

Next day we took the early morning flight , yes , it was very difficult to to get up, get ready and wake up my darling daughter all at 3:45 AM to catch the 5:35 flight; guess what our hotel had promised Airport drop , but somehow logistics went wrong and they took about 10-15 min to actually get a cab, so here we were running late, on reaching the airport we found out that check-in counter was closed for our flight and somehow a considerate supervisor there, saw our plight and gave a go-ahead and we were allowed to check in ! Didn't want to miss the flight again,so that was a huge sigh of relief, as we rushed in from one counter to another to complete all the checks.

We landed in Srininagar at around 7:15 am and were welcomed with a temp of 7 degree celcius! Oh yes, we were literally chilling out. We stayed in the boathouse for the first 2 nights, here is a glimpse of it.

First day, it was local sightseeing and we went to see Chashmeshaaheen park, Mughal Gardens, Nishat Garden, Shalimar Gardens. Of these i liked Chashmeshaaheen park for the crystal clear water spring, which was the center of attraction for the park. I am not sure if it was the reason or not, i had splashed the water on my face couple of times and the next morning, my dark circles had come down! 

The next our destination was Sonmarg.

On our way to Sonmarg, glimpse of Sindh river gushing in all its glory! River rafting is in my wishlist and will definitely take to it, once my darling daughter is bit grown up!

Everlasting scenes of snow capped mountain, it was surreal!

One thing i felt was missing - tourist friendly attitude with the locals; it isjust not there, they mostly think you are here,so what , just cough up enough money and get the hell out of this place! seriously this attitude of treating tourists like money lending machines is such  a dampener and but for the pristine beauty of the place, the locals almost ensure that you do not think about revisiting,,, more on this when i continue...

To Be Continued ....

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