Tips of Kashmir travel
10 days Itinerary of Kashmir travel
Kashmir travel in October
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| Sunset at the lake |
This Puja October 2012 we, two families,
went for a short trip to Kashmir valley. This was our first visit to the valley. Time was very short for us, so
we made a plan for ourselves and tried to cover as many places without tiring.
This article will help those, who want to
visit the Kashmir valley for planning, cost estimation and of course the
practical tips for the Kashmir trip.
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| Saffron flower |
Firstly, I want to emphasize, the Kashmir
valley is now absolutely peaceful now and no one should miss the beauty of the
valley. I can assure you this will be your life time experience and you will
want to visit again and again. This is necessary too. We visited Kashmir in
Autumn. They say this is red Kashmir. Chinar trees and many other trees were
looking awesome with different shades of colour.
Two other seasons
are Green and White. January to March is
white and April to August is green.
We planned our
travel by train, being a employee in the Indian Railways, we travel free in
train in India, so it was the obvious choice. If this is not being the case,
for the return journey air is
preferable. If you travel both way by air, you will miss the charm of the
valley, while going from Jammu to Srinagar.
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| Who doesn't know it! |
Return by air is better for several reasons:
1. You will be tired after the trip and will try to reach home fast, while going , this will not be the case.
2. From Srinagar to Jammu, the traffic is unpredictable,(normal time required by car is about 8 hours for approx 300 Km) you have to start very early in the morning, even though, you have reservation in night train. This tension can be minimized if you add Vaishnodevi trip on the return, which we did not.
3. You will face horrible experience at Jammu station. Infrastructure is extremely poor. people are rowdy. Being a high official in Railways, it was the worst possible experience even for me! The station remain extremely crowded, and you will get no place to stand, leave aside sitting somewhere. Please note no porter of Jammu station works after 9 pm. Our train was at 9:45 pm and, we suffered a lot.
Let us move to our
itinerary .....
Day one: Maha
Sashthi 20th October 2012- We boarded
Rajdhani Express from Sealdah at 16: 20 Hrs
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| At a pandal of Delhi CR Park |
Day two: Maha Saptami 21st October 2012- Reached Delhi at 10: 20 Hrs. We had our rest house booked at Connaught Place. At about 14: 00 hrs, we went to CR park, by Metro and auto rickshaw. Saw the Durga Puja of Kali bari. Had excellent Khichuri Prasad at one of the pandals. Honestly, enjoyed much more than so called, theme pandals in Kolkata. Puja was like this in Kolkata too, several years ago. Our train to Udhampur was Sampark Kranti Express at 20:45 pm.
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| CR Park Delhi - Coperative Durga Puja |
Regarding Udhampur here are some practical points. This is about 50 Kms ahead of Jammu, towards Srinagar. You save time and energy. If you contact your car before hand, this is a nice small station to start your trip. The driver will pick you up from there. The train also reaches at a very comfortable time between 8:00 to 8:30 Hrs. Cars are available, though in lesser number. Porters are less in number. Always be ready to carry your own luggage. Ramp was there, so no problem if you are having luggage with wheels.
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| Indian Railway's Officer's Rest House at Patni Top |
Patnitop is a nice hill station, close to Jammu. Spending some time there will be pleasure. You may skip Patnitop, if you have time scarcity. We stayed there for a night because, Railways has an excellent Rest House there. There are many hotels of different categories, you may choose there on the spot, if you wish to stay. Otherwise, give Rs. 50 toll tax and have a round trip of the place in 30 mins , and head towards your next destination, in our case it was Pahalgam.
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| Pahelgam - By the side of Lidder River |
Day three Maha Nabami 23rd October 2012. Our next destination was Pahalgam. As I mentioned earlier, the traffic is unpredictable at Jammu - Srinagar highway, our driver cum owner Zahoor, very nice person, (Mob: +91 9419729634) urged to start early at 7 am. Had breakfast on our way to Pahalgam, we reached Pahalgam leisurely at about 3 pm. We had lunch in a restaurant there. Vegeterian restaurants are common in all these places. We chose a non veg restaurant. The food was good. Oh! yes before I forget, if you are fond of alcohol, collect it on the way to Pahalgam. Strangely enough, no wine shop is there in Pahalgam, possibly because, from here Amarnath Yatra starts. In Srinagar also, though available, it is costlier! We checked in an average hotel, as we had to stay there for the night only. What we required was clean beds and hot water in the bathroom and room heaters. The place was really cold, may be 3 - 4 degree Celsius! In the afternoon in our own hired car we went to the Leeder river bank, deer park and one mandir there. Nature's beauty of Pahalgam is unparallel! You will always feel no place can be more beautiful than this. God has really created a heaven here.
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| Chandanwari after a fresh Ice fall |
From Pahalgam you should see few points.
1. Chandanwari, from where Amarnath Yatra starts, Betab valley ( name from the film Betab), Aru valley.
2.Baisharan.
The first circuit can be done by car and will take about 3 hours and second one is Baisharan is by Ponny, another 3 hours. One should stay at Pahalgam for 2 nights to enjoy fully. We didn't have time, so we skipped the Vaisharan for the next time and went for the 1st trip by car on next day morning. You have to hire car separately for that trip. They will not allow your or, outside Pahalgam car for this trip. The rates are fixed. For a Tata sumo for 3 hours we paid Rs. 1600 for the no 1. trip. Hotel will call the car for you, when you require.
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| Chandanwari after a fresh Ice fall |
Day 4, Vijaya
Dashami, 24th October 2012. Though provided with room heater, and there was
provision of hot water from a central geyser to the bathroom, we suffered
because of power failure throughout the night. I am not sure, whether it is a
regular feature, or our bad luck for that day. However, they supplied hot water in the bucket in the morning. The morning was so cold, it was impossible to touch the water. We saw thin layers of ice on
the cars standing outside of hotel. Our locally hired car came at 8 am and we
saw the points. You can see from the photos to some extent, how good it was
after a fresh ice fall though out the night. It worth all the time, money,
energy we spent. Everyone forgot instantaneously, the power cut and hardship of
last night. At 12 we checked out from
the hotel and headed towards Srinagar.
We had our lunch
on the way, near to Pahalgam, in a roadside Dhaba. From there we collected Dry fruits, Kesar (saffron). On the way we
saw the area where cricket bats, made from Kashmir willow, are being
manufactured. Purchased one bat for my son. The rate start from Rs. 250 to
about Rs. 2500. According to my son the
bat he got is good and same bat will cost much higher in Kolkata. Honestly, for
me all looked same.....:)
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| Drawing room of a Super Deluxe Houseboat at Dal Lake |
Reached Srinagar
at about 4 pm. This is about 80 Km from Pahalgam and took us 3 to 4
hours to reach. We had a Super Deluxe Houseboat booked beforehand. There was
three kind of house boats according to decor, position and service. Super
deluxe, deluxe and normal. The rates vary accordingly. There are plenty of
houseboats. You can always bargain. It depends on which time of the year, you
are travelling. One should stay in the houseboat for a night in their trip. It is really a good experience to stand in
the early morning on the balcony and see the shikaras selling flowers, vegetables to the houseboats. Dal
lake is clean, opposed to what I expected. The drainage and sewerage of the boat
was very good. It was very clean and was having nice staffs.
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| Floating snacks bar at Dal Lake |
Day 5, 25th
October 2012. Half hour Shikara ride is Rs 200 and one hour is Rs 300. We had
our breakfast at the houseboat itself and went out for a Shikara ride. This is
an integral part of your Kashmir travel. Without the ride of shikara, your
travel will be incomplete. It is a different experience altogether. So many
shops float to you and you float to different shops. Tasted Kawa, the Kashmiri
tea from such a floating shop.
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| Floating Vegetable shop at Dal lake |
We had lunch with
one Kashmiri family, local acquaintance,
and at about 4 pm visited the gardens of
Srinagar. This is Autumn. Gardens were not very attractive. So we headed towards the Budgam, where again
Railways has beautiful rest house. This is about 20 kms from Srinagar. Since we
had the car always at our disposal we had no problem. There are several other
points at Srinagar to see. Sankaracharya mandir at the hill top, from where
whole Srinagar is visible, and some other places, you can see in J&K web
site. We didn't have time so skipped them for the next time. In and around
Srinagar, there are plenty of hotels to stay at different price levels. You
need not to worry at all unless you are going at terrible peak season (late
May and early June). Hotels of all kind of budget are always available.
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| Indian Railway's Officer's rest House at Budgam |
Day 6, 26th
October 2012. Stayed at the beautiful
comfortable Budgam Rest house for the night and early in the morning at 8 am,
today we left for the Sonmarg Glacier. The road condition of the whole
Kashmir is excellent. It took nearly 3
hours leisurely to reach Sonmarg, though we were about 20 km away from the
Srinagar. In Sonmarg also, for the local
sight seeing they will not allow your car. You have to hire the car from there.
Here you have to bargain. They asked Rs. 4500 for some five point tour. Our
driver bargained down to Rs.1800. It took us about 2 hours. From same point, if you want to go to glacier
you can walk or have pony. Walk is very comfortable unless you want to climb at
the last part, to the strip of glacier, very unimpressive during this time.
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| Walking to Sonmarg Glacier |
The
pony will take you near (not up to) that strip, rest you have to climb and
funniest of all the pony will not bring you down from there, which you have to
walk yourself! It is really steep about 50 degrees or, more of about 500 meters
stretch, and not worth! Most of us walked comfortably up to the steep part and
three of us took pony up to that strip of glacier. Each pony charged Rs. 400
after huge bargaining. It was about 3 pm
then. There was only one restaurant at Sonmarg and they were charging Rs 350
for vegetarian buffet! None of us agreed so we left and had Alu parahtha for
lunch that day, again in a roadside dhaba. Returned to the rest house in the
evening, boooze.....and had a good sleep at night.
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| Strip of Glacier at Sonmarg |
Day 7, 27th
October 2012 Eid - Today our destination was Gulmarg and gandola ride. Today
was Eid and our driver said the distance is less and they had prayer time in
the morning so will start late. We agreed and had our breakfast at rest house.
The car came after 10 am. The road to Gulmarg
was unusually empty. All shops were closed. It was so due to Eid. We
reached in about two hours. On the way learned gandola is not running due to
Eid. Felt really depressed. Anyway Gandola is only 25% of Gulmarg, rest 75% was
there for us. Later I learnt, gandola itself is a fishy affair. Government has
no control over its running. Local people's influence matters. All pony walas
were very active there. It was there day! Our driver was a nice fellow. He felt
for us and managed some how to enter the Gulmarg area. Like the other places,
this was not allowed here for outside
vehicle. You have to travel in the gulmarg area by foot or pony. This being a
plain piece of land , walking will be a pleasure. However, our driver was
smart, and only wewere the tourusts, travelled inside the gulmarg area by car. Others were on pony or foot. Local cars might be too costly, I didn't see anyone other than us in car!
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| Golf club at Gulmarg |
It is another lovely
place made by god. There are several points in the Gumarg to see. The Golf
course, Club, the Shiv mandir, where the famous song “Jai Jai Shiva Shankar”
was shot with Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz. One can stay here in hotel.
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| A view from Gulmarg |
Quickly tour
to Gulmarg finished and we tried biryani in a restaurant there! It was a big
mistake. The worst food we tasted in our whole trip was that.
We returned from
Gulmarg, little disappointed due to the gondola problem and thought, will do
some last minute marketing , as it was the last day of our trip. By 3 pm we
were in Srinagar and believe it or not, it was a complete “bandh” like state!
Everything was closed! Actually we lost the whole afternoon and went back to
our rest house. So, please check for any Muslim festival date, particularly
Eid, while you make your tour plan.
Day 8, 28th
October – Day of return from heaven. Driver again urged to start early. We
started at 7 am from Budgam. Srinagar is 300 Km from here. If you, hire car
from Jammu to Jammu the fare will be same That is Rs. 2500 per day. But if you
calculate on daily basis Km wise the fare for today’s travel will be Rs.4500.
So, if you plan to come by flight bargain with the car properly. By nature
Kashmiris are very nice. They will not loot you in general, though exceptions
are there. You need to be careful.
Road was empty due
to continuation of Eid festival. We reached Jammu at 4 pm. Taken breakfast in
the car with cakes we bought previous day. We had lunch at Udhampur. I will advice
to take train from Udhampur to avoid the horrible experience of Jammu Railway
station, as I mentioned earlier. You will reach at least one hour early too. At
present only Sampark Kranti Express runs from Udhampur to New delhi. For direct
train of course, you need to come to Jammu.
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