It was a sudden decision to accept the offer from my eldest sister for a visit to Kashmir. She had informed me that she had already booked 4 seats through Kesari Travels and if we accepted, she would include the two of us, my wife and me on this conducted trip. But the caveat was, If Kesari could accommodate two additional in their overall group of 25.
I wasn't very sure that we would get the seats, especially because the dates were matching the dates of G20 Meeting at Srinagar on Tourism. I was a bit apprehensive too about security and what if something untoward happened. They proved to be baseless and imaginary.
Our seats were confirmed almost immediately. After landing in Srinagar, we came to understand that Kesari had made bookings for their customers from various places by GoFirst and since the Airline was grounded, 14 of the 25 in the Group did not turn up. Kesari was gracious enough to accept the smaller group of 11 and kept the entire circuit unchanged and did not compromise on anything.
Our group of 6 family members were my two elder sisters, my brother-in-law, my niece's mother-in-law and the two of us.
We took the Indigo hopping flight via Amritsar to Srinagar on 20th Morning. But for the long and boring duration of the flight and the 45 minutes halt at Amritsar, it was uneventful. At Srinagar airport, Kesari's Go-To person Manoj received us and assigned a Tavera for us six members to proceed to Hotel Jamaal. We were accompanied by our Tour Team Manager from Kesari, Deepak Gavali, who stayed with us for all the five days until we returned to Srinagar airport on 25th May.
Srinagar was pretty warm during day time reaching 35 deg C, but night times were quite cool with the temp dropping to 8 deg C. The hotel was in the centre of a huge property, owned by the Jamaal's and very neatly maintained with a massive garden of flowers. The rooms were excellent and service exemplary. The good part of travelling with Kesari is that their cost includes logistics (both air and road), boarding and lodging. If purchasing isn't something on your mind there are no additional expenses, but for the tips to the waiters and bell boys. But everyone gets tempted to buy and that is an individual choice.
Post lunch at the hotel, we spent a good deal of time at the huge emporium of Jamaals where everything Kashmiri is available viz, shawls, carpets, dress materials, fur/woollen caps, gloves, overcoats etc. We initially thought of walking the 2 KMs from the hotel to the edge of Dal Lake, but finally decided not to. Our 6-member family group consisted of senior citizens only and since this wasn't a part of Kesari's itinerary, we voted against taking a chance. We helped ourselves to plenty of snaps at the lovely garden at Jamaal's. Surprisingly sunsets are pretty late in the evening and it gets dark only at 7:45 PM. Likewise dawn at 5:15 AM...if it isn't raining!!
The next morning, we commenced our day sightseeing trip around Srinagar. We hopped on to the Tavera assigned to us and the first stop was at the Shankaracharya Hills. Security across Srinagar was on high alert due to the ensuing G20 Summit. Road to Shankaracharya hills wasn't crowded and we were able to reach it in 30 minutes from the hotel. The 250 Steps Climb was however tough on all of us. We however made it with a lot of huffing and puffing. There is a lovely Shiva Temple on the hill top and just a couple of steps down from this temple is where Adi Shankaracharya is said to have meditated. We discovered that climbing down can be a tad tougher than climbing up. The legs become wobbly and we need to be alert to avoid any mishaps.
Our next stop was at Ghat 15 of Dal Lake and each pair was given a paddle boat called Shikara. These paddle boats are operated by young Kashmiris, not older than 25 years. They are very courteous, soft spoken and brand ambassadors of Srinagar and Kashmir. Dal is the 2nd largest lake in Kashmir covering an area of 22 square KM's. It gets its water from the Jhelum River. Thanks to the G20, the entire lake had been completely cleared of the floating weeds. We did find a few mechanized weeds removing floating vessels doing its rounds. Our Shikara boatman kept playing the song from Kashmir Ki Kali starring Shammi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore. All kinds of wares are sold through vendor boats. We had a fruit plate - fresh fruits grown in and around Kashmir. The biggest attraction is photo shoots in Kashmiri overalls. Both of us indulged in it and the trigger-happy photographer was very happy!! The boat ride lasts about an hour and half with additional time being given at an island called Char Chinar Island and then at a floating market. Post the photo shoot, we were taken to a tiny island where there is a Chinar Tree in the four corners. The island gets its name from the Char Chinar Trees. We were informed that Murad Baksh, brother of Aurangzeb built this island and planted the Chinar Trees. These trees are long lasting - upwards of 650 Years and the leaves turn Blood Red in Autumn from being Green in Summer. These protected trees, a pride of Kashmir, are now controlled and monitored by J & K Govt. Felling of these trees is banned and punishable by law. We met with a different set of photographers on this island and were sweetly led into more colourful costumes and snaps. We also took a short 5 minute speedboat ride around this island.
From the Char Chinar Island, we went to the floating market where our womenfolk were drawn and attracted by the various racks and racks of shawls and dress materials. Kashmiris are amazing sales people - they can sweet talk even the toughest naysayers to purchase. Once the purchases were done, we headed back to Ghat 15, collected prints of the photographs taken on the Shikara and headed back to hotel Jamaal for a late tasty and sumptuous lunch. Post lunch we headed to Shalimar Gardens and spent a good one hour amidst the greenery and colourful flowers. After returning from the Shalimar Gardens, we decided to take some rest. My sisters however had spotted a nice Kashmiri Govt outlet round the corner and decided to explore. We had an early dinner and after getting instructions on the following day by our Tour Manager, we retired for the night.
I must not fail to mention that at Srinagar, security was given the utmost priority because of the G20 Summit from 22nd May to 24th May. While we did not face any delays on any road from Airport to Hotel Jamaal, we were told that there would be restrictions for the next three days. By and large our travel across Srinagar was smooth and peaceful with no delays anywhere, we however did not get a chance to visit the Market at Lal Chowk which has been recently spruced up as part of the Smart City Initiative and G20 Summit. We were also not allowed to go to the largest market in Srinagar, Polo View Market as this area was earmarked for the visit of all delegates from G20. While we visited Shalimar Gardens, we weren't allowed to go to the Best & I believe the most beautiful Nishat Gardens. Noticeably absent in and around Srinagar are Malls, Large Apparel (Branded) Stores. I did not see common brands like Bata, Lenskart, Fab India, Tanishq, Nike, Allen Solly, Levi's etc. None of the Hospital Networks namely Apollo, Manipal, Fortis are present. Fuel outlets are only maintained by Indian Oil Corporation. Telephone networks are mostly from BSNL and Airtel. Network is however good and all hotels have WiFi. The roads in Srinagar are extremely well maintained and smooth...much better than Bengaluru. We thought the State & National highways may not be great, but contrary to our thinking, all roads across J & K are extremely good. People in Kashmir thank the Modi Government for the great infrastructure.
We had an early breakfast on 22nd morning at Jamaal and started by a 20-seater minibus to Pahalgam. It was a 6-hour ride with a few halts on the way. The first stop was at Pampore, the land famous for Saffron cultivation. This is an endangered cash crop and grown only in this district of Pampore. It's a short plant, almost like a shrub. The purple flowers have crimson red stigmas or threads and these are plucked and dried before packaging. The original crimson red stigma when placed in a glass of water or milk slowly begins to change the liquid colour to yellow. The stigma doesn't dissolve but just gives out the colour and fragrance. If the colour changes to yellow and the stigma doesn’t dissolve, you know for sure, the saffron is pure. Cultivated area in this district is around 3,000 acres. Bulk of the saffron in the world is however cultivated in Iran...We alighted at one of the growers Outlet - U U Kesari where we also purchased Kesari, the special small size Almonds grown in this area and assorted dry fruits grown in Kashmir.
Our next pit stop was at Awantipora. This is in Pulwama district and while arriving at Awantipora we crossed the point where our soldiers were martyred. Awantipora is a historical place and has the ruins of a huge Shiva and Krishna temple. We did not stop at the Shiva temple. The Krishna temple was buried during a massive earthquake and remained buried for almost 500 years. Declared as a Heritage site, it is managed by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). The song sequence "Tere Bina Zindagi se Shikwa to Nahin" from the film Aandhi starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen was shot at this site amidst the ruins of the Krishna Temple.
We moved on from here towards Pahalgam and the last pit stop was at an apple orchard. Two types of apples are grown in the Kashmir valley. The Green apple, also called the Golden Apple and the more well-known Red Apple. The Green apple has a shelf life of 1 year, but the red apple has a very short shelf life. This wasn't the season for plucking and on the contrary, we saw tiny apples that had just made their appearance on all the trees in the orchard. We were offered complimentary green apple juice at the orchard and were told that the fruits would be ready for plucking in the months of October and November.
We continued on our journey to Pahalgam, which was a three-hour ride from the apple orchard. While the scenic beauty for the entire part of the journey was amazing, the Tour Manager engaged us in Antakshari and we spent an hour and half singing songs amongst the group of 11 in Kesari Travels. At the foothills, we took a lunch break at a Jain hotel and we were treated to Pav Bhaji - Mumbai style. Pav as in Mumbai isn't available in Kashmir, but we settled for normal loaves of toasted bread. The Bhaji was excellently made. We were told that Kesari Travels have their own "Specialty" cooks who travel to the hotels where customers of Kesari travel to and cook one or two dishes for their guests. The rest of the food is prepared by the Locals. Famous and extremely tasty dishes are Cauliflower & Potato curry and Button mushroom & potato curry in Kashmir for vegetarians.
It was lunch time by the time we reached our hotel, Maharaja Palace at Pahalgam. The entire town is on hilly terrain and we had to take a steep downward slope towards the hotel entrance. It wasn't possible for the minibus to come down this slope and so we got down at the road above and walked towards the hotel. As the name suggested, the rooms were extremely big, spacious and tastefully decorated, fit for a Maharaja. Although it was 2 PM in the afternoon, it was quite chilly and we pulled out our sweaters/jackets to keep ourselves warm. After a sumptuous meal, we hit the road again, this time in a Sumo & Tavera towards Chandanwadi, 16 KM's from Pahalgam. The temperature was 8 Deg C at this place. Chandanwadi is the starting point or the base camp for devotees traveling to Amarnath caves. From Chandanwadi there are three modes to cover the route length of 32 KM's to Amarnath Cave which houses the Tall Ice Shiva Linga. By walk, pony ride or helicopter. During winter months the whole of Pahalgam gets covered in snow. Since our visit was in Summer, the snow had turned into hard ice and the lower part was covered with mud making it look almost brown/black and dirty. Having come all the way both my wife and I took the chance of walking on the icy snow. It was slippery and dangerous. We had to tread very cautiously and avoid falling down awkwardly. We did slip a couple of times but to our luck retained balance. There were a lot of visitors at Chandanwadi and as usual, the place was strewn with used paper covers, plastic bottles and filth. Indians somehow treat their own country with scant regard for cleanliness. The entire J & K has maintained a very clean, plastic free surrounding, except for some of these tourist spots where people travel in hordes and dirty the place with their litter. People need to learn to treat their environment as their home.
On the return trip from Chandanwadi to Pahalgam, we stopped for a Photo-shoot at Betaab Valley. Originally known as Hagan Valley, it became popularly known as Betaab Valley after the popular Hindi film Betaab was released in 1983 starring Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh. After taking a couple of long-distance snaps we headed back to Maharaja palace for evening tea. Kesari had organized team games around a bonfire within the campus of the hotel and our team of 11 plus a few other guests from the hotel thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
The following morning, we started as usual at 8:30 AM in our minibus to Gulmarg. The journey was covered with two stops, the first at a Cricket Bat Factory and outlet, "Alpha Sports". Good cricket bats are made from Kashmir Willow and English Willow. The factory we visited have acres of land growing Willow trees and a small section is reserved for the English Willow. This industry is more than 100 years old in Kashmir and cricket bats used by our players are all from Kashmir. It takes 25 years for a tree to fully grow before being chopped for processing. Once the trees are felled, they are cut to the requisite size and left to being seasoned in the open, generally roof tops for 10 to 12 months. Speciality of Willow wood is the softness to work on it by the skilled workforce, its strength and its ability to absorb shocks. For the rough cut, machines are used, but the final shape is entirely handcrafted. Before the web shape at one end of the handle is inserted into the V groove of the bat, the bat is compressed in a hydraulic press, giving the striking portion additional strength. The factory we visited to see the entire process, incidentally has supplied cricket bats to Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin was known to have used very heavy bats during his playing years. There was a wide array of bats on display in their showroom...we picked up two autograph bats as a memento.
Our next halt was at a Carpet making factory and outlet, "Arts & Crafts Bazaar”. The good part about Kesari Travels is they have befriended the local folks and factory owners and in return the factory owners provide an educator cum sales person to guide the visitors around their factory explaining the finer aspects that go into manufacturing. These factories with their retail outlets also provide restroom facilities to the tourists. The best part is the Kashmiri drink Kahwa these outlets serve. Kahwa is an exotic mix of Kashmiri green tea leaves, whole spices, nuts and saffron, traditionally prepared in a brass kettle.
Regarding handmade carpets, we were given the following overview about the exotic varieties. The standard carpet sizes are 2' x 3', 3' x 5', 6' x 4', 6' x 9'. The number of knots are either18x18 or 20x20 per square inch. Primarily there are 4 varieties of carpets depending on what type of thread is used. These are Synthetic Silk on Merchandised Cotton; Silk on Silk; Silk on Cotton and Wool on Wool. Cost is worked out on the material and labour. They showed us a 6' x 9' carpet, silk on silk costing a few lakhs. If only one person were to work on this project, he would have taken 21 years to complete. The carpet was absolutely exotic and as they spun it around, its colours kept changing. Such carpets can also be used as a wall hanging!
We finally reached Gulmarg Resorts, our home for two nights at 3:00 PM. After relaxing a bit, we took a private Sumo for the five of us to do some local sightseeing. This was the only part we paid on our own; Kesari Travels had taken care of all our travel, boarding and lodging costs. It had begun to drizzle and the wind chill factor made us feel that the temperature was less than 6 Deg C. We visited the Maharaja Palace. Saw the Golf course from the outer boundary, Strawberry Valley and Maharani Temple. The Maharani had this Shiva Temple built and the name got stuck in people's minds. The Strawberry Valley was the biggest disappointment. We were informed that Strawberry farming was done during the British Reign. Post independence in 1947, farmers/owners in this valley only grew potatoes.
Back at the hotel, we were told by our Tour Manager that the next day, we would undertake the Gondola Ride, weather permitting. The climb is in 2 phases. In the first phase, cable car takes us from 8,750 ft to 10,500 ft. The 2nd phase takes people from 10,500 ft to 14,250 ft. The visibility was very poor with dense mist/fog and low hanging clouds. However, we were lucky to get into the 1st phase of the ride. We had taken adequate precautions from the biting cold and constant drizzle. Gumboots and Overcoats were available on hire and we had waterproof gloves and caps that covered our ears, besides the additional hood of the overcoat. It came in handy. As we got out of the cable car at the first level, we did not encounter snow. We also came to know that Phase 2 was cancelled for the day due to poor visibility. Guides however told us that they would take us to the base of the snow-clad mountains and undertake a few activities on the snow. We found the going very tough as the constant drizzle had made the entire stretch slippery. My wife and I braved it out by negotiating the slippery slopes with help from the guides and Skiing Sticks. None of our other family members took the risk of walking up to the snow-clad zone. After posing for a few photographs, we slowly started our way back to the Gondola. By the time we decided to return, the mist appeared from nowhere and visibility was reduced to less than 20 ft. With help from guides, we reunited with our family at the midpoint and slowly trudged back to the Gondola and later down to the base. It really was adventurous, but scary at times. One wrong step on the slippery slope would have broken a few bones...
Back at the hotel, Gulmarg Resorts, we asked for hot tea to get some warmth back and later went for lunch at 2 PM. We were free for the rest of the day. Both my sisters went shopping at the local market place and bought articles that were cheaper than at Srinagar and better quality. Before dinner, our Tour Manager organized a Housey-Housey game and spent considerable time going over the past 5 days trip, the places we had covered, the factories we had visited etc. It was a nice gesture from his side to help us recall what we had done as a team in the past few days. The following day was a simple check-out at 8:45 PM and Travel to Srinagar Airport by the same minibus and take the flight back home.
Little did we know what was in store for us on the return journey by Indigo Airlines. Our path was Srinagar to Delhi and then a change of flight from Delhi to Bengaluru. The security checks at Srinagar are quite elaborate. Baggage screening is done twice just to ensure that the first screening was not incorrectly done. To our dismay the baggage belt conveyors at the check-in counter were dysfunctional and the check-in was delayed. I think this was a cue that the return wouldn't be a smooth ride. True to the "Signs" our Delhi flight was delayed and Indigo decided to re-route us via Mumbai. While they confirmed us six people and issued boarding passes on both sectors, they didn't tell us if the Mumbai flight was delayed. In fact, it was...instead of leaving at 8:10 PM it finally departed at 9:45 PM and we missed our connecting flight at Mumbai. We were once again at the mercy of Indigo Ground staff to give us fresh boarding passes and ensure that our checked in luggage accompanied us. Instead of getting the 00:50 hrs flight to Bangalore, we were put on a flight leaving Mumbai at 7:00 AM from T1. It was an ordeal to move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. After spending a Sleepless Night in Mumbai airport, it was a relief to learn that the flight was ON Time at 7 AM! We heaved a sigh of relief and returned home without any further delays, thus bringing the flight saga to a close!!
A final word: Kashmir is indeed the Crown of India and Paradise on Earth! It’s an absolute MUST that all Indians must visit this place, at least once!!
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