We are away for Gulmarg, aka Gauri marg, we were informed we need to enter Gulmarg by 1300 hours as Amarnath yatra is on, and as a word of warning I would suggest to avoid Kashmir between 25th June and 10 th Aug, if one is going on a vacation, there are loads of restrictions thanks to the Amarnath Yatra and a good idea to give the yatri's space and let them run the place for this 2 months.
That being said, the roadside is full of flowers and a sight to behold as one is en route to Gulmarg, another jewel of Kashmir, it reminds me of Valley of Flowers where you just look anywhere n it is a carpet of flower all over, nature at its best I say.
We reached Gulmarg in 2 hours from Srinagar and the idea was to head out for the Gondola (cable car) ride right away, we had pre bought our tkts and there was 2 legs to the ride, we made a mistake (not really ) of taking a guide, thinking it will be useful in case my Mom needs assistance, well the guides just hustle your to travel faster and not much else, they are real nice people BUT you really don’t need a guide they don’t really add any value as there is no stories to be told, a big revenue for the guide ( I am told is from the shop that he can get you to go to , n the guide get’s a commission on your purchase, ( making your purchase more expensive) doing good for others has its flip side too.
along the way view is something like this and winter is a better time as all this is snow covered.
We were on the cable car and sadly the weather turned foul and we just travelled without much of a view while on the cable car, the cable car went quiet high and we climbed up to 13000 feet, had the weather been clear we could have trekked up to the frozen lake which they say is at 14300 feet,
There was a sprinkling of flowers at the top too n one would have coffee Rs 50/cup, Maggi Rs 100/bowl, yes steeply priced and there were still people willing to buy (like us)
Waiting in the Q to board the gondola was quiet hilarious, there was this couple standing in front of us, and the man wanted to use the wash room, but then his wife reminded him how much the visit to the washroom would cost him, n he promptly claimed he could hold it in ,,,
What with the rain n the drop
in the temperature. Tanmarg is at 7000 feet and we at top were at 12500 feet, way colder and with the rains freezing
We were anticipating it would be a 2 hour ride up and down 30 minutes in total and 90 minutes of waiting around for our turn, but it took almost 4 hours for the complete expedition on both Gondola’s combined, thanks to unruly tourists trying to get on the gondola out of turn, yes these were the civilized tourists from rest of India, cant get the “I have a chance lets cheat someone else out of the system “ syndrome.
We checked in to our hotel, Hotel Shaw inn,
Cute and boutique hotel as Farah had described the hotel, it was nice and cozy
Check in time in Gulmarg is 1400 hours
It was almost 1530 hours before we found a hotel we liked – Hotel Bakshi for food, it was yummylecious and we spend a good 90 minutes eating a bunch of savories.
Kashmiri food, like Rogan Josh, mutton Nan, chicken Nan, butter chicken (too)
Gustaba and a few more
They served us one mutton Kulcha and when we wanted a second Mutton Kulcha they brought us a chicken Kulcha, we were on to them, and asked them to change it, and sure enough they did change it, but it was a chicken Kulcha again, oh well we gave in and enjoyed the chicken Kulcha
The view outside Bakshi's window
It was still raining and we took a break at the hotel relaxing till 1800 hours and then stepped out to explore
As we turned the first corner we had a lovely view of the mighty Himalaya, (Pir Panjal Range of western Himalaya) with sun light falling it was a breathtaking scene and we stood for a while to take in the sight
We walked around the location and made a few images of the market place and surrounding places at Gulmarg, mostly within 4 km of our hotel and what a visual treat it was.
Early next day we were off to Pahelgaon, once again the urge to reach in time before they closed the city was on us.
No comments:
Post a Comment