As a South Asian inhabitant, we have been hearing from our childhood that Kashmir is one of the beautiful places in the world which is called the land of paradise. And I saw some photographs in the newspapers in the late 90s that incited me to visit Kashmir some day in future. There is a line in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which is like if you really want something, all the universe will be conspired in making it happen because my dream came true when I was in my new job. I planned to visit my dream place Kashmir on Sept in 2017. Kashmir is a disputed land because of triple confrontations among India, Pakistan and China. But presently Kashmir is occupied by both India and Pakistan. We travelled Indian occupied Kashmir which is the bigger part in whole Kashmir areas. Before making the plan, we have been informing that it is not a safe place for the tourists and most of the people were discouraging us to go there. It is not actually their fault but media perception was the main reason of discouraging the people to visit Kashmir. However, we didn’t pay any attention on it as one of our colleagues was visited that time and he ensured us that he didn’t feel any sort of insecurity so we got our confidence and decided to travel during Eid Holidays.
As we are budget travelers, we decided to pass the Indian border by road instead of air route. We started our journey from Chittagong bus counter and moved to Benapol Border, Kushtia in the early morning so that we could pass out early. We reached at Kolkata in the afternoon after completing all formalities in the border and three hours long bus journey. On the same day, we started to move Delhi by train. It was almost a 24 hours long journey. As everyone in the group was energetic and excited, we didn’t feel any tiredness at all. We hired a taxi at Delhi railway station for whole day time city tour. We visited India Gate, Humayun Tomb, Rajghat, Delhi Jame Masjid, eating delicious foods at renown Karim’s hotel, Connaught Place and finally in the late night, we caught our flight for Sri Nagar. The interesting thing was that we didn’t rent any hotel or motel during this long time except taking sound sleep at Train.
Before landing Sri Nagar airport, we experienced a lovely first sun light in the morning from 36,000 feet above. It was really mind blowing as we all became reenergized with the beautiful sunlight. We booked our agent for Kashmir tour earlier at home so pick-up car was waiting outside of the airport. After completing all formalities, we headed to Dal Lake where we stayed at boat for two nights. The serenity of the Dal Lake gives you feeling of “love at first sight” and it was really happened to me. Our agent took us to the long home boat by another taxi boat (much smaller boat to move the people on Dal Lake). Please remember that this boat service is closed after the evening (unless you hired one with boat driver). We took shower and rest. Next morning, we headed to Dudhpatri which is a hilly river with milk like water that’s why it is called “Dhudhpatri”. On the way to Dudhpatri, the journey through the mountains and hills are amazing. We stopped in a hotel to drink tea and took some pictures as well. The cool air was so soothing that it made us sleepy in the car. The day was a bit cloudy so visitors were little and we enjoyed taking photos and climbed some part of the hills to see the river from the up. A few moments later, the sky got heavy and showered us all. We felt so cold that we were almost shivering but not afraid of enjoying the rain under the big trees in the slope of the hill. After half an hour, the sky got clear and we returned back to the Dal Lake. On the way back, we stopped in an apple garden where we plucked the apples from the tree and ate them. It was a nice experience for us all as we never saw apple garden before. We were amazed to see the various types of color, sizes of the apples.
Next day we moved to visit Pahelgam. On the way to Pahelgam, the journey was fabulous as the hilly river was all the way to our side by side in that journey. Mountains are seen both side of the roads that gives you a lovely feeling. You can’t stop yourself making videos on that scenarios. We reached Pahelgam in the 10am. We saw many horses which are for carrying the tourist to Baisaran and Kashmir Valley which are three thousand feet above from the land. We all rode on horses. Everyone got single horse. The amazing fact is that horses are very much well trained to stay always in the same line and the know the paths clearly. It was a lifetime experience for us as we never climb the mountain with horse riding. We took several group and single photos with the help of guides who actually instructed the horses when they should stop in the particular places. Baisaran is a nice lush green place covering the mountains all around. This is a nice place for your Instagram photos. More than that it is a divine place. We visited Kashmir in September when hot and humid weather is all over tropical cities but Kashmir is in fair weather with comfortable temp with lovely cool air. So, we were able to see some ices on the top of the mountains that made the landscape more beautiful. We loved to stay more time but sky became gloomy so we were heading to Kashmir Valley. It is almost three thousand feet above from the land of Pahelgam. We saw a zig zag hilly river flowing from the mountain. The sun ray was reflecting on the waters like diamonds. We found a shop in the valley which was run by an old Kashmiri man. We drank tea from his shops and joined in a chit chat with him. The lush green grasses forced us to lay down for a while and believe me we fell in a sleep immediately. But we had to move as the sun was about to set and the sky became gloomier. During climbing down from the mountain, rain was started heavily. We had no option but getting wet in the rain and truly everyone was enjoyed it. We took a meal in a Shikh restaurant at Pahelgam and stayed a while before returning back to Boat.
The next morning, we were moving to Aru Valley. On the way to valley, we saw hilly river, mountains, trees, houses and people with traditional dresses. We feel the tranquility in the nature of Kashmir. The path of the valley feels us like going to heaven. Our agent booked a hotel named FIMI which is an old hotel in Aru Valley and there were several films shoot there. The room I stayed at “Fimi Hotel” was the same room used by Hema Malini (a famous Bollywood actress who is more famous for her stunning beauty). The balcony of the hotel was a vantage point to look at around mountain covered landscape. The temperature in Aru Valley was much lower than Sri Nagar so we felt very cold but it didn’t keep us away from enjoying every moment of Aru Valley. We stayed at night at Aru Valley and fortunately it was a full moon. We didn’t miss to take some memorable photos with moon from the lovely balcony of the hotel. We continued our gossiping till late night. We woke up early in the morning to see the first light of the day and it was really a heavenly scene when the sun appeared in the mountain. We walked around the Aru Valley and met some people who are so much friendly. Then we left the Aru Valley at 12am with good feeling.
We directly moved from Aru Valley to Naranag for camping in the tent beside Nag River. It was one of he must-do activities in that tour. I never experienced camping before so I was so excited for it. This was nice road to enjoy the journey. We stopped in a stoppage to take our lunch. As it was Eid holidays time, worker’s presence was less so we had no option to take fried rice only which was available in that moment. During the journey, we were feeling less temperature even from Aru Valley. As long as we moved ahead, temperature seemed to be reduced. We wore our jackets and was looking the beautiful paddy fields in the slope of the hills. Once we reached at the camping area, we astonished to see that everything was arranged like tents, fire, grill oven, drinks, foods etc. We immediately changed our dress to go for bathing in the Nag river. We walked one and half miles from our camping area to see the hundreds years old Naranag Temple which is still bearing the historical aspects in its walls, floors and surroundings. We took the bath in the Nag river. The water of the river was cold like ice but we enjoyed the time. In the evening, we set fire outside of the tents and enjoyed by singing, gossiping. The night sky looked like a wedding lights as the stars were blazing so shiningly. I wish I could a writer or poet so that I can easily write a novel or a poem. However, this sky can be seen anywhere in the world but light pollution cannot give us this opportunity. We took the dinner inside the tents with local helpers and guides. We gossiped outside the tents and we forget the time as the sky became red from dark. Next morning, we met with other tourists. We met with Lucy who was coming from England after her graduation to see this part of the world. She knew the history a bit as British ruled over here almost two hundred years. We were joking about Kohinoor (the diamond crown which was the biggest in the world) which was not gifted for British but stolen from Indian subcontinent. We then walked around a bit with local children and took some pictures. Local people informed us that from December to February, they almost had to be confined in the houses due to severe snowfall during this period. That’s why they have to gather foods and other necessary things before the winter starts (though we felt winter season in Sept as well). We left the Naranag by 12pm with lot of good memories.
On that day, we directly moved to Sonmarg to visit Zozila Pass and Thajiars Glaciers. We rent a jeep spending 7,000 Indian rupees to travel through dangerous roads (I was excited as well as feared as well) to Zozila Pass (near at Kargil). The road was so narrow that if our driver was just done a tiny mistake, we could be landed from two thousand feet above. We saw a monument of an army office who died with family after falling down from that high altitude road when he rushed to go to home for seeing his sick mom at night. We stopped there and showed our respect to him and his family. Finally, when we reached at Zozilla pass, we found ices and we had to climb the hills to take some photos in there. There were hundreds of people enjoying the afternoon in that time. We drank Jafron tea there. We then moved a far with our rented car. It was the place where Indian soldiers fought close range with Pakistani soldiers. They made a minar (a structure which is used remembrance of the glory of the war) at the road side. It was a few kilometers to Kargil border. As we had to go to Thajiars Glaciers, we left the Zozilla pass with great fear and excitement of the journey through the dangerous roads. Thajiars Glaciers is also nice place to be around. We walked a very long time to reach at the lake but we couldn’t stay for a long because the sun was about to set. But we stayed there two hours and took some pictures. We got the best taste of Jafron tea in there. There was a small tiny shop which was only selling various types of teas like Jafron tea, Malai tea, Two layers tea, normal tea etc. We fell in love with Jafron tea. We were lucky that the sky was clear and it was lovely shiny day with mild breeze that made the atmosphere romantic and very soothing. We missed our wives very badly in that time and we all colleagues promised immediately to bring our families in this beautiful land even once in a lifetime. As soon as we were ready to return back, we started feeling sad as this was the last place for us in Kashmir tour. We had another day to take city tour on tomorrow but as there was curfew due to visit of home minister at Sri Nagar, we managed to visit Mughal Garden. We stayed a few hours in this beautiful garden which is covered with a lot of flower gardens and beautiful trees. There was a fountain which was flowing from the hill but the drain was made beautifully that lead to the Dal Lake. We sat on top of the staircase and looked at around that viewed really nice. We saw a lot of local people in the garden and felt happy to see the smiling children all around. We left the garden after seeing the sunset in the mountain. In the next morning, we bought some jewelries in the boat. There are a lot of hawkers who are moving with the boats and stopped the big boats to show their products to the tourists. Mostly they carry Shal, Pashmina, Jewelries, antiques and other belongings.
We left the Sri Nagar at 1pm by air to Delhi. Believe me I was so sad to leave the Kashmir because I really fall in love with its hills, mountains, rivers, canals, roads, trees, people, fruits. I had a long dream to visit Kashmir and my dream was fulfilled at last. I’ll visit Kashmir with family very soon.
I am sharing some pictures in our Kashmir Tour:
