Srinagar

The flight from Delhi went over the plains of may be UP, Haryana and Panjab before going over the mountains of J&K or maybe even HP earlier.

 

On the way for the first time we could see the long range of Himalayan peaks covered with snow.

 

We saw the mountains and valleys and huge lakes.

 

The view being the first time for us was a unique experience.

 

It reminded me of a written piece by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru where he described the awe inspiring view of the snow capped Himalayas while flying.

 

Soon we went over a few snow capped peaks and the plane came lower as we saw the plains with fields and the tall trees around them and could also see roads lined with trees.

 

We could make out the meandering way of the rivers.

 

Soon the plane landed at the Srinagar airport.

We walked down to the small airport building.

The interiors had a touch of wood all around.

 

We walked out as we were surrounded by the Kashmiri agents of hotels, taxis and houseboats each extolling the virtues of his hotel, taxi or houseboat.

We had heard a lot about the nice and hospitable Kashmiris.

We said a polite no to them as we had a vehicle arranged and the persons had already received us.

 

We looked around the Srinagar roads and houses as we reached the tourist centre and from there moved to the room arranged in some hotel. As we wanted pure vegetarian food and the hotel had non-veg food we moved to the Tourist centre again and went to a Gujarati style dhaba near by and had a simple pure vegetarian meal.

 

Then we went to see the Shankaracharya temple situated at a little height.

After that we went to the market and tasted some chestnuts again after a long time.

We also bought some Kashmiri shawls and gloves.

We also bought a fruit basket.

 

Next day we went to the Chashma-Shahi gardens first where we enjoyed the structures, the gardens, flowers and water channels and then to Char Chinar by boat. After that we had a ride in the “shikara”on the Dal Lake. We enjoyed the natural beauty of the valley and the mountains reflected in the lake. We watched the waves and slashed our hands in the waters. We remembered the songs and the scenes from various movies made on the Dal Lake and in Kashmir.

We were reminded of the fair and beautiful damsels depicted in many a Hindi movie with whom the hero fell in love and then the tales of his going away leaving the simple girl unaware of how to contact him.

 

We could see the houseboats lined up on one side of the lake.

We also saw other shikaras carrying vegetables, flowers and other merchandise.

We saw patches of floating fields with variety of vegetables growing e.g. I remember seeing sweet gourd and tomatoes.

We also looked at the Nagin Lake.

 

Then we had a visit to an apple orchard from where we bought apples fresh from the trees and were overjoyed at their juiciness and fresh crispy bite.

 

We went to theHazratbal shrine and mosque.

 

In between one day we had an excursion to Gulmarg. On this day there was snowfall on the higher reaches around the Kashmir valley and we were happy to see fresh white snow on many peaks around Kashmir.

 

Next day we went to the Nishat gardens and then to the Shalimar gardens.

 

It was very enjoyable to roam in the gardens enjoying the green grass, fresh flowers, water fountains and step ways and streams and the trees, with an occasional butterfly.

We again bought some fruits from a fruit seller.

 

Then we went to see the various bridges over the river Jhelum and the countryside before packing up for the visit to Pahalgam.

 

Had I been a golf player at that time I would not have missed playing golf at Gulmarg and the now famous new golf Course overlooking the lake in Srinagar.