Our trip to the North-2

Contd...
The next day we took a tour to the local temples. We were to visit Pehelgham but because of the snowfall, all the roads were blocked towards Srinagar and we had to stay back another day at Katra. We visited few temples like Naudeviyon ka mandir and Shiv Khori caves which was around 80 kms away from Katra. It took the entire day because of the distance and the Ghat section. The next day was the beginning of the journey to the most enthralling place called Gulamrg. Its probably the most exciting place I have ever been to so far. This place is around 300 kms from Jammu. The en route to this place is equally breathtaking. We witnessed snow capped mountains and valleys shooting down from them.

On gradually nearing Srinagar we witnessed snow on either sides of the road neatly shoveled by the Border Security Force. It paves a beautiful way. Although the snow fall was minimum in comparison to what we saw at Gulmarg, we were thrilled as it was the first time we saw snow. It looked like a scene out of a postcard.

Isnt it breathtaking? In places like this the traffic is slow moving (more like snail's pace) and it took us the whole day to reach Gulmarg. We reached a place called Tangmarg  at 2am. It was freezing outside. The temperature had dropped to minus officially now. We woke up from our disturbed slumber and exerted all our guts to get out of our car. The chillness rained down our body. Our toes and fingers almost froze inspite of our heavy clothing. Thanks to our driver's friend who owned a coat and boots rental place there, we found ourselves our fur coats and rubber boots. We then took another car whose wheels were chains with spikes so that it would not skid during the journey. We then drove for another 16km at 2:15 am to reach Gulmarg. Although we were freezing our asses off we could not stop but enjoy the beauty of mother nature in the moon light.. well, who am I kidding.. the street light. It was splendid. I am at loss of adjectives to describe the beauty. The snow here was a lot more fresh and heavy. Have a look, this was the view.

My brother and cousin decided to get their pictures clicked at 3 am in that heavy snow.We then managed to pull our luggage all together and tried to walk on the snow to reach our cottages. Some of us slipped quite a few yards. ahahha it was funny to them fall. As we were 11 people we hired a 8 bedded cottage and a fancy 1 BHK cottage. The 8 bedded cottage looked something like this.

Doesnt it remind us of Snow White and seven dwarf's hide out??? It had 8 beds with electric blankets which gave the warmth. One can get information regarding the bookings and other information from this site.

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g317095-d3185017-Reviews-JKTDC_Hut_Gulmarg-Gulmarg_Kashmir_Jammu_and_Kashmir.html

it has details  of other accommodation too.There was a primitive boiler which kept the room warm by burning firewood which had to be filled once in every 3-4 hrs.It did work well. we dried out our coats and socks and gathered around like a bonfire. Surprisingly, we dint feel like sleepy at all. We then forced ourselves to sleep as we had an amazing day to enjoy. we woke up at 8 am and were welcomed with steaming hot ginger tea by the care takers. The hospitality was really great (that was because we were the only guests at the cottage) The chief, yes thats what we called him as he liked to deliver long lectures like that of a college orientation.He then explained to us about how things operated there. we then freshened up and changed. What!! you expect us to bathe in that shitting cool temperature?? No ways!! We then put on our overly sized, humongous coats and rubber boots and set out for the local activities. every place, every object was worth clicking a picture.Me being a photography enthusiast could not hold myself from clicking multiple clicks. Although I would love to post all of the pictures, I am restricting my self to post a few here...

We walked down a few furlongs to reach Gondola, where we get to ride the cable cars to reach the higher altitudes. While the tickets were being purchased, we decided to click a few (more like 100s) of pictures.As it was not snowing, we threw snow at each other and clicked pictures. It was like we were reliving our childhood again. even the elders joined us in snow bowling. Then we took to the cable cars. These cars were French made and were introduced in 2005. There were two halts, Phase 1 and Phase 2. The elders made it only to Phase 1 and we kids (ahem ahem) went on to Phase 2. The en route again was just mind blowing. The ground was covered with at least 2 feet snow. As we gradually went saw that the huts, wells were all covered up with snow. It is been told that this forms a natural track for skiing.Our guide apparently felt that Apls was just a jest in comparison to this.well, in his defense he was right. We finally reached the Pase 1 which was about 10000 ft from the ground. 

The kids, thats us, went on further to Phase 2 which was at a height of 13500 feet from the ground.This was truly a bliss.It was after this we realized why the Pakis are bent upon capturing Kashmir. Virgin white snow, clear blue sky, I felt like I was on a shooting set up. This was the view that caught our sight when we reached Phase 2.

The clouds were below our eye level. It felt heaven. The shadows also were blue because of the reflection from the snow.it took us few minutes to actually understand that we were indeed on earth. Although, the entire place wore a blanket of snow, the sunlight at that altitude provided us great warmth. It a perfect marriage of chillness with warmth. We were basking there for hours together. Our guide was a man with great enthusiasm. He volunteered to click our pictures and was quite good at it too. We clicked hundreds of pictures again.We borrowed the poses from various Hindi movies .. here are a few:

We were told that the LOC was around 15-20 kms from here. With great regret that we had to go back, we mounted the cable cars to come down. By then, the chillness started setting in. By 4 pm it started getting dark and cold. We then decided to have decent lunch and walked 2 km to find a mediocre place. We then started placing orders like crazy as we were totally drained out from the walk and the other activities at Phase 1 and 2. We gulped down food even before he could turn around or finish serving the rest.we hogged to our capacity and took a cab ride back to the room. We then enjoyed the warmth by the fire wood back at our room.The elders decided to catch up on the serials they had missed all these days on the TV at our room. After hours and hours of talking, eating, photo sessions we finally took to rest.The next day we had to get back to Jammu to board our train back to Delhi. We all left the place with great memories and were eagerly waiting to watch the photos to relive the moment. We reached Jammu again at 2am (courtesy the snow fall) and hit the sack!! rushing to the station next day we boarded the train to Delhi. 

I personally loved Delhi. The roads were wider, the traffic was under control and the pollution was reduced to almost zilch.I was allured by the means of their transport; buses, autos running on LPGs, battery operated rickshaws and metro trains.We were very eager to take the metro trains. We then went sight seeing the next day. Inspite of the limited time we rushed to Qutub minar and went shopping at Palika bazar. I personally loved the metro train rides. The icing on the cake was the food we had.We tasted almost all the delicacies of the road side food; pani puri, paneer sandwich, vada paav etc etc. Then we rushed to "haldiraams" the official noruku theeni maker. We hogged down plates of dhoklas, khandvis, gajar halwa, jelebis, samosas, another round of pani puri, masal chat and pedas. the entire platter disappeared with in minutes.

We then finally reached the station to board "the rajdhaani express" that took us back home. All  we did (atleast balu, arvind and me) through the journey was sleep. We were sleep deprived for almost a week and hence we slept through the entire journey.Realizing this, the railway pantry attenders woke us up while serving food every time and even offered to pick up our plates from our berths. It was a total bliss. 

After 28 hours of travel we reached Bangalore safe and sound and all excited to share our experiences with others.

This so far has been the best family tour I have ever taken. With a lot of wonderful and unforgettable memories I now officially sign off.

Cheers