GulMarg-Valley of flowers

After having a wonderful time at Sonmarg, it is time to heading for a bit green part of Kashnir- GulMarg or Valley of Flowers.

This valley is approx. 50 kms North-West to Srinagar. It is again a valley like Sonmarg but the difference over here is that This valley is greener than Sonmarg & due to that it was very much popular with Bollywood directors…. 1 example of that is the famous song of Rajesh Khanna-"Jay Jay Shiv Shankar". They have still kept that temple.

U might find this valley a bit sad… bcoz main fun is not in the valley, it is at a height. There you can have adventure sports like Skiing. The best thing about this place is that they give you instructions for skiing.

So to reach there, u have to take a Gondola, i.e. ropeway or cable car. The way from valley to Kangdoori, a part of Mt. Apherwat also has picturesque scenery, just like Sonmarg. It is world's highest & Asia's longest cable car. You have to take this cable car to reach the 1^st phase of Gulmarg, Kangdoori. When we visited Gulmarg, this was the only phase which has start working. Here u can enjoy Skiing.

We came to know from our "Guide" that on the other side of Mt. Apherwat is POK, which is known as "Aazad Kashmir" in the population over there.

 

One more tip for Gulmarg is,

Gulmarg has a high "Lookha" crowd.

One more Part of Heaven: Sonmarg

अगर फिरदौस बर मे झमिनस्त,
हमिनस्तु हमिनस्तु हमिनस्त…
These lines were written by the famous Persian poet Firdaus, after his visit to Kashmir. The meaning of these lines is: If There is Heaven on Earth, It is here, It is here, It is here….
I’m sure you too will feel the same when u visit Kashmir, specially while going to Sonmarg. Sonmarg means Valley of Gold or Golden Valley.

Actually this place is nothing but a valley full of snow. It is called so because this valley is in the eastern side of Kashmir hence when the sun rays fall on the snow the whole valley glows like gold.
Ok, first I’ll tell u about the road trip from Srinagar to Sonmarg & after that I’ll tell you about Sonmarg….
So… the road from Srinagar to Sonmarg is almost 90 km long… Going through kashmiri villages, small climbing of Himalaya (not on ur foot of course… :P), passing through beautiful river Chenab u reach to Sonmarg… The whole way is really picturesque. U really feel like u r in heaven. The pictures over here show the beauty of this route.
Now, Sonmarg, as I told earlier, it’s a valley, a gorgeous valley carved by the river Sindh. It is famous for various adventures like Trekking, sledging, alpine skiing etc. But what we enjoyed the most is sledging over here… It’s really amazing thing I ever did.
What exactly Sledging is:
U r made to seat on a plaque of wood & they slide u from the slope & let u slide….
It was really fun…
& when we were playing with the snow (as it was something unusual for all of us), it started raining (the rain contained both water as well as snow flacks), which later on turned in heavy storm & rain I mentioned in my previous post. Actually though it was a bit frightening, we all enjoyed the weather that day…

A tip before u go for sledging:
Be sure for sledge rates. Ask twice & don’t take distance granted. What u feel "told" might be six time more than that!!

(Part of) Heaven on Earth: Srinagar

Well, I must say first that I have not thought even in my dream that I’ll write about my most favourite Indian Travel Destination so soon here. But since I have decided to write about Kashmir, I will write on that… Again even in this post, I’ll write only about Kashmir, i.e. Srinagar, places near Srinagar (Gulmarg, Sonmarg) & Pehlgam.
To begin with, I must take you to Srinagar. As we know (since our 5th grade) that Srinagar is summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir (sorry, I don’t want to torture you people wid starting this Geography class…: P). Since it’s in more hilly area than Jammu. But all these tuitions apart (:D), Srinagar is an amazing place to visit. Actually the road between Jammu & Srinagar, that is NH1, is a wonderful road due to the natural scenery this area has.
Now, once u enter in Srinagar, at first place u will find it as just one more usual town with markets & tourist place…but wait, you r wrong, wait for Dal Lake before u reach to any conclusion. & I’m damn sure that u r going to fall in love with this place if u r a true nature lover (& even if u r not, u will start liking it). The best thing to enjoy this ‘beauty’ (believe me by using this word I am under estimating the scenario I have seen) is to stay in a House Boat (I suggest u must stay in house boat). It’s really a great experience.
While u r in House Boat, u’ll find as if u r living in some normal town on land, as every morning all kind of vendors come to sell their stuffs in their ‘Shikara’(a type of boat), right from flowers to saffron (specialty of Kashmir) to typical Kashmiri Jewelry. These Shikaras r also used as transportation mode in the Lake.
At this point I must share an experience of the lake with u. One day when we came back from ‘sight-seeing’, suddenly rain started with extreme wind storm. We had stayed in House Boat, so we have to cross the lake to reach there. We hired Shikaras (we were 8 persons) & the rowers of shikaras took us from a longer way, taking care of shikaras as well as the passengers at the same time & when we reached our boat the storm became so heavy that they didn’t even wait for their fare & left back to the bank. & then the whole night we felt as if we r in the middle of sea (I mean to say that the storm had caused waves even in lake).
Hmmm….so now recalling my best experience of this houseboat is watching rising sun from mountain peaks of Himalaya at 5.30 am (first time in life I had got up to see this scene, this early without any kind of arguments or showing any kind of laziness :D).
In proper Srinagar, I say u must visit Temple of Shankaracharya , it’s though on height & even after u take a ride in ur cab/car till it’s base you have to climb up around 200 steps but it’s worth going till the top. Since Srinagar is famous for its gardens, do visit Nishant Baugh & Shalimar Baugh, both of them are a must see. We had gone there in summer but as I have seen on various TV Channels & websites, at the time of autumn, when the gardens have been reopened after 3-4 months of extreme winter, they look most incredible place on this earth.
Well this is just a small try to give u a glimpse of Kashmir & specially Srinagar. The journey is not ended here, still long way to go. If u really want to enjoy the beauty of nature… I advise that please go to Srinagar from Jammu by road. Here when u enter into valley through Nehru tunnel, after spending almost 4-5 minutes in this tunnel, when u come to the end of the tunnel I bet u’ll get most amazing view in front of u. The other reason for this recommendation is on the way to Srinagar from Patnitop u’ll come across many typical ‘Dhaba’ ,here do taste ‘Rajama Chawal’ with their special ‘Sukhe Anar ki chatani’… ;)

More on heaven on the earth is coming soon…..

Spiritual Pondicherry

Today here, in Pune, it rained liked anything…with lots of wind & heavy lightening… That reminded me my visit to Pondicherry, there to we had witnessed the same weather and that too in end of October. It was what they call ‘Retreating Monsoon’.

Whatever it is called doesn’t make any difference to me, because I cherished the visit of Pondicherry, or now it is called ‘PUDUCHERRY’, a union territory in southern India. It is a really amazing place & a must visit for all those who really want to enjoy the peace, in real spiritual sense.

Pondicherry is mainly famous for two things, one is for the ‘Samadhi’ of Maharshi Aurobindo and the other is its French Colony, about which people are a bit unaware. So the city, or I would like to use word ‘town’ for it, is famous for ‘Samadhi’ of Maharshi Aurobindo and the activities done by the Ashram trust over there.
Apart from that, Pondicherry has really nice beach, actually it is a bandstand type of place, not a proper beach like one we can have in Goa or some holiday spot like that. Here we tasted boiled peanuts. It was good to taste it once.

In short, Pondicherry is basically a quite place to get relaxed and enjoy holidays in real sense.

It doesn’t matter what u do after coming in Pondicherry, but I must say do visit Aurobindo Ashram as many time as u can and also there is a Ganesh Temple over there, a must visit.

Lake City: Udaipur

Few days back I got a text from a friend of mine that he’s going to Udaipur… I thought I should advise him not to go there in this summer, but before I text him my mind reached Udaipur…

Udaipur is known as ‘Lake City’ of Rajasthan since it has 4 lakes. The city takes us in to the period of Maharana Pratap. U constant feel being a part of that era, whether u r at ‘Saheliyo ki baadi’ or at ‘Jagmohan Temple’. Udaipur has a great combination of past & present. Here u can find something for u,doesn’t matter what ur choice is.

If u want to relax, there are plenty of gardens. U want to know about Indian history, check out ‘Chitaud Gadh’, a place which tells u many interesting tales about Indian History. And if u r a shopping freak like me, u have plenty of options… You can visit bapu bazaar for traditional Lehriya saris, visit Shilpagram to have a look at village life & u can also buy some hand made things from there.

Foodies, Lodsa option for u here. If u r not health conscious & love Junk food, do try Aloo tikki chat at bapu bazaar, I know u’ll fall in love with that…J

In short Udaipur is a must visit place. One of my favourites. The best time for the visit is Diwali period. The city comes to a festive mood in this duration, plus since Rajsthan is a "dry" state in sense of weather, winter is the best time for visit…

The begining:

કાકા કાલેલકરે લખ્યું છેઃ

"ભારત એટલે,પ્રુથ્વી પરનું એવું સ્થળ કે જ્યાં ઉત્તરે ધ્રુવ તારો અને દક્ષિણે અગત્સ્ય તારો બંને જોઈ શકાય..."

(Sorry can't translate these great word,but it means something like this:

India is a really unique place on earth,not only culturally or traditionally,but also geographically...)

So here I am going to talk about how I have enjoyed this uniqueness of India,in my wandering or "traveling" ...

Here you might get come across my "version" for the history of that place & if you r "lucky" you will also get to know about the delicious food and some places which are must visit for the foodies like me....:)