July 3
Day 1:
I looked at my mobile for the umpteenth time. It showed 3.30 AM. I sighed. The anticipation building inside me was not letting me sleep. I tore my eyes away from the mobile, turned off the the screen light and closed my eyes. 30 minutes. I need to pass another 30 minutes - I told myself. I don't know whether I slept or not but my eyes opened again and I scrambled to find my mobile in the darkness. Did I oversleep, did the alarm not go off? In panic I pressed the power button and the screen lighted up. 3.50 AM the status bar read. This is it I am getting up now I thought and switched off the 4 AM alarm. Kashmir here we come I mumbled.
And hour later me and mom headed out of home. I had asked a local auto for airport drop and he was there waiting at the society gate for us. We had only one suitcase each and a handbag. This time I had thought I will keep the luggage light and have space for any purchases we made in Kashmir. I was informed by the tour operator that we would be getting a temperature range of 10 to 25 degrees across the region we were travelling. So I had thought a couple of jeans, light summer tees and a jacket would be good to go. However fortunately a day before I thought of checking the temperature in Gurez, that was the north most point we would be going. It showed 3-4 degrees night temperature with rain. This resulted in adding extra warm clothes, especially for mom, just in case the mercury level dropped further. I remember once we went to Sikkim and I didn't check the temperature before reaching. We experienced 2-3 degrees temperature the moment we entered Sikkim and had to buy a lot of woolens from Gangtok to brace ourselves from the cold. That experience had taught me to be extra prepared especially with woolens. We also packed our umbrellas since rains were also predicted for the week. I also took an extra expandable bag, just in case we needed it.
The dawn was breaking but it was still dark outside as we left home. I think after a long long time I saw how daybreak looks :D. The roads were pretty much empty at that time of the day and we reached airport in roughly 35 minutes. We were travelling to Srinagar on 21st May. At the entry gate they only checked the boarding pass and ID, no vaccination report was asked.
I would usually travel by Indigo or Vistara from Pune, this was the first time I had booked an Air India flight. After a quick baggage screening and drop we completed the security and headed towards our gate. I am usually not much fond of the security checks as I carry a number of electronic stuffs and taking them out and again collecting them back is a hassle I really don't like. When it comes to mom its a different story, every time in every airport she gets stopped and bags rechecked because she either forgets to take out the house key or has a wallet with lot of change. And each time we need to stand before the lady guards explaining and showing what are those 'weapon like things' we are hiding in the bags. I think some of my mom's luck rubbed off on me , because a few weeks back when I was travelling for a business visit even I was stopped for the first time in my life for having lots of change in the wallet! And believe me it feels super embarrassing to bare all your chillers on the tray with other aunties gasping at how much change I am carrying. And I was like come on ladies these are not bombs that will go off, just harmless changes, stop giving me dirty looks! So beware ladies, while doing the security check place your wallet on the tray if you are carrying too much change.
A delayed start
Anyway back to our story. So after the security check we headed for the gates. usually I would ask the attendant at the boarding pass counter for the gate number and we reached the gate as per what she had told me, only to find that it was jam packed with no place to sit. I was a little surprised because we were actually very early and I didn't expect to see so many passengers already waiting. Since we had still some time to go, I suggested we sit at the adjacent gate waiting area where we had empty chairs. And just by chance I happened to look at the display board and found out that the gate number displayed was different than what the attendant had told me. In fact the adjacent gate where we came was the gate for us now. So far so good, we still had almost 30 minutes to kill before boarding time - our flight was supposed to leave at 7.20 AM for Delhi and then we had a connecting flight to Srinagar with Air India again. When 30 min passed and still there were no ground staffs at the gate I rechecked the display board suspecting the gates might have changed again. But it didn't. The rest of the passengers in that area were also a little confused as me. That's when we got an SMS stating that the incoming flight is delayed due to which we are also delayed by almost 30 more minutes. I had a considerable amount of time between the next connecting flight so it didn't concern me much at that time. However soon we heard that due to bad weather at Delhi, the incoming flight got delayed and it was getting further delayed. This is when I started to panic a little.
I did plan for such a contingency when I was booking my forward flight to Srinagar a month back. Since there were 2 flights we needed to take I had contemplated if by chance there is any delay in the first flight I might get into issue with the next one if it was a different carrier because then I would need to collect my bags and then move to the next flight, while if it is the same carrier they might do an intra transfer and save us time. So while booking I selected both flights as Air India instead of getting cheaper option if I took a combination of carriers. And this actually proved to be a wise decision when we almost got delayed by an hour at Pune airport. So guys bear this fact in mind, it is always better to have same carrier or carriers which would do luggage transfers when you have multiple legs of flight.
I saw a couple getting very concerned at this delay because they had a different flight to catch from Delhi to Srinagar. While I confirmed with the Air India ground staffs by then what would happen to us, he said don't worry we have 35 passengers like you who are flying with Air India from Delhi to Srinagar so we have already Informed the airport, the flight wont take off without you. That eased out my mind a lot frankly. Nothing is worse than starting a trip with loads of tension buildup. Finally we boarded at around 8.10 AM and it took another 20-30 minutes to take off. I also called up our driverji who was supposed to come pick us up in Srinagar Airport that we are getting delayed.
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| Travelling with Air India after ages |
It was actually exciting to be travelling with Air India after so long. The last time I travelled with Air India was when I was travelling to US, almost a decade back. Seeing the maharaja on the airplane tail and then on the seat covers were nostalgic. It was a special vacation since it was after the 2 years of covid that me and mom were again travelling by ourselves (Meghalaya was a group trip), travelling to Kashmir for the very first time and this was augmented by the fact that we were flying with Air India which was very memorable for me. We were asked to mask up from the time we entered the airplane. So that's a masked picture of us together .
The flight to Srinagar
The Pune to Delhi flight was pretty much without any further hiccups. I specially enjoyed the food they served in flight. The last time I flew with them I remember the crew stuffed us with food till we were like please don't feed us more :D. This time also the food was very wholesome and fresh. I opted for the vegetarian breakfast while mom had with egg. This was the first time I was served misti doi in a flight as dessert. I never imagined misti doi would taste so amazing as a dessert in flight. I even proposed mom that should we always carry some misti doi with us next time we are flying. Also, the food was too much for us to finish so we stowed away the muffin and bun in our bags as we didn't want to waste food.
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| The vegetarian breakfast - upma and potato wedges, misti doi, bun and muffin |
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| Non vegetarian breakfast - omlette and potato wedges misti doi, bun and muffin |
By the time we landed in T3 of Delhi airport we were like super late. The ground staff told us to go straight and then take a left. When they said 'straight' I had not anticipated the distance we had to cover by foot. We kept walking, sprinting, running and still there was no end to this 'straight' path. Thankfully we had the moving walkways in between which took us forward quickly. But for my senior citizen mom, it was still very taxing. I think when the airport was already made aware of the delay they should have had electric cart ready at the gates to ferry the old folks. Mom was really out of breath after walking for what felt like more than 2kms in less than 6 minutes. So after the really intense walk we finally reached the left we were supposed to take. We had a very quick security check done and then departed towards our gates. The rest of the passengers had already boarded and they were waiting for the 35 passengers from Pune. Our luggage was already transferred to the flight and I was hoping that it really did make it on time.
The fun didn't stop even after boarding the flight. When we reached our seats we found there were 2 old ladies already occupying our seats - window and middle, along with an old uncle in the aisle. When asked to move since it was our seat, they looked at us as if we asked them for their liver. Seems like uncle didn't do seat selection earlier so they did not get seats together. One of the ladies moved to the aisle seat beside me and rest went to their designated seats in the next row. When we were almost reaching Srinagar, mom and me exchanged seats as I wanted to take some aerial shots form the window seat. Despite of the initial face off, later on the lady who sat beside me started talking a lot with my mom. We got to know they are from Kashmir and going back to their home after meeting their son in Dubai. I observed the lady was quite beautiful even at this age.
As we neared Srinagar, I could see some river sort of thing which looked very wide. Not sure which river is that. If anyone of you know do let me know as well. Here are some of the aerial shots I took before reaching Srinagar.
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| This looked like a wide riverbed to me |
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| Almost reaching Srinagar |
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| 60 ft Shikara on the Conveyer Belt 1 at at the Sheikh Ul Alam International Airport, Srinagar |
I usually plan all my trips by myself - starting from hotel to vehicle to food to sightseeing - everything is meticulously planned months ahead and I keep an excel sheet handy with all the necessary information. Planning a trip yourself might be a lot of hassle but I feel it gives me a lot of flexibility in terms of what I want to do on a trip. Plus getting a package trip from any operator doesn't feel like a good deal to me because it offers limited customizations. When I started planning for Kashmir initially I thought I will go to the standard tourist destinations - Pahalgam- Betaab Valley, Sonmarg, Gulmarg etc. But then the more I started reading about these places and the travel details from fellow travelers I noticed a couple of things -
- they are usually overcrowded
- you need to take pony ride to reach the sightseeing points
- highly overpriced
- touts make your life horrible.
Considering all of these points I was almost about to drop my travel plans for Kashmir. But then fortunately I came across a post on FB which was taking about some remote places of Kashmir and they looked absolutely stunning. After some intense research on the places I decided to go for it. But since these were a little remote places and this was my first time in the valley which is often touted by the media as the hotbed of various unrests and violence - I thought it was safe to go for a tour operator who would know the pulse of the place better than a tourist like me visiting for the first time. And if in the worst scenario any issue happens at least there will be some accountability on the part of the operator to get us back to safety. The tour operator I chose was Adventure Gulmarg and I coordinated with Shabir bhai from their team to plan everything.
Let me talk a little about the overall booking experience. And in due course of the blog I will also talk about the other touchpoints/services from their team in details. The booking process was pretty smooth. I gave Shabir bhai a call somewhere around 10th of April. But his phone was unreachable. I dropped a enquiry note on their website hoping someone would get back to me. There were only 2 operators I had found who were providing services for offbeat Kashmir. The charges quoted by the other operator was on a little higher side and that is when I found Adventure Gulmarg. I didnt want to do a group travel, it had to be only us in a car. Group travels are usually cheaper but when you need to go for personal travel they come a little expensive. Also since the offbeat circuits are quite remote be mentally prepared to shell out more if you are taking a packaged tour compared to places like Sonmarg- Gulmarg etc. Since the road conditions are very variable in this circuit usually the operators would give you Scorpio or Tavera or any other vehicle with good ground clearance. When I did not get through to Shabir bhai I went back to speculating whether I should even do this circuit at all. But next day he gave me a call back and said he was with a group last day and hence his phone was unreachable. I spoke to him about length of my requirement and he said he would get back to me with a quote. I got the quote in next few hours which seemed more economic than the other operator. A plus was that Adventure Gulmarg had a lot of positive reviews on Tripadvisor so I finalized them as the operator. Over the next few days I had multiple rounds of call with Shabir bhai who was patient enough to hear all my queries and concerns and was trying to address them. Since I was travelling with a senior citizen I requested a few things specifically - to give us a good condition car so that travel is comfortable and to get us rooms in the hotels which are having commodes. Apart from this the food and room preferences were also discussed. And within a weeks time I was all set with the booking. Shabir bhai shared me the hotel details and the driver details were shared a day before our travel. 50% of the trip fare was paid in advance and the rest was supposed to be paid on the last day. Overall the booking process was seamless. The only doubt I had in mind was how would our driverji be. If the driver is not good then it becomes a serious problem when you have to spend a week with them.
Now coming back to the present day. While deliberating whether I should take out my jacket or not I called our driverji Khursheed bhai while standing outside the Srinagar airport. You may want to take a note here that pre paid cards from else where in the country would stop working the moment you enter Kashmir. You need a post paid card or a local sim while you are here. I am not sure though how easy it is to get a local sim in Kashmir. I have 2 post paid sims - Idea and Jio, both of which worked properly in Srinagar. My mom was having two pre paid cards, both of which stopped working. So if you are travelling in a group make sure at least one of you have a post paid sim so that your life is easier while you travel. However there was something weird going on with the idea sim at the airport. Since it is my primary number I tried calling Khursheed bhai from it and every time for 15 minutes it told me the line was engaged. I was about to ring Shabir bhai when a thought crossed my mind to try Khursheed bhai from my Jio number. And bang the call got connected. Khursheed bhai said he didn't get any call earlier nor was his phone engaged and that he was waiting for us right in the parking. So I told him to be on line while I tried to figure him out. Within a minute I saw a person waving at me and he came quickly to us and said hello and introduced himself as Khursheed bhai. Like we use bhaiya elsewhere in India to address any male, here in Kashmir you need to call everyone bhai. If you ask anyone what is their name they will add a bhai after their name and tell you. Khursheed bhai took our bags and led us to the car. We were given a Scorpio and the car condition was good as requested. We started for the city after loading our luggage into the boot. Since it was a big car and we were only two of us in the middle seat, it felt utterly comfortable.
I tried to make some small talk with Khursheed bhai just to understand how he was as a person and what to expect from him over the next few days. Khursheed bhai appeared to be a soft spoken person, man of average height, a self-conscious smile and the customary reserve you’d find in town folk whenever they encounter city dwellers like us. For the first couple of days Khursheed bhai was not at all talkative. He only spoke when we asked him anything. I thought maybe it was because we were just ladies so he was being a little extra reserved. So I encouraged mom to speak more with him in the beginning. But later on the reserve dissolved and Khursheed bhai almost became like a family for us, will talk about that in due course.
First glimpses of Paradise
As we drove out of Srinagar airport the first thing I noticed was how pretty everything was. A friend of mine had visited a month earlier and in her feedback she had mentioned everything is very pretty right form the time you leave airport. That time I could not understand why the road from airport to city would be so worth mentioning but when we were driving out I could understand where she was coming from. It didn't look like it was in India, the roads were spotless. On both side of the road there were lots of trees. Even the dividers had trees and flowers. There was a calmness all around and lots of greenery which felt soothing. I think that's the time I started exclaiming how pretty it looked and from then onwards till the last day in Kashmir 'pretty' was a word that was very overused. Everything looked pretty to me, even the blue sky looked so beautiful. Just as I was seeping into the feel of jannat, we saw some big trucks with army men holding mounted rifles on the roof top on the road. And in the entire stretch of road from airport to the city, we lost count of how many army men we saw. We city dwellers are used to seeing the traffic police but army men in uniform and rifles patrolling every corner is something which we probably never experienced earlier. So it feels weird at first, like a scene from the movies and you kind of feel what the people of this region has faced over the years - it reminds you of the vestiges of terrorism that we keep hearing about. But soon enough you will get used to these visuals and it wont bother or draw your attention much. It is part of the life in Kashmir and you also get used to it.
There were very few cars on the road, people were mainly walking, no high rises, no malls, but beautiful houses with red or green tiled slanting roofs. These slanting roofs are signature things you will find all over Kashmir and it makes you feel you are somewhere outside India. The mosques look different as well. These have pyramidal roofs with decorated spires on them. I never saw roofs like this on mosques anywhere else.
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| First glimpses of the backwaters of Dal Lake with some of the old houseboats |
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| Backwaters of Dal Lake |
As we approached the city we saw the first glimpse of the jewel in the heart of Srinagar - the Dal Lake. We saw the backwaters of the dal lake first, which didn't look anything like what we see in the images of Dal lake. There were many large and old house boats stations on the backwaters. Some of them were in dilapidated condition while some others were broken and had partially submerged in the water. We got to know from Khursheed bhai that these were very old house boats and now no one lived there. Apart from the houseboat hotels where tourists stay, some of the houseboats in the backwaters are also homes of locals. When he revealed the cost of each houseboat it seemed shocking. The price started at around Rs 75 lakh for a single bedroom houseboat to one or 1.75 crore for a four-bedroom luxury houseboat. Buying a 75 lakh home in a city seems like a big deal for us, and here he was talking about a houseboat costing crores of rupees which would get dilapidated over a period of time. I wondered how the folks afforded it. It felt like a big mystery to me.
We also got to see women on the roadside in their traditional dresses, pheran and headscarves. I felt excited like a kid to see them. We also noticed the roadside fruit shops. A lot of them were selling watermelons, mangos and red cherries. The cherries looked pretty tempting and we thought we will buy some next day. Seeing so many shops selling mangoes was a little surprising to me, I had anticipated apples but I didn't know that mangoes were also so common in Kashmir.
Quick lunch - first Tujj experience
It was past noon time and we were really hungry. I didn't want to skip lunch as it would be a long wait till dinner. So I asked Khursheed bhai to stop at some restaurant which served local food. Before comign i had done some research on where to eat as well. And I had seen the recommendation of Khayam Chowk at quite a few places. So I asked him to take us to Khayam chowk. When we reached Khayam chowk, it appeared to be a super crowded place with narrow lanes and very little space for parking. It was not something I remembered from the vlogs I had seen. In the vlog we had seen open air stalls selling Kebabs and rotis nearby Dal lake. Somehow we were too hungry by then and decided to get down at the first decent restaurant we saw.
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| The menu |
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| Mutton Tujj with an assortment of chutneys and tawa naan |
Khursheed bhai stopped at a joint and we got off. It was a small restaurant but the interiors were well done. It was past 2.30 PM so there was no lunchtime rush only a few men eating on another table. Initially I felt like whether any women comes here by themselves or not and maybe they are surprised to see us. But soon another group dropped by where there was a lady so we felt a little comfortable. We wanted to have something quick as time was running out and I wanted to finish a couple of sight seeing before evening. We ordered mutton tujj and tawa naan. It took around 10 minutes for the order to arrive. Barbequed meat or Tujj is simply mutton, chicken, fish or beef pieces held together through seekh, or steel rods. Tujj is then grilled over red heated ember called Bath-e-Czini and served with 2-3 types of local chutneys like radish chutney, cucumber chutney, tomato or chili chutneys. Tujj was being prepared right outside the restaurant while the server got a stack of tawa naan from somewhere else. He was a very deft worker and quickly prepared 3-4 plates of tujj and naan for all of us. I had heard a lot about tujj earlier so had a high expectation. The tujj tasted nice because we were hungry but not exceptional. The tawa naan tasted nothing like the naan we are familiar with, instead it was thin maida rotis made on tawa. And the rotis were not hot so it kind of felt hard like papad. The chutneys were very interesting however. This was the fist time I was having radish chutney with dahi. We finished our lunch quickly and got back into the car.
Dal Lake and the Boulevard road
The plan next was to head to the hotel, freshen up, rest a bit if time permits and then head out for sightseeing. The afternoon sun appeared to be pretty strong even though there was a lot of cloud cover that day and also the temperature was cool. We drove out of the crowded Khayam chowk and headed towards the boulevard road. This road runs a circuit around Dal Lake and is one of the most famous stretch just like queen's necklace in Mumbai. We had arrived on a Saturday but the traffic on the road was very thin at that time. It was just a couple of cars here and there. When we reached the boulevard road finally we could associate with the pictures of Dal lake we had always seen. It looked serene even in the late afternoon mainly because of the cloud cover lingering over the mountains in the background. I didn't know that it was the Nanga Parbat, later we got to know the same from our Shikara driver. The boulevard road has a number of ghats and jettys from where one can go for shikara rides or take the smaller boats to travel to their houseboats. We saw tourists loading their luggage into such small boats at a few ghats. We also saw some folks sitting on the culvert around the boulevard road and fishing in the lake.
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| One of the many ghats on Boulevard road |
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| Beautiful Vistas of the boulevard road |
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| Tourits offloading their luggage and waiting for shikaras to ferry them to houseboats |
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| Beautiful Shikaras on the Dal lake and Nanga Parbat in the backdrop |
Though this was my first time in Kashmir I did not opt for houseboats because I feel a little claustrophobic in closed spaces. Plus I wanted to have the ground connection in case we planned to roam around at night. Our hotel was at the fag end of the Boulevard road and even further down. It was like 5-6 minutes drive from Nishat bagh. The drive was breathtakingly beautiful. I kept staring and staring at the landscape unraveling before me. The whole area looked like a foreign land because of the level of cleanliness around. For the first time we spotted chinar trees and willow trees. We got to know that no one can cut the chinar trees at their own will and it is considered as a punishable offense. Only forest department officials can trim the branches if they happen to hang too low on the roads. All trees were green at this time and yet looked beautiful. I was trying to imagine how marvelous they would look during the autumn in their fiery red and orange hues.
Soon we reached our property which was a three star hotel named Nishat View. The hotel was situated in a very calm area with only another hotel adjacent to it. There was a army bunker positioned right opposite to the hotel. It felt a little eerie to see bunkers outside hotel but as I said you kind of get used to these things in a while. Since we were only going to stay overnight at this place the hotel didn't matter much. The façade of the hotel was good. But I can not say the same for the rooms. Reception was the only area which had ambient light, the rest of the passages, dining hall, rooms didn't did look a tad claustrophobic to me. The dining hall was at the basement while the rooms were at first and second floor. The first room we were given was tiny and had a weird rhombic shape as if just to utilize the space they built the walls. It also had a stench of some cheap room freshener. So I went to the reception and asked for a different room. The second room was not much better but at least it was a proper square shaped room with a good sized window. You would see pictures of this room mostly in their reviews. I would say it was pretty much okay kind of room good for just spending a night but not more. Good thing was the room had ample charging points and hot water provision.
We quickly freshened up and got changed. Since the room did not have much of a view outside so there was no point in wasting time sitting in the room. We headed out and drove towards our first sightseeing point - Nishat Bagh.
Nishat Bagh - one of the most beautiful Mughal gardens
Before the advent of Islam, Kashmir was predominantly a Hindu region, the concept of pleasure gardens was not alien to it even during this period. Influenced by the concepts of vatikas (or wooded pleasure gardens), of ancient India, a variety of such gardens were created in the Valley mostly in the form of orchards. These gardens were endowed with a variety of flowers, herbs and aromatic plants. Islam came to Kashmir in the 14th C. Some of the leading members of the new dynasty were immigrants from Persia or areas with heavy Persian influence. Thus along with language, dress, customs many types of arts and crafts linked to Persia also flourished in the region. Among them one was also the art of gardening. From historical references it seems that these gardens followed a similar pattern of Persian Paradise gardens, with terraces arranged around a central water channel, lined with fountains and planted with a variety of flowers and trees that grew in abundance within the Valley. By the time Kashmir passed into the hands of the Mughals in the 16th C., these gardens embedded with the Persian spirit were already established in Kashmir.
The celebrated Mughal gardens of Kashmir owe their grandeur primarily to Emperor Jahangir who had an undaunted love for Kashmir, and his son Shah Jahan. Jahangir was responsible for the careful selection of the site and maneuvering it to suit the requirements of the traditional paradise gardens. Kashmir is home to most beautiful Mughal gardens in India and Srinagar host the maximum.
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| At the entrance of Nishat Bagh |
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| Surreal scenery |
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| Beautiful fountains and water channels |
Nishat Bagh translates to “Garden of Joy” or “Garden of delight”. The garden was designed by Asaf Khan, the brother of Noor Jahan in 1633 AD. It is the second largest Mughal garden in the Kashmir Valley nestled on the eastern bank of the Dal Lake with the Zabarwan Mountains at the back and offers a magnificent view of the Pir Panjal mountain range. The terrace gardens of Nishat Bagh offers a magnificent panoramic view mountain range and Dal lake.
The area around the entrance of Nishat Bagh was bustling with activity. It looked like a fair ground. A number of eateries on the opposite side of the road, many souvenir shops lined around the entrance gate, huge number of tourists and locals and equally large number of vehicles on the road causing a traffic snarl. We got down a little before the jam and told Khursheed bhai to find a parking. We walked down the rest of the way to the entrance. There were quite a few souvenir shops on the way and we stopped to look at a few. I really liked a small wooden shikara they were selling and decided to purchase it. I am really bad at bargain but I would recommend that you do not buy the wooden shikaras from Nishat bagh shops as they sell it more expensive. If you are visiting Chasma Shahi then you will get the same shikara at much lesser price. But since I did not know back then so got the shikara at Rs 200 (which by Pune standard was cheap).
The entry ticket at all Mughal garden is priced same at Rs 24. Now that is a trick figure. Most of the times people would not have change of 4 rupees so either you end up paying Rs 25 or if you are lucky you will get 1 rupee back from the counter. Now imagine the number of tourists visiting each day and paying Rs 1 extra. That whole amount is not accounted for but gets collected nonetheless. They did not charge anything extra for my DSLR. We reached the garden around 5 PM and it was very crowded already. But since the garden is massive you wont feel the crowd once you are inside.
Nishat Bagh has a broad cascade of terraces lined with avenues of chinar and cypress trees, which starts from the lakeshore and reaches up to an artificial façade at the hill end. Rising from the edge of the Dal Lake, length-wise, the garden consists of twelve terraces, supposedly symbolizing the twelve signs of the zodiac.
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| These small waterfalls were dotted across the center of the massive garden |
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| Nishat Bagh is one of the most beautiful Mughal Gardens |
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| Zoomed in to Dal lake and spotted this structure |
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| This was a unique flower I saw in every Mughal garden, not sure of the name |
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| Roses of all shapes and colors were there |
The garden is massive and one can easily spend 2-3 hours just walking around the garden. Even spending a whole day is worth. The garden houses innumerable flowers, trees and water canals with small waterfalls. There are also dress rental areas where you can rent the traditional Kashmiri attire and take some signature photographs with the beautiful flowers. One should ideally have enough time at hands to sit and enjoy the views. I felt Nishat Bagh was the prettiest because of the towering Zabarwan mountains in the backdrop adding a lot of drama to the scenery. I don't think any of the other gardens have mountains encircling it. Check out my video to see how pretty everything looks (link at the end of the blog). You need a lot of stamina and definitely a bottle of water if you want to cover the whole garden. Since we were short on time we could walk only till half a way and then turn back. We thought that on our last day in Srinagar if we had some time we would again try to visit Nishat Bagh.
The Shikara Ride fiasco
It was already 6 PM by the time we left Nishat Bagh. There was still ample sunlight and I thought we could make it to one of the nearest ghats and go on a sunset Shikara ride. But soon we realized how wrong I was. I gave a call to Khursheed Bhai to locate him in the call. He asked us to come a little ahead where he had parked. After reaching our car I told him about our plan to go for a shikara ride, but he seemed reluctant. The first problem was that our driverji wanted to head home for the night (he stayed in Tanmarg) and the second problem we soon discovered. As we touched the boulevard road we saw the unending traffic jam on the lane going towards the city, which was also the lane we needed to take to reach any of the ghats. The road which was practically empty during the afternoon had transformed into a big traffic snarl by the evening. Khursheed bhai told that this is the usual scene during the evening when most of the tourists prefer to hang out around the boulevard. The traffic was moving at a snail's pace. It was very clear we would not make it to any of the ghats before sun sets, hence all my anticipation of taking those picture perfect sunset shots drowned prematurely. However the only good thing was that we were already on the boulevard road and could see the stunning sun set from the car at least. Stunning was actually an understatement. It was one of the most prettiest sunsets I have witnessed.
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| One of the best sunsets I have witnessed in recent times |
Finally we reached a ghat nearby and decided to stop and check the rates. The moment I got down from the car I realized that the weather had drastically changed. Till Nishat Bagh it didnt feel cold at all and I was not carrying any jacket. But post sun down the mercury had suddenly dropped and the air was too cold. I was contemplating if it would be a good idea to go for a shikara ride in such a cold weather considering I was not appropriately dressed. However I crossed the street and went to the ghat to check the rates. I had checked the standard Shikara rates on tripadvisor forum before my trip started. The standard government rates were something in the range of Rs. 500 to Rs 700 for one boat for an hour (two people).
The moment we reached the ghats, touts and shikara drivers surrounded us. There was this henchman type guy who asked us how many of us are there. I told him two, and he quoted a price of Rs. 3500 for an hour. I was stunned. At first I thought that I heard wrong, then I queried again and he told me the same answer. The rates he was quoting was beyond bargain but still I told him that government rates are not what he is quoting. To this he blatantly said "we dont do government rates, please move if you don't want to pay, I have other customers who will be willing to pay". I did not expect such a rude response and it felt disgusting the way he told. All this while our driverji was standing there. When i told him to help in bargain he didnt step in. This was also surprising as otherwise he was being helpful in things. It was only on the last day we came to know that all the drivers here take some cut money from the shikara drivers based on what deal they cut with the customer. So the more they can extort the better commission the drivers get and hence they don't try to intervene in this atrocity. Also one more thing we found out was that the rates for the evening rides were usually higher than the day time and also the ghats after ghat number 19 or 20 is usually expensive as they are far off from the city center.
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| The sun was setting at this time |
So here are a couple of suggestions if you really don't have any hung up on doing evening shikara rides:
- Go to ghat number 18 or lesser ones. These are near to the city center and charges are economic
- Go for Shikara rides in the morning around 8.30 - 9 AM, it is really peaceful and economic
- Don't agree if they are charging anything beyond Rs 800 for a couple for an hour, they are just trying to fleece you
- Don't expect your driver to bargain for you, they are also in this commission model (doesn't mean the driver is bad, its kind of become a standard operating model now)
So we didn't argue with that rowdy person anymore and decided to spend some time walking around the place. We also saw another group of tourist being treated the same way by the guy who also refused to go with him. I had always heard good things about the Kashmiri hospitality but this was definitely a bad experience that I would remember from the first day. but in a way it was actually good for me, because the mercury was dipping really fast and it would be very uncomfortable for me doing the shikara ride without proper warm clothes.
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| A lot of tourists were there around the Boulevard road |
The sun had already set and the lights were coming up around the road. The vibrant Boulevard Road is the heart of Srinagar. Flanked by the Dal Lake on one side and bustling market on the other, it is a beautiful stretch to walk about in evenings. Cool breeze, views of the mountains, house boats moored on wooden jetties, colorful shikaras vying for attention - all of this makes this place a unique experience. The entire boulevard road has great photo ops as well. After spending like 10-15 minutes we decided to head back because Khursheed bhai had to then head back home after dropping us.
On the way back we stopped at a small grocery store and got 3 bottles of Bisleri. Usually the bottled water is cheaper at the store than the hotels. By the time we reached hotel it was too cold outside and pitch dark. We were supposed to head to Gurez the next day. Khursheed bhai said he will come by 8 AM to pick us.
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| A sunset to remember |
After reaching the room the first thing I did was getting dressed in all my warm clothes. It was a really good decision to bring ample warm clothes because in Srinagar itself it felt too cold at night. We tried to watch TV for some time but nothing interesting was there. Finally around 8 PM we went down for dinner. The way to the dinner hall looked even more shady with dim lit passageways. Most of the packaged tours include breakfast and dinner. So the hotels here has a buffet provision for all such guests. You can order certain ala carte items from the menu but the charges were pretty steep.
The set buffet didn't have much options. The taste of the dishes were also very sub standard. This was probably one of the worst buffet dinners I had while travelling. Even the chicken didn't taste good. The only thing I liked was the rajma. How did they make everything taste so bland was a question I wanted to ask. But the person manning the buffet table was not a very friendly guy and kept giving us stares as if we had done something wrong. There was no point in complaining also, as it didn't not seem that they are much bothered about customer service. There was one more group in the dining hall and seemed like they had come from south India. This was also a very surprising aspect of Kashmir trip. The primary group of tourist I saw in Kashmir were either from Gujarat or Southern India with some amount of Bengalis and Marathis.
Post dinner we spent some time in the reception area. There was a handloom shop in the premise where we took a look at the shawls and other local made garments. Mom was looking for some hand embroidered shawls which was not available. The prices were however quite high and also we didn't want to buy something without seeing other options.
So finally we decided to call it a day. It was a very long day and we wanted to get some good sleep before the long journey the next day. Next day onwards the core journey started where we would be travelling to some of the most offbeat locations of Kashmir. That's all till now. Don't forget to check out the other blogs in this series (link below). Stay tuned!
Other blogs in the Kashmir series:
- Is Kashmir safe for travelers?
- What to pack for Kashmir in May -June ( for Gurez- bangus - Lolab circuit)
- Kashmir Diaries - Day 1 : Pune to Srinagar | Nishat Bagh
- Kashmir Diaries -Day 2: Srinagar to Gurez| Razdan Pass | Krishnaganga
- Kashmir Dairies - Day 3 : Walking around Gurez Village
- My Top Favorite Foods From Kashmir - Part 1
- My Favorite Food from Kashmir - Part 2 (Second Trip To Kashmir - October)
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