Recently with lots of questions and thoughts in mind we(Three families) decided to visit gulmarg, Sonamarg.Yes, we landed Srinagar airport on March 31and came out to breathe nice breeze offcourse after tight security check.
We took off to Gulmarg the same afternoon and checked in a resort. Initially while climbing the uphill to Gulmarg the excitement among us and the kids started looking at the patches of snow itself and the real excitement burst out when the white glittering snow mountains started showing up. I couldn’t find words to describe the view of the snow clad mountains when looked from the flight.
We spent the evening in the resort and kids started playing with the snow outside the resort. The next day we had a day trip to gondola for the cable car ride. Really another exciting ride, the colors you see is either white or green(the tall pine trees).The cable car takes you to two level, one to 10, 000 ft and other to 14000 ft.for the second level kids are not allowed as it is below zero even in April.
We were back to the resort that eveing having lost all energy after skiing and playing in the snow and were sitting in one room sipping our tea. Suddenly one kid started screaming look out some white thing is flying and all started staring out and realized that it started snowing. The snow fall started increasing in few minutes and all were full of energy back started searching for the cameras and came out to shoot.
Next day we left to Sonamarg, a long ride(85 km) and need to cross Srinagar to reach Sonamarg.It was damn cold and the ride itself is exciting going through the roads filled with snow to the height of more than 8 feet. We had lunch and took pictures
We then rode back to Srinagar to stay in the boat house which is another exciting experience. Next did some shopping visited to the newly opened Tulip garden(I heard it is the first of it kind in Asia), Shankaracharya temple and bid bye to Srinagar.
Really an amazing place to visit and we need don’t see and threat as you can see the security guards posted every where.
J&K is a place were people are dependent on tourism for their living, ” Welcome to the Paradise on Earth" board welcomes you as come out the airport .Looking at the streets and people of Srinagar would make you feel bad and pity on the people but I not sure whom to blame for this. But the places surrounding the Srinagar are real paradise on earth.
Please do plan to Visit, it would cost one-third of visiting Swiss and you will get to experience all in Swiss except for good roads and question of hygiene.