( I , along with my school friend Tk decided to tour North India . This post presents our tour in detail along with pics. )
Day 1: The People( Saturday)
It was about 1400 Hrs,the moment we landed in the Srinagar Airport, an announcement was made in the flight “ You are not permitted to take pictures in the airport”.I think that announcement reflected the life scenario in the Kashmir . We took a cab to the office of Kashmir Valley Travels pvt limited. which is located near Dal lake. The journey to the Dal lake made me realize the omnipresence of Indian Army soldiers on the streets of Kashmir.
The office of Kashmir valley travels was well furnished. We were looking for the person by name Arif to whom we spoke the day before regarding our trekking tour. Arif bhai as we decided to call him spoke very fluent english which surprised me a bit. We made a deal with him for the following things:
1. Day 1 : we will be taken by cab to near Naranag, the starting point of our trek.
2. Day 2 : we will trek towards Gangbal Lake & Haramukh Paravath which is about 3600 mtrs and it would be our finishing point and return back to Naranag the same day.
3. Day 3: we will be given a cab to go to a place called Sonamarg.
4. Day 4: Return back to Srinagar which is about 90 kms.
5. All the required gear for Trekking like Food ,utensils, sleeping bags, cook , horses
for transportation of cargo etc along with the Guide will be taken care.
After striking the deal, the next deal was to get a Hotel room to stay for that night. We were able to get a good room for a reasonable amount of Rs. 450/- with help of Arif bhai. After feeding our empty stomach, we decided to take a walk on the streets of Kashmir and purchase few things left out in our list.
The streets are quite busy with people doing their business for living. The Hymns from the Quran were audible everywhere on the streets even as a mobile ringtone as well. I simply loved the way kashmiri people wished us good luck by saying “ Allah ke hawale”. One important thing in Kashmir is that a mobile phone with Prepaid connection wont work, which is a preventive measure taken by the government of J & K for its misuse by terrorists. During the night, the temperature dropped considerably close to zero degrees which made me restless.
The day ended with me sleeping under a blanket which is about two inch thickness and still shivering violently and cursing my friend for not even feeling a pinch of the extreme cold conditions I was subjected to...
A view of Dal lake along with Boat Houses at Night
Day 2: (Sunday)
According to the plan, we were to be taken to the Naranag by cab which would pick up at 9.30 am near Dal lake. We started our journey towards Naranag in the cab which is already loaded with the necessary gear for trekking along with our cook Rahim and Arif Bhai. We reached Naranag which is our starting point of our trek at around in the afternoon.
The Trekkers- Tk & Vamsi
It was small trek to reach our Day one’s resting place. ‘The kota’ as it is referred in local language is built by Gujjar, the local hilltop community,for resting.
The Kota from Outside & Inside
After settling down in the Kota, we decided to take a walk into the surroundings and was stunned by the beauty of the nature around us, as it offered breath-taking views of itself.
Nature
We came across an army patrolling team as the border was very close to us. We had a nice discussion with them about various things. They reluctantly agreed to take a picture with us .
With Guardians of our Border
The day ended with a very hot & nice meal offered by our cook and as usual I was shivering to death with cold and at the same time cursing my friend for his ability to withstand cold..
Day 3 (Monday)
As per instructions from our guide Amzad, who is fun-loving guy and very talkative, we left our Kota for Gangbal lake at around 7.30 am. The climb was too steep for us , about 75 degrees inclination and it was really getting tough as time goes-by. Amzad assured us this wont last long and we will find better ground to walk.
The Steep Climb
But, the steep climb kept on coming back at every corner we crossed. But somehow we managed to move-on, until we came across snow. I never happen to see this much huge amount of snow that I think if kept in a boiler and heated can provide water for city for more than 100 years.
The Path to the top
The Snow
What a view to watch
We were completely blown away by the mesmerizing beauty of nature, its hard to put it in words. One must experience it by himself to feel it.
Unfortunately, the pace of our climb was not as expected and I was completely exhausted by the climb , in a way I felt as though my body was eating itself for survival that lead us into trouble .
1. We were not equipped with necessary tools to stay in the night.
2. We don’t have any food to eat.
3. I was in no position to move my body because of exhaustion.
Fortunately, there was an army camp near Haramukh Parvath. We decided to ask them for help. Luckily, they guided us to a nearby under construction guest house. We were saved that day by the Indian Army. I was quite surprised to find a guest house at such a place. After having a goodtime with our soldiers, we said our good-byes and left for guest house.
The toughest thing for me in trekking was to survive the harsh weather conditions at night which was below zero degrees. Somehow I managed to survive that night with great difficulty.
I was in need of some help to pull myself upto guest house.
Day 4 (Tuesday )
In the morning, I was happy to find myself regaining my strength. Amjad was anxious to show us the Haramukh Paravath in the morning and insisted us to come out. This is what we happen to see.
Standing Tall: Haramukh Parvath 5300 mtrs with Sunrays embracing it
Unfortunately, our attempt to see Gangbal lake which is about some 500 mtrs away was foiled by snow which was varying from 1 feet to 1 metre. Amzad decided seeing our conditions not to go further and we decided to return back to base. The descend to base was easy compared to climb and we reached our Kota at around 3.30 pm.
Our descending route
According to our agreement with Arif Bhai, we were supposed to be taken to our next stop Sonamarg in a vehicle. The arrangement of vehicle was impressive, the movement we came down to our base, a vehicle was waiting for us with all our gear already loaded in it. We said our goodbyes to our guide & cook and started towards Sonamarg.We reached Sonamarg at around 7.30 pm asked the driver to come back at around 2.00 pm as we were supposed to be taken to Srinagar.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
Sonamarg is one of the most beautiful tourist locations in India, surrounded by mountains & glaciers on all the sides along with our army camps all around. I was stunned to see huge number of army camps spread across the valley of Sonamarg. Sonamarg is known for its glacier by name ‘Thajiwas glacier’ . We made an attempt to go as close as possible to the glacier.
Before Thajiwas glacier
Zojila pass is our next stop which is at the entrance road to Leh, the splendid rooftop of the world as it is described. We just made an attempt to go Zojila pass but was stopped due to a scheduled blast for newly under construction road. We decided to return back to Srinagar.
We reached Srinagar at about 9.30 pm and decided to stay in boat house instead of a room. The inside view of boat house was quite stunning.
Inside a boat house…
Day 6 (Thursday)
The next stop was Gulmarg which was some 80 kms away from Srinagar. But before leaving Srinagar, it was time to have some fun in the Dal Lake. In local language called as “Shikara” a special boat takes u for a ride on the Dal Lake which happens to be the home of quite a large number people as well as different species of birds. If u go to Srinagar it’s a must to have Shikara Ride .The residents on Dal lake created a colony to stay and shops selling from household items to fancy items. I was wonderstruck by the way people made the Lake as their home.
Enjoying the ride on Dal lake
Inside a On –Boat Clothes Selling shop
After having fun-ride on Dal lake, We started towards Gulmarg and reached around 1.00 pm. We stayed in Hotel called Hilltop which is quite famous in Gulmarg as it burned down to ashes by fire not once but thrice. But I had to mention the hospitality was quite impressive.
Gulmarg is famous for its Gondola ride . It was unfortunate for us that the second phase of Gondola ride was down that very particular day. But atleast we had Phase -1 of gondola ride. We enjoyed the ride to top but we felt it was Phase-2 that offered stunning view of Gulmarg.
Gondola ride
Gulmarg is also famous for itself Golf Course which hosts quite big National level tournaments. We decided to have some with fun with Golf. Seriously we enjoyed playing it as we challenged each other as to who would put the ball in the hole first.
Day 7 (Friday)
As per our plan, we were suppose to return to Delhi and attend a Live concert performed by one of the greatest Rock bands in the History- The Metallica. We landed in Delhi in the afternoon and reached the Concert venue at around 4.30 pm which is already filled with all metal-head fans. The total event was handled very poorly by the organizers. Organizers cheated public by selling more tickets than the venue can handle, thereby leading to utter fiasco of the total event. This led Metallica band to cancel the concert itself. The already raged fans have become unstoppable bulls, tearing apart anything that came in their way. We were just lucky enough to make our way out of the venue before the destruction began.
Fans about to take down the Innova in front of them..
Day 8 (Saturday)
I’m a big fan of Formula 1 racing and It is scheduled to have its First Race in India at Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida. I decided to attend this event a long time ago (may be the moment it was announced that F1 is coming to India in 2010). The sound of F1 engine roaring was always so soothing to my mind when I used to hear it on TV. Normally Saturday’s is dedicated for deciding the race positions of the race drivers according to their performance. We reached the circuit a little late and quickly made our way to our designated seats to catch the action. The first thing that shocks you about F1 is the roaring sound of V8 engine of F1 car. Wow. I’ll the never forget the sound. It was so thunderously loud that we had to close our ears. We did not take our camera as we were skeptical as to whether they were allowed or not. Our doubts were cleared the moment we saw cameras on the people around us. It was quite an amazing first encounter with F1 race car.
In the evening, we met Rajesh, one of old friends of tk who happen to stay in Delhi. We decided to spend the rest of the time by watching the Movie “Ra-one”. It was such a non-sense movie to watch. But the interesting part was the ride in the Metro rails.
Day 9 (Sunday) The Race Day
As Sunday is Formula 1Race day which is scheduled at 3.00 pm in the evening , we decided to take small tour of Delhi and went to Jantar Mantar, which is quite an interesting monument which is about careful measurements of celestial objects. Its really amazing to see the accuracy that was achieved in predicting the time& positions of celestial objects in 18th century.
Jantar mantar
It was lunch time and what place could better to have lunch than AP Bhavan. Before going to AP bhavan, we met Rajesh at India Gate and together had our Lunch.
India gate
It was race time, we went to Circuit using the bus provided by the Organizers. I must say F1 event was quite impressively organized with over 90,000 fans attending the Race.
Unfortunately, the traffic was too heavy and it was jamming all over the highway. But somehow we managed to reach the Circuit by about 30 minutes late. We were disappointed by this as the race would be quite interesting in the start itself.
Parking lot & BIC
It was quite amazing to watch as well hear the roaring F1 engines competing with each other .I thought if I had come 30 minutes earlier and watch the Race from start to finish, I would have definitely become deaf. The Race lasted for about 1(1/2) hours completing 60 laps with Red bull Race Driver Vettel emerging as the Winner.
Ferrari fans
The Redbull Racer Vettel led the Race all the way to victory
Overall it was quite an amazing race to watch, we enjoyed the race a lot .Hopefully return back next year in 2012.
Day 10 (Monday)
Back to Hyderabad
The tour was awesome . We had great fun in these 9 days. Hopefully we wish to have more fun in the next upcoming tour in 2012..
