KASHMIR DAIRIES
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Day 1
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Kashmir is known as one of the best places to visit. It is a well-known fact that Kashmir is known as Jannat or Heaven on earth. Well, I visited Kashmir during my recent vacation. Let me narrate my journey with all of you.
The journey began with full excitement and enthusiasm, but the delay in our flight to Srinagar for almost three hours caused anxiety and mixed emotions in us. We started feeling like it was the end of the trip. Due to some internal issues, Vistara had delayed our flight and the pilot who was supposed to fly us to Srinagar was on sick leave. After a lot of wait and patience, we finally reached Srinagar. Our Travel agent, Towsif, was waiting for us at the airport.
Then, we left for our first destination at Phalagam. As it was already too late in the evening, we were just enjoying Kashmir's scenic beauty while traveling to our hotel. The weather was really cold and it felt great at reaching Kashmir. That day we reached our hotel during dinner time, so we just had our dinner and took rest. To top it all, our day ended with a little rainfall as well.
Day 2
The next day we checked out from the hotel to Pahalagam and then headed towards ABC Valley. We first reached Aru Valley, where we were surrounded by mountains all around us. The weather was just perfect to have something hot to quest our hunger. That is when we had Maggi We clicked a few photos there and left for Betab Valley.
On reaching the valley, we saw several apple trees on the way, but we could not see apples on the trees as it was not the apple season. Later, we saw a river with chilled cold water. That is when my Dad challenged us to put our legs in the cold chilled water. None of us could put our legs inside the water for more than two seconds. But it was really fun playing that mind game.
After Betab Valley, we left for a beautiful place called Mini Switzerland of India. The route to go to this place was possible only with a horse ride. We were taken through a tough route and it was really scary. To be frank, going up the mountain wasn't hard, but coming down was shit scary. On reaching up, we did a pretty long zipline activity. The horse ride was the most frightening and difficult ride I have ever had. From there, we checked in to another hotel in Srinagar. We had our dinner and took rest afterwards. A fulfilled adventure and happening day ended for us.
Day 3
The next day we left our hotel in Srinagar for Sonmarg. We were excited to go to Sonmarg as it was supposed to snowfall on that day. On reaching Sonmarg as expected, the snowfall welcomed us and we also embraced it with both of our hands. The beauty of snowfall was just a pleasure to watch. We got out of the car and the snowfall fell all over us.
We went a little up on the hill to do sledding on the hill. Going up the hill on the sled was not fun, but coming down was absolutely fun. This was the first time I had ever seen Snowfall, and it was really pretty to see the snowfall.
After sledding, we returned to the car and left for our hotel. On the way back we stopped for lunch. After lunch, we saw a lot of mustard fields grown along the way. We stopped at one of the fields and got some photos of our family clicked.
On reaching the hotel, it started raining and it got even colder. We got to our rooms and got freshened up, had our dinner, and got some rest. A beautiful day had come to an end.
Day 4
At the very beginning of the day, we checked out of the hotel in Srinagar. We left for Gulmarg where the mountains were covered with complete snow. On reaching Gulmarg, we saw ATV bikes which were attractive. We all planned to opt for ATV bikes.
My dad and my uncle negotiated the price with them and we hopped onto our individual bike. All of us took one bike each and went around 17 km to cover Gulmarg. That was indeed a great experience to go for a solo ride on an ATV bike. We stopped over at a mid-way, which was covered with snow all over the mountains. We had some fun on this mountain with snow. We made snowballs and threw them at each other. We raced about who would reach the top first on the mountain, which I won obviously.
Later we had Maggie and continued on the ATV bike. After a while, we were allowed to drive the ATV bike on our own, which was so crazy. After driving it, I felt like I was ready to drive a scooter on my own. 
After the ATV bike, we left for our next destination which was the stay at the boat house. On reaching the boat house, it felt so good and relaxing. The boat house was exactly like a house stuffed with all furniture and comfort including a dining table, living room, three bedrooms, and the most exciting part, an open terrace. The boat house was the best thing on the trip. It was an amazing experience in the boat house. With this, another fun and adventurous day ended.
Day 5
The next day we had planned for local sightseeing in Srinagar. Before leaving for local sightseeing, we had cottage-based industry vendors visiting our houseboat to sell their products. We got a few key chains and a few pieces of jewelry. Later, we left for local sightseeing.
First, we went to the Tulip garden. This garden opens only once a year and we were the lucky ones as we could see these lovely tulips. These tulips looked fresh and beautiful.
We clicked a few pictures and then left for the Shankaracharya temple. This temple was located on the uphills, so we had to climb up 80 stairs to reach the temple. The view from the top was absolutely amazing. It was like you could see the entire Srinagar from the top. After getting blessings from Lord Shiva, we went down and then went to the Liberty Cafe for our lunch. We had an amazing feast including Pizzas, Pasta, and mocktails.
After lunch, we went for a ride on the Shikara boat in the very famous Dal Lake. During the ride, we saw India's only floating post office, a floating bazaar, and of course the serene beauty of Kashmir. It felt so peaceful and calm on the Shikara boat. The water was calm and the weather was perfect. After the boat ride, we left for our houseboat and we played the trendy Instagram game, Ek Machle, which was absolutely entertaining. Later, we had dinner and took rest. A beautiful day came to an end.
Welcome to another new day at Srinagar. Today, we are going to head towards Jammu. But before leaving for Katra, we appointed a Photographer to click our pictures using a Kashmir dress called Pheren.
All of us got 10 pictures each and clicked. After some time we finally left for Katra, which was around 5 to 6 hours from Srinagar. The objective of reaching Katra was to trek for the Vaishno Devi shrine.
After a long and exhaustive journey, we reached Katra where we took a break, kept our stuff in, and got freshened up in the hotel. Although we all were really tired, we had to start the trek. Using my GrandFather's influence, we got VIP passes for us and then started our trek journey. The entire track was around 17 kilometers on one side. As we started, we were very excited for the first few kilometers. But later it became tiring. Our main goal was to reach the midway point Adkawaari which was 7.5 km from the starting point.
On reaching the midway place, we took a stable break for an hour or so. After that, we had to trek for 9.5 kilometers more. And we all very really tired. We had walked throughout the entire night and we finally reached the Vaishno Devi Bhawan after 8 hours of long trek. To give some perspective, we started our trek around 9:30 pm and reached the Shrine around 6:30 AM the next morning.
On reaching the Bhavan, we got lockers to keep our handbags and mobile phones as it was not allowed inside the Bhavan. It took us only an hour to get the darshan as we had VIP passes. If we did not have the VIP passes, it would have taken almost 4 hours for the darshan. So, we were lucky enough to have VIP passes. After seeking the blessings of Mata, it was time to get down. Well, going down was easy relatively but as we had not slept throughout the night, we were looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. On reaching Adkawari the midway point, we decided to take horses on the way down.
After sitting on a horse ride for an hour, I literally could not feel my legs. I was so tired that I didn't want food. I just wanted a bed to sleep. But we still had to get Prashad for everyone and ourselves, so we quickly hopped to a shop and got Prashad for everyone. Later, we went for 5 minutes more to find our travel agent. After locating him, we decided to go to Jammu, where we had booked the dham facility for our stay, which was also like a hotel managed by the Shrine management. The journey from Jammu to Katra was like an hour or so. As we all were really tired, we slept in the car. On reaching the Dham, we checked into our rooms and slept the entire day.
After taking so much rest, it still felt like we were so tired. Then we checked out of the dham and went to the railway station which was just a 500 m walkable distance from the dham. As soon as we sat on the train, we were given a newspaper, and after some time yummy breakfast was served.
We took the best train in India (Vande Bharat Express) from Jammu. My Mom and I got down in Ludhiana and went to my Naani's place. My father, my brother, my grandfather, and my chachu and family went to Delhi, from where they took a flight back to Banglore and my chachu went back to his house in Gurugram.
This way, we made amazing memories by visiting Heaven on Earth. Please do visit this place and make lovely memories. In the end, this was my fun-loving trip to Kashmir, a very loved and memorable indeed !!!!
