17-Jun-2022: The flight was at 6:35 am. We had set up the alarm for 2:30 am. We had already booked a cab and also had asked the driver on the car to be available. It was a good decision as it allowed us to travel more comfortably especially with all the luggage. We woke up, got ready and were ready by 3:15 pm. The Ertiga and our driver both had already arrived. We loaded the luggage and left for airport at 3:30 am. There was no traffic and we reached well in time.
The boarding process as smooth and the flight was on time. On this flight I was not able to get contagious seats, so G & Ar and Aai were on separate row and I, R & baba on other. Nothing remarkable happened on flight except we slept most of the time and we reached Delhi on time at 9:00 am. We had booked the wheelchair for aai and they were there on time. We went to the food court, freshened up and had one at Dilli Street. For dad, we went to Carnatic cafe and packed dosa and brought back. Rest of us had South Indian platter, chaat, tea etc. From there one we had Baba and Aai board the golf cart to the gate and we walked our way there. The flight was on time. The flight time to Srinagar was 1hour :20 mins.
The flight passed our pathankot and then entered the pir panjal range. We could see snow capped mountains as far as our sight went. It was a sigh to behold. we were entering the Vale of Kashmir and it was as beautiful as we had imagined. As we entered the valley, we started seeing small villages and towns, Most of which had those typically mountain style homes, with green rooftops. We touched down at 12:30 pm, which was bit early and then headed to get the bags which took a while. The airport is quite small and we were out of it in no time. There were many people standing with placard, but could not see the MakeMyTrip (MMT) one, so I called the tour manager number and they directed me to where the person who had come to pick us up was.
His name was Inayat and he was quite courteous. He gave us a goodie bag which included water bottles, juice, biscuits etc. After a bit, our Temp Traveler pulled at a distance and Inayat and couple of others helped get our luggage there. One thing which we had heard about saw here is the expectation of tips at all places. The Temp Traveler was from Force and a new one. We met our driver/guide for the next 7 days and his name was Ahmad. He was a nice guy and was quite helpful though out the trip.
Once our luggage was loaded and we got in we headed to a MMT meeting lounge. We could not figure out much purpose for this detour. This as a small restaurant attached to a lodging place. MMT had a small area for them in their and the lunch was part of it. The lunch was not that good, but we were hungry and did not had much choice. After a long time the MMT guy gave some info, shared the important numbers and gave some tips. We had some queries which he helped answer and then we were on our way to our hotel
Inayat was also with us. We enquired about places to see which we can cover for today. Initially they were not quite enthusiastic, they were like today’s only thing on plan was pick from airport and to drop off to the hotel. But after pushing Ahmad agree to be wait in the lobby and take us where we want to go. The Radisson was about 20 minutes from the airport and was in a nice locality. We reached there at 3:00 pm. I went over to the reception and could see what we had already experienced at the airport, which was Kashmir was thronging with tourist and it was too much for the T & H industry to handle. We had to wait for more than half and hour and after a bit of pushing them finally go the keys to our 3 rooms. Though as we were waiting we had our first Kahwa and it was great. Our luggage was delivered to the room and we refreshed and rested a bit.
Our room was on the top floor (5th) and the hotel had an open layout inside to we could see the whole hotel and the restaurant on the ground floor from the top. From the rooms we got a great view of Zabarwan mountains which surround the city of Srinagar. We could see the snow covered tips and what a view it was. We were ready by 5:00 pm and contacted Ahmad that we would go to Dal lake tonight. The Dal lake is quite close to the hotel and he dropped us at Ghat 5. There were many Shikara owners there and lot of crowd and bargaining going on. The guy Quoted I think Rs 900 or so per person for 4 points. He finally agreed for Rs 700/person, which also seemed quite high.
The Shikaras can carry only 4 people per boat (which looking around was debatable if this was indeed implemented always). So we got 2 Shikaras. Me, Baba & Raj in one and G, Aai & Ar in another. I dont remember much about the points, but the ride on the Dal lake is one of its kinds. The water of the lake is like mirror which reflects the images which fall on it. Also the water is so quite. The background to this all is the Zabarwan mountains on one side, the all decked with lights promenade which covers the circumference of the lake and house boats on the other side. What a sight! There are many different kinds of Shikaras on the lake, one for tourist, one selling all kinds of stuff like Veggies, Tea/Coffee/ Souvenirs and even a post office and floating market.
We had Milk tea from on of the Shikara and then headed to the floating market. We shopped for Saadi etc and its one of a kind experience. It was twilight and a nice cool breeze was now blowing. This lake and place is magical. You can spend a long time here, really. Our one hour was over in no time and we were back on Ghat 5. For the Dinner we wanted to try out something local. I found one Kake di hatti on google which seemed nice. Ahmad was not too interested, but we made him take us there. He had no idea where it was, but we finally found it. Its a nice place, with this huge Kake da naan. (It may be 3 feet long and have not seen such big naan ever), dripped in butter. We had Paneer and Dal Makhani with it and it was a great dinner. We were back to hotel by 9:30 pm and were quite tired, though there had been a great start to the trip. We straight went for the bed!
Take only memories, leave only footprints! 