19-June-2023: Wake up time was same around 6:30 am. We had already packed our luggage and kept it ready for checkout. We got ready and went down for breakfast. Most of us had Indian items and Ar had mostly bakery items like Donut, cup cakes, muffins etc. We had tea/coffee and then G and R went to room for one final check. I meanwhile competed the checkout formalities and we were ready to go. It had been a nice stay at this Hotel. Our bags were loaded in the Tempo Traveler and we were on our way to Sonamarg. Sonamarg is a hill station located in Ganderbal District and is about 75 km and takes about 2 hours 20 minutes to reach. Most part of the road follows the Indus (Sindhu) river and snowy mountains on other side.
Our fist stop was just after we crossed the Sindhu river, Ahmad bhai said we can descend to river bed from there. Seeing and touching Sindhu river was such an experience. This river and its valley is the birthplace of our civilization. There was a kaccha road and small wall to jump to reach there. Initially only G, Ar & I went there. Later, R found another road which was plain and he, Baba & Aai also joined in. Thr river was fllowing in full force making noise and the the bridge from which we had reached it provided a good background for taking pictures. Ahmad bhai infirmed us that there is river rafting on Sindhu, 8 km upstream and we decided to do it on our way back.
We continued on. The Sindhe river was always besides on our right shoulder and mountain on another. As we started ascending, we could see snow nallahs and snow walls on the mountains, some of which have started melting and they had become waterfalls, joining the Sindhu river. The weather was also getting colder as we went on. The Temp Traveler provided us with comfortable ride and also nice views of surroundings. We were also munching food and moving ahead :). The road for most part was well paved and smooth. But as we got closer to Sonmarg, the road started having more and more potholes and later there was no real road. The road was quite bad as we entered Sonmarg. It tested our body parts and the clouds of dust our lungs. The town of Sonmarg looked absolutely beautiful. Its a small town, but surrounded by snow covered mountains from all sides, Sindhu river flowing through it and nice cozy homes and hotels dotting the lush green landscape. What a sight. We crossed the river and got on the road to our Hotel, Country Inn, Radisson. The driver missed the turn, which I was pointing and we had 10 minutes of back breaking road before we could turn around and get back on the right road. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 12:00 pm.
We did the formalities and got the rooms. The Hotel was wooden old style home stay kind of hotel. The windows were huge and the view outside made you think its a picture which have been hung on the wall. It was some calm and serene and one of the best views we saw in Kashmir. Considering the road condition, we decided it may not be good for Aai to travel to the next stop and so Baba and Aai decided to stay at the Hotel and we cover couple of points and be back. We dropped them to the restaurant for lunch and they had Khichadi. We decided to have lunch en-route as we would get late for our next excursions. Ahmad bhai dropped us to the town center. There we had to do lot of bargaining and almost decided to cancel but finally stuck a deal for Rs 6500 to take us to Zero point via Zojila pass. The vehicle was a old rundown sumo and it was quite a ride.
The debate was which is worse, the road or the Sumo. The construction for Z Morh and Zojila tunnel work was in progress and once completed things will get quite better. The Zojila pass is a narrow road, with valley on one side and snow lined mountain cliffs on other. Its quite unstable and appeared dangerous. The Sumo driver was quite good and knew the roads well but it was quite a ride. At places there was traffic jams as there only one vehicle can pass at a time and everyone had to back up a bit to make way. What made us forget about the absolutely stunning views. We could see the Amarnath base camp, with hundreds or thousands of well planned tents. The snow covered mountains was all over, the air was cold but crisp. The view of snowy mountains were endless and made you believe why Kashmir keeps enthralling visitors for generations. As we reached to the top the snowy mountains were on both sides and it was a great drive. We reached the Zero point in about 45 minutes. Zero point is the border between Kashmir and Ladakh.
We were quite hungry by now as we had to still have our lunch. There were couple of road side hotels serving mostly the same stuff. So we decided to try one of them. There are many bike riders who do this Ladhak Kashmir ride and we saw quite few of them and some even had dropped by in the same hotel. We all had Maggi (which for Rs 125 and was just about ok) and Kahwa. Clearly the Maggi was not good as most of us had bad stomach the next day :(. From that point we could see at a distance the famous Tiger hill. The Kargil war memorial is not far away from here, but we were running late and so we did not pursue that. The zero point is at the elevation of 15300 ft and the oxygen levels are low. The area is surrounded by snow covered mountains and the air was crisp and chilly. We descended on the other side of the road into the snow sports area. We booked for the Snow mobile package for 4 of us for Rs 7000. The ride was great, but was bit fast and quite bumpy. My cap fell down and Ar’s snow mobile driver picked it up and got it for me. I and Ar went first and then G and R. They dropped us to a top of a small hillock.
The driver said to me to remember Malik66 and ask for them when you are ready to go back. The area was quite slippery due to bit older snow and we had hard time balancing and not falling off. We were approached by a photographer, whom we booked. He clicked some nice pics, we had asked for 5-6 pics but he might have clicked 50 or so, which is their ploy to get bigger order. Finally we settled on 10 pics, which he instantly printed and gave us. From there to go back to the return point was quite a slippery ride, with we all (except of course Ar), fell multiple times, but finally reached. There was lot of chaos there and it seems some drivers were busy with other trips and so the passengers were waiting for a long time. There were couple of fights and some even decided to walk back. It seems all had paid the money, which we had not as no one asked us to pay upfront. I spotted the Malik66 from a distance and go them to get Ar and G ahead and then R and I went. So we had to wait for maybe 10 mins. On the way back also he was in full form and I asked them to slowdown or likely we will end up breaking our back :).
We were dropped back to start point. We changed to our normal shoes, paid and walked to our vehicle. There was no mobile network there, but the driver was around and we were off to our hotel. The enjoyed the ride way back as well with breathtaking views. But the bad roads spoit the party a bit. We were back finally at 6:30 pm to Sonmarg, but the driver stopped at the entry of the town. From there he called our driver, Ahmad to pick us up. We were not quite sure why so as we had asked to drop in front of the gate of our hotel. But later it became clear. After a wait of 20 mins or so Ahmad was back, but he had some other person who seemed like a guide to us. That guy kept insisting on going for Thajiwas glacier taking a horse. We were already tired for that day and also we had planned to take the pony ride at Pahalgam, so we refused. This was a sneaky strategy by the driver and guide, which we did not appreciate.
Finally we were back at Hotel. We saw Baba and Aai walking in the courtyard, which had ultimate view of surrounding snowy mountains. We freshened up and joined them at the lawns. There was a big shamiana type sit out area in the middle of the lawn, which they told us was occupied till then and it had recently been vacated. So we took the space and it was great sitting out there and we had some snacks. The views were too good and it was getting colder as the sun went down. Finally it was quite chilly and we decided to head in. We had the dinner at about 8:30 pm and this was paid one which cost us about Rs 5000. The dinner was nice buffet, but we were quite tired and due to late lunch and the Maggi doing its thing in our stomach now, we didn’t eat much. After that we had a nice walk in lawns. the hotel guys had also lit the camp fire and music and dance was going on. We were too tired by then and went straight to the bed.
Take only memories, leave only footprints! 