mesmerising kashmir: kashmir trip first day.

It all incepted with my passion of travelling as a woman traveler with a group called “WOW-women on wanderlust”. It was 14^th february 2012 when I booked my tickets to Srinagar. When my dear hubby came to know about this, he seemed little disappointed at the the thought of being alone alone for those five to six days. My analytical mind told me to plan this trip with my beloved and postpone my wanderlust with women for later. So it so happened that I booked my husband,s tickets on another flight. Afterall Kashmir seemed to be a place to be explord with the one you love.

It was the bright beautiful morning of 7^th april ,with slight chills in the morning air when my beloved and I boarded from two adjacent terminals glancing at each other , enjoying the distance yet cherishing our togetherness. I was not very happy with my middle seat in the flight, when I had so longed for the window seat. There were two ladies besides me, from Calcutta. The one near the window seat was an old lady , mrs ghosh.

My longingness for the window seat dissolved when I came to know that mrs ghosh was in her seventies and this was her first flight . her excitement was contagious. Molly ghosh, her daughter in law and I got pretty chirpy soon. Our entire flight from jammu to Srinagar ,all three of us were literally clung to the window. The view of the snow capped Himalayas with clouds floating over them was mesmering. But my real charm was watching mrs ghosh who was getting excited like the baby, who dances on geting his favourite toy. She was a beauty to watch, her constant smile revealed her inability to overcome her excitement. I found myself staring at her more often now than the view itself. Sometimes when I try to reason out my affinity with the old people I feel one of the reasons is my closenmess with my two grandmothers . the time spend with them in childhood has had really great impact on me.

the aerial view of snow-clad range of himalayas...

the yellow mustard fields seen before landing at srinagar airport.

Finally we landed on the Srinagar airport. I was happy to unite with my beloved at the airport, who seemed to be eagerly waiting for me. Neither of pur phones were working. Later on we came to know that all the prepaid connections from outside the state don not work in j&k, only postpaids do. When I asked one security personal about the call booth he generously offered me his phoneset to make the call. Thought one is really unsure of the peace conditions in Kashmir, but for tourists the kashmiris and the army personal are very cooperative and generous. The main source of revenue being only tourism here.

But the actual surprise was yet to come. We had a glimpse of the kashmiri architecture with sloping roofs of all the houses ,on our way to houseboat, on the dal lake. I noticed several small houseboats even in Jhelum river in the city. The dal lake started with narrow extension carrying many beautiful houseboats. I was anxiously waiting to see our houseboat –lotus retreat, for which we had a prior booking. Finally the driver stopped on the roadside and led us to a beautiful shikara for crossiing over to our houseboat. The shikara ride was an experience in itself.

on our way to the houseboat -----shikara stand.

our rememberable shikara ride..

The location of our houseboat was extremely lovely with the Hboat resting on one corner and huge spreading dal lake in front. Finally we ate something and came on the so called deck of the hb enjoying the view of the people having shikara rides on the lake. We burst into laughter seeing one fellow sleeping on shikara while his wife and the child were busy clicking photos. After some time some floating shops passed by which offered drinks and eatables to people enjoying their shikara rides.it was a spectacular view in itself. We decided to dedicate the day to the view of the dal lake itself.