kashmir weather and .....to gulmarg

We heard kashmiri people saying that two things can never be relied upon-“ Bombay’s fashion and Kashmir’s weather”. We found this absolutely true during our visit to Kashmir.

on hill-top lights of the famous shankaracharya temple...

It was our last day on houseboat, when I sat on the deck overlooking the lake and the hills. It had been drizzling since one day and last night it had rained heavily. When I had come out of the room in early morning black clouds were spread like heaps of cotton on the hills. One could see lush green hills ,bathed in the fresh showers  looking all shiny and  gracious. The road in front as seen from the deck was lined on both the sides by pine trees which grew tall and straight as if all the branches just aiming for the sky. In spite of the continuous  drizzle there were shikaras all over the lake with the tourists enjoying the lovely weather of Kashmir. From our houseboat we had a direct view of the famous shankaracharya temple perched on top of the hill. At night the temple lights shined bright on the dark hill and appeared to be  proudly decorating the forehead of hill. It seemed as if a scenery from a portrait coming alive

…

That  was the day we had to leave for gulmarg. We had booked a taxi and we started early to avoid the traffic of Srinagar, which we were told could lead to traffic jams .Our driver was a very nice guy named bilal. He told us to be very careful of the guides and the horsemen, who often charged tourists heavily and were notorious for fighting even with the locals. The beautiful  weather added a strange mysticism to the beauty of the land. Finally we reached tangmarg where we hired snow -boots and long overcoats. The small kashmiri houses in the fields made me really wonder as to how the people would be surviving in the extreme colds of December-january when we were almost freezing in april. The snow, which was picturesque to the tourists was life-threatening for the locals. It was here that I understood the concept of long woolen kashmiri coats called “firan” and  ‘kangris’-small baskets filled with burning coals, which kashmiri people keep inside firans and walked along to keep themselves warm.

a kashmiri wearing firan and carrying -'kangri'

On our journey from tangmarg  to gulmarg everything was engulfed in layers of fog. I opened the window and soon my nose and cheeks turned red with cold. The green carpet on hills was interrupted by chinar, pine and fir trees. Small streams from the hill top curved their ways through the mountain slopes. Everything seemed so pristine and so untouched. The drive on the wavy hills of road is always an experience in itself if one enjoys the stark beauty of the mountains.

 cottages and hotels at gulmarg...

I had been told by the driver that our hotel-kingsleay was in the marketplace. But finally when bilal asked us to get down I could see nothing except thick fog around and heaps of snow scattered all around the place. It was as if the nature has decorated the place with one of its most beautiful ornaments-the white snow….

We were told by the hotel manager that in winters the whole place was submerged under ten to twelve feet of snow and at that time only few foreigners could be seen who were interested in skiing and mountaineering. I was really very happy to have got the opportunity to be at one of the loveliest places in the world.

hotel kingsleay at the right hand corner of the picture, and shiva temple at left hand corner.

few beautiful moments captured with captivating background....

 

the gondola ride

The first thing I was really interested in after landing in gulmarg was -the gondola ride. When we reached the place it was raining off and on and the place was enveloped in thick fog and clouds. Our hotel manager informed us to head straight for the ride, as sometimes the officials closed it if the weather turned really bad.  We hurried into our room, dressed up in layers of woolens, jackets, snow-boots and woolen overcoats and headed straight for the ride.

The distance of gondola-car from our hotel was almost one kilometer. But the pony-owners didn’t allow private cars to go beyond for their own business. But I thoroughly enjoyed the walk in that drizzle and foggy weather. We had only one small umbrella with us. So Ashu and I clung together and walked among many other enthusiastic people who were also heading for the ride. On our way I couldn’t control my eagerness to click photographs of the small cottages and hotels, all enveloped with snow.  On our way I could only see small hotels and few shops and eating places which constituted the total market of gulmarg. Ashu was a bit disturbed as the cold was a bit more to what we had been used to. But I was little too excited to feel the cold.

On our way many guides were discouraging the tourists that they would have to wait for long for the tickets to the ride. But when we finally reached the ticket counter it was empty because of the rains. So we managed to get the tickets fast and after a small queue , entered into our small cable car which took us straight to the snow clad Himalayas.

The cabin of gondola had seating capacity of six people but we were only three people inside. I was continuously flashing my camera. It was raining outside so the visibility from the cabin had reduced greatly. But luckily the glass at one corner was broken. So I managed to get some photos , sticking my camera eye at that place. Nothing could be seen below, except the white spread of snow and few cottages( considered to be the Sheppard ‘s houses). Interspersed among snow were tall green trees imparting magical beauty to the hills.

And than what happened made me cry with joy. All of a sudden I noticed the drizzles of water turned into flakes of snow. I had never expected to find snowfall at this time of april. It was as if someone had sweeped a magical wand over the place. Finally we got out of the cable-car and landed on white carpets of snow. We had one hour to our ride back. It was amazing to see so many people running , shouting and playing in snow. Girls were giggling, throwing snow at each other and one person was standing with his mouth open and taking snow flakes inside his mouth. Really wonderful ways of man to enjoy nature.

After some time we noticed many people going inside a door. And to our amazement there was a small restaurant there where we also enjoyed hot coffee with “pakoras’ later. Outside people were enjoying skating, sledge-ride and even snow skooters. It seemed like a small fair. I too enjoyed a small sledge ride. Two ladies were sitting on a bench, whom a local told to get up and start moving else blood would freeze in the legs. One local was behind us to get some photos from him. We did get some photos but the funny part is when he came to know about our profession we ended writing prescription for his stomach ailments.

 Finally when we thoroughly enjoyed our time clicking photos, looking at one of the magical phenomena’s of nature and came back having one of the most memorable trips of our lives.