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.