Kashmir - Heaven on Earth!!!!

A Visit to Kashmir was on my bucket list since a long time. Due to various reasons like, terrorist attacks, Covid 19 pandemic etc. somehow it was getting postponed. It was in April 2022 while on a visit to UK to be with my sons and families that we, myself and my better half decided to plan and execute a visit to Kashmir this year, come what may.

While I explored I found that August-September , the flowering and Apple season was ideal since the weather was pleasant, neither hot nor very cold. Only missing things will be the Indian Tulip season (March-April), the snow clad mountains and ski sports, With our many visits to Europe we had had enough of tulips and snow clad mountains. Given our age ski sports were ruled out.

My birthday falls on September 13 and my wife's on May 11. Our wedding anniversary is on February 3. May being Summer we normally are in UK during that time and our indian holidays normally are during February or September,

We decided to plan during September. In June 2019 my brothers , Ramu, Guru and sister Meena along with some family friends had visited Kashmir. We both could not joi then as I was undergoing physiotherapy treatment post my Bels Palsy attack. The tour was organised by Mansoorbhai of Bon Voyage Tours, a tour operator well known to our family since the past many years as he is associated with the Vani Vidyalaya high school in Mulund, Mumbai where my brother's wife Bagirathi was working. He is a bit expensive but reliable known to organise comfortable hotels. We had a tailor made package only for the two of us where we were met at the Srinagar by a driver cum tour guide with a Toyota Etios vehicle. The vehicle and the guide were to be wit us during the entire tour till we were dropped back at the Srinagar airport after the tour ended.

We booked the air tickets to start from Mumbai on September 12 and our return tickets were on September 18. The itinerary of our six nights seven days was as follows:

September 12 Day 1

We Arrived at Srinagar Airport at 3 PM and the tour driver cum guide met us and introduced himself.

He drove us to the Dal Lake where a night's  halt in a  Deluxe House Boat was booked.

At the Dal Lake we were met by a Shikara boatman who took us

and rowed us to the House Boat.

   

After Freshening up and resting for a while the Shikara boatman picked up us again and took us on a shikara tour of the picturesque floating flower, dry fruits, imitation Jewelry, handicrafts and  dress materials market on the Dal Lake. We were already warned by our guide not to entertain the sellers since most sold spurious and fake goods and were generally more expensive than the shopping markets in the city. 

There were a host  of professional photographers pestering one to get   dressed up in traditional Kashmiri clothes and get photographed.,

Some photos clicked on Day 1