Pahalgam

Day 13 – Amritsar – Pahalgam – 6th Sep 2018

Kashmir has always been a special dream, like a paradise vaguely etched into our mind. This childhood image of beauty was slowly transformed into one of fear over the years of media impact. On top of this, we will be exploring Ladakh too, which added to the anxieties. We were very excited about realising a childhood dream,  but at the same time, a multitude of thoughts were running through the mind – thoughts of terror, altitude sickness, extreme climate, harsh driving conditions, accommodation, and what not.

The drive from Amritsar to Pahalgam was expected to be a long and tiring one and we were prepared for it. We had plans of leaving around 7am but by the time we had our breakfast and left from the hotel it was 8:30am. We packed some food for daughter, and started our journey. It took only 1.5 hours to reach Pathankot which is 120kms from Amritsar.

In another one hour we reached Samba and the google maps suggested to take right on to the hill road to Udhampur instead of travelling on NH44 via Jammu. As it would skip Jammu, we confidently took the hill road and it was a good decision. This saved us at least one hour, bypassing Jammu and connecting directly to Udhampur. We stopped the car as we reached the top to have a breathtaking view of the Kashmir valley.

By 1PM we reached Udhampur, and after that things were not looking so great, even though we had NH44 ahead. It took just 4.5 hours to travel 230kms from Amritsar, but google maps is now confusingly showing another 7 hours to travel remaining 200kms. This gave a feeling that the mountain roads ahead are going to be really bad,  but it was the ongoing construction work that ate up the time. The winding roads were all dug up, and the large number of trucks on the road had created enormous layers of dust in the atmosphere, making everything around dusty. Even the trees and plants on the roadside were all looking odd and dirty, against the picture of J&K in our minds.

We were really hungry but couldn’t find any restaurants yet. We kept going and that is when we found a restaurant on the highway around 16kms before the Chenani-Nashri Tunnel. We were really amazed to see them serving rice, along with some lip smacking non-veg preparations, which made us feel as if we were eating our mom’s food at our home in Kerala!

The Chenani-Nashri Tunnel is an engineering marvel, and is the longest road tunnel in India, covering a long stretch of almost 9kms. The best part is that it reduces atleast 2 hours of travel time between Jammu and Srinagar. The earlier route via Patnitop to Srinagar would make it literally impossible for a relaxed drive from Amritsar to Pahalgam in one day. Also this tunnel serves its purpose the best during winter season, when the alternate route would be snow filled.

After an amazing drive through the tunnel, and the dusty roads thereafter, the beauty of J&K slowly started unveiling before us. Green mountains, paddy fields and the evening sky behind looked all perfect. The roads and the surroundings were picturesque, and even the crop fields were having a nice golden hue as we drove along.By around 7pm, we got into some proper four-lane National Highway roads again and there onwards we could drive faster. This was the first place where we spotted a signboard leading to Leh.

In another 1 hour 15 mins, we took the diversion to Pahalgam from NH 44. As it was dark, we could not capture the real beauty of the road till Pahalgam, but we do have enough time in “Earth’s Heaven”  in the coming days to enjoy its complete beauty! The climate was pretty cold around 14 degree celsius. Finally marking an end to the 440 kms, 12 hour drive, we reached our stay, Hotel Heevan in Pahalgam. After parking the car, a walking bridge across the Lidder river took us to an excellent stay right on the banks of the river, with the windows facing the rapid flows! We had the dinner at the hotel itself, and slept off soon!

Day 14 – Pahalgam – 7th Sep 2018

In the morning, we woke up with the windows of our room in Hotel Heevan opening to the awesome views of lush green mountains of Pahalgam, behind the Lidder river! Fasi has started the habit of making coffee/tea with the kettle available in the hotel at each of our stays. We sat with a cup of coffee listening to the gushing flow of the river, with water splashing on the white rocks lining on the banks! It was drizzling outside, and the revitalising cool breeze added to the ambience. While Fasi and little Insha were busy freshening up, sitting alone on those couches, the word “roadsndreams” first struck my mind. I opened my laptop and quickly scribbled something about our journey and its inspiration, and showed to Fasi. She was really happy seeing that, and we adopted the same words without much edits to the homepage of this blog 🙂

We quickly had our breakfast at the hotel, and once the rain was gone, we stepped outside. Our stay had a very beautiful garden with wide variety of colourful flowers, and there were steps from the garden all the way till the river. We did go down the steps to feel the rapid flows of Lidder, and stood on the rocks viewing our car parked on the other side of the river.

We soon entered the nearby Lidder Amusement park, as we wanted some place for Insha to play around. The park was crowded with school kids as we could see lots of local schools coming on picnics to Pahalgam.

It was a Friday, and I wanted to go to the mosque. Ofcourse the thoughts about Muslims and Kashmir give all of us a different vibe inside, which has been induced into our hearts from years. But I did not think too much about all those and went to the mosque for my prayers and was spellbound by the stunning views around. And shattering all my prejudices, the mosque and people showed me that common people remain the same everywhere around the world. Wherever I have been in this world, whichever mosque I have been for my prayers, it has always given the same divine feel – a feel of peace and harmony! I bought a small bottle of Kashmiri Oudh Attar on my way back, and it had an amazing fragrance!

After lunch, we decided to drive to Chandanwadi and this could be the most scenic drives in Pahalgam circuit. 15 kms from Pahalgam, Chandanwadi is the last point by road for the Amarnath yathra. From Chandanwadi it is a trek to Amarnath. We started our drive parallel to Lidder river and stopped quite often to just sit on its banks or click pictures. From a distance, sheep moving in lines over the lush green mountains looked like ants climbing up slowly on a wall.

We were often interrupted by herds of sheep on the roads, and in many cases we had to patiently wait till all of them finished crossing, as some flocks were really large in numbers! The shepherds looked like nomads, and were dressed in long gowns and turbans, and mostly seemed to be moving along with the whole family. 

On the way to Chandanwadi, we visited Betaab valley, a small nature park to sit and relax by the river side. A magnificent green valley, surrounded by pine forests, this is where we got our first taste of Kashmiri Kahwa, a refreshing drink which is named as the traditional Kashmiri Tea. Month of September would be the best to visit Kashmir. Right after the monsoon, the mountains are all green, river is clear and flowing with glory and the apple orchards were all filled with apples. The dense pine and cedar forests made the air of Pahalgam so pure and fresh. 

As it got darker, we headed back to Pahalgam town, and had a delicious Kashmiri Rogan Josh for dinner! After dinner, we roamed around and did some shopping of hand embroidered sarees and pashmina shawls from the unrivalled designers of Kashmir! As it was getting colder, we decided to wind up the day, and got back to our room! As we were cuddled on the warm woollen blankets, listening to the gurgling river outside, we realised that we had stopped checking all work emails long back, and we have started living in the present! 

---