Pahalgam, J & K, India

Here comes my scribbles on our 3rd day of the itinerary. So early morning we were all fresh and ready for our Pahalgam sojourn. We had a pretty good breakfast, Kashmiri Kahwa/Green Tea and asked them to prepare authentic Mutton Pulao for our dinner the next day we return back to Srinagar. I had planned a night stay at Pahalgam as it would have been tiring & hectic to return on the same day from there after sight-seeing there. Our hotel name was Green Height at Pahalgam. Now here let me give you a piece of advice- we did not check beforehand the location of the hotel at Pahalgam and that was, well, I won't say a “drawback" sort of but yes, owing to the existing situation there at that time, we should have checked the location of the hotel beforehand. I’ll elaborate on this later in this post.

Lidder River

Now we left pretty early as Pahalgam is approx. 3 hours journey from Srinagar via Awantipora and Anantnag and reached our hotel by 11.30-12-ish. We were mesmerised by the view from the hotel and the silence all around and immediately fell in love with the location. 

Hotel Green Height, Pahalgam

But the hotel was not “inside” Pahalgam but 10 km before “main” Pahalagam. Anyway, we were not aware of this. We took the best rooms in the hotel, dumped our luggage and left immediately for sight-seeing at Pahalgam.

On our way to Pahalgam from Hotel Green Height

There was stringent security check at the entrance of Pahalgam as it was the season of Amarnath Temple Yatra and just 5 days before, there was a terrorist attack on a yatri bus hurting some pilgrims. We reached the Pahalgam Club Garden, opposite Pahalgam Police Department and our driver had his acquaintances who owned horses (this time they had beautiful, majestic horses unlike the mules in Gulmarg). Now here, we were duped again as we did not see the riding charges as determined by Jammu & Kashmir Tourism board (INR 350 approx for the 1^st 2 hours and then INR 250/300 per subsequent hour for the horse ride). Those fellows charged us INR 2200/person upfront and they didn’t even give us any place for bargaining as it was more or less monopolised. Nonetheless, we really were excited for Pahalgam hence we acceded to their demands and off we went to Baisaran and Kashmir Valley (here we committed another mistake when they said that due to Yatra season Chandanwari, Aru Valley & Betaab Valley are closed. We should have confirmed this from the local police station- will describe later why I said this).

Baisaran, Kashmir

Up we went on our respective horses absorbing all the captivating green scenery around, the village folks, their lives in mountainous region, amidst such hardship and crossed mountain springs, alpine forests

Nature

, muddy roads filled with glacial water and finally reached Baisaran- a vast, open green meadow where they had zorbing activities, rabbit-petting/goat-petting activity.

Us at Baisaran, Pahalgam

Amused? Yes even I was mildly awestruck too seeing the “means” of “livelihood” for the locals there. They charge you INR 10-20 for “petting & taking picture” with their goats, rabbits. Mind you, they “compel” you to pet & click a photo with their animals, it’s not the other way round. They stalk you around the whole meadow if you don’t comply. If you refuse at the beginning, mind you- you will get few inaudible strings of swearing too. We had a few photo sessions, some rolling and running all around and then we proceeded to our next viewpoint.

There was a particular place where our horse had to cross a small pool of water body (it had knee height water for the horse) but I was not confident of my horse hence I did not cross the water body on him. I got down and walked on the thin plank of wood that was kept their by the villagers themselves. I saw that my horse was happy to cross the pool in a playful mood. I thanked my stars to have got down before else I would have got wet, seeing the way he crossed the pool. We continued from there and stopped at the spot where the whole of Kashmir Valley could be viewed and my goodness, the scene was astounding and jaw-dropping.

Kashmir Valley

We realized why this political war is being raged for years now and why this is a never-ending war between the two nations and the locals. The moment was just perfect, with us sitting in the shade of the trees, a mild cool breeze to soothe our exhaustion, the phenomenal view in front of us and the sun rays

Sun-rays bidding adieu

peeping through the leaves- a perfect subject for water colors on a canvas. We were reluctant to get up & leave that place but we had to. Our next spot was located at about 2.5km steep drop just adjacent to this spot. My heart almost came out when we were climbing down. The dip angle was highly 70-80 deg and my husband’s horse was 007, the 1^st to reach everywhere. While the rest of us was still climbing down (my horse was the last), I could see my husband waiting for us below and laughing. Finally we reached (again, thanks to my constellation this time) and stopped for rest. There was a beautiful mountain spring flowing by and it had become quite chilly by that time.

Mountain Spring, Pahalgam

It was an intrepid but refreshing horse ride and a jubilant day altogether. Slowly we made our way to our car via tiny hamlets watching the locals get ready for dinner and bringing their cows/buffaloes/goats back home.

We reached our car where Khurshid was waiting for us to take us back to Hotel Green Heights. We thanked the horse owners for their services and proceeded towards our hotel. We were stopped on the KP Road by a police who informed us that we could not leave Pahalgam that day. Lightning struck us on hearing this alarming news as we did not have any extra clothes with us. All our luggage was at Hotel Green Height. We tried reasoning with the police and the security that our luggage was not with us blah blah but all fell on deaf ears. It was around 6.10 pm, immediately we started speculating many theories. We even went to the head of the security personnel and tried reasoning but alas.

I could sense my school buddy who, ever since we started planning this trip, had always vehemently protested against visiting Pahalgam, waiting to blast us for this. What happened next? Keep watching out this space for our little quota of adventure. ;)

Also read Srinagar, India ; Pahalgam, India ; Gulmarg, India