Jammu & Kashmir with My SLR D3100

Vaishnovdevi, Jammu & Kashmir trip from 14AUG to 21AUG 2011.
Very good plan by Suhas and arrangement by Sohan. We covered lot of places in just 7 days.. was hectic but enjoyed. Our travel in brief ..
Mumbai to Jammu by air 4 hrs - Jammu to Katra (base of vainovdevi temple) by car 3hrs - Katra to Vaishnovdevi templale and back by walk 12 hrs - from Katra to Patnitop 4 hrs - At Patnitop Baba Gawah mandir, JKTDC garden, Apple Garden - from Patnitop to Pehalgam 5 hrs - At Pehalgam Kanimarg, Waterfall, Kashmir view, Daggar, Baisaran(Switzerland), by horse-riding and then Mamal Mandir, Aru Wildlife park, Betaab Valley, Chandanwari (start of Amaranth yatra). - from Pehelgam to Gulmarg 4 hrs - At Gulmarg Khilanmarg and apharwat peaks by Gondola cable car - from Gulmarg to Srinagar 3 hrs - from Srinagar to Sonamarg 5 hrs - At Sonamarg Satte pe satta, Ram teri ganga maili, Ice bridge by horse riding - from Sonamarg to Srinagar 4 hrs - At Srinagar Dal Lake(Nehar park, Golden Dal Sarover, Gulfaam serial set, Mission Kashmir set) by Shirakara boad ride, Shankaracharya temple, Ghashmeshahi garden, pari mahal, Nishat garden and last Hazaratbal mosque.- from Srinagar to Mumbai by Air 5 hrs.
( entire trip cost was around 23 K - 8 k for flight, 8 K for car and hotel booking and rest 7 K for sightseeing (horse riding, cable car, food, etc). its possible to save on sightseeing at pehelgam, gulmarg and sonamarg by bargaining)
SLR.... finally its with me..just one day before trip i purchased SLR Nikon D3100...i went to Alpha just to check price but when i came to know its 3k less than other sites.. i decided to purchase it... after long research and as per many opinions ...this was best model in my budget.. now its time to learn it and use it in next few days.. :P

We started early morning on 14th AUG from Mumbai.. flight was on time and we were at Jammu at 10:30.. from Jammu we headed towords Katra.. we were unaware of historical rush at Katra.. our car was literally crawling... it took 3-4 hrs to reach Katra .... at Katra we had heavy lunch and at around 5:30 we started towards Vaishnovdevi temple... Thanks to Uncle(with whom we did entire trip booking for car and hotel) he has kept entry ticket ready for us.. or we might have spent 3-4 hrs for ticket itself.. really that was historical rush around 4-5 lac ppl were there..
we started keeping in mind that it will take 4-5 hrs to reach to temple ... two dudes (Suhas and Rahul) decided to walk bare feet with us.. its really tough if you don't have practice. but when you look at aged ppl climbing it.. you get lot of inspiration..
we were heading with different speed... At the end i was separated from everyone .. but i decided to walk and then reach at the temple gate at around 9:30 pm.. and decided to wait there... everyone join me in next 20 mins.. we had almost covered 20 kms in 4-5 hrs.. amazing..
There was horrible rush at the temple.. within some time we realize that we have to stand in around 4km long queue.. that too starting from top... and before standing in queue we have to keep our mobile and sleepers in lockers..for that also there was huge line.. everyone on thinking now what to do.. everyone was very tiered.. we were walking beside the line.. and suddenly what happen is .. "there is single line.. and some ppl in line started fighting as someone was trying to get into line.. and because of this gap generated... just beside from where we walking.. without even waiting for a sec we get in to line.. just out side of temple ... :)..".. but we had floaters and mobiles with us.. now what to do..???.. we left our floaters in the queue itself.. and went it..
there were around 7 gates (check post) before entering temple.. we went thru and had "Darshan" in next 1 hr..and we we came out we got our floaters also.. it was really like. ..."Mata ne bulaya hai.. to wo sab dekh legi..".."Jai Mata Di.."..
at around 12 we started our return journey.. we all were hungry but we decided not not have anything or it will be difficult to go down... 3 of us were bare feet.. and it was really hard to walk without floaters.. we exchanged floaters.. in round robin fashion.. all were waking with diff speed.. after some time it was really tough to walk.. but we didn't stop.. at around 6 AM we reach down.. in 12 hrs we covered almost 30-35 km.. our whole body was paining.. but we completed it.. really "Jai Mata Di"...

after coming back to hotel we took medicine and took rest for 3-4 hrs.. at 12 we woke up and started towords "Patni top"... at around 5 pm we reach PatniTop.. climate was really awesome..
we had tea there and went for walk.. PatniTop is really very good place to have rest..
next day we started towards Pehelgam.. Pehelgam climate and cottage was also awesome.. our trip was in off season but in Patnitop and Pehelgam climate, we really felt like being in Kashmir..it was awesome exp..
next day we started sightseeing .. first time in my life i did horse riding.. my horse name was Arjun..he was racing horse.. :).. ( Ashish wiht Diwana, Sohan with Karan, me with Arjun, Rahul with Dharma and Suhas with Veer).. we did horse riding for almost 3 hrs.. it was superb...
after sight seeing( Kanimarg, Waterfall, Kashmir view, Daggar, Baisaran(Switzerland)) we had lunch in pehelgam market(Nattus Rasoi) and then we covered some points Mamal Mandir, Aru Wildlife park, Apple garden etc and then we booked private taxi(900Rs) to visit Betaab Valley, Chandanwari (starting point of Amarnath yatra). at Chandanwari first time we saw ice in our visit :)...
Next day we started from pehelgam to gulmarg.. in Gulmarg as per instructions we got( not to talk with any ppl there, dont take horse ) we straight away walked towards Gondola cable car ticket house..took ticket for first level (Rs 300)... and did sight seeing.. unfortunately 2nd level was closed for maintenance from where its possible to see border ..also Pakistan..
so we spent some time at first level and came back.. (some stories we heard about gulmarg - one couple did sight seeing in Gulmarg and spend almost 28 k Rs which is not at all worth..and couple of military men who argued with ppl at gulmarg was beaten by abt 2oo ppl... it was so horrible)..
From gulmarg we started towards Srinagar...Srinagar where we had to stay for 3 nights .. was very HOT.. its not at all ideal for stay...
Next day early morning we went to Sonamarg.. 2nd time we saw ice.. stories were same as gulmarg.. but we enjoyed skating and horse riding there... Sonamarg exp was also good..
last day we have srinagar sights in plan.. in morning we did shikara ride in Dal lake (in 800 Rs) for 4-5 hrs.. it was really worth and we enjoyed a lot.. did lot of shopping also .... everyone should do it.. after ride we visited Shankaracharya temple...
on later half of the day we visited diff gardens in srinagar.. Ghashmeshahi garden, pari mahal, Nishat garden... in Pari Mahel we got a chance to see some Paris also..:P...
finally we visited Hazaratbal mosque.

In 7 days we visited almost 7 places and covered almost 30 points.. it was awesome trip..I personally like Patni Top best place to stay and have rest and Pehelgam for sight seen..


---- Suhas, Sohan, Rahul, Ashish and Amey

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