Srinagar – Gulmarg – Srinagar
Due to possibility of finding snow we had decided to hire a Tavera (many
thanks to our fellow BCMTian Sunnyji) at a nice price. The Driver Shafaque
showed up ontime and took us swiftly to Gulmarg. As we de-boarded from the car,
it was all green and our driver advised it has started snowing to which we said
What Snow? But yes, the invisible snow soon showed up and started wetting our
gloves.
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| Sand Mining in Jhelum |
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| Invisible Snowfall at Gulmarg |
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| Deboarding at Khilanmarg |
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| Just Like That |
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| Just Fell Down |
The army of horse owners started selling their services and due to off
season, we felt like 3 crabs amidst 20 hungry cranes. After a while, we gave up
and struck a deal with one of them who took us first to the Gondola Base. The
horses were not really helpful because their shoes made them slip on the
sleety-snowy-road. As we moved in the Gondola, a pile of ‘Guides’ pounced and
yet again, we finally had to srike a deal with one of them.
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| Old Chair Trolley Booth |
The experience up above was okay with quite a few skiers and sledgers
entertaining the tourists on the imbalanced snow fields. I tried and failed –
the experience was nowhere even close to Aspen (Colorado). But I enjoyed
walking in the snow and I vowed again & again that as soon as my 6-yr old
Woodlands expire, I would buy a pair of Quechua.
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| Gulmarg Ring Road |
On returning, the horse owners had to keep their promise and took us for a
round all around Gulmarg forcibly but politely. My brother’s 9 year old Niagara
Blue Raincoats gave us a lot of protection from the wetting snow. We also came
across a local hatchback that had skid off the road on the snow striking a
lamppost.
As we left Gulmarg, the entire valley looked
white – no trace of the green. Shafaque enjoyed our Shammi Kapoor – Dev Anand
songs with us. The day came to an uneventful end after a quick dinner at
Punjabi Tadka. We checked out before sleeping to avoid wastage of time the next
morning. We also met a co-manager of the Hotel Mr Basit – a very fluent English
speaker. On interacting more, we found out he is an alumnus of UT Dallas (a
fellow longhorn of my brother) and now returned to his homeland and works on
softwares across companies helping things run better.
