On to the forbidden land

"It is as safe as shopping in a Delhi mall", replied Rajesh Ojha, of Banjara Camps, when I asked him by mail if it was safe to go to Srinagar. I was not sure what he meant for the weekends at Big Bazar cannot be termed safe!! Anyway I concluded that he meant there would be no issue and decided on my trip. It would be Srinagar and from there by road to Leh.

Planning is very crucial when you undertake a trip like this. I am not talking about the actual travel between Srinagar and Leh. I was sure Rajesh would take care of it. My worry was internal planning. That is, keeping the whole thing a secret from the family. There was no way that I could have made this happen had my parents or Gayathri's parents had got an indication of what we were trying to do. Kashmir is forbidden territory and add Kargil to the mix and it becomes explosive. Hence I told everyone including Gayathri and kids that it was a secret project and told them to guess. For sake of misleading them, I told them we would be going to a desert in summer. Technically Ladakh is a high altitude desert. Ranjani had this in her text book and she said, "Lets not go to any desert. If at all you want to go to a desert, lets go to Ladakh. It is an high altitude desert." I did not reply.

So no one except me had a clue as to where we would be going and the guessing game was on. We landed in Delhi, had lunch that day with Ghate and family, then went to the Banjara Camps office where we met Rajesh Ojha. As we were discussing with him, he showed the picture of Pangong Tso lake and told the kids, "This is where you are going." All of them were excited since the secret was out. Rajesh realized he had made a mistake since I had told him about the surprise factor earlier. Anyway he kept the Srinagar part a secret.

It was when we were standing in a queue at the airport that Gayathri saw Srinagar on the display and asked, "Are we going to Srinagar?" I said yes and she was happy that she had guessed right. The weather was excellent in the sense that there were no clouds when we flew into Srinagar and we had a wonderful view of the Pir Panjal range. From the flight you can see how wide the valley of Srinagar is. In case you are flying from Delhi, ensure you get a window seat and pray for a clear sky. The view is fantabulous and I am sure no one would want to miss it.

The a/c inside the plane was not working properly and everyone was sweating profusely. We landed in Srinagar and when we stepped out of the plane, it was an exhilarating feeling. It was exactly opposite of how you feel when you step out of flight in Chennai. It would be cool inside the flight and the humidity hits you when you step out. In case of Srinagar, it was hot inside the plane and when we stepped out it was as if we have entered a city which was centrally air conditioned!! The feeling is indescribable. A lovely airport with the Pir Panjal range all around you.

We called our respective homes. As expected, they were taken aback when we said we were in Srinagar. The question was the same, is it safe there? Ofcourse, their worry increased when we told our route which included Kargil. We told them that things were fine and there wouldn't be any problems.

The driver and our guide were waiting for us. They took us to the boat house on the Nageen Lake. The boat is a huge one and fully grounded. You don't get much of a feeling of being on a boat. It was very well done boat and had a cable TV and all. There was a nice dining room as well. We had some biscuits and tea and started for a shikara ride on the Nageen lake. We could see lot of bird life along the lake. A guy came in another shikara and sold us some seeds. Generally you have lot of people selling lot of things in the lake.

Afternoon led us to the various gardens in Srinagar. Three gardens are very famous and we visited two of them. The gardens are well laid out and well maintained. The highlight of that evening was the visit to Pari Mahal. This is situated on a hillock and offers excellent view of the famous Dal Lake and the whole of Srinagar. I took quite a few photos from here. It was dark by the time we left Pari Mahal and landed up near our boat house. We needed to cross the lake and get to the other side to reach our boat house. It was pitch dark there and Gayathri was wondering if the boatman can see anything. He could and he got us to our boat house. It was different kind of experience, having a ride on the lake so late in the evening when you can see almost nothing. It was dinner and rest. Gulmarg was awaiting us the next day.