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| KASHMIR - THE HEAVEN ON EARTH |
Kashmir is a wonderful place considered as the crown of Goddess "BHARAT MATA" , situated at the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent .
I have heard a lot about this place and was always interested to visit it . Just after few months of my marriage I got this opportunity.One of my dad's friend invited us to that heavenly place.
You may not believe that just before a day uncle invited us I dreamt of enjoying the kashmir valley in a helicopter and my dream came true the very next day of it.
Oh god! I was so happy and super excited to see everything over there. Uncle told us about the places we can visit and the then whether conditions of kashmir. We booked the tickets and packed everything we needed for this tour. It was a four days trip. We visited that place in the month of February so our packing obviously included a lot of winter clothes and associated accessories . We reached the Airpot on time and took our seat.
As soon as we got to know that we are about to reach kashmir, exhilaration started arousing in our nerves . Just as the plane reached the beautiful valleys of kashmir , my first expression was :- 'my eyes wide open and my mouth as well' .... ...ooohhh! I may not be able to explain in words....this experience was just out of the world. Actually it was the heavenly experience for me. so loving nature's beauty. Suddenly my mouth spoke out of its own " Wow...... God ! how have u created this? we really saw heaven today. What can be more beautiful than this? " How amazingly beautiful that was...beyond expectations.... Not just the valleys covered with lots of pure white snow but the clouds floating all around the plane too were the center of attraction for us. I wished I could also swim in the sky full of these cotton candies of variant shapes and sizes. I wished I would be standing in front of lord shiva and thank him in a way possible , for gifting us such a wondorful wedding present.
Soon we reached our destination, and searched for the board over which our names were written. Yes! we got that . Uncle was waiting for us with the board..and we left the kashmir airpot to our uncle's sweet home. There we meet everybody in their family and took some rest after such a long but nice journey. After taking rest we come out to see this breathtaking place.
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| DAL LAKE- FLOATING MARKET AND HOUSEBOATS |
At last we reached the place and what to say about the beauty of the place, just reminded of the song of an old bollywood hit movie 'kashmir ki kali 1964' and my lips started muttering the lyrics....."ye chaand sa roshan chehra julfon ka rang sunahra ...". Dal lake was surrounded by beautiful shankaracharya hills. we were surprised to see market and crops floating on the lake. It was really a unique thing for us to see. We hired a boat to experience the lake in a whole way. Coxwain made us sit comfortably in the boat . The boat was very spacious that u can lie completely on the seat ...There we enjoyed watching houseboats called shikara floating over water and having 'kehwa' drink of kashmir. While we were enjoying the natural scenes the coxwain explained us about the movies picturised over there and nearby places which can be seen and enjoyed from the boat itself . Then he took us to the floating market where selller's were selling kashmiri clothes and accessories It was really amazing to board a floating market from a boat. We saw beautiful designer shawls and clothes variety and puchased as we please. After that we visited local srinagar and did some shopping for the family and friends then we prayed at kashmir's holiest muslim shrine 'hazratbal'.
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| GULMARG - RIDE IN GONDOLA |
On the second day we visited gulmarg..the top attraction that is not to be missed because it gives us a wonderful chance of taking gondola ride up the snow capped mountains. Gondola is the name of the cable car system that operates plying thousands of passengers up the hills. As we reached the place we purchased the tickets for the same. The view was breathtaking and place was awesome. There were two phase for the ride. On reaching the first phase, we enjoyed skiing and on the second phase we enjoyed the awesome natural beauty.
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| PARI MAHAL - HOUSE OF FAIRIES |
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| CHESHMASHAHI- MUGHAL GARDEN |
On the third day , I must call it a beautiful rainy day we enjoyed visiting parimahal ,chashmeshahi and shankaracharya temple, very beautiful and peaceful places.
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| PAHELGAM - BETAB VALLEY |
At last on the fourth day of our visit we saw pahelgam/ betab valley which is irresistible and memorable place for us. Just imagine a big flat surface covered with a lots of snow , layered in a beautiful manner and surrounded by amazing snow covered mountains and snowy trees. We enjoyed our fullest at that place. That place was too huge, that a time came when we were alone , sitting at the centre of that snowy ground and enjoying the warmth of sunlight in the cool surrounding. We spent our whole day there playing with the snow balls, strucking our boots inside the snow, photographing and enjoying the beauty.
On the next day we departed back leaving the heaven of heavens behind and taking the beautiful memories along with us.
These were some of the pics which we clicked. But the real experience and beauty can't be captured in a camera. So I suggest to visit it once in your lifetime to get this heavenly experience.
And let me know if you liked my article or any suggestions .
