En route, we stopped in Pampore village for cricket bat shopping. I don’t play cricket, and Bharavee is too young to play yet. But as we were passing right through the town that is so famous for its Willow bats, it made no sense not to stop and shop. We then moved on interior roads,…

There are two travel routes in Pahalgam. One is what we did yesterday, the 4.5 hours horse ride. Another was a taxi ride covering three points of interest, Aru valley, Chandanwari and Betab valley. After doing both, I thought these were more of an either-or kind of options. The taxi collected us from our hotel…

The JKTDC Alpine hotel as well as the huts are located only a kilometer or so from the main road where the bazaar and restaurants are located. But the kilometer is not really a walkable distance for someone with elders or young children. Grandma and grandkid taking a detour to climb down from the Alpine…

Many travellers travel between Srinagar and Pahalgam, but few venture to the Martand Temple, a site of 1400 year old temple ruins located a few kilometers inside the main road. The Martand Temple site is maintained by ASI, and the entry is free. You need to tell the names of the visitors at the entry…

There are two entrances to the Tulip gardens. One is from the road that goes to Botanical gardens, Chashme Shahi garden etc, and one is from the rear side of the Tulip garden. In prime days, the Dal lake road gets jam packed by vehicles and sometimes made a one-way street. But the month of…

We had a 2am to 4am flight from Pune to Delhi, followed by a 7.30am to 9am flight to Srinagar. We expected little Bhargavee would be asleep on the way to the airport, but she had other plans. She kept herself and us awake till the flight, and it was not before I laid my…

Planning this trip on maps, the plan looked best. Google map link But arranging a vehicle for this was a different experience. First we were planning to make use of the prepaid taxis that appeared to be located in all the towns we had on our itineraries. But after adding up the point-to-point costs, and…