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 post breakfast, and we travelled towards Aru valley. The taxis are very stringent on time. The driver told us that if we spent more than an hour at any of the three locations, we would be charged Rs. 400 additional. The roads are surrounded with beauty, but the taxi driver was in a hurry to reach the destinations.

The twisting winding road led us to our first stop Aru valley.

When we left, a lot of tourists had started to arrive which led to some traffic jams on our way to next point, Chandanwari.

Chandanwari is the first point from Pahalgam on the way to Amarnath pilgrimage. We walked a short distance from parking to a snow covered hill, which was bustling with tourists and sledge pullers. We instead rented two walking sticks and climbed a short distance in the snow. Bhargavee was amazed to see snow at her hands and feet, something that she had only seen in a fridge or a glass so far.

I started taking careful steps to slide down. After promptly falling twice, I managed to reach the bottom without any more issue, and we started our last leg of the circuit – Betab valley. Named after a Sunny Deol movie shot here in 1983, Betaab valley is a big park developed to have a beautiful walk in pink colored flowers. But the season of pink flowers was in December, and now the park was in scorching heat without any green cover. Looking at the park from top, we decided not to visit it but to be content with its long-distance photographs only.

For people visiting Pahalgam on a day trip from Srinagar, they may have to choose between one of the two options, either do the horse ride or do this circuit. If your tripmates are healthy, I would recommend going for the horse ride to Baisaran valley than this tour. If you are accompanied with seniors or people who can’t climb on horses, or you have spare time, then you may prefer this taxi tour.

After having lunch in Pahalgam market, we checked out from the hotel and started making our way towards Gulmarg, a long distance from Pahalgam. Beautiful houses on the side of the road bid us adieu.