24-Aug (Fri):
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Srinagar
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Srinagar
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Kheer Bhawani, Dal Lake
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8.15 AM
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7 PM
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96 KMS
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As the plan was to spend the whole day (mostly
lazing around) woke up later than our last week routine time. But as someone
said, share your plans with God, and you will have the best ever way to end the
day… the day had something else in store for us. Had breakfast at 8.00 AM and
we had to make plans for the day. Avinash
had previous day called us to indicate that he would not be able to make it on
time to pick his wife. He was caught in a landslide and it would delay him by a
complete day. Considering the blazing sun so early, decided to drop into Kheer
Bhawani temple and it would be right time for us to pick Shilpa from Airport.
And evening ride on Shikara at Dal Lake.
Amber joined us to Khir Bhawani ( as his plans
was to start late to avoid the serpentine traffic at ZOZI LA due to landslides
of previous day). Had nice darshan at Khir Bhawani Temple. The drive of 14 kms
was a smooth one amidst the granary of Srinagar. The temple spring complex is
guarded by military and we had to make and entry into the visitor log book to
get an entry. Thousands of devotees offer milk and 'Kheer' to the sacred
spring, which magically changes colour, turning black which warns of disaster. The temple constructed (/renovated ?) almost a
century back (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kheer_Bhawani and http://gaffarakashmir.com/kheerbhawani.html) still remains a testimony to changing face of Kashmir. Its
maintained pretty well too. Covered under the shade of chinar trees, it was a welcome
ambience indeed.
Then we hardly knew that we were getting into
for some real treasure hunt in the heart of Srinagar. Started off by around
12.15 towards Sringar Airport. Our dAri
dIpa did not have random keyword “AIRPORT” search in POI (Point of
Interest – near us). Opened up DJ’s iPhone to search the airport and it did
indicate a direction. And as we sped
through some new roads (that we had not traversed on our way to Kheer Bhawani)
the localites were clueless to direct us in the right direction. The map was
not completely upto date. At last we fell into the road that would lead us to
Airport. We were negotiating some narrow
roads. We hardly could find any milestones/ boards indicating the direction to
Civilian Airport. (BTW , its known as Sheik Ul Alam Airport).
Somehow we drove past the narrow lane leading
to the airport gate with a strong disbelief that it certainly cannot be the
way, JK government enthuse new tourists. No sign boards, no broad roads leading
to airport. A question always lingered on the back of the mind. Are we on the
right road. As expected, we drove into a checkpost to be enquired with a long
list of questions: Aap kahan se aa rahe hain ? Aap ko kisse milna hai ?..
and many more vague question. Somehow the conversation led to a clue to the
sentry at the checkpost. He indicated that we had landed up in front of a
military airbase and we had to go to civilian airport. In his vague direction
(to a new comer to the town) he asked us to turn left under the pool ( bridge in hindi). As far as
we remembered.. we did not find a pool (bridge) on our way as we came in this
narrow road. Neither the Srinagaris were co-opearative to let us know. Had to
get into GPS mode once again to find a parallel road that led to the Pool
(bridge) and we were on the main road at last. Only that road contained evident
sign boards to airport. How on earth the town planner had this vague idea of
publicizing the road to Airport only on the last few kms to airport! I had no
words of appreciation as I drove into the airport complex. By this time Shilpa
had her own share of adventure in getting in touch with us. We had lost almost
one full hour in this jhamEla !
We were stopped by the first sentry checkpost
(with road spikes and bumper pillars). We were advised that only one person
would be allowed into the airport. Bandi and DJ quickly got out of the
car. However the second blanket of
security was to check the underbelly of the car, interiors and frisking the
driver. I was told that I cannot carry all this luggage into the airport and I
had permission to take in only an empty car ! Took an immediate U turn to come
out of the airport and dumped out all the luggage. Bandi and DJ waited in hot
sun under an umbrella. They would have been worth a million dollar picture. The
gunpoint towards them (in suspicion of an explosive material hidden in the
luggage) added additional frustration to their wait under the sun.
Had to once again clear the 2 layer security
check and as I finally drove into airport… was wondering where Shilpa could be
seated. The airport had space for not more than 10 cars to be parallel parked.
Parked at the entry end and as I walked through the passenger maze, was
searching for a desperate face. I had not met / seen Shilpa before. I zeroed in
on one and the moment I uttered the name, she was in all smiles. She exhaled a
sigh of relief before she picked her
luggage. Had a customary introduction as we walked back not more than 30 steps
into the car. She was terribly hungry and as we came out and packed our
luggage, she started sharing her share of adventure story (although censored)
to us. Drove into JAMKSH VEHICLEADS – A Maruti showroom on our way back. This
was needed on priority as we had to replace the lamps, check the brake lining
and a customary test drive for its fitness check for the PASS roads that we were to drive. An added 90 mins
of delay had taken a tool on our strength. Service Advisor (Farooq Mohammad) was
pretty perfect in his advise on the braking capabilities of the car at high altitudes.
He asked us to keep the tyre pressure a notch below (almost to 25 PSI as
against a normal 33 in plains) and advised us to resume to normal levels once
we are back on plains. His indepth knowledge in this subject came to our
realization, when we actually screwed up the pressure levels (in an analogue
meter in Kargil IOCL)
Had a quick lunch at the same Punjabi Dabha.
Took a quick nap break before we headed for a shikara ride at 5.30 PM.
Dal Lake has 3 island 2 of which are marked
with four chinar trees at the four corners, thus are known as Char Chinar.
Murad, brother of Arunagzeb, constructed them. The Dal is famous not only for
its beauty, but for its vibrance, because it sustains within its periphery, a
life that is unique anywhere in the world. It’s worth visiting DAL LAKE in all
the 4 seasons. The houseboat and shikara communities have lived for centuries
on the Dal, and so complete is their infrastructure on the lake, that they
never have to step on land! Doctors, tailors, and bakers - you'll see them all
in tiny wooden shops on the lake, near picturesque vegetable gardens and acres
of lotus gardens.
A shikara ride is one of the most soothing,
relaxing aspects of a holiday in Kashmir. Shikaras are long boats which crowd
the Srinagar lakes. They are used for getting back and forth from the houseboats
or for longer tours. It is worth to take a pleasure ride around the lake in
shikara. Shikara is a light rowing boat. The two hour boat ride took us on a
relaxing sightseeing tour of interior parts of the calm and placid waters of
Dal Lake, and be part of shopping- by-shikara expeditions. We went past he floating gardens, known as
"Rad" in Kashmiri, blossom with lotus flowers during July and August.
While riding on Shikara we can often observe
white breasted Kingfishers (Halycon smyrnensis), large striking birds with
robust bills perched on the branches of willow trees. These birds concentrate
their efforts to hunting on the floating Gardens. These man-made islands
comprise of aquatic vegetations held together with humus consisting of mud from
the lake bottom. This is extremely fertile and provide rich source of food in
the form of frogs, lizards, mice, grasshoppers and other insects to the
Kingfisher.
We
did some shopping for our near and dear ones at home. We did not have time to
cover Chashme Shahi, Shankaracharya Temple, Nishat Bagh, Hari Parbat and Hazrat
Bal. One of the prominent miss was Lal Chowk. Now there is always a reason to
go back to Srinagar. Don’t know when Kashmir will call once again.
Dinner was another funtime to end the day. When DJ ordered for Butter Milk from the menu at the same restaurant, he was served MILK with BUTTER suspended on it. We could not control laughter almost whole of next day. It went on to tease DJ to try out various combo of Butter Milk in every restaurant that we hopped in.
