A tour to the heartland of terror- Day 6- Srinagar return

I wake up drenched in sweat. Not a nightmare- it's cos of the bed heater. It takes me about 15- 20 minutes to get ready and head for breakfast at around 8 am. The rest of the group's ready and munching away on aloo parathas and toast. As usual, I force the food down my throat and escape before the group finishes.

The bumpy ride to Srinagar begins in the next few minutes and doesn't end until about 3 hours later. We are then brought to a hotel, whose entrance gives the feeling of an Army base(of course, there was an army base next door) There were sandbags and guns arranged near the main gate of the hotel. ;) I certainly missed the boat house :( .

Lunch, then off we went sight seeing. First point was a Shankaracharya temple, which overlooked the Dal lake. Nice temple and very well maintained. Was I happy to spot a BSF (Border Security Force) personnel with a Tamil name. Had a little chat with him and moved on.

Then, we went on to visit 3 gardens. One of them being the cheshmashai, which is located right near the Governor's residence. Then, after about half an hour there, we went on to the shalimar gardens and another garden, whose name I don't remember.

At around 7 30 pm, we were dropped off at the main street to go shopping. As usual, you know the ladies... need I say more? Finally, we returned to the hotel at around 9 30. Way past my dinner time. I was extremely hungry, but my mood was just a shade better than what it was at Pahalgam. I managed to stuff a couple of naans and finally went off to doze a little after 10 pm.

PS: There was some problem in Jalandhar, through which the train from Jammu to Delhi had to pass. We were concerned about it as a train had already been burnt. We were hoping that the problem would be settled soon.

We start to Katra early tomorrow morning. Why Katra? That s where the Vaishno Devi temple is.