A tour to the heartland of terror- Day 5- Gulmarg

Up, Up. Rise and Shine. It was just about 7 45 am when I opened my eyes to see everyone running around holding clothes in their hands, while me and my cousin (Badri, he s doing his masters in tennessee.) were still asleep.

Soon enough, even I got going. I still felt so tired. I just didn't want to wake up, but somehow I pushed my self and got ready. I had to literally drag myself down to the restaurant to catch a bit of aloo parathas for breakfast. After the bomb 2 nights ago, food was a luxury to me. With a heavy load of luggage, which included a couple of cricket bats and a baseball bat, we set out to Gulmarg on that rickety bus again.

Gulmarg- the valley of flowers, was about 8 hrs drive from Pahalgam. I slept through most of the way. I didn't stir till we were about half hour from the resort. Even then my thoughts wandered back to Chennai. Gulmarg's another cold place. The main attraction for tourists there happens to be the cable car or the gondola as it is also known.

We reached the gondola station at around 2 30, just a few minutes after another lunch, which I had to push down my throat. Then we boarded the gondola and the slow long ride to the top took a good part of fifteen minutes.

If you had seen the movie Roja, you would have seen the song- Puthu Vellai Mazhai( I dunno what it's called in Hindi) you would know what it really is to see so much of ice. None of us were really excited by that sight, but yes, it would make your heart leap up a bit, then your brain says, as if you've never seen so much of ice.

4 o clock- closing time at the gondolas . We made our way down back to the resort and settled in our rooms. Wow. I've never felt heat under my butt till then. We had a bed heater in our room, which felt so good for weary butts. With a Venkatesh movie, which looked like a half boiled remake of Om Shanti Om, to boot, we all settled in our bed and waited for the movie to finish.

Just a little after 7, me and my eldest cousin went off for a long walk. i didn't know we were going for a long walk, so I was jus wearing my sandals. It became mighty cold by the time we returned at 8 30. Dinner at 8 45 and off to doze by 9 30.

PS: the bed heater and the room heater provided so much warmth that we woke up sweating. Do not miss this place if you are going for a honeymoon. ;)

A tour to the heartland of terror- Day3- Pahalgam

Yes, yes, day3. Off we go to another beautiful and cold place called Pahalgam. The long, arduous bus ride starts at 9 30 in the morning and doesn't end till about 2 pm. But, before we started, we bid adieu to our dear caretaker, Hussain bhai.

Long, long, bumpy ride. Trust me, you wouldn't want to follow an army convoy. You may think that I'm unpatriotic, but really, by the time you go past an army vehicle, you'll feel very relieved. Kashmir has no dearth for green painted Army vehicles carrying personnel, rations, arms and ammunition.

Poof, finally we land up at the resort in Pahalgam. Everyone's extremely hungry, me included too. So all of us dig in and dig in deep. So, wat's for lunch? Soup (some crap soup), fried rice, gobi manchurian, paneer butter masala, naan, roti, some sweet dish (my eldest cousin really loved that dish). burp.

Post lunch, some local sight seeing at Pahalgam. Usual stuff, roaming around here and there, some small gardens from where we could see the ice clad hills. And yes, the mighty jhelum flowing past these gardens.

Then, at around past 8, we returned to our resort. Dinner. Yet again, almost the same menu. My grandmother and her cousin who had come with us, got fed up of rotis and naans and sabzis, now they started demanding for curd rice. Understandable. I was feeling a little homesick myself. How much I yearned that night to watch the ipl match back at home, in my living room, screaming as loud and swearing for every missed chance and dropped catch, and yes of course, for my mobile to ring aloud with messages and calls from my loved ones.

Finally, there's nothing great to do here in this place, hit the sack at around 10 pm. Hit the sack only, but no sleep that night, due to my cousins, with whom I was put up for the night. Hell of a night really.