Entering In The Heaven...Kashmir Valley...

                 Crossing Into The Kashmir Valley

The drive over the Zoji La (3,500m) into the Sindh Valley (the Kashmir Valley’s largest tributary) took us into a green paradise after the dust and rubble of the previous one and a half days. Our first glimpse of the valley really was jaw-dropping. The U-shaped valley is vast, speckled with trees, lush grass and interspersed with exposed slopes of solid rock. Snow caps the mountain peaks and the scent of pine drifts through the window where before there was only dust. It finally felt like we were in Kashmir proper and the greenery flourished as we drove past paddy fields towards Srinagar.

Crossing into the Kashmir Valley

 

Sonmarg

 

Sonmarg valley Between kargil and Srinagar

 

Sonmarg valley

Cosmos Flower in Sonmarg valley

Taking a shikara across Srinagar’s Dal Lake 

 

Arriving in Srinagar after two days of dusty roads was like crossing the finish line of a marathon. Crinkling out of the jeep, we were guided into a shikara and paddled across Dal Lake to our houseboat. The shikara has got to be the ultimate mode of transport. There is nothing more peaceful in this world than being gently ferried through the lotus flowers with a mountain backdrop and dinner and a comfortable bed waiting!

The Royal Palace houseboat on Dal Lake

The Royal Palace houseboat was our home for the next four days. Not bad eh?! This luxury houseboat is a throwback to colonial times when the British weren’t allowed to own land in Kashmir, although they could stay on the water. In typically British fashion, they went about making themselves as comfortable as possible by building floating palaces in which to live.