A Visit to Kashmir: Ice and white snows make it the haven on earth

Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, Srinagar, Kashmir

Here we were in Tulip garden, nearby Srinagar City but that day the flowers were not blossoming yet. Srinagar is a beautiful, summer city of Kashmir famous for its 26 square kilometres Dal Lake (also known as Srinagar's Jewel), providing boating service for tourists. Tourism is a main source of economy of the locals. It is also famous for dry fruits such as cashew nut, walnut, almond etc. Importantly, Kashmir is where wooden bats for cricket are made. Kashmir valley is a source of Jhelum river of India and Pakistan. It is a mountainous area, and is snowy and ice-frozen which becomes an attractive tourist destination for summer. In winter, the administrative city of Kashmir has to move to Jammu as Srinagar is frozen. That is why India names this state officially Jammu and Kashmir or better known as J&K in short.

It is the hotspot of Indo-Pak conflicts for the last 70 years. Kashmir was divided into two parts--Indian-Occupied-Kashmir (IoK) and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK). Due to the unceasing conflicts since independence of India from the British and partition of Pakistan in 1947, IoK has been military-congested having about 700-800k military forces (Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Indian Police Service, Central Reserve Police Force) deployed in fighting against insurgent and separatist militants, and making it world most military station on earth. Imagine, you will see the armed forces almost every where especially in Srinagar. Kashmir is allegedly one of the gateways for terrorists infiltrated from Pakistan. China factor has added more dimension to this enduring issue between India and Pakistan, when Pakistan permitted China economic corridor to be established in PoK.

Majority population of Kashmir (Srinagar) is Muslim (sympathetic to Pakistan), and of Jammu is Hindu. Another important part of J&K is Ladakh, a (Tibetan sect) Buddhist dominated area. The whole of Kashmir used to be a Buddhist kingdom during 3rd century AD (Ashok period) upto 6th century AD. During this period, it played vital role in spreading Buddhism beyond Indian subcontinent. The present muslim-dominated Kashmir used to have large number of Kashmiri Pandits, a well respected Hindu class.

Between June and May this year, pro-independent militants (and their local sympathisers) and Indian security forces were on the highest confrontations. Protests against central government were taking place several times which invited deathly response from the government.

This is what I learned from my Kashmir visit.

Wonder Holiday: Kashmir, Switzerland of India

Kashmir is so beautiful. Ice and white snows make it the haven on earth. Here in the video, we went to Gulmarg taken 1 h 55 min (59.0 km) via NH1 and Srinagar - Tangmarg Rd. There, we took Cable car to see the snow falls. After we were heading to Pahalgam (From Srinagar it takes 2 h 41 min (91.6 km) via Srinagar - Kanyakumari Hwy). We arrived Angel's Inn in Pahalgam in the evening. In the next day's morning, we went to Chandanwari, one of the attractive tourist points in Pahalgam. The whitest snow looks nice. Then, we went to Aru Valley where we enjoyed the green field and river. We had a delicious local-dish lunch on the the way back to Angel's Inn.

After breakfast, we were leaving for Srinagar and arrived in lunch time. We first visited Shalimar Bagh and Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden. We also went to Shankaracharya Temple on hill from where we could see the beautiful city of Srinagar and Dal Lake. Evening we took boating on Dal lake and ended our tour.

Afternoon we checked out and went to Srinagar Airport for a flight to New Delhi.

It's a best trip plan what yielded maximum experience of joys thanks to our tour guide, Mr. Irshad Bhat and driver for their 5-star services.