15-May-2012 – DAY 1

Our trip to “Paradise on Earth” began with an adventurous note. I had booked our onward journey to Delhi from Pune through Air India. I was warned about Air India, but I threw caution to the winds! The delays, the strikes reported in the newspapers always happen to others right? It never happens when we travel … well that’s what I thought! I could experience firsthand what was being reported in the newspapers. The flight that was supposed to take off at 7.45 am was rescheduled several times and eventually to a state where I could have missed my connecting flight from Delhi to Srinagar. I have to do last-minute cancellations and re-bookings at the airport that set me back by 45k. Our aviation regulations are still at their infancy. Airlines should be made to pay for their follies. Anyhow, the silver lining was the ease by which I could quickly book seats on different airlines without impacting my overall schedule.
My story dates back to January’ 12 when I along with my college friends of yore, started planning for the Kashmir trip. As we did not have a clear understanding of the security situation in Kashmir and the fact that we were travelling with families we found it prudent to take the services of a travel company. After talking to a few travel agencies we zoomed on to Sachin Travels who have been providing Kashmir tours for last twenty-five years. The tour itself cost us Rs.23,000 per individual.

Some of us decided to pursue air route while some others took a more adventurous route of going by train and road to reach Srinagar. While waiting to board the flight at Delhi for Srinagar we heard “choice” words being used against Air India. Looked like some others had tasted the same medicine I had! I found out that they were also taking the tour through Sachin and were part of our larger group. I joined the group to vent out my feelings against AI. Ahh… felt good … Now I was ready for the “Paradise on Earth”.

As the plane made its descent in Srinagar, green carpeted land embraced by the beautiful Himalayas greeted us. As the plane made its final descent little cottages and the dotted cattle idly grazing on nature’s carpet came to focus. The snow on the hills was literally the icing! If my camera had “emotion feature” built-in it could have probably done justice to the scenery. I was yanked back to reality by the “ooohs” and the “ahhs”, excited voices of the children and the swaying of the necks of the passengers from one side of the plane to the other.

As we walked out of the plane, the sun was just setting. The cold evening air was a welcome change against sweltering weather we were briefly subjected to, at Delhi. The route from the airport was equally lined with army personnel as with trees! The presence of army has definitely brought peace to the valley. The locals have taken the presence of army as part of their lives. I felt the mood was generally upbeat amongst the locals as they look forward to the tourist season. I felt secure.

We were put up at Grand Habib – a fine hotel with all the modern amenities. The travel agency goofed up our reservations. They booked a room short and for the first two days we had to adjust. As we settled for dinner that night, our tour manager informed us that our trip to Gulmarg next day had to be deferred as the Gondola ropeway to Khilanmarg has snapped. We had to change our plans on the fly and decided to do local Srinagar sightseeing the next day.