18-May-2012 DAY 4

I got up early to explore the houseboat. The houseboat aptly named Shangrila had 8 bedrooms on the first level and a huge bedroom on the second level. The boat itself is made of Cedar wood and has elegantly carved interiors. With built in bathrooms in each bedroom and plush corridor, a huge common sitting room and dining area and well carpeted floors, the houseboat had all the luxuries of a modern hotel. British were allowed to own Houseboats but not land during Mughal times. That practice probably continued till the early 1950s. Our Houseboats were in Nagin lake – a comparatively smaller lake than Dal lake.

As I stepped out in the early morning to take a look at our surroundings, the tranquility of the place was invigorating. All the lakes in Srinagar are abound with different varieties of Kingfishers. You could spot them easily swooping down to catch fish.

Today our plan is to visit Gulmarg. At a distance of 55 Kms from Srinagar we will be reaching the highest altitude of 10,000 feet and above during our tour. This was our fourth day of continuous travel and it started showing telltale signs amongst the group. We had cases of motion sickness, heavy headedness et al. Higher altitudes do have its effects but modern medicines had an answer to all these ailments. We had kids 4 years and up in the group and they would be up and running early morning however grueling the previous day had been.

All along the route we could see the presence of military. Suddenly the traffic stopped at a junction. The road ahead was clear but we saw some of the vehicles ahead of us take U-turn and head in a different direction. At a distance we could see Khilanmarg engulfed in mist. After 10 minutes of wait all of us got down. On enquiry we were told that few km down the road there was a traffic jam. As suddenly as it stopped the traffic began to move. We stopped at Tangmarg to pick our overcoats and boots. When we reached Gulmarg we had our lunch. The altitude was not helping. I for one skipped my lunch. I was feeling heavy headed. I took a paracetamol to clear my head. We walked around 2 Kms to reach the Gondola ropeway base station. Fortunately for us, our tour manager had arranged our tickets. There was a serpentine queue to just get the tickets. Every once in a while there would be an announcement that the Gondola has been stopped. I believe this was done to wait for the “return cars” from Khilanmarg. There was confusion whether we should be standing in the queue. Some of just pushed ahead and joined a different queue. Some of the ladies had brought Camphor on the advice of their doctors… helps breathing at higher altitudes …so they claimed. The Gondola, with a capacity of 6, keeps on moving. One has to quickly enter and exit. We reached 10,050 feet. It was cold and the visibility was poor. We could hardly see beyond 20 feet. Our plan was to reach 13,000 feet by taking another Gondola. The weather was bad and the next level Gondola was suspended. We spent some time exploring the place and returned.

By now the weather had cleared a bit and we could see a well laid out Golf course (probably a 18 hole). With no energy left, we took a horse ride back at Rs. 150/- per head. We reached our houseboats around 10 PM and crashed too exhausted. Enough of mountains and snow …..or so we thought..