Sep 5 2014 Day 1:
It was 4:15 am when I got up and hurrily took a shower as my big brother called me to get ready fast.
Yes, we planned one month ahead to visit Kashmir. Our was a five member group.
Myself, My elder brother Abdul Jabbar, his son Ali Jibran studying in XII, friend cum fellow-village guy Hassainar and his young brother Kunjumon.
By 4:30 am, brother was at home and rest of the guys waiting for me in the Taxi. We reached airport in 20 minutes. After offering Subah prayers in the prayer room near to the lounge, enjoyed tea and hot punjabi samoosas. It was good. Airliner was Indigo and we took off at 7 am. By 10 am, we reached Delhi.
The masala dosa from the outside counter tasted good. The sambar flavour was different. At the departure, we were surprised to see some families from Thottummugham. We met Rev. Father Jacob Mannaraprayil and his son. They are staying in ABAD Aquarius, a beautiful riverside apartment. I met my schoolmate Rajesh's parents. They all have come to enjoy the Onam Holidays through different tour packages.
My brother was using an inner belt as a remedy for Hernia ,in addition to the belt worn over pants.
During security checking, it was noticed and brother was taken to separate room. They examined the inside belt and saw a yellow sticker. They tried to read the text using Lens, but realised that it was a normal sticker and nothing to do with security. Still they added passenger details in a log.
The flight took off at 1 pm. By the time we were enjoying salted nuts, we reached Srinagar at 2 pm. In Kashmir, only Post paid mobiles will work.
We called Innova driver who was waiting outside. His name is Sunny and he is from Jammu. The tour package includes pickup from Airport, sightseeing trips,Stay and taking us back to airport. Sunny will be our care taker for the next 5 days. On the way to restaurant for having lunch, we saw water clogged in some streets. The water level was upto the knees. When enquired, Sunny told its due the heavy rains in the pas days. Being from Kerala, this did not sound like an alarm signal for us.
We met a malayali couple from Delhi, sitting at the next table. They have been there for the last 4 days and they were unable to visit the main places - Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg due to the landslides in all these routes. They could only visit the places in Srinagar only. This made me bit sad.
We checked about the special dish at the restaurant, waiter recommended 'Wazwan', the typical Kashmiri meal. Couple of days, I was googling for the main delicacies in the valley and this name popped up. It is a heavy meal. We ordered it. it was full of mutton delicacies.
It had Mutton Sheek Kabab, Fried pieces, Mutton Rogan Josh, and Gushtaba, a big ball three times bigger than normal laddu. It was made of mutton meat and the fat, mixed and beaten with hammer for softening. But no one liked it. The food had strong smell of mutton and it was actually a food of mighty moghals and NOT south indians!!
But we took it as fun. Kunjumon and Hassan posed for some funny photos holding Gusthaba balls in hands like a cricket ball. We had a great laugh which would've attracted attention from others. The bill was heavy. Three thousand rupees!!! Anyway, we took it as an opportunity to taste the main meal of the valley.
After lunch, we went to Jama Masjid. It was 600 year old mighty quadrangle mosque, with lawns, beautiful trees, plants and fountains in the middle. The pillars of the mosque was made up on Deodar (Devadaru) and heighing 44 feet. It is a remarkable monument. While taking ablution for the prayes, we felt the chilling cold of the water. We offered noon (Zohar) and evening prayer (Asar) combined and left the place to Dal Lake. We hired a Shikara boat and it was 5:30 then. The boat driver quickly identified us as malayalis as he did handicraft business in Trivandrum. There were lot of house boats in the banks of the lake. All have beautiful names. He showed us the boat where Mission Kashmir , Hrithik Film was shooted. While cruising through the waters, some guys approached us from boats. They will take our photographs wearing Kashmiri Pashmina gowns, sitting in the Shikara and beautiful Dal Lake in the background. The driver took us to floating market, 'Maya Bazar', where we saw shops setup in houseboats. While travelling back, I bought 10 grams of Kesar (Saffron) for 500 rupees from a boat.
After 1 hr cruise, we were taken to House Boat where we will be staying this night. It was owned by a gentleman. The house boat had two attached bedrooms, dining room and living room. His 18 yr old son Shoaib was very smart. Whatever topic we bring in, he will make a story out of it :) He cooked our supper.
It was 4:15 am when I got up and hurrily took a shower as my big brother called me to get ready fast.
Yes, we planned one month ahead to visit Kashmir. Our was a five member group.
Myself, My elder brother Abdul Jabbar, his son Ali Jibran studying in XII, friend cum fellow-village guy Hassainar and his young brother Kunjumon.
By 4:30 am, brother was at home and rest of the guys waiting for me in the Taxi. We reached airport in 20 minutes. After offering Subah prayers in the prayer room near to the lounge, enjoyed tea and hot punjabi samoosas. It was good. Airliner was Indigo and we took off at 7 am. By 10 am, we reached Delhi.
The masala dosa from the outside counter tasted good. The sambar flavour was different. At the departure, we were surprised to see some families from Thottummugham. We met Rev. Father Jacob Mannaraprayil and his son. They are staying in ABAD Aquarius, a beautiful riverside apartment. I met my schoolmate Rajesh's parents. They all have come to enjoy the Onam Holidays through different tour packages.
My brother was using an inner belt as a remedy for Hernia ,in addition to the belt worn over pants.
During security checking, it was noticed and brother was taken to separate room. They examined the inside belt and saw a yellow sticker. They tried to read the text using Lens, but realised that it was a normal sticker and nothing to do with security. Still they added passenger details in a log.
The flight took off at 1 pm. By the time we were enjoying salted nuts, we reached Srinagar at 2 pm. In Kashmir, only Post paid mobiles will work.
We called Innova driver who was waiting outside. His name is Sunny and he is from Jammu. The tour package includes pickup from Airport, sightseeing trips,Stay and taking us back to airport. Sunny will be our care taker for the next 5 days. On the way to restaurant for having lunch, we saw water clogged in some streets. The water level was upto the knees. When enquired, Sunny told its due the heavy rains in the pas days. Being from Kerala, this did not sound like an alarm signal for us.
We met a malayali couple from Delhi, sitting at the next table. They have been there for the last 4 days and they were unable to visit the main places - Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg due to the landslides in all these routes. They could only visit the places in Srinagar only. This made me bit sad.
We checked about the special dish at the restaurant, waiter recommended 'Wazwan', the typical Kashmiri meal. Couple of days, I was googling for the main delicacies in the valley and this name popped up. It is a heavy meal. We ordered it. it was full of mutton delicacies.
It had Mutton Sheek Kabab, Fried pieces, Mutton Rogan Josh, and Gushtaba, a big ball three times bigger than normal laddu. It was made of mutton meat and the fat, mixed and beaten with hammer for softening. But no one liked it. The food had strong smell of mutton and it was actually a food of mighty moghals and NOT south indians!!
But we took it as fun. Kunjumon and Hassan posed for some funny photos holding Gusthaba balls in hands like a cricket ball. We had a great laugh which would've attracted attention from others. The bill was heavy. Three thousand rupees!!! Anyway, we took it as an opportunity to taste the main meal of the valley.
After lunch, we went to Jama Masjid. It was 600 year old mighty quadrangle mosque, with lawns, beautiful trees, plants and fountains in the middle. The pillars of the mosque was made up on Deodar (Devadaru) and heighing 44 feet. It is a remarkable monument. While taking ablution for the prayes, we felt the chilling cold of the water. We offered noon (Zohar) and evening prayer (Asar) combined and left the place to Dal Lake. We hired a Shikara boat and it was 5:30 then. The boat driver quickly identified us as malayalis as he did handicraft business in Trivandrum. There were lot of house boats in the banks of the lake. All have beautiful names. He showed us the boat where Mission Kashmir , Hrithik Film was shooted. While cruising through the waters, some guys approached us from boats. They will take our photographs wearing Kashmiri Pashmina gowns, sitting in the Shikara and beautiful Dal Lake in the background. The driver took us to floating market, 'Maya Bazar', where we saw shops setup in houseboats. While travelling back, I bought 10 grams of Kesar (Saffron) for 500 rupees from a boat.
After 1 hr cruise, we were taken to House Boat where we will be staying this night. It was owned by a gentleman. The house boat had two attached bedrooms, dining room and living room. His 18 yr old son Shoaib was very smart. Whatever topic we bring in, he will make a story out of it :) He cooked our supper.
