Day 13
It's day 13...I feel like I'm living a dream...years later I know I am going to recall this trip, read these blog entries and relive these moments. Anyways, this day is for shopping at Pahalgam! The sweet little town has quaint looking shops - out of a different world - we look at Kashmiri suits, silver and junk jewellery! I end up buying Kashmiri suits for mom, nani etc...and D the master bargainer helps me get them at good prices! I also indulge in silver and junk jewellery - earrings, pendants, bracelets and keychains for friends! Soon, we're driving to Jammu...I sleep most of the way. The innova is like home by now. We stop on the way for a tea break and out of the blue we decide to stop at Katra and go to Vaishno Devi!! It will delay us by half a day only because we decide to skip sleep and start off on the trek at the time we were to halt at Jammu! We don't tell the bosses of our plans yet. They're expecting us back in Delhi ASAP as some award work is to be done! We eat at Vaishno Dhaba@Katra and hunt for a hotel to leave our luggage. Many seedy hotels later, we're checking into Hotel New Ashok Palace, dumping luggage and by 5:30 am we're on our way up for Mata ke darshan at Vaishno Devi!! This time I've decided to go on foot all the way. Only Sidhartha & Runmee take mules. After the Amarnath Yatra, this seems like cakewalk - there are no dangerous curves, no narrow mud tracks & it isn't that steep - in fact there's a proper cemented route and a choice to go by stairs all the way up!!
It's day 13...I feel like I'm living a dream...years later I know I am going to recall this trip, read these blog entries and relive these moments. Anyways, this day is for shopping at Pahalgam! The sweet little town has quaint looking shops - out of a different world - we look at Kashmiri suits, silver and junk jewellery! I end up buying Kashmiri suits for mom, nani etc...and D the master bargainer helps me get them at good prices! I also indulge in silver and junk jewellery - earrings, pendants, bracelets and keychains for friends! Soon, we're driving to Jammu...I sleep most of the way. The innova is like home by now. We stop on the way for a tea break and out of the blue we decide to stop at Katra and go to Vaishno Devi!! It will delay us by half a day only because we decide to skip sleep and start off on the trek at the time we were to halt at Jammu! We don't tell the bosses of our plans yet. They're expecting us back in Delhi ASAP as some award work is to be done! We eat at Vaishno Dhaba@Katra and hunt for a hotel to leave our luggage. Many seedy hotels later, we're checking into Hotel New Ashok Palace, dumping luggage and by 5:30 am we're on our way up for Mata ke darshan at Vaishno Devi!! This time I've decided to go on foot all the way. Only Sidhartha & Runmee take mules. After the Amarnath Yatra, this seems like cakewalk - there are no dangerous curves, no narrow mud tracks & it isn't that steep - in fact there's a proper cemented route and a choice to go by stairs all the way up!!
2 comments:
I love to travel myself but I haven't been to that part of the world. What were your accommodation's like? I think the best part of traveling is having a good place to stay. I remember staying in this one hotel that smelled like being downwind of a row of porta-potties, mixed with cigar smoke...it was disgusting! Have you ever had any bad experiences, OMG please share!
Check out this funny video, called "Ballad of a Traveler", it is hilarious. He totally sums up the travelers experience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2tgnUsj8NE>
YouTube - Ballad of a Traveler
I work with Hampton Inn, you should come stay with us next time you need a place to stay, we'd love to have you :-)besides its 10% off right now.
http://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/promotions/hx_summerpromo08/index.jhtml;jsessionid=SXEZ4FIZDCG4OCSGBJF2VCQ?it=specials,dreams&cid=om,hx,dreams,specials
You must must come to India Sarah :) It's suchhhh a diverse country that you can spend years here and still not see all of it!
Our accommodation was lovely everywhere. On this particular trip, we were guests of the Indian Army at some places so no worries there...at other places we had done our research well - asked a lot of people, read reviews online and then booked affordable, clean places :)
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