Our first snow experience

Gulmarg is one of the lovely and gorgeous hill station in Kashmir and is located at a distance of approximately 65 kilometers from Srinagar with a drive time of around 2.5 hours. As I stated in my last post, after checking into the HOTEL SNOWLAND we did not feel like going out for any shopping, as our travel adviser was suggesting. Instead, we preferred to just relax preparing our next day visit to Gulmarg. I will write a separate detailed post on the hotel as part of my review, but I must say the experience was truly awesome.

After having a very nice breakfast, we were super excited to explore our scenic trip - ready with the puffer jackets.

It took almost 3 hours to reach there. Ideally it should have taken half of that time, but the roads are not wide enough, so one really cannot drive fast. Also even though Srinagar is the capital of Kashmir, the roads are not in good shape and the smart city project work is going on. It took almost more than a hour just to get out of the city and then couple of hours to finally reach our destination. Watch the video to have a feel of the scenic trip having some awesome views.

Gulmarg is famous for the Gondola ride, the cable car that is second longest and second highest in the world. One has to book the tickets in advance to ensure a ride and we did a big mistake by not booking it. Our travel agent did not insist and follow up to make sure we pre-booked the tickets, they thought, we could get tickets then and there. Usually that is the case and one can get the ticket, but the time was different. If you are planning to go, then make sure, you book tickets as early as possible at https://www.jammukashmircablecar.com/ . It takes you to https://jkcablecar.payu.in/select/1 to book the ticket and there are two phases. The first phase takes you to Kungdoor located at around 10000 ft and then the second phase takes you to Apharwat Peak which is at around 14000 ft.

It's more difficult to get the second phase tickets, so make sure you book both, though you can book the second phase only after you buy the first phase tickets. I regret not doing all these research earlier as we were really busy with the exams. So if you are reading this make sure, this is in top of your list, if you are planning a trip to Gulmarg.

The cable cars are the best means to go to the peak and enjoy the place, but then without them there some other options having a very vague price quoted by the locals there. They offer you a horse ride to roam around and taking to the foot hill of other small peaks and then one can go a little higher by using sledges. And the price ? The cable cars cost 1700/- INR for both the phases but these guys quote 5-6 times of that to just take you to the foothills not even peak. Its a bargain price, so you should have skills to negotiate.

We did not want to opt for any of these, so we decided to just go there on our own and explore as much as possible. But in either case, you will have to hire the snow boots and our driver took us to a shop located much before the mountain peak, picking ours. That person offered us a guide service, saying he can take us to the peak by walking with us, but we will have to make sure we don't say that anywhere. The local community is pretty united and they did suspect when they saw us walking without any horse and challenged him there. So much so that at one point he said we are on our own and then I had to jump in ensuring he is not hurt. There is literally no governance of these local communities which is a real bad thing for such a nice tourist place. So best to plan your travel when you can ensure you have those Gondola tickets. The horse riding is not 100% safe as well, we saw a horse skidding and falling down. The lady on top of it fell down ruining her day.

So with all the challenges we were here walking couple of miles, the guide helping a lot.

Those pathways are pretty bad, horses ruining it. The government should have a better arrangement. But keeping all our worries behind, the kids started enjoying as soon as they were in the snow.

She ran alone to a place and started putting her dream snowman and her brother joined her providing a helping hand.

We utilized the time to capture some memorable moments and shoot a reel, the lady did not want to miss the opportunity. The guide was the cameraman, the lady being the director :)

The weather can change quite fast in these areas and it's good to carry a umbrella which we did not. There is no place there where you can take shelter so if you have kids, carry a small umbrella. You cannot even run or come back fast. So as the rain came in, we joined the kids pursuing them to move fast, leaving their snow man.

But they did not want to leave the snowman alone so played with it breaking into pieces.

It was very difficult to convince them and bring back - in no mood to leave the place. So the man in charge (me) had to accept a final round of play with ice.

On our way back, captured some more photos and the kids finally went for a sledge ride to come back fast.

The sledge man was asking for 600 rupees but I insisted to give only 200 as getting down was not difficult at all and he agreed taking kids on the ride. That's the kind of bargain one need to do :)

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While me and the lady was walking down, the sledge man came back super fast and offered us a ride even in half price , 100 rupees. And we wanted that reel so went in. And then we had to walk back from the place where the snow ended.

And before I wrap this post some interesting facts :

As you can see, this is the only private property at that place on the top and it belongs to a family whose forefather was granted this few centuries back as a war compensation. We could capture it from distance, thanks to our @6400. And I was always thinking it will feel very chilled in the snow, and it will be pretty difficult to bear, but I was wrong :)

This is the place from where we walked. Again, if you are buying the Gondola (Cable Car) ride , then you do not need to go here as you will enjoy a lot at the peak. Now we have plans to go back again in few years to enjoy only Gulmarg with the Gondola ride. My daughter wanted to get up in the morning with her eyes on snow, so I had booked a night stay at The Meadows Gulmarg. More to come on that and also some reels along with some more photographs.......

Pinned on https://pinmapple.com/ - [//]:# (!pinmapple 34.04767 lat 74.38009 long Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir d3scr)

This post will be also part of my Google review of the place - a little hive marketing.

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