Amritsar to Mumbai... :)

Finally... got my mobile in my hand... :P
Dera Beas is a spiritual place, and no mobiles and camera is allowed there inside.. :P
So, i couldn't take any pics there..... :P
But its a great place to visit, really beautiful....!!
The person who once visits here, firstly will not like to leave this place & secondly, will take the memories of every second spent here in his heart.. :)
Its so calm, clean and luxurious area that it feels as if we are in foreign...!!
Everything is available there....!!
Hospital, garden for children, canteen, and much more.....!!
All is Maharaji's property, for his followers..!!
The place is too big and beautiful...!!

Then, we also went to see Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh....!!
Did some shopping in Amritsar city...!!
My sister's birthday was on 29th, so that day we roamed in Amritsar city...!!
Had special lassi of Amritsar & pani puri as snacks..!!
I wanted ice cream but mom didn't allow me, as i had severe cold......!! :(

Now i am at Amritsar airport, leaving for Mumbai today, via spice jet, flight @ 4pm......!! :)
But, just heard an announcement, our flight is 30 minutes late....!! :(
Missing Mumbai...!! :'(

But, I really enjoyed my christmas vacation this year a lot......... :)

Amritsar, Punjab.... :)

Just landed @ Amritsar International Airport.....!!
Its realy nice cool climate here.....!!
Temperature is 14 degree and its raining here..... :)

Now going to Beas, a spiritual place of my preacher, Radhasoami.....!!
No phones and camera is allowed inside, so we will have to surrender our mobiles and camera at the entrance gate...!!
There is absolute no risk of losing it, as they keep it very safe..!!
Its run of about an hour or two from airport, by cab......!!

Its realy a very beautiful climate..... the mixture of fog, rain, and cold breeze..... :)
We will be driving through Amritsar city.. :)
& i wish to see some Sarso ke Khet on the way.. :)
Amritsar, Punjab is awesome.... :)

Local Sight Seeing..... :)

Today, the temperature was 0 degree....!!
Our guide said that, there may b a snow fall late night....!!

We had went for local sight seeing.... :)
We saw Dal lake, where we went to roam around the lake via Shikara boat, we saw house boat, floating market on Shikara boat, clicked some pics in kashmiri dress... :)
It was fun in biting cold... :)

Then we went to see Shakaracharya Mandir... which is top on the hill & we had to go there climbing jumbo size steps... :P
My legs were frozen in cold, still i climbed the steps some how... :P

Then went to see Cheshmeshahi, Mughal garden, Shalimar garden, a Dargah & biggest masjid in J & K... :)
There were not many flowers in the garden as it was winter, but still it was fine and beautiful..!! :)

& When we reached Cheshmeshahi, we had coffee first at a local shop and then, i bought Dairy Milk too..!! :) I hadn't seen Dairy Milk till now, but finally, got it..!! :) I first clicked a photo with my dairy milk, just to have a remembrance that i had Dairy Milk in Kashmir too and then ate it, enjoying every byte of it.... :)

It was beautiful place and tasty dairy milk...!!

We did some shopping & had maggi...!! Maggi really tasted so Yummmyyy...!! :)
Also there was very slight rainfall too.....!!
So, the Climate was beautiful...!!
Hopefully, i get to see snow fall, before i leave Kashmir...!!

Tomorrow, i m leaving for Amritsar via Spice Jet, from there we will go to Beas.... :) where no mobile is allowed... so no blog updates till 31st..... :p ;) :)

Ice Skiing @ Gulmarg.....

Today, we went to Gulmarg...!
Its at the distance of about 65km from hotel & about 2 hour of run...!!
Its at about 19000 ft above the ground and completly covered with snow....!!

Our car had to stop down the hill as it can't go up on the hill, because, there was lot of snow on the road, risk of getting slipped....!!
So we had to take different vehicle, a sumo with its tyres chained, so that it doesn't slip in snow....!!

Before going up, we had to wear fur coat and gumboots, which are needed there up, as the snow was almost 2 ft deep....!!

My mom was not feeling well, so she didn't came up with us...!!
She was down sitting in our car & also she didn't wanted only me, my sis n bro to go alone up..!!
So she told dad to come along with us......!!
So, dad and three of us went..!!

While going up on the hill.... we saw beautiful scenery... long & tall standing pine trees, green throughout the year, having snow on them.... looked beautiful...... :) when seen from up on the hill....
And we reached the place - Gulmarg....!!
Its very beautiful place....!!
There is nothing but just snow, snow and snow...!! :)
Looking damn beautiful..!! :)

There were many dhabas to eat food, n many small tea and coffee shops.....!!
There were many tourist who had come to that spot...!!
The moment we kept our legs on the snow, our legs went inside the snow, till our knees...!!
& inspite of gumboots and fur coat, we could feel the cold...!
Our hands and legs were frozen...!!
We were not able to move them...!!
Then my sis, brother & me, we all three did skiing....!! :)
Of course with the help of a teacher.. ;)
In fact, my sis, even fell once while skiing, straight into the snow..!! :) :P hehehe..!!
At start there was a bit fear mixed with excitement, but after doing it once, we felt the real fun.... :)
It was great...!!
Sledging was also there, but we didn't go for it, because my mom was sitting down in car alone and was not well...!!
So we didn't had much mood to enjoy....!
So just after skiing and clicking some photos, we came down...!!
Returned the fur coat and gumboots and then headed back to hotel....!
Mom rested in hotel & now she is fine.... we then went for dinner, had dal, brinjal ki sabzi & roti & now sleeping time...!!
But i m continuously sneezing.. i have caught cold... very badly... :p bcoz of playing in snowing...... :) :) ;)

But, Gulmarg is really good place.. :)
Had fun with skiing..!! :)

PAHALGAM... A Beautiful Place...

Today we went to PAHALGAM, a very beautiful place....!!
It took us around 2 & half hr to reach there from our stay place, by 4 wheeler...!!
We left from here at 10am and on the way, ate kachori while watching the Jehlam river, dried apple and walnut trees, fields of saffron plant, Lidder vally & Lidder river and had a famous juice kind of - named 'KAWA' (not sure about its spelling)...!!
It was juice of some powder in hot water and added chopped almonds..!!
It was sweet in taste..!!
The scenery was very beautiful & temperature must be around 3 - 4 degrees...!!
We had to go up on the hill, so we took lot of scenery pics while going up and also while coming down...!!

Finally, we reached at a place up on the hill, PAHALGAM VALLEY...!!
But beyond that only horses could go, as beyond that there was a lot of snow and cold breeze that could really freeze us..!!
The cost of per person on per horse was Rs. 1000...!! Too much..!!
My dad bargained, but then didn't allow we 3 brother - sisters to go..!! :'(
We then did some breakfast of coffee and methi ke parathe that mom had packed from home...!!
I also made a call to one of my very good friend & i was so happy to talk to him..!! :)
Then we did some shopping, buyed 2 shawls and 2 stoles and then went for lunch in a dhaba..!!
And menu was rajma, mixed sabzi, dalfry & jeera rice with roti and it was too tasty.. :)

Then we went to see a shiva temple & its garden was covered with snow..!!
It was really very beautiful..!! :)
My sister, brother and me played in snow, threw small snow balls on each other and also clicked many photos...!! My parents were also enjoying with us.. :)

Then we moved back on our way to hotel...!!
On our way back, we stopped at an archeological place which was again a shiva temple - "Avantiswamin Temple"...!!
It was carved from rocks, surrounded by 5 different temples, which was again surrounded by a wall having 69 different temples...!!
It was a beautiful place..!!
We also buyed a pack of seeds of a flower, which grows throughout the year ( i don't remember the name )

By evening, 6.30 pm, we reached hotel, had dinner and now sleeping time.. :)

Mumbai To Srinagar....

Today morning, we were set to leave for airport, by cab..!!
And we reached Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport @ 8:30am..!!
Then, at airport, we got our luggage and tickets checked and verified at airport with our id proofs, though we had to wait in the long queue...!!
Our luggage was then scanned and sent into our plane and we had to wait to board our flight as our boarding time was 10:20..!!

While we waited to board our flight, we clicked some photos near the christmas decoration done at airport, had coffee, met a cute little smart girl n also met and clicked photos with great singer - Usha Utthap... :)

Then we went to board our flight..!
All our checking was done, but still we had to go through final checking of our hand bags, which were scanned...!!
And @ 11 we were near our aeroplane ready to go inside... :)
Normally, the security people at the airport, don't allow to click photos near the plane, but there was no one when we were near the plane & so we made sure to click photos with the huge plane... ;) :)

We went into the plane, sat in, and clicked photos from inside before the plane took off..!! :)
Wowww...!! It was awesome.. :)

The plane then started its take off @ 11.30...!!
It was just like a roller coaster ride...!!
Slow initially and then....zoooommmmmm....!!
So fast it was, woww......!! :)
While we were onboard, we could see the landscape,just as a map of minute detail drawn by a great artist seen from far away...!!
The hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, valley, dessert, ocean, hills covered with snow...it was really very beautiful...!! :)
We also had some snacks in plane & were sitting as per the instructions given by airhostess... :)
After some time, when we reached near Srinagar, the climate was not so good, so the plane was above clouds.. :) & it was beautiful to see the clouds.. :)

Our plane then landed exactly after 2 and half hour..!! & here we were at Srinagar Airport & the temperature was just 8 degrees C..!! :) Cool & awesome climate it was...!! :)

A person appointed by my father for our sight seeing and stay at hotel was waiting to receive us @ Srinagar International Airport when we reached there at 2pm, with a label of my dad's name in his hand...!! :)
I felt so great and proud as he was waiting with the label of my dad's name.. :)
He had his 4 wheeler Xylo, big enough for all of us to be very comfortable.. :P
So, he drove us to our place of stay, the hotel named - Circuit House(govt)...!!
We had to wait a lot, but we got nice room to stay...!!
The are 2 rooms, having 3 heaters, 2 beds in each room, and wash room having water heater, sofa set, tv in each room, beautiful curtains on windows, & its just like a ready made wooden house, bungalow type, nice, cute and beautiful...!! As we were not going out to roam today, so we rested here for sometime..!!

We had coffee in evening & in dinner, we had rice, dal, tomato paneer, cauliflower & cabbage ki sabzi, salad n roti...!! It was good enough...!!

Right now, i am in bedroom, under the blankets provided by hotel, and also wearing my sweater, jacket, hand gloves, socks & winter cap as the temperature here is almost 4 degrees.... & now its sleeping time... GOOD NIGHT.. :)

Kashmir Trip Preparations...

Our preparation started a month ago...!!
We did all shopping of shoes, sweaters, woolen clothes and all necessary things in just one week... :P
Our cousins were even excited about our trip & they too helped us in all the possible ways for the preparations..!! :)
But everything that was needed, we buyed...!!
My mom also prepared some food stuff ( methi ke parathe... my favorite :) ) for the journey...!!
I helped mom in all the packing, a day before the trip...!!
Our flight was on 24th Dec, 11am... Indigo airlines... :)