HONEY-MOON - in Kashmir the paradise on Earth

Dal Lake, Houseboat, Gulmarg, Sonmarg, Iceburg, Pehalgam, Mughal Gardens... all these places hold a romantical charm. Our honeymoon in the beautiful Kashmir could not have been any more enchating then enjoying blissful moment on the rightly called the paradise on Earth. My perception of the winter season held the view that Global warming has completely wiped the word 'WINTER' from the climate dictionary. I was rather curious when I landed on the Srinagar airport on 6th of Dec09. Cold breeze swept away all my confused thoughts & promisingly whispered sweetly in my ears that assured me of a good stay in Kashmir. We held together our hands due to sheer drop in thermometer reading. First thing we discussed between us was that we needed another set of thick woolen winter garments. The agent seemingly awaited for us at the arrival terminal & promised of a charming tour, stay & visit at a reasonable cost. I had no bookings & followed the first agent what he had in store for me. A cab drive to the Dal Lake took 25 mins & we were presented a beautifully decorated & amazingly articulated houseboat. It immediately impressed us & we decided to make it ours - though only for 4 days.
The evening saw was taking enjoyful shikara ride on the big charming Dal Lake. The shikara really did remind me of some old romatic numbers from Bollywood. We immediately began a strong liking to the Dal Lake, Shikara, Houseboat, Kashmir....
The agent was actually quite helpful & he also arranged for the tour visit to the different icy places nearby Kashmir. The first visit was the local Mughal gardens, all being so famous for magnificientically created in Mughal times & well maintained till this date. The Nishat Garden, Mughal Garden, Shalimar Bagh, quite impressed us with with the flowers & the moring sunshine in the wintery season. It was a soothing feeling & romantically that was a perfect place to be.
Next we went on to another amwesome point - the famous Gulmarg, of which frankly speaking I had less idea. Reaching Gulmarg, my apprehensive mind took a turn & I felt a feeling I never felt before & this feeling I wanted to feel all through my lifetime. Our faced gealmed in the sunshine & more due to the reflections from the ice-covered mountains. There was ice everywhere & people were seen till far end enjoying to the fullest. I was rather thinking was all this real ice or has somebody taken large amount of raw cotton & spilled it all over to create the fake impression of ice. Surely I felt that, because I could see glittering sunlight in the sky & on the mountains & then the pure white soft ice on the floor. There was no silicon compund on the floor & there was no dust & no pollution. Again this cant be explaied in words, because the envrionment completely is full of charm everywhere. We hired a man-pulled sledge & had a good ride on the icy floor. Ofcourse I fought with my wife there.... & she hit back to me too.... snow-fight you call it.
We tried our hands at ice-skating & it was damn slippery & lest we should break our limbs, we were happy to end it short & have some goody skating snaps to capture the sporting moment.
The day ended without we realized the pace of time. Next day had another beautiful adventure- more ice- Sonmarg. Um, it was not actually fruitful, for too much ice did a spoilsport. The 2 hour ride was cut short just 10 KM of our destination to the reach the destination. But it had another special package for us. The 2 hour horse-ride on the next 7 km stretch along the way to Sonmarg uphill. There was biting cold & though we had sufficient woolen garments, we felt bitterly cold. The fingers nearly froze & the ears & nose turned visible red due to chilling cold. This I felt I was feeling the coldest time of my life. We returned shortly for the route was blocked due to heavy ice & we could not proceed further. But it was a satisfying effort it not so well adentourous.
On The final & fourth day we visited Pehalgam, a place famous for natural beauty & favourite destination for couples. We were lucky indeed; when we reached, the snow god showed favouritsm & welcomed us with romantic & amazing snowfall. It was the moment of the entire trip & we tried to feel the snow on our hands, giving less attention the biting cold we felt. There was another horse-ride we took, having less idea, the horse actually treks mountains & hills rather walking simply on the road. I grew bit fearful, horse-riding on hilly mountain covered with ice with every chance of being in danger, the horse could slip on the slippery ice & we could have well landed into hospital if not on the land. Eventually our fear gave way to thrill & we could both see adenture & fun in our eyes. The season had all good in store for us. There was a satisfying contenment in our eyes as we both glittered in happiness about our honeymoon destination. While Gulmarg had breath-taking scences & views, Pehalgam was mindblowing.
Sonmarg was quite too much for adventure, the Mughal gardens were quite romantic. The four even days passed so fast we could not realize our adenture in Kashmir was taking a turn towards the end. We felt quite sad, but at the same time, our hearts were spilling with contenment. We had to leave for we had another devotional tour to Jammu. Mata Vaishno Devi had called us & we left with open heart for Katra by raod (I wont divulge on my trip from Srinagar to Jammu/Katra, for my wife certainly didnot enjoy the long hilly ride).
We started off at night at 10.30 PM & we had to travel on foot uphill to reach mata Vaishno Devi Shrine. We certainly didnot have any idea how exactly we would continue our walk. We started off well, walked in winter at good pace, perspiring somewhat. The destination seemigly was receding, the more we walked. We realized we were tierd but we had to walk. I was inspired & I begab chanting Jai-mata di hoping this will boost our energy level. It actually did & we managed to the climb the hill of 12-km stretch in 5 fours approx. The darhsan was satisfying & there was less crowd & at 5 AM, we entered mata's Gufa. We felt so happy to reach mata's shrine & get her blessings. I mean it was really devotional visit & we felt so happy & blessed. We also visited Shivji's mandir just quite steps down the Vaishno Devi Temple. However we apologised from Baba Bhaironath for we had our energy levels exhausted & we could not have climbed another 2 hour uphill. So we started off at 6 am to reach Katra. Beleive me, walking downward the hill proved more tiring, since our legs had nearly given up. We walked & rested & then we walked, & again we rested & again we started to walk. This took almost 4 hours to reach Katra. There was 0 energy level, but we managed to reach on our room. We had 2 hours to take rest & then start off to Jammu for the next day morning Flight to Mumbai. My tiredness vanished, since our journey was not yet complete. We packed all luggage, & left off to Jammu. Got an accomodation there & slept for the entire day. We woke up again at night. did final packing & slept again. Morning brought some respite & we had replenished some energy. Reached airport on time & finally our flight to Mumbai started on time. (The Flight was via Srinagar, whereby we wanted to start all again). The Winter had dissappeared and we felt we had just woken up from a lovely dream. The faces looked dull but our camera had some support for us. We recalled what an adentorous, romantic, Sizzling (& some more such adjectives) honeymoon trip we had.
We assured to each other, couples do have more than one honeymoon trip, so that was not an end to the trip. Rather a beginning of more such wonderful trips.