Hi again, my first blog post reached upto 19 pageviews but still no comment, anyway, no point talking crap about myself, lets continue with the journey experience straightaway. As I said earlier, I got the answer to my mute question "Why safron is so expensive?"  yes, a gram of kesar costs Rs 250. Here's what the safron flowers have to say for themselves

About 40000 safron flowers are needed to produce 1 gm of safron. 

Next, we drove towards Pahalgam,  on the way,many scenaries consisting of chinar tree, river jhelum and mountains accompanied us. 

The third day, our destination was Gulmarg. It was here that I could fulfill my childhood desires like that of playing in snow, skying, sledging and travelling by cable car. 

We also horse rided to the Shiva temple at Gulmarg . While horse riding, I also saw some filming locations, the spot where the Mission Kashmir song was shot, the house where the famous Bobby song hum tum ek kamre me was shot and also some movie locations of the film Jab Tak hai Jaan. I even saw the guest houses where the film crew stays during the duration. The cable cars above is added recently by some french company, before that, there was cable chairs. A scene from the Amitabh starrer movie Kasme Waade was shot on one of those chairs. 

After that, we at last saw the apple garden.

The next day we took a flight from Srinagar to Delhi and had to wait for 6-7 hrs at the Delhi airport to catch a flight from Delhi to Varanasi. That was it. Our trip succesfully completed. I really admire the people we met in Kashmir, our driver, our guide at Gulmarg, our hotel staff, and also the very seedha saada owner of the restaurent in which we dined. The best thing was that, the fellow travellers with us consisted of 99% bengalis; with them bada apnapan sa lag raha tha. 

Introduction

Introduction

This is my first post for you all and i dont know why have i created the blog. For the time being, maybe you can assume me as a genius paranoid who thinks that people are not appreciating him for his knowledge which he wants to show off.

The above paragraph must have given you a mocking hint that suggests that I must be some self proudy kind of person, well, maybe I have become one. Recently when I completed my Kashmir trip, I went back to college and I dont remember the exact conversation but a friend of mine commented on me "you have  started acting as if you have really come from The Paradise", to which I replied "what do you exactly want to say, that Kashmir is not a paradise?". She was again going to say something but I immediately took out the chikara (house boat) keychain that I had brought for her from there, she became happy and i could switch on to the next conversation (conversation about houseboats lined up on Dal Lake, see the picture down).

About the Kashmir trip, let me tell you it was a real fun. Though first I prefer telling you about the Delhi trip first, A day in Delhi was a brief one, I saw the following locations there-

Lotus Temple

India gate

Birla Temple

The Iron Pillar

Laal Kila (Red Fort)

Qutb Minar

Katyani Temple

The next day saw us flying to Srinagar, the same day we had to climb 200 stairs to reach the ancient Shankaracharya Temple. Here are some snaps stating my site seeing experience there

 The next spot was the Mughal Garden, I am short of words to describe the sensational experience but I do have pictures to describe it 

The same day we visited Dargah Hazratbal, here's a snap i took from the outside

Then we checked out the marketplaces for the famous kashmiri shawls and dry fruits. It was the next day that gave me the answer to why Safron (Kesar) is so expensive, more on that later, I'll be back with the continuation of the trip soon, till then Good bye, and do comment. Tata