It’s almost 4 years since my last-blogged about trip, Thailand, which was an unplanned surprise holiday in 2019. Of course, the big C-virus put an end to my well planned and completely booked Italy trip of 2020 and made me wary of all further trips. In this interim period, I did have several, small, local trips in Maharashtra, 3 trips to Bangalore and a week-long sojourn in Ladakh in 2022. My teen became a young adult and joined professional college with limited holidays. Unable to be sure about those dates, no trips could be planned by us. The kid was happiest, having decided that we would go to Bangalore, the hubby was just as keen on not going there.

Finally, we got confirmation about her holidays in the latter half of May 2023. The hubby and I managed to get leaves to match hers. Now the only issue was destination, as always. And once again, holiday planning is a royal pain, making me happy and jittery at the same time.

The standard heated discussions went on for over a month. Bali, Mauritius, Maldives, Bangalore and nearby areas, were all considered, researched, planned (by me) after being suggested by the hubby, and then systematically turned down (by him) after a week of research.

2 months before travel, the hubby suggested Turkey, a destination he has never agreed to in the past. I quickly researched it and compiled a reasonable itinerary. Howerver, it was too short a notice and I simply couldn’t cope with the planning. And so, I turned it down, much against the hubby’s wishes and advice of my trip planner Yogesh. Bad move.

At that point, I thought of Kashmir. It seemed to tick all the boxes, a much desired destination, cool weather, possibility of snow, easy to plan and relatively cheap. I was wrong on most fronts. Kashmir isn’t cheap at all, isn’t very easy to plan. Internal travel needs either an agent, or multiple cab transfers, there are huge cab nexuses, flights are costly and travel agents were not very helpful.

Finally we chose make-my-trip for ease of planning. Bad bad move. I didn’t bother to research hotels. Finally we found an itinerary that was well priced and tried to book it and the agent told us that the rate had gone up. In 4 hours!

That was a huge red flag that I should have paid attention to, but didnt. Eventually, we booked the trip with the kid missing one day of college, much against the hubby’s will. We would travel to Bangalore and return to Mumbai just 12 hours before traveling to Kashmir. The kid and I should have stayed overnight at the airport itself!

With a fortnight to go, and all preparations almost done, we got hit by the bankruptcy of our airline. Our flights weren’t yet cancelled, but the potential for them to be airborne was too low. Multiple attempts to contact MMT failed. Finally, someone contacted us and told us to book our own tickets, they didn’t even help us book cheap tickets, they refused to refund the remaining bookings. New last-minute tickets were a huge financial killer but now we were stuck.

The G20 summit was announced on the same dates as we would be there, and further fears of safety and/or lack of tourism hit us hard.

The hubby was once more right. Either we should have booked Turkey or chosen the days that he’d suggested. Hurts like hell to admit this.

Anyways, plan on, packing begun, kid panicked over exams, last minute studies, last minute hair color plans, last minute shopping, last minute packing and we set off to Bangalore and enjoyed a mini vacation with family. With only 8 hours for the next flight, we hurriedly packed and set off for the airport early morning, hoping that there would be no more surprises.

Our flight was via Delhi and has traditionally been a scary sector for me, but both flights were smooth and on time. The view of the Himalayan ranges from the airplane was outstanding and set the pace for the rest of the trip.

The driver was waiting at the airport to take us to the MMT lounge, where we had lunch and were briefed about the trip in detail, and were told that everything in Srinagar was closed today because of the G20 summit. The roads were empty, boating on the lake was not allowed, all the gardens and sights of Srinagar were closed and it seemed like there was nothing to do. Then we were dropped at our hotel which was truly average and the only bad hotel on our trip.

After checking in, we decided to walk down to see the lake at least, if at all we were allowed to walk till there. The saving grace of our hotel was its location near the start of the lake, where people weren’t restricted from walking. As we stepped out, we saw a tiny garden outside our hotel with beautiful flowers.

The overcast sky and the pretty flowers really prepped our moods and then we walked down to the lake. Right outside our hotel, a man called out to us, asking if we’d like to go boating. We were surprised as we were told that no boating was allowed on Dal lake and yet this man was egging us on. We allowed ourselves a glimmer of hope and walked on faster to the lake.

The numbers of people asking us for shikara (Kashmiri wooden rowing boat) rides kept increasing and with that, our hopes for some activity for this day. As we turned towards Dal gate, we saw a narrow channel lined by houseboats, leading up to the main Dal Lake, we saw a few shikaras in the waters, possibly to ferry those staying in the houseboats.

This narrow road leading to the main lake itself was lined by many hotels and cafes. We passed by a very prettily decorated patisserie that we decided to come back and eat at later.

A cool breeze blew from the lake, but the sun was still too high in the sky for a shikara ride and so I refused even though the hubby was keen on getting on one.

We walked further towards the main lake, where shikara owners called out to us, telling us that the road ahead was closed and there was nothing to be done ahead and promising us shikara rides for cheap. Undaunted, we walked on to reach a huge barricade with large army presence. This was where the narrow channel opened out into the huge lake. A hoard of reporters were stationed there, with cameras mounted on tripods, yelling in their trademark irritating style. I was about to photobomb their recording but the kid pulled me away.

We walked on and saw the huge Dal lake. The massive lake with tall mountains all around, lined along the roadside by tall trees and at the other bank by the tethered houseboats, was a magnificent sight.

We sat by the lake, looking out at the still waters. There was no one to ask us for rides or sell any wares, a truly enjoyable experience. The silence and the peace were beautiful. The ghats along the lake, areas where you can get into the lake, were empty as no shikaras were allowed here.

Along the Dal lake runs the famous Boulevard road, boasting some of the best hotels in Srinagar. No vehicles were allowed on this road because of the G20 summit, the value of which we realised when we saw massive jams and multiple accidents a week later. Today, we felt as though this road and the lake were all ours. We could walk smack in the center of this arterial road.

We saw a tall fountain some distance away and walked towards it. The long walk was easy because of the lovely weather and lack of crowds. Scattered army personnel, a few locals and fewer tourists than could be counted on my fingers were all we could see around. The intermittent high speed police vehicle was all there was to disturb the quiet that day. We had hit the Dal Lake jackpot.

There was a cute board that we merrily posed with, and then knocked over.It broke as it fell and we ran away from there.

Someone propped it back up, because we saw it when we returned, and the kid sheepishly posed next to it.

Fountains in the lake were bobbing about, colored by myriad lights. Someone was playing old Hindi songs about the beauty of Kashmir. I could see why Dal lake was called the jewel of Srinagar.

We enjoyed watching the fountains dance about, seeing the pretty colors in the fountains as the sun set in the distance. Reluctantly we rose to turn back, knowing that it was a long walk back to the hotel and it would be dark soon. We were also hungry and wanted to eat at the pretty patisserie we’d seen earlier. As we turned to head back, a shepherd with his flock of sheep passed us by and the kid rushed to pet one.

When we reached the channel beyond the actual lake, we stopped for a shikara ride. It was past twilight now and twinkling lights came on at the edges of the lake and in the houseboats.

As the main lake wasn’t open for boating, we went inwards towards the floating markets. Shikaras carrying the locals taking their wares home, vegetable vendors and tourists, all jostled for space on the narrow channel, and the even narrower entry to the floating bazaar. We watched in awe and a little fear as they expertly maneuvered their paths across each other, while I held my breath hoping not to topple over. My age-old memories of Dal Lake were dirty weeds inside and sticking out of the water, which is why I wasn’t keen on a shikara ride, but Srinagar had cleaned up the lake and removed a lot of the weeds, courtesy G20. Also, the dark meant that we couldn’t see much. That certainly helped.

The shikara slowly moved along the shops, now glittering with the yellow lights. Shop owners called out to us to disembark and hop into their floating stores. The old and experienced shikara rower asked us if we’d like to shop and was surprised by our refusal. This continued to be a trend across Kashmir as we didn’t shop for a single product. However, we did fall prey to all other marketing scams and paid way over the accepted general price rates of different activities. Since human labor was involved, we didn’t feel too bad about it though.

Happy to be safely off the shikara despite the dark, we walked on towards the patisserie we’d seen. Decorated by beautiful flowers and white décor, with delicious looking pastries, it looked very good and we decided to have dinner here instead of just dessert but ended up having a very average meal.

We did pack an excellent lemon tart for the next day though. We walked back super fast as the hubby was very apprehensive about getting back in the dark, but the sight of the glittering houseboats on the quiet lake was arresting.

Back at the hotel, we hurriedly packed and separated all our warm clothes, as the next day, we were headed to Sonmarg and would directly proceed for sightseeing at Zero point and Thajiwas glacier and therefore, slept early.

It had been a day that exceeded all expectations. We had thought that we would be holed up in our very average hotel. Instead, we had an outstanding evening on the beautiful lake, that seemed like it was only for us, and a shikara ride that I enjoyed tremendously. This lovely day was followed by an entire week of lovely days.