Start of the journey

Day 2 : 14- 06-2009

Today we departed from Srinagar towards Gulmarg(60 kms).The route to Gulmarg was one of the beautiful roads i have ever seen.We reached Gulmarg around 9:30 and soon we were surrounded by touts.we went to j & k info center to get information.Its 300 for first hour of horse ride and 200 for second hour and 100 for third.We managed to a get a better deal worked out at 600 for ride till gondola and entire Gulmarg sight seeing.The distance from information center to gondola is about 1.5 kms .We got there by 10 am, the time they start issuing tickets.Get there early to avoid crowd else you will be stranded in huge line.The first stage of gondola(rs 250) was good but nothing special.Then we purchased tickets for second stage and here it was crowded.It took us almost 45 minutes to get ticket and sit in gondola.It costed us 500 per person.The second stage was good but it was bit foggy.It was snowing when we landed there and we had a great time there.Then we proceeded to sonmarg.Reconsider going to Leh via Srinagar in June and July during Amarnath season as Amarnath traffic was diverted through Sonmarg route and we were blocked at at three places.I almost gave up hope of reaching Sonmarg that night but when we showed we had accomodation at Sonmarg and were'nt going to Amarnath and bit of persuation we were allowed to go further.finally we reached Sonmarg aroung 9 pm in night.thank god the jk tourism held our reservation.we quickly jumped into our beds and soon i was asleep.