My First Trip to Kashmir Day-1

This year, before the starting of my Term-1 exams, we (Me, my parents and my sister) decided to go to Kashmir from 26 August 2015 to 30 August 2015.

I was waiting eagerly for 26 Aug for weeks and told all my friends about my trip.

Finally on 26 Aug, we woke up early, at 5:00, bathed and changed, packed our toiletries and waited for the taxi from Uber which was to take us to Indira Gandhi International Airport for our flight.

The taxi arrived 10 minutes after we got completely ready. It was a Mahindra Xylo. We reached the airport in half an hour. We showed our identity proof’s at the entrance of the airport and then went inside. We went to our flight’s (SpiceJet) check-in counter. We deposited all our bags there to be taken to the flight and put tags, which contained “OK for Cabin” on them on our hand baggages. Then we went forward for another security check and entrance to the area where there were Restaurants for flight-goers, duty-free counters and gates to go to the aeroplane at the flight time in shuttle buses.

We got 3 Rice Meals from KFC for our flight.

Then after another half an hour, we finally went to the gate from where we had to take the shuttle bus to the plane. The plane had Spicejet written on the sides, the tail and the wings. My younger sister, Gurbani couldn’t pronounce it properly and kept saying “SpicyJet” instead of SpiceJet. Our plane also had Saffron written on it at the sides, which was to identify the particular plane from the fleet.

Then we boarded our plane. I sat on a window seat and got comfortable on the seat and took out my stuff from my bag which I would need for the flight. But then the flight hostess came and told that it was an emergency exit seat and people under the age of 15 couldn’t sit there. So we shifted our seats with someone else’s. Then after 15 minutes, the plane started moving. Gurbani got frightened because we started moving too suddenly and because of the continous pain in our ears. Then we ate our breakfast in plane i.e. the rice meals we had brought from KFC.

After eating, I started listening songs on my phone and reading a book and playing Logo Quiz on my phone. After an hour, my years started paining a lot, and after a minute we landed at Jammu, which was a shock to me and Gurbani as we had to go to Srinagar. But then we realized that this was a connecting flight with a stop-over at Jammu, so we sat in our seats while the staff checked the aeroplane and cleaned it. There were only 7 people left in the plane, four were us and there were 3 other individuals. Then we shifted our seats again and we got 6 seats to us at the back of the plane. Then other people who had to go from Jammu to Srinagar boarded the plane and it got filled again. After 10 minutes we took off again and my years pained even harder. But after some time in the air, they didn’t pain any more. I started reading my book once again and then after 10 minutes we could see snow-claden mountains and all of my attention shifted to them. We could see many greenery and sloping houses. We also saw a dried-out stream. Then after another 20 minutes we reached the Srinagar airport. My ears didn’t pain as much as they had did when landing at Jammu. We exited from the front exit which had an aerobridge attached to it. We then went inside and took our baggage. The airport was a small one as compared to other airports. We then went outside and looked for our taxi which we had already booked prior to coming to Kashmir. We had booked an Innova but the driver brought a Tavera with him. We then went to visit an uncle who was known to my father. We went to their home and it was very big with a garden and a kitchen garden. We went with them to their living room and they served us fruits and pastries. We sat with them for a while and then bid goodbye to them. Then we went to our hotel, The Lalit Grand Palace, Srinagar. We took our room keys and I enquired for WiFi at the reception desk but they told me that WiFi was paid and cost Rs. 800 per day for upto 3 devices. Then we went to our room. Our room no. was 1110. The room was very big with a washroom at the entrance, cupboards opposite the bathroom and then was the room.  It had 1 bed, 1 sofa, 2 chairs and one center tables. When we came in our room, there was a plate with 2 apples and another plate with some chocolates as a complimentary gift. We changed our clothes and rested in our room for an hour. Then we went to Chasmeshahi which is a natural water spring with very cool and fresh water coming from the top. We entered the garden and there was a small and wide river-like line of water in exactly the center coming from the top of the garden and there were stairs on each side of the line. We went straight up to the top. There was a dome-shaped big box up and the water was flowing from it. The water was very cold and fresh. Some school students had also come for a trip there and were taking turns filling water into their bottles. We then went back to our taxi and then we went to Pari Mahal. It is the ruins of an old palace and provides a very nice view of Srinagar city. It also has gardens and watchtowers on each corner. We then went back to our hotel.

Shall post about the next day soon!

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