If there is heaven on earth it is here, it is here, it is here!! The beauty of Kashmir is surreal and indescribable if not seen with own eyes.
Our first trip embracing covid was to Kashmir – the paradise on earth.

We landed at Srinagar airport after the quick covid formalities and reached our hotel Rose Petal at around 12 pm. The hotel warmly welcomed us with traditional Kashmiri kehwa and the architecture of the hotel is beautiful! It has a boutique store associated with it as well.

We quickly freshened up and headed for lunch to 14th Avenue Cafe & Grill. It is a beautiful cafe and bakery with a wonderful ambience. This place has a wide range of cakes, pastries and breads. We started with Caramel Macchiato and Green Apple Mojito. The drinks were very refreshing. We also tried Mutton Kanti, a traditional Kashmiri dish paired with Butter Naan and Grilled Fish with Spaghetti. The food was amazing and so was the service.

After lunch we decided to take a stroll by the mighty dal lake it is approx 25 kms long and we took a ride in our car through the entire lake. The beauty is absolutely phenomenal. Post this we headed towards Nishat Bagh. It is a beautiful garden with plants and flowers, although in winter it is mostly dry due to the chilling cold. Temp was around 2°C at about 5 pm in the evening.

After this we visited Nathus Srinagar to have some Kashmir special sweets and pastries.

For dinner, we visited Mughal Darbaar to try out their authentic Kashmiri Wazwan. It was a wonderful assortment of multiple dishes. We loved the Wazwan and meat lovers must try this out!

The next morning was super exciting as we were headed towards our stay at the house boat. Before that, we had to make two stops. First one was at Gulab sweets to try out some sweets and also pack some for home. Next, we had our lunch that day at Four Points Srinagar where we tried some authentic Kashmiri dishes. The food and hospitality here was beyond words.

Shortly after this we were dropped by our driver at ghat 11 for this incredible new experience of a stay in the house boat amidst the dal lake. We got inside the shikhara and the elderly man explained us various parts of the lake and took us to our houseboat – Lighthouse Houseboat. We were very warmly greeted by the people there and touch wood the interiors are so intricately decorated and beautiful that it left me astounded. The beauty of the lake and the mountains behind it was a sight to behold forever. Standing in the balcony of the houseboat all we could do was, stop and stare.

After a short while we headed for the 1 hour ride in the shikhara to see the entire lake. The lake is magnificent and has so many houses where people actually live-in. The lake holds floating markets and we visited a few shops and bought some Kashmiri traditional pashminas for home. The people that we met everywhere were very warm and friendly. We started the ride at dusk and by the time we finished it was almost dark. It was a beautiful transition of nature. We returned to the houseboat and explored the interiors of it. It was having a lot of traditional Kashmiri decoration items and was beautiful. Our room was cosy and warm. Around 8 pm we headed for dinner and had a super scrumptious one . The meal was something we both enjoyed a lot. Around 9 pm we realised the temperature had gone way beyond 0°C and we were freezing and that is when we decided to go out in the balcony and just experience this for once. We went out and next what I witnessed was an enchanting view of the lake and the dim lights coming from the top of the mountains. It seemed straight out of a fairy tale book and seeing this with our own eyes was nothing less than a blessing. We sat there for a very long time basking in nature’s glory. Time flew fast and it was already next morning and we had to leave Srinagar!

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To the people reading this blog I will say just once thing “If you didn’t see Kashmir, you didn’t see anything”.