Pahalgam – The Lidder Valley

DAY – 4 PAHALGAM
next day the taxi driver came at 9 am. We left the hotel and started for Pahalgam. PAHALGAM is situated in the ANANTNAG District ( again the name is more heard in the News :P).It is around 100 Km from Srinagar and a drive of about 3hrs on the Jammu – Srinag
ar Highway. It has an average elevation of 2740 metres (8989 feet).Pahalgam is basically the starting point of the Amarnath Yatra. Chandanwari is just 10 Km from Pahalgam.

One of the most beautiful places on earth, the town of Pahalgam (Village of Shepherds) offers breathtaking views.

NH-1A or the Jammu Srinagar Highway is one of the busiest highway I have ever seen. Totally congested with vehicles.

On the Pahalgam Route there are Saffron fields( Kesar). The rate of Kesar in Kashmir was about Rs 1,00,000 / Kg that time. The Worlds Best Saffron is grown here in Kashmir.

After moving further we stopped at a place called AVINTIPORA. Its the remains of a old Vishnu Ji temple.Avantipur was founded by king Avantivarman who reigned from AD 855 – 883 situated at a distance of 18 miles from Srinagar on the Anantnag cart-road, represents the town of Avantipura. Temple of Shiva-Avantishvara, is marked by massive walls some half a mile beneath the town on the outskirts of village Jaubror. The subsidiary shrines are to the rear corner of the courtyard.The sculptured reliefs are principally found on the walls of the entrance and the flank walls of the stairs.
Half a mile from here is Avantisvami-Vishnu, a better-preserved temple.The temple, which has been sadly mutilated, is situated in a courtyard enclosed by a massive stone wall, the western face of which is adorned externally with a row of fluted columns.The gateway is in the middle of this wall, and is divided into two chambers by a cross wall. Its walls are not decorated with figure sculpture.

Places were Anantnag , Udhampur , Jawahar Tunnel , Jammu.

The route was really bautiful covere with Chinar trees all the way. The red coloured Chinar Trees are only found in Kashmir in India. Let me now talk less and let the pictures do the talking :-)

At the highway a portion comes which is called as the GREEN TUNNEL. It is so called because the trees are so tall and dense that the sunlight even fails to reach the road and the whole road is covered with Shadow. Take a look.

The main beauty starts just near the Pahalgam or the LIDDER VALLEY.
Beside the road the Lidder river also flows. Stopped the taxi and went down to the river for some photos.

The Lidder River truly adds beuty to this place.

After this we visited The CLUB GARDEN. And really a beauty to visit.

Then we visited the Zoo.

It was lunch time then. To our Satisfaction there was Nathu’s Sweets. We did our lunch there. Really clean and hygenic. Roamed around in Pahalgam Market.

It was about 3pm and it was now the time to say goodbye to Pahalgam. Now we headed towards Srinagar. On the way back we visited a place called Martand where there was a gUrdwara and a temple. This place is also called Martand, because an ancient Temple named Martand . There are two springs named Vimal & Kamal Kunds. The Gurdwara here is called as Gurdwara Nanak Dev Ji , Mattan Sahib. The story behind this is that when Guru Nanak Dev Ji was on a missionary tour , he visited China, Tibet , Ladakh , J & k. He stayed at this Gurdwara for few days and then he went to Ladakh where Then Gurdwara Pathar Sahib was built.

It took us 3hrs to reach back Srinagar as the highway was really full with traffic.

Reached back Srinagar at aound 6:30 pm. Next day had to go bck to Delhi.So the Day ended…

DAY – 5 SRINAGAR TO DELHI

Left our Hotel in the morning. Did our Breakfast at the Krishna DhabaThis time too had to wait for 15 min in the morning time. Now our taxi Driver Javed took us towards the Airport..

Security check at the Srinagar Airport.

Some pics still left…saying goodbye to Srinagar and njoying snow
Take a look….

My hotel lawn totally covered with snow..

Hotel Parking

Njoyed the pics…Now back to Kingfisher Flight…Back to Delhi..

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Reached back delhi at 4pm.
Really I had visited many Hill stations and places earlier…But KASHMIR is truly and simply above all…After one week finally my trip ended….Hope u liked it….
Thnks for reading :-)