Sonmarg, Leh Road Trip Day 3
The gold pot between the greens …
Sonmarg directly translates to ‘Meadow of Gold’. True to the name, it’s all that and much more. We’ll get there, but first, flashback to Patnitop.
In our cozy wooden room of Hotel Alpine, with the help of many alarms, we pushed ourselves out of bed before sunrise. There was one quick realization. In trips like these, a good night’s sleep was of utmost importance.
Tip: Do not compromise on your place of stay. Sleeping right and eating right are the only things that will get you through it.
An alluring forest awaited us just above our hotel. Quickly we got dressed and checked out.
We drove through the cedars and the pines, morning rays breaking through the dense conifers. This memory is still as fresh as anything and is not the one to be obliterated.
We left for Srinagar and planed to reach there by noon. The distance between Patnitop and Srinagar is 185 km and it took us 5 hours to reach. These were the worst 185 km of the trip and we have driven through places like Zoji La and Baralachcha, so you know what I mean. This will definitely have a place in my “Book of Best Worst Drives Ever” (Yup. That’s a thing!). As soon as we hit the Srinagar highway, there came a barrage of trucks and buses. Trucks that were too slow and buses that were too fast. Trucks did not move at all and the buses took something which belonged to us - our space on the road! After some near-death-heart-in-mouth moments we reached Banihal. There were a lot of dhabas (eatery) along the road, both Kashmiri and Punjabi. It seemed like a good spot to eat. We stopped at Punjabi Dhaba. Maggie, Parantha and Chai! Here, we found in Maggie, a great companion who continued be with us till the end of the trip.
We reached Srinagar a little before noon. We had no intention of exploring it this time. It happened later in another trip but that’s another story. Main market was crowded and it was difficult to find parking. We stopped at CCD for a quick bite and some coffee (what would we do without you!). We then started for Sonmarg. This became one of the best rides. The Srinagar to Sonmarg drive is an experience in itself.
Fine roads, sumptuously green on either side, delicate hamlets that passed by, professional cyclist speeding and sweating through in full gear, I could not have asked for more!
My excitement grew to the power of infinity when the road opened to this jaw dropping view of Sonmarg.
We were able to reach around 5(ish). There was still plenty of day light and we now could explore Sonmarg. We checked into hotel ‘Glacier View’ which was true to its name. From the large window by our bed, we had a full view of the glacier and the mountains that surrounded it. We had not made any prior reservations here. We checked a couple of hotels which were all on the same line and found this to be the best location wise and room wise. We negotiated to get the room with front view for 3.5 k . This included our dinner and breakfast. It was a good deal considering it was on season and hotels were mostly booked.
After freshening up, we left for Thajiwas glacier. We drove till the base of the glacier and parked our car there. From here we decided to explore on foot. Locals approached us to take ponies for extravagant amount of money which we politely declined not because we were unwilling to pay but because we could see that we could explore so much more on foot.
Soon we reached the green meadows with ponies grazing. Sun was setting. Weather was just right. There were benches and enclosures at various points. We took one on top of a hill. Silence, solitude and sunset. We just sat there for some time soaking in everything that was in sight.
Moving forward, we made our way to the stream flowing downwards from the glacier. It was glittering, going swoosh-swash as the water hit the stones. That was the only sound one could hear. We sat by the stream for a while.
We could see some commercial camping sites at a distance. As we approached the glacier further, the crowd started to grow. More tourists and more locals. We were approached by a lot of them to buy stuff or take a pony or take a guide. We both normally get put off by such constant nagging. After politely declining a 100 times we decided it was too crowded for either of us to continue. Back at the hotel we were joined by a couple of friends who flew till Srinagar and reached Sonmarg around the same time as us. We had dinner together which was reasonably good with 2 subzis, daal, chapati, chawal. It happened to be clear night with a sumptuous moon. We sat outside chatting and laughing till it was late.
Sonmarg remains one of the best memories of this trip.
To be continued …
