The land of heaven.

The heaven on earth.

Life is worthless without visiting the paradise.

If someone has the ability, one should go the paradise for at lease once.

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You are right!

I am talking about tour to Kashmir.

Kashmir is a land of paradise.

Or in another words, The heaven on earth.

We all have been hearing this from our childhood.

So, it becomes a fascination to me if I can go to Kashmir!

Sometimes I think to myself that whether it is possible to go to Kashmir!

Because, we, everyone is busy with our daily life.

Sometimes we have time but don’t have enough money to trip.

Again sometimes we have money but don’t have the time.

Even again, sometimes we do have both money and time. But we don’t have the physical energy to take a long journey or lake of interest.

Sometimes it has become tough to find the right partner.

So, there are a lot of reasons that keep us away from the trip. Specially a trip to remote area that has risks, adventures, physical energy and so on.

Considering all the factors, we, some of our family members, agreed we should go to Kashmir for a trip.

The Plan to visit to Kashmir

The Kashmir Territory is placed in three different countries.

India, Pakistan and China.

Most of the traveller visits India because it’s tough and risky to visit Pakistani Azad Kashmir or China’s Part of the Kashmir.

So, we planned to visit Kashmir in the Indian Part which is they call Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

We have another benefits that as we travelled from Bangladesh, it has become comparatively easier to visit India from Bangladesh.

So, first, we started planning and mapping about where the specific places to-go.

Plan for Sightseeing Spots

We did not have ample of time so we needed to plan in a way so that we can manage our plan within 5 days.

In our primary plan, we selected Srinagar, Pahalgam, Sonamarg and Gulmarg this time.

In our calculation, if everything goes in right way, we could visit all of this four places within 4 Night – 5 day tour.

We planned with more details like sightseeing spots, homestays, international transport, local transport, food and other necessary options.

For Srinagar, we did plan, to visit Dal Lake Shikara Ride, if possible 1-2 more places in Srinagar.

For Pahalgam, Baicharan Valley (Mini Switzerland), Aru Valley, Betab Valley, Chandanwari and any other places if possible.

For Sonamarg, The plan was various. If there is heavy snowfall, we will visit nearby available places. But if there is no heavy snowfall,

And for Gulmarg, our primary plan was to ride the Gondola which is called Gondola Ride that is basically a Cable Car Ride in Gulmarg.

These are our primary 4 Night 5 Day primary plan.

After that we started planning the Budget

Plan for the Budget

In this stage we started planning our trip budget starting with International Transport.

International Transport Cost

At the beginning we thought we may go by Train.

Indian Railway has improved their services.

And it’s an enjoyable journey in India with Indian Railway.

But going to Kashmir by Train takes a lot of time.

There are generally 2 major train services that reaches to Juammu Tawi Station from Kolkata’s different stations.

First one is Humsafar Express that takes around 37 hours of journey.

Second one is Himgiri Express that required 45 hours of journey.

There is another train called Kolkata Express that takes 52 hours or even more hours of journey.

Travelling by train saves money though but requires huge time of journey.

So, we considered an alternative option to go by plane from Dhaka Airport to Srinagar Airport that would costs us around 70K BDT for 2 people which is approximately USD 635.

Though flying in plane is a costlier decision but it saves time.

Another problem with plane is, Air Fare is changeable.

As we are planning a amount may not match with the amount that when we actually book a ticket.

Hotel Fare

As there is no related of ours where we could stay. We had to plan for hotel booking.

We searched online with various websites to get an idea.

During the search, we saw if we book in front of Dal Lake Hotel it would cost us almost double than that of the Hotels in Back side hotels of dal lake.

Back side of Dal Lake is not so far. Just 10-15 minute walking distance.

If we book hotel in back side of dal lake, we may require 1500-2000 BDT per night which is approximately 15-20 USD per night.

Local Transport Cost

As per our finding, in Kashmir public transport was not so available.

There is public transport services but that would not much easy for as to comply as a foreigner.

But we could take  taxi services alternatively to public transport.

Taxi services are costly but available in Kashmir.

The price or negotiation system of taxi in Kashmir, I don’t know at all.

We need to figure it out while we reach in Kashmir physically.

So in this section, as we don’t have any specific data we keep an approximate number is 3000-5000 per day may which is actually 45 USD per day.

Food Planning

As we could not take all necessary food with us, we have to take foods from the local restaurants.

We  have no idea about Kashmiri local foods.

We also find that based on physical visit.

MY JOURNEY TO KASHMIR 2024 (PART 2)

So there ware our primary plans for the trip to Kashmir

In the next article I will share our preparation activities.

Until than take care.