Srinagar

The first thing that I noticed in Srinagar were the armed CRPF men. It takes some time to get used to seeing  a large number of guys in combat suits wielding huge guns and sandbags and barbed wire on every roadside.

The next thing I noticed were the Kashmiris - extremely good-looking people!
Srinagar itself is very beautiful, with its parks, green hills, beautiful people and of course, the Dal Lake.

Dal Lake lives up to its reputation.
Went for a 2 1/2 shikara ride in the Dal Lake. It was blissfully peaceful, with its huge swathes of Lotus flowers, Kingfishers fishing right next to the boat, the floating market, the boats filled with flowers and vegetables and the clear still water of the lake. The locals are proud of it, and they say that it is 'Jannat' - it surely felt like it!

Gulmarg, the famous ski-resort near Srinagar, is beautiful in Summer too. No wonder it was filled with tourists...and touts. Up in the Pir Pinjal hills, some 60km from Srinagar, Gulmarg has three levels of plateaus. There is a cable car that takes one up the hill to the higher plateaus. The views are breathtaking there, and the cable car ride is a must.

Gave a miss to the famous gardens and went to the Dachigam National Park, the Pari Mahal and Sankaracharya Temple - a 7th century Shiva temple that had breathtaking views of Srinagar. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed up there.