9 June
Today, we were to visit Sonmarg. On trips, I somehow wake up early in excitement. I got up at 5 30 and was ready by 7, even though the designated time for getting ready was 7 30. Now, whenever I get a room to myself, I dance a bit on my favourite songs. It sets my mood for the entire day. So I danced. :D for half an hour and then went to call Khushbu for breakfast.
Breakfast
The breakfast was as nice and healthy as the dinner. And after having breakfast and roaming around we hopped onto our bus.
Trip to Sonmarg
Sonmarg was 80 km away from Srinagar. We set out for Sonmarg at around 10. On the way our guide told us about the history of Kashmir. About the different rulers who ruled it, how British sold Kashmir, how like always and everywhere, it was the common people who bore the brunt of politics.
Kheer Bhawani Mandir
On the way to Sonmarg is a very famous temple called Kheer Bhawani Mandir. It is said --There is a water kund here whose colour changes. Red and Black colour signify danger. That something bad is going to happen somewhere in the world. The water there turned black before Kargil war, Russia-Ukraine war etc. White, blue etc signify peace and prosperity.
The temple priest told us story of how this temple came about to be. In short -- Goddess Bhawani used to reside in Sri Lanka once upon a time. She was a "roop" of Goddess Parvati. Ravana was her devotee, but since his karma was bad, she asked Hanuman ji to bring her to Lord Shiva. Now since Hanuman ji was a "bramhachari" he couldn't take her along. So he asked her to take form of water and reside in a kamandal. And that water in the kamandal is the same water in this temple kund here. So, this water itself is Goddess Bhawani.
Now why "Kheer" Bhawani. The ruler who had built this temple around the kund in 20th century, Goddess Bhawani according to legend had asked him to offer her "Kheer" as an offering. Since then, it is called Kheer Bhawani.
It is said -- Iski manyataa is similar to Vaishno Devi and Khatu Shyaam ji temples.
This temple was quite different from the ones I have visited. And equally different was the priest dude here. He had a great sense of humour unlike most priests. The priests I usually meet are kinda serious and strict disciplinarians.
Back to Sonmarg
We reached Sonmarg around 1:30. Our backs, necks and whole bodies had gotten stiff from sitting in one position for three hours on a bumpy ride. What was more, me and Khushbu had back seats. We decided not to sit on these seats again.
Once we got down at Sonmarg, there was a debate on whether
1. we should go by ponies to some point in Sonmarg or
2. to Zoji La pass (a pass between India and China).
After a long debate Zoji La Pass was cancelled. Because it might delay our return and we had to return by 5 to reach back Srinagar in time.
So there were two options again–
We stay at base and have fun
Take ponies and go to some point where they took us.
I want to trek
They gave us 2 options. But I wanted the third one. I wanted to walk upto where the ponies went instead of taking a pony. The ponies are small animals. I didn't understand why did they have to carry completely capable individuals. I know it is a livelihood for locals, but pay them as it is. As guides or something, why crush the poor animal under your weight if you can walk! And I anyway wanted to trek.
I didn't come on a trip to go on poinies to see the mountains. I wanted to explore them on my own.
But however good my logic, no one understood. I wanted to trek but our elders refused in unison. There were a few smart ones who agreed with me, but here negative forces prevailed.
Me and Khushbu even said we would come back before time. If we couldn’t keep up or start getting late, we would come back. But when they still refused, we told them we will stay at the base camp and just walk around.
Secretly we decided to go ahead with our plan. Just follow the ponies and go upto where we could, and keep track of time and come back before 4 30. -:D
So, we started our trail. It was fun trekking, and even more fun trekking together.
We took the path harder than the one ponies took. We took the rugged rocky mountain rather than the muddy maintained path of the ponies.
I threw my bag down from a height to descend but before I could go to fetch it, a mountain guide fetched it for me. I had to say it had fallen down rather than I threw it, because that seemed more believable and sane! :P
We saw sceneries and chatted along the way. It started to drizzle and then rain on the way. So, we decided to sit and relax. And Khushbu prayed to Krishna ji to stop the rain so that we could continue our trail. And he listened.
The rain got lighter and almost stopped and we continued going ahead.
Our conversations were probably the same but mountains gave us a clearer view and the clean mountain air a more open mind. We had the same conversations about life, friendship, careers and whatever we could think of!
We sat for as long as we wanted on different stones, clicked some pictures and when it was quarter to 4, started to descend.
We reached our base at 4: 30 to see that everyone was still there. No one went on ponies! Because it started raining and their plan became dicey. We were so happy we didn’t stick with them. We couldn’t trek to the highest point because of time constraints but at least we went somewhere and had fun and great pictures.
After that, we came back and had some food. We tasted kahwa for the first time. It was delicious. And then back to Srinagar.
Back to Hotel
Just like the previous day, we had dinner. I did utter some things that I shouldn’t have but hopefully that will stay as a dead letter now. Me, Khushbu and my mum also sat for some time and had some chats. And then went off to sleep.
(Link to master post --> https://www.thewarriorwizardgirl.com/post/kashmir-diaries)
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