10th May 2006: I reached Srinagar in the Kashmir valley of J&K State. My plan was to explore the Ladakh region of Kashmir covering Suru, Zanskar and Nubra Valleys. I hoped to travel by road from Srinagar to Leh (in Ladakh) and then from Leh on to Manali (in Himachal Pradesh) by the highest motorable road in the world. I arrived in Srinagar hoping the the ZoziLa pass over the Himalayan range would have been cleared of snow by the army and that Sumos Taxis and Buses would have started. However I was told the passes will open only around 15th-16th May, due to heavy winter snows still lying on the route.

I took advantage of the 5-6 days wait, to see the famous tourist spots of Srinagar i.e. Moghul gardens and Dal lake and visited the nearby hill-stations of Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam. The  Kashmir valley is known to be "paradise on earth" and the pictures of flowers (above and left) prove that and are from the various Moghul Gardens on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar.  

You can see Dal Lake in the distance, through the Nishat Gardens in the picture left topmost. Srinagar's famous Hazratbal Mosque in picture at left.

That's me in Chandanwari, the starting point of the Amarnath pilgrimage. There was still considerable snow lying here and further route to Amarnath was still totally snow bound. But the thousands of pilgrims who do this trek every year (with army security) will arrive here only in July; by then all this snow would have melted away.

The amazing Bus-Jeep journey starting from Srinagar on 16th May 2006 and ending 12 days later on 28th May 2006 at Manali (travelling via Kargil, Suru Valley, Leh, Nubra Valley, Pangong-Tso, Keylong & RohtangLa) is covered in several pages as shown below: