iii. 18 May 2022 - Leaving Mumbai ..........

 


As planned we left Mumbai on 18 May 2022, reaching Srinagar (via Jammu) around 3 PM. We took a cab from the airport and after an hour's drive reached Hotel Grand Habib around 4 PM. 


After a late lunch we visited the Shiva temple situated on the top of Shankaracharya Hill on the zabarwan range. This temple is at an height of 1000 feet above the valley floor (6000 feet over sea level) and overlooks the city of Srinagar. The temple is also called Jyesteshwara temple and another name of the hill is Gopadri hills. The climb up the hill set the right pace to our Himalayan Markha trek. On entering the sanctum sanctorum we got to have darshan of a huge Shiv Ling! Adi Shankaracharya is believed to have penned his immortal Soundaryalahiri in these sylvan surroundings. Situated just below the temple, was a small cave with a low level entrance. 4 or 5 people could be comfortably be seated in this cave. This looked like Adi Shankaracharya's meditation room and was named as tapasya sthal. Whether the Jagadguru meditated here or not, we spent around 10 minutes squatting on the floor, soaking  in and absorbing the vibrations of the place, praying to the Almighty for the success of our trek. 



 

Needless to say, the view from the top was breathtaking - a 360 degree view of the entire city.


 


After spending some time at this temple we descended the around 250 steps, boarded the waiting cab and proceeded to Dal lake situated at the foothills.



This is my first trip to this part of the country. Before this I have seen Dal lake only in Bollywood movies. We saw several boat stations, where several colouful boats were parked. Many more were merrily floating in the lake. We fixed up a sturdy looking but colourful boat for an hour's boat ride. Sat back in the boat and enjoyed our ride. I saw several floating shops, a floating post office, huge boat houses in which several families could stay overnight. We witnessed a scenic sun set from our boat. After a light dinner we visited the zero bridge from which we could have a good view of the night life of Srinagar.






On the 19th morning inspite of specific instructions the night before that we would be leaving early and would like to have our breakfast packed for us, the hotel staff messed up.


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