Pahalgam

We started for Pahalgam after a hearty early morning breakfast at the "Krishna veg dhaba" located at the beginning of the boulevard road.

En route to Pahalgam it was chilly outside, but we had a heater in our Innova which made our travel comfortable.
It was a journey through lovely landscape, first the Jhelum flowed beside us and than the Lidder river traveled with us through out till we reached Chandanbari, end of Pahalgam, and from where the Amarnath Yatra begins.

Enroute to Pahalgam the landscape was pretty and sunny, but in actual chilled weather.
We reached our hotel and found it well furnished and spacious, we were allotted the topmost floor with view of the faraway mountains and the road behind the hotel. It was interconnected too! The staff were helpful and helped us settle in and were happy to see new faces.

* Please note due to some issue in camera setting the date is wrong, it is actually March 2016.

Hotel Bombay Palace. We had top rooms which were inter connected

View from the hotel window before it snowed

The winding road takes you thru a very clean and crisp air through mustard fields and tiny villages of hamlet to the central market place of Pahalgam. The residential areas are pretty clean and spotted with army personnel everywhere who are on their toes all the time.

Mustard Landscape enroute to Pahalgam

Before snow

See this building before and after snowfall

Our hotel garden after the snow

On reaching we freshened and immediately we ventured out for a pony ride to chota switzerland, a meadow in the hills with the mountain towering on us.We had to haggle to reduce the cost a lot, and later we came to know we could have negotiated more for a lower rate!
The view en-route the pony trail was on a broken road, and impossible for city dwellers to walk on. As we neared the meadow we noticed slabs of ice, and the guides walked only in plastic shoes without socks on it swift footed. While we shivered in our shoes and jackets! The ponies climbed with us sure footed on the rocky road.
We came across several scenic places, which we clicked. Here are some clicks of the valley and a landslide.

Snow capped Mountain

The famed horse keepers who walked on snow keeping pace with the horses for hours!

Chota Swiss

After this we hired a Eeco to visit Chandbadi and Betabwadi basically viewing points on the road to Amarnath Yatra start point. Chandanbari is high altitude and has good chance of snow. And it snowed when we visited.

 * Please note due to some issue in camera setting the date is wrong, it is actually March 2016.

This place had a heavy army surveillance, infact CRPF were present in all places where locals were staying.