Pahalgam, Kashmir

Kashmir is known by the locals as Paradise on Earth. After our brief introduction at the wedding we were beginning to agree and eager to see more. We drove from the village to Pahalgam where the groom's uncle runs a guest house. We arrived late in the evening and our hosts brought us fresh Kashmiri tea and lit the fire - a perfect mountain welcome!

Phalagam, meaning Village of Shephards, is a small town at the foot of the mountains offering beautiful views of the surrounding peaks. Before the troubles in Kashmir, this was a thriving tourist town, particularly popular with adventure and outdoor enthusiasts. Now it's relatively quiet but foreign touristism is on the increase again - great news for the locals.

Winter was well and truly on its way so it was too cold for serious treks and we no longer had our pherans to keep us warm. We settled for a day trip checking out the area in a jeep. We went to the end of the road in Chandanwadi high in the mountains:

stopped in a lovely park on the valley floor:

and drove into the Aru valley:

Along the way we did come across a few rock slides and had to wait while the road was cleared. It was a bit of a tight squeeze to get through:

As you can see, the scenery in this area of Kashmir was beautiful and we would definitely recommend coming here. After our quick tour of the area we drove to our next stop - Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir. We've heard lots of positive reports so were looking forward to it!