It’s a dream of almost each and everyone to explore and enjoy the unreal beauty of Jammu & Kashmir at least once in their lifetime. This state is so special that not just the people of India love it, even the countrymen of Pakistan are also so interested about it. No other state which I have observed has this crazy level of popularity among all.
What’s actually Jammu & Kashmir
As we all know the state is split up into 2 parts now and the left part is the UT of Jammu & Kashmir and right is the another UT named Ladakh. Interesting fact is that even China is so interested in the territory of Ladakh, so officially the whole state is loved by 3 different nations of the world, so is the beauty of this amazing state.
More is the popularity, the more the trouble, thus strict rules and regulations is another major concern in this state. I don’t have to stress much about this but everyone knows how strict are the security regulations and some rules which should be strictly followed when people from other states visit Kashmir.
Pre Kashmir Itinerary
So obviously after covering almost all the states of India, now it was time to visit Kashmir. We reached Amritsar in the early morning and spent a lovely day in the Golden Temple, museum and the famous Wagah Border. As planned we took a night train from Amritsar towards Jammu as direct train to Katra wasn’t available. We had to break our journey in Jammu then reach Katra.
It was the first week of January and the bone chilling cold weather was hitting us extremely hard. Living in the south for a very long time, we would definitely have a very hard time especially during the peak summer and the peak winters. So was the condition in Amritsar and it would get worse in Kashmir. But that’s what we wanted to experience which we would never regret experiencing.
Journey to Kashmir
We finally boarded the train at -1C at around 11:30 PM. We were kind of having a weird feeling, a kind of nervousness which we had never experienced before. One reason was the journey between Jammu to Sri Nagar, in the worst case if roads are blocked due to snowfall, other is the connectivity, another is the security issues because all we were hearing from locals there was that traveling to JK now is very risky due to recent attacks and its totally unsafe for travelers(which is not true always), last one is the unplanned expenses as there isn’t very good public transport system compared to other states.
The next morning our train was delayed and so I slept back again, when I got up our train was about to reach Jammu very soon. So Jammu is the gateway to Kashmir and the connectivity till here by rail, buses, flights is very good. I opened my mobile and saw that our sim cards were totally dead. No network, no GPS, nothing. It added more to my nervousness and then we finally reached Jammu. 
The Cultural shock
Once we got down, the scenes were very unique. All I could see was lots and lots of security personnel with their guns all around. Most of them were Police but still they were armed and also had the jackets on, making them appear like Armed Commandos. Most and most of the localities were Muslims which made me feel like I entered a Muslim country. It’s very common there to wear Kurta with the cap and almost all looked so similar. Everyone I saw were very well built, like they had very good height, thick beard and looked very fit.
No other Sim Cards of India work in J&K. So you have to buy a temporary card as long as you stay in Kashmir and it’s useless once you move out from there. We took it once we reached Katra later. The security around is so strict that in a span of 1 hour we had to show our ID cards thrice and once they even scanned the QR code of Aadhar Card just to verify if it’s not fake.
The Security and verifying our ID Cards
Once we came out, the city was filled with security vehicles of CRPF, Indian Army, JK Police. Even most of the buildings had strong fencing, which made it look so strange. During our journey from Jammu to Sri Nagar in Innova, almost 5-6 times we were stopped for security checks and we were the only South guys in the taxi where the rest were locals of JK.
Once they stopped for checking he asked the ID cards of all of them except us, and asked where we came from. Another Police officer said to him that these aren’t the locals and asked which language we speak, to which we said Kannada and he said to say something in Kannada. We said a few words and he believed we were South people and we left. This was something which was strange and something I can’t forget during our journey in Kashmir.
As the night falls it’s risky and also difficult to travel here. So all the journeys are convenient and good to go in the day itself. Public transportation is quite good but as we reach northern parts it’s quite difficult and even taxi costs are also quite higher due to the demand. But as days passed things went so well. We completely got out of the nervousness or weird feeling we had in 1 or 2 days and spent the best weeks of our life on our stay here.
People and their behavior with Tourists
The people of Kashmir are as beautiful as the beauty of Kashmir. Most of them we met were so humble, so hospitable and treated us in a very good manner. Also they helped to provide contacts for our further plans as well, this would become an entirely new blog and will post it soon. We would never mind visiting this fabulous state again and again in the peak winters, not just the weather, everything there is so amazing. 
So if you’re an Indian and missing the chance to visit here you’re definitely missing a lot in your life. So don’t forget to plan your trip as soon as possible and also comment down your experiences if you ever visited any part of this place.
One day for sure :)))
We should, we will 😉