Madurai - A spiritual and Food travel blog..

We recently visited Madurai and sharing some important places to visit at Madurai. We have both temples and food joints to visit in Madurai (Madurai famous food is covered in the end of this article).

Pazhamuthir Cholai

One of the Arupadai veedu of Lord Murugan; its in a small hill; It is said that Lord Murugan appeared before Avvaiyaar here and Avvaiyaaar asked him " Sutta pazham vendumaa? Sudaatha pazham vendumaa?". Its a nice small temple; We have Free dharshan as well as Rs 100 Darshan; In Rs 100 Darshan we can sit before Lord Muruga and pray for sometime peacefully.

Rakkaiyi Temple

This place is above Pazhamuthir Cholai and there is sacred water coming here; people take bath in this water; or take it and splash few drops in their head.

Kallazhagar Temple

This is just in the footsteps of Pazhamuthir cholai. Kallazhagar is the Perumal and said to be the brother of Lord Meenakshi. The Chithirai festival in Madurai is very famous and Azhagar gets into the Vaigai river which is watched by lakhs of people every year. Legend says that when Azhagar came for his sister's marriage - he got delayed and waited near Vaigai river; the same ritual is followed here every year.

Thirumohoor Kalamegaperumal Temple

This place is also closer to Kallazhagar temple; A very quiet and ancient temple. One can visit it when going to Pazhamuthir cholai

Yoga Narasinga Perumal Temple

Another temple closer to Kallzhagar Temple. The shrine here is Suyambu. We can feel very good positive vibes while visiting here.

Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple

A world famous temple and now devotees throng through out the year. One can visit in the early morning to avoid crowd and for peaceful dharshan. Special dharshan is available. Mobile phones are not allowed; we need to deposit them outside; A very beautiful temple and statutes telling so much of stories; Worth spending 3-4 hours atleast here to know and marvel at the scupultures

Thirupparagundram Murugan Temple

Another Arupadai Veedu of Murugan; out of 6, two temples are in Madurai itself. Its in outskirts of Madurai & a very crowded temple; Also one need to mandatorily get into lot of steps and we need to wait in the steps in the queue. But it is worth the wait and a very ancient and great temple.

Thiru Malai Naicker Mahal

It is in the heart of the city; Built by Naicker - where the king along with his wives lived. Only half of the place is available now; Other half is destroyed by the king's grandson- he is said to have carried those materials to Trichy to build another fort. Later in the British period, they tried to safeguard whatever is available and Archaeological department is taking care of it now.

 

The building is so huge and without even a small crack even today. The roof is so tall, probably they wanted good ventilation, light and breeze. There were beautiful drawings in the roof; we wonder how they would have done it at such a height and it lasts even today.

Light show at Mahal is quite famous in the evenings, but from 2023, it has been stopped.

FOOD SHOPS TO VISIT

Madurai is very famous for food shops - sharing some of them.

Vilakku Thoon Famous - Jigirdhanda

Best and authentic Jigirdhanda; there are so many shops with the name “Famous Jigirdhanda”; but you need to have Jigirdhanda at this very shop; It is close to the four way signal in that area and always crowded. You can bring it to your home also and they will do wonderful packing with ice and give.

It is one of the best Jigirdhanda you can ever have and not to be missed.

Visalam Cofea shop

A very small coffea shop - but proper filter coffea; Worth visiting.

Amma Mess, KK Nagar

Wow.. those who love Non veg- should not miss this shop. Kari Dosai, fish kulambu, Chukka Varuval are famous items to try out here; Many cine actors have visited this shop and photos of them is seen; Vairamuthu photos are more- may be he visited here many times.

We were also told that Konar Mess is very famous for non veg too. People need to wait for about 45 min to have food in Konar Mess during week ends. Similarly Kumar mess is also famous for Non veg.

Sree Prema Vilas Sweet stall

They have many branches and the one closer to Meenakshi amman temple (Opposite to Thanga Reegal theater) is the biggest one. Halwa is the most famous item here; They give hot Halwa for Rs 20 (May be 50 gram)

Problem is we finish it so soon and ask them for the next one; Halwa from here is something which you can certainly buy for your home and relatives.

Mysore Travelogue: Must visit places

We visited Mysore in the year 2023; this post was written then. Publishing it now, as better late than never.

We went for daughter Sneha’s convocation; Visited all these places with CS friends who had come to attend the convocation and it was great fun with them.

Sharing some of the important places to see in and around Mysore. Except Somnathpur temple, which we went by car, remaining places we went in auto (sometimes 2 autos) which worked out very cheap.

Zoo

It is a must watch, particularly if you have kids with you or if you are a pet lover. It’s a pretty large zoo with various animals (unique foreign animals included). If one covers the zoo by walk, it will take 4 hours; if you have time you can do that; else they have battery operated vehicle and charge Rs 200 per person to cover in 1 hour; They stop in important places (Around 10) and allow us to see the animals. 

                                                               Sneha @ Zoo

Being pet lovers we enjoyed some of the animals like Chimpanzee, Foreign birds, Elephants very much.

Karanji Lake

It is very close to Zoo; in fact they give both tickets as combo pack; You can cover both Zoo and the lake in half a day. Boating is available with self pedal or driver operated vehicle. 

                                                                         Karanji Lake


Lot of plants and trees are there in this place. We can have a calm and cool time here.

Guru Sweets & Mahalakshmi Sweets

Guru Sweets is the most famous sweet shop where even on a week day, people wait in queue for 15 minutes to buy the sweets. 

                Forgot to take photo of the long queue before the shop :)

Mysore Pak in three different forms is the attraction here; Milk Mysore pak is a different one, which we bought and liked very much. Cost of sweets is very reasonable.

Mahalakshmi sweets is another famous shop- again Mysore Pak is the famous thing here.

Somnathpur – Chenna Keshava temple

It is situated about 35 Km away from Mysore and takes one hour drive. 

It is a beautiful temple and an architectural marvel. It is built about 750 years ago and it is so beautiful and we are amazed at the minute sculptures & how they have done in it during this period.

Lot of movies – Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam have been shot here. Entry fee is just Rs 20 but needs to be paid online (You can go there and pay it there too)

Though I have written very shortly here, we can write a lot about this place; those who like ancient architecture, should not miss this place and it is a treasure for them.

Chumundi Hills

The famous Godess Chamundeswari temple is situated here and it is about 12 KM from the Main city of Mysore. Those who visit Mysore generally do not miss visiting and praying here.

Mysore palace

We visited the Palace twice- once during the day to see the palace inside and once to see the palace in the night. 

Inside the palace the rooms, pillars etc gives us a feeling like we are in a big Studio (Much bigger than we have seen in movies in fact).

Light show in the evenings are done only on select days (Mostly in the weekends) ; Ideally if one visit the Palace around 4 or 4.30 PM, they can see it, wait and see the lights by evening.

Palace is centrally located and most of the places inside Mysore is 2-5 KM away from Palace

Finally..

Mysore is well connected by train and bus and has a good climate and some beautiful places to see. A 2 or 3 day trip here will be really good and can cover most places.

Consistency – Is it important in life ?

Consistency.. this is the trait which differentiates ordinary and the extra ordinary. The achievers and the normal people.

Every human being wants to succeed – be it in their studies, profession or passion. But most people just think and do not take enough action. Our action is what determines 90 % of our life.

Let’s look at it with some example.

An overweight person wants to reduce his weight by 10 KG. Many will have this desire– but will not take any action on it. And those who take some action –going for walk, gym etc- they make a definitive step and are far better than those who just think and not take any action. But .......their success purely depends on how regular they are in physical activities, diet etc. This is where consistency comes into picture.

Anything we do – we will be a novice at first; but when we do the same thing on a regular basis, we slowly start learning and improve gradually. We learn from our own mistakes and from the mistake of others too.

Once we start doing something new, wherever we go, things related to it will be visible to our eyes and we will meet the relevant people too.

To give a personal example, if I read my initial blogs, cannot control laughing how childishly have written and dared to publish them. But the good thing is starting somewhere and continuing to write. Wrote 1000 + blogs in a span of few years and improvement in writing is bound to happen.

The above example applies to most part of our life, if one wants to succeed/ progress. Being a beginner first when starting and becoming an experienced person after a few years. (There is a saying " All things are difficult before they become easy".. How true it is !)

Have always observed that anything we do with passion and in an intense manner for six months is bound to give a positive result / output..(Exams/ New entrepreneur/ fitness, applies to many things )

We get results for all our actions; but it does not happen immediately; Similar to how - a harvest happens few months after sowing a seed, the results will happen in its own course.

Anyone who takes action- positive or negative is making an impact on the universe in his own way !

If you think - you lack consistency.. do not worry. Anything comes with practice including consistency.

It boils down to how badly you need what you aspire for – that will make you passionate and consistent.

Start slow and keep at it regularly; if we do anything for few weeks consistently, mind and body become habituated and cometh the time, both will be ready for it and will do effortlessly.

Everyone runs their own race and their success depends mostly on their actions and how consistent they are in their pursuit !

Final note: This act of writing a motivating thought itself is a baby step- a beginning to me! Hope to continue at intervals and improve  

Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Sharjah trip- A throwback

Had an opportunity to visit Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah recently. All three are part of United Arab Emirates. Dubai is in the center point; while Abu Dhabi is 2 hour drive by road, Sharjah is hardly 45 minutes drive. From Chennai CS Shankar Venkatraman, Mr Srikanth and self went together to all these places. 

Sharing some info about these 3 cities :

 

Dubai

Dubai is the beautiful and happening city & not to be missed. Climate is extremely hot and only from November to February (4 months) the climate will be good. When we visited in Sep, it was still hot; Chennai heat is far better as wind settles in the afternoon in Chennai; though there are many beaches in UAE, the coolness cannot be felt as humidity is extremely high. Every place including the walking paths to Metros/ Tram/ Monorail are airconditioned.

 
Burj Khalifa- is the largest building in the world- visited the mall and the fountain show which happens here every evening & it was a wonderful experience. Pl do not miss ! 

When you visit Burj Khalifa, please remember to have Pistachio Latte, a famous drinks at “Tim Hortons” shop. Delicious drink; we had it in other place as well, but it was best here in Tim Hortons.

We travelled in all the modes in Dubai- Metro train (similar to our Metro)/ Tram – which passes through the bus route in the center of the road and Mono rail (Small in size- but otherwise similar to metro). Local taxis- Uber and Careem are the apps used to book car; But taking a cab without booking through app directly standing in the road will be better. All Taxis put Meter and collect exact fare and return the balance including the coins.

Atlantis- a famous hotel and some good water games are there- while going to this place in Metro/ Tram we get the full feel of Dubai.

We visited Gold Souk; Dubai is very famous for Gold jewellery and lot of people buy gold here; Quality will be very good- cost may be slightly lesser. 

We have to buy jewels which one can wear like Bangles, Chain etc and not Gold coins as we will be charged customs duty at Chennai airport.

We also visited Deira Waterfront , Fish market, Vegetable market and Abra grand old Souk ( We can do a boat ride here )

 

Things to purchase: Dates is very famous and in very good quality; Electronic items including iphone is cheap and lot of people buy them when they visit Dubai. And perfumes too !

                                                Having lunch at a Park in Dubai...


We were there during Ganesh Chaturthi ; we were happy to see & dine at Madras Veg Restaurant at Dubai ( they have 3 branches in Dubai); we ate Very good Idly, Dosa, Pongal and Kozhukattai here and were very happy.

Every hotel and most of the apartments will have both Gym and swimming pool. People can really take care of their health in their premises itself.

Cars.. cars and Cars.. We get a feeling that whether these cities have more cars than human beings. You can see all kinds of cars in the roads and parking.

We had a wonderful friend Sadiq who was with us through out our stay at Dubai and Sharjah and took us to each and every place. Without him we would not have had all these unique experiences.

Sharjah

Though situated very close to Dubai, Sharjah is comparatively quiet and buildings are not as tall as Dubai.

 

Al Heera beach, Sharjah was very beautiful. Somehow it reminded me both Besant Nagar beach and Pondichery beach.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is a quiet place compared to Dubai and has many Government offices. The Dargah here is huge and the Carpet is the longest in the world. The paintings were wonderful.CS Friend Nishan took me to the Dargah; he was the one who took us from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in his car and shared lot of info about UAE.

Abu Dhabi Mosque with Nishan

Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai has around 10 to 12 % locals only; remaining are foreigners. Among them Indians will constitute more than 30 %;  out of these 30 %, majority will be friends from Kerala; People from other countries are also there.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are few of the safest places in the world to live and are in the top 5 list of safest cities in the world ! There is no Income tax for individuals ! Corporate Tax is also around 8 %

Entire country is developed right from the scratch in the last few decades and they have kept the tax laws simple inviting corporates and individuals to come and do business and work in UAE.

    

 

Mostly they work for 5 days a week (Till Friday) and weekends are holidays; The hobby for most will be going to Malls because – you really cant go to any open places due to heat.

Visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi gave lot of insights and new friends.

Probably we may visit again with family after a few years – in Dec- Feb period !

An enjoyable Stay at Marutham resort, Mahabalipuram, Chennai

We recently went for short trip to Marutham village resort which is 100 KM from Chennai (close to Mahabalipuram) & enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

Sharing a brief summary:

Check in is around 2 PM.

The biggest attraction is the 2 borewell sets; they have built a reasonably big tank (“Thotti”). Both borewells were having some minor difference and we took bath in each one on different days and enjoyed. Borewell bath is available from 6 AM to 6 PM. They allocate a staff for all the activities – for us it was one Mr Alagar; he normally allocates you 30 min slot once we speak to him. 

Do not miss the bore well bath- we can even have twice on the first day (once immediately on arrival and again in the evening) and one on the next day. Atleast once on both days is certainly recommended.

The food is really good- slightly higher price, but taste is really nice; breakfast is complimentary & you have regular South Indian foods- Idly; very tasty Chutney/ sambar; Pongal (Good!), Poori- Masal (Hot and was good); Bread- corn flakes; Raagi Halwa; Fruits/ vegetables, Neer aagaram with Mor milagai (Wow!) and a wonderful coffee. Since they have lot of cows here and coffee/ Tea is made directly out of cow milk, both coffee and tea are very good.

There are many activities which keeps us engaged throughout our stay:

Badminton: They have rackets/ cork and a nice court where paddy fields are one side and the rooms on the other side. We played Badminton on both days.

Poi Kaal kuthirai dance: It was a fun filled activity to dance with Poi kal kuthirai; They play apt songs in the background); it was a fun filled activity and we enjoyed it much.

Pottery- they make small pots/ flower wash using clay and help us to do it; wife who has interest in it liked it.

Pambaram- something which 70s kids like us enjoyed during our school days- was able to play after so many years.

They have other games like Pallanguzhi, Paramapadham etc- we did not play them as they take more time. For small kids they have some more games suitable to them.

Apart from the most attractive bore well bath, they do have a mini artificial water falls; the force is more & falling from a good height, it gives a good massage to our back. Only thing is chlorine is more and those who are allergic to chlorine can avoid.

    

Swimming pool: They have swimming pool artistically designed exactly like a Temple Kulam; depth is around 4-5 feet only and kids also enjoy this pool very much. This is adjacent to waterfalls and I took bath in both one after the other on the 2nd day.

The activities place and falls/ kulam is very near; they played 80s Ilayaraja songs when we were there; it gave an apt atmosphere to the place.

Evening they had Thallu vandi kind of shops for preparing Coffee/ Tea and Snacks. Cost is slightly more – Tea is Rs 65 and coffee is Rs 75- but the taste is so good and it is worth ! The same Thallu vandi they have for night also if there is no rain. For dinner – either you can have it in Thallu vandi or inside the restaurant.

Archery/ Gun shooting: They give 3 chances for both archery and gun shooting; another small archery game is there- which we can play ourself too. Table tennis is also nearby.

They have Cows/ Duck/ Vaan kozhi/ Goat : These are kept in one place– they take milk from the cow in the morning and evening; we can go and see this process. They gave fresh/raw milk taken from the cow and it was a different experience.

Lake walk; 2nd day morning – they take interested people for a walk around 7 AM- they have taken a lake for lease and show us this place and there are lots of trees near this place.

Rooms- all their single room (For 2 people) cost around 7000 on week days and 8000 on week end; they have around 32 rooms; there are 3 BHK and 4BHK as well- which can be used by bigger families. All these rooms are with Athangudi tiles and built in typical Karaikkudi style. You have Mutram and lot of old vessels used in the earlier generation.

    There are 2 rooms (both in half kilo meter distance) inside the paddy fields & we stayed in one of them ; This cost 7200. Harvest was over few days ago and we were not able to see the paddy crops when we stayed; But most of the time, it could be there as they cultivate paddy crops 3 times in a year. Our room was bang opposite to borewell and it suited as we can go and take bath whenever it was free.

The rooms were neat and clean; the service was really good; each and every staff moved very courteously. All are staying closer to the resort in some villages and few stay in the resort itself.

One very good development:

They are now allowing day time visits: Ie: Without staying: So one can come in the morning; enjoy all activities; have lunch here and leave in the late evening; for this they charge per person around 2000- 2500; Currently they are not putting it and advertising in their site and allowing on demand. But they are constructing some rooms for these guests to go and stay and take some rest in the day time itself; we were told that this construction will be completed in a month or two and then they will put this in their website itself.

This is a 3 year old resort and has become popular already; around 15 families stayed on the week day when we went; From Friday to Sunday – it is normally getting sold out and one needs to book it in advance.

We enjoyed the one and half days we stayed here fully and might come back again with our extended family!

Trip to Kashmir: All you want to know

1. How many days trip will be sufficient for Kashmir? 

Minimum of 5 days is required for exploring Kashmir reasonably well. It can go upto 7 days also if possible. 

2. Are there direct flights available from Chennai? What about train facilities? 

There are no direct flights from Chennai; interestingly there are direct flights available to Kashmir from Hyderabad ! We went upto Delhi and then from Delhi to Kashmir. There are various flights in both these direction- ie: Chennai to Delhi  and Delhi to Kashmir; minimum of 10 to 15 flights are there on both these routes. We selected the same carrier (Indigo) as the luggage will directly come upto Kashmir and we need not take it again during lay over; We preferred Indigo as Vistara schedules had some disruption in April 2024. Otherwise Vistara will be very good too. 

There is a direct train available from Chennai to Kashmir- but it takes 2 full days to reach; 4 days will be spent (To and Fro) in travel alone.

3. How did we plan our trip? Who helped with the travel plan?

Since its May,  we decided to go for a Hill station and Kashmir was in our bucket list for many years. 

If its South India we can plan hotels. etc ourselves. Being a completely new place, we decided to engage a travel agent. Daughter found out SK Vacations (Contact: 8608384027) from Internet and I was bowled over reading about them in the Google reviews; Every one had highly praised about them. We spoke to them few times and felt the genuineness with them. This agency is run by a husband and wife - both their first letters are S and K. We dealt with Mrs. Kalai only right from the beginning and she planned the entire trip- including hotel bookings, car travel and Rope car travel. 

4. Is it possible to plan ourself or booking through a travel agent is a must?

Photo taken during one of our morning walk

This is the first time we went through a travel agency and it really relieved us from spending so much time for reading about each hotel, plan the places, look for cab, etc. May be the travel agent may have their own margin, but we save a lot of time and there was no chaos. 

5. What is the ideal time to visit Kashmir?

March to September is the ideal time to visit Kashmir and climate in many places will  be manageable for most of us. 

A bridge en route to Phahalgam

There are people who go specifically during Dec or Jan to enjoy complete snowfall in all the places. October and November is said to be the lean season in Kashmir and less tourists come during this time. March mid to April mid - the Tuplip garden will be open and you can see them only during this one month window. 

6. What are the must visit places in Srinagar? 

Srinagar - Summer capital is a must visit place. Mostly you will get down here; It is a beautiful city surrounded by lovely mountains. Climate is cool and tourist places are not very crowded . (Roads have high traffic with many cars !!!). You can see apple and pine trees in many places (In May you can see the trees only and not the fruits)

Dal lake is the most iconic place and the famous Shikara ride happens in Dal lake. One can take 1 hour or two hour Shikara ride and most of the tourists take this ride & do not miss it. 

                                                      

Lot of vendors will come and sell many things while you are going for boating- you can simply ignore most of them. There is a big market in the lake itself- you can see the beauty of it- we did not do any purchase in the Dal lake ride, except taking photo in Kashmiri dress. (Next day we found that every place we go in Srinagar, we have this Kashmiri dress and photos)

Sun sets very very late in Kashmir and only 7.30 to 8 PM it becomes dark, when we visited in May 1st week. We took the Shikara ride from 5.45 to 7.45 PM so that we enjoyed both sun light and to see the Dal lake under lights. It was a beautiful ride; we had Tamil songs from our phone for 2 hours and relaxed. 

Elders tour - all are 60 to 80 years .. They were having a great fun !

There are many gardens in Srinagar; in our view, if you visit Botanical garden, you can see almost all the flowers there; in other places, the same flowers are there again. And Botanical garden is huge and very lush in green.

Pari Mahal in Srinagar is a must visit place. 

View from Pari Mahal

Its a fort which was built by a Mugal king; it has 3 layers - Ground floor, First floor and second floor; Surrounded by lake and mountains. Very scenic and spending an hour or two is a must for any tourist. 

7. What are the other places to visit in Kashmir? 

Gulmarg ! You cannot miss it; This is fully surrounded by snow. 

There is a cable car ride here to reach the Snow games place and one need to book this ticket 2-3 weeks in advance. 

Cable car ride..

Our tour operator spent several hours to book our ticket online 2 weeks before our travel. There are 2 phases in cable car trip - we went for 1st phase only; 2nd phase tickets are very limited and we did not get it. We were told that it is in a very high altitude and few get breathing trouble once they reach it. 

The trip in the cable car (they call it Gondola) itself is breath taking; we will see snow every where during this cable car travel. 

There are 3 games - Snow biking, Sledging and Skiing; 

Snow biking; there will be driver who will be driving it; we will sit in Pillion; if we request he will give us for ride for short period

Sledging

Skiing

Snow biking and sledging are really good and one must certainly do both of them- atleast Snow biking.

 For snow biking, Government has fixed Rs 1000 per head for a short trip of 20 minutes. If we give some tips to the driver, they will guide us how to drive the bike in snow and give us the bike to drive. It was a wonderful experience !

Sledging- they pull us in snow and take to few places including the Snow biking point; We paid 1500 for two people for sledging. 

We spent almost half day in the snow games place and surprisingly the Sun was out brightly & it was hot. We did not feel much cold there. 

Gulmarg is slightly in a higher terrain and it take 1.5 hours to 2 hours to reach Gulmarg; most of the people go from Srinagar and return on the same day; very few stay near Gulmarg and hotels there are costly as only few are there.  

If one has motion sickness, better to take a vomitting tablet in the morning itself while going to Gulmarg. (Not very steep and has few hairpin bends only- but still its better to be cautious for those who has this issue)

Pehalgam is another place- this is almost 2 to 2.5 hours journey from Srinagar and this was the coldest place among all the places we went. 

We stayed here for 1 day. 

Horse ride @Phahalgam

Phahalgam.. coldest place

There are 3 places to cover here- Aaru Valley, Bethab valley and Chandan wari (ABC)

Aaru valley is in a particular direction ; Bethab valley and Chandan wari together are in a different direction. These two are just a few kilo meter away from one another and normally people go to Bethab valley and Chandan wari together.

Aaru valley and Bethab valley are greeneries/ sight seeing places and even during May its extremely cold in the day time too ! 

Aaru valley

Bethab valley.. it got this name because of a Hindi movie Bethab, a song of which was shot here..

We visit these places for enjoying the climate and to take some photos behind beautiful snow filled mountains. 

Chandan wari : This is slightly in a higher altitute and most of the times it will be filled with snow fully and we can enjoy some snow games also (Not like Motor bike- but smaller games like Sledging etc) ;

Chandan Wari

Those who cannot go to Gulmarg (Getting cable car ticket there is the biggest task !) can enjoy the Snow in Chandan wari.

All these 3 places are in Phahalgam; While we go there in our own car, we are not supposed to use the car that we take from Srinagar; we need to use the local taxi from Phahalgam (they call it Union Taxi); the cost for covering all these 2 places in the Union Taxi is around 2,200 ( It was included by our travel agent in the overall budget- we did not pay it separately)

We also visited Dhooth Patri- it is a small hill station, less explored; 

Climate was good and there are some beautiful landscape and mountains in the background.

With a local @ Dhoodh Patri

8. How much it will cost for the trip? 

For 5 days - hotel,  transport- Local car, Union Taxi, Shikara ride for 2 hours, House boat stay, Morning and night - 2 times - food - for 2 people the travel agent charges around 48,000. Snow games + Gondola travel cost at actual, Tips for drivers and games people if any and lunch charges we need to bear; most other cost is covered in the cost we pay to the travel agent. 

Flight charges are separate; agent can help you to book or you can book it on your own.

9. How is the food at Kashmir? 

Having Tea at a local shop in Pehalgam

Mostly we get Chapathi, Naan, Roti, Poha and some curry (Mixed veg, Panneer) every where; we also have rice and dhall; also chicken gravy in all the places. We did not see biriyani, Mutton gravi or Fish in any of the  hotels. There will be a sweet (Invariably some Payasam); rice did not suit us much; we almost had Chapathi / gravy and sweet only in most places. But these are good in all the hotels. 

10. Is it safe to travel around Kashmir? 

We found it like any other city in India and did not see any threat; of course you can see Police people standing in some prominent places like Markets, etc in Srinagar and few other places. 

But Kashmir is not fully explored and embraced by most people. Except places like Gulmarg which is well crowded, other places are not much crowded like any other Indian hill station.

11. What should we take while going for the Kashmir trip?

Kashmir is exactly opposite to Chennai; Chennai weather - is- Hot - Hotter- Hottest. Kashmir is Cold- Colder- Coldest. So take jackets, gloves, Thermal wear, Cap (Kulla) etc as many as possible. In some places like Phahlagam, it is worth putting 2 kinds of jackets also; we took many sweaters/ overcoats/ gloves and used almost everything there. Nothing was unused. Shoes are must ( Snow places - mandatorily we need to hire Bigger shoes (Boots) in the nearby shops for rental- they charge Rs 100); similarly there are track pants which can absorb water- these are must for places covered with snow. 

With Shakib, our driver in a Mustard garden

Also one should carry umbrella as it may rain occasionally. 

Please note that Prepaid sim cards do not work in Kashmir; so most of our sim cards will not work there (Not even incoming !); we need to get some postpaid sim once we reach there (Our driver gave his 2nd sim; we just paid the recharge amount of Rs 200 to him).

12. Things to buy?

Cricket bats are made from Kashmir willow and its very cheap and of good quality; 

Chitra is standing before the tree from which Cricket willows are made.. 

We did not know how to carry bat in flight and whether they will allow as a hand luggage- hence did not buy. If the bigger bag can accomodate it, we can buy it.

Kashmiri carpets are very famous - mostly made out of hand work- will start from 15,000 & will go upto a lakh- but compared to other places - it will be cheaper

Dry fruits - you can certainly buy from here- quality is very good- much better than we get in Chennai and cheaper also.

Saffron is quite famous here and most of the tourist buy it; Kashmiri Tea "Kawa"- this is completely different from what we drink here- its a different experience- we can buy this 'Kawa" Tea for our home

Shawl and Stoll - these are good too 

We visited Lal Chowk - a famous market in Srinagar just to have a feel of it- 

Before the Iconic Tower clock @ Lal Chowk Market

Could not spend much time and spent hardly an hour and did limited purchase

Most places you need to bargain- you can easily ask for half price and can close the negotiation with 60 to 70 % in many cases.

Finally..

Kashmir is certainly worth visiting- for wonderful climate, fantastic greenery, snow filled mountains and a not much crowded hill station !