A trip was long due, as it was almost more than six years, since the kids went last to Ooty. In these years, they have become smarter, and it's difficult to say NO - they know the trick to get their things done. As you know the boy was appearing his first board exam of life and he wanted to go for a trip before his classes for next course starts - the reason being he will not be free for next two years. And then our daughter was always dreaming to go to a place that will have ice and/or snowfall. So that is how we decided the place - Kashmir, the Paradise on earth.
Usually it needs a bit of planning for a trip, but since we were all busy, I just relied on my travel agency as they have really managed my previous trips well. More ever, its owned by one of my friend's husband, so there is a bit of personal touch. They assist me at any point any time - something that you won't get from the trip portals like makemytrip or others. In fact its pretty difficult to get to their customer care and that is one other reason I do not opt in for trips in these portals. You really can't get to them when you need it most. They don't even share a direct number. Did you ever experience similar ? I would love to hear from you, good or bad.
My travel agent delegated the air ticket part to me - the reason being, I will get notified in case of any update. And I experienced a never before price fluctuation - the air tickets were at an affordable range with direct flights. We thought, we would make the tickets after lunch , few hours after. When we came back the price was 5x - almost made us mad. The reason was that, the Tulip festival was declared on that day, and people who know about it made no mistake to book their tickets. I came to know only after trying to investigate why the price trend went mad. For two days, we looked for alternatives and finally got something with separate flights - travel to New Delhi and then to Srinagar - a bit of hectic journey but that was the best that we did not want to loose further, as it was creating unnecessary stress during his board exam. And a lesson learnt - book the ticket as soon as possible. Especially if you are booking with AirAsia !!
We had to do a lot of shopping for this trip as we never had been into a snow place. Since the exam was going on, we bought most of the items online , waiting for the exam to be over for the offline shopping. It was good that the winter was just getting over, so we got our puffer jackets online in pretty good price. And adidas was running a nice off campaign - so we picked our shoes from adidas online. And the excitements were on as we arrived at our home airport.
The first flight was from Vistara Airlines owned by a joint venture between Tata group and Singapore Airlines. And they served nice food on board. They have in flight entertainment facilities and we are now in love with the legendary hospitality from Vistara - we would pretty much try to book our future trips on this airlines if available. They have asked for a review and this post will be part of my review.
This was my first trip to New Delhi Airport and I must say, IGI (Indira Gandhi International) Airport really is the most advanced airport of India with best cleanliness and user friendly environment.
We had to change the terminal and change the airlines by taking our luggage and checking in again. There was a gap of couple of hours, so it was manageable, but it made us hungry. After taking some light lunch at the airport we checked into AirAsia - another airlines fully owned by the same Tata group.
AirAsia doesn't serve anything on board and the hospitality was not good as well. This is the same airlines that has direct flights and as I told earlier, their price is highly fluctuated based on analytics. I don't think, any other airlines does have so much price variation. They definitely need to make it better and this post will also be part of review of their airlines.
As soon as we got close to the Paradise, the view from the top was mesmerizing taking our excitements to a high.
The mountains covered in ice, the mustard fields and the weather when we landed - we were excited to make most of our journey.
Look at her - she was the one who primarily shaped this journey - to go to a snow place. A car was waiting for us, taking to our hotel and our travel agent partner was waiting for us with some authentic Kashmiri sweets - the Walnut Fudge from Moon Light.
The kids could not wait any longer and after seeing their expression I could not resist either. And it was really a WOW experience - the family is running this business since last 150 years with their secret recipe and its a very very popular name there - quality does matter and maintaining it for such a long period is definitely an outstanding commitment.
You will soon experience some amazing photographs from the Paradise, but before I wrap, did you forget that I bought a camera to make this trip memorable ? Here are some captures in auto focus mode from a novice photographer (me).
Not bad, huh ? I know it will take a lot to learn, but at least it was worth for the trip. More to come soon.....
copyrights 
