Vintage Bus Journey: Srinagar to Baramulla in a 25-Year-Old Bus | The Town Of Mountains | Himbus|
♪ MUSIC ♪ Hello friends, welcome to our YouTube channel. Today's video is the next part of our Kashmir series in which we will visit the famous Dal Lake of Srinagar and after that we will go from Srinagar to Baramulla in this old but unique bus. In the previous video, we had shown you the bus journey from Jammu to Srinagar hope you must have watched that video. So let's start today's video. I stayed in Sethi homestay in Srinagar.
It was quite late yesterday in reaching here from Jammu and I checked-in at 11 pm. I woke up around 10 o'clock in the morning, took bath and had breakfast here. The charges for my one night stay in this homestay were Rs 2,600, which seemed a bit high to me but the homestay is near the bus stand so I did not have to go too far. The stay was good and the breakfast was also good.
You will find their contact details in the description. After this I checked out and came to Srinagar market. It is afternoon and the markets have also started. Many people are also shopping here.
Then while walking I reached the center point of Srinagar – the historic Lal Chowk. Lal Chowk is a very special point of Srinagar and this Lal Chowk has been witness to many good and bad incidents in the past. You all know that there was a time in Kashmir Valley when terrorism was at its peak There was curfew imposed here every day. This Chowk has been named after the Red Square of Muscow. Today the tricolor flag is flying proudly at this chowk, otherwise there was a time when hoisting the tricolor flag here was also not free from danger.
But now there is peace in the valley and Kashmir is achieving new goals of progress. Then after this I reached Dal Lake. Dal Lake is one of the most famous tourist attractions of Srinagar and if you did not go to Dal Lake after coming to Srinagar, then what did you do? This Dal Lake is adjacent to Srinagar city or rather it is situated in the heart of Srinagar.
This lake is the second largest lake of Jammu and Kashmir and its catchment area is 316 square kilometers. If we talk about its length, its maximum length is 7.5 KMs and maximum width is 3.5 KMs. There are snow covered peaks nearby and this calm lake in the middle.
The mountains of the mountain valley called Zabarwan surround the lake on three sides. There are 15 KMs of road around the lake which are named after the boulevard and here you can find the shops related to food, view points and there are Shikara booking counters. I also rented a boat here and brother told me that it would be a big round for Rs 600. So he made a smaller round than I expected. So when you come here, decide beforehand how big a round you want to do and for how long.
Generally here you are taken in a boat to Char Chinar which is an island in the middle of the lake and there are 4 Chinar trees there. The best time to come here is in the evening when the water glows pink in the setting sun and looks very beautiful. Apart from boating, there are also house boats here where you get a good stay and this is also a unique experience. These house boats have all the facilities like stay, eating, drinking, lights and WiFi.
You can enjoy some great moments in the valley in the Shikara boats running here. Srinagar's famous floating post office and floating vegetable market are also located in the lake itself. While boating, you will find many sellers of fruit chaat and other items who come near you and give you those things. Kashmir is called heaven on earth and there is no doubt about this. 'But you say that this is heaven on earth...
even God is surprised to see your condition'. This reminds us of the era when this peaceful and beautiful valley of Kashmir was facing terrorism. We have grown up watching and hearing news of the incidents happening here on our TV or mobile every day.
Separatism was a big problem here which is now under control to a great extent. Dal Lake and Lal Chowk are witness to many such terrorist incidents. This earth, which is called heaven on earth, has suffered thousands of wounds. Beyond Dal Lake, this route leads to Shalimar Garden.
Shalimar Garden is also a famous tourist place of Srinagar. After this I have to leave for Baramulla. I want to reach there by evening, because I am going there for the first time, so I have to find my stay and other things before it gets dark. So I came back here to TRC Bus Stand, Srinagar. Many JKRTC buses are available here but on enquiry, I found out that Baramulla buses do not go from here. For this I will have to go a little further to Jahangeer Chowk and take a bus from there.
This JKRTC Volvo bus is also parked here which runs on Srinagar to Delhi route and it runs only 2 days a week. So, I took an e-rickshaw from the TRC bus stand and headed towards Jahangir Chowk. This is the Jhelum river which flows through the middle of Srinagar city. This river originates from the Pir Panjal hills near Anantnag and goes into Pakistan via Baramulla beyond Srinagar. I reached Jahangir Chowk in about 10 minutes from TRC bus stand.
It took 20 rupees to reach here by e-rickshaw. I had just reached here when this bus going to Baramulla was departing from here. I thought that it has already departed and I take the next bus. There are many other buses standing here but their routes are written in Urdu which I do not know how to read.
So I have to ask others for their routes. None of these buses are going to Baramulla right now. There are also many these small buses standing here, who provide local service in the city. And E-buses also run here. Buses kept going to many other routes but no bus came that is going to Baramulla and there was no confirmed time of arrival of the bus. So now I will have to go to a private bus stand further ahead and from there I will go to Baramulla by private bus.
So I took a Matador from Jahangir Chowk and came to this private bus stand. There is also a problem here that there is not a single bus stand. You will have to find out here which route the bus goes from where. There are also separate stops for government and private buses. This private bus stand is quite big and is the biggest bus stand of Srinagar. and buses to Baramulla are also going from here every 10 minutes.
I will go in this bus. This is a western bus service and its look is quite unique. Although many other buses were going to Baramulla, but traveling in this bus will be a different experience. The body on these buses has been installed here in Kashmir itself. However, such buses are no longer made and only a few old buses with this look are left. He is the driver of the bus who is very eager for our video.
Such old buses are now seen only here in Kashmir valley. These must be around 20-25 years old. The bodies of new buses now run by private operators mostly come from Jalandhar, Punjab. These are small seats in the bus and there is no rack to keep the luggage.
This bus took a lot of time to leave from here. Here too there is no fixed time of this, just buses leaving one after the other. So now our bus has arrived ahead here and passengers going to Baramulla are sitting in it.
Then the bus left from here around 5 o'clock. Well, I wasted a lot of time here in the process of traveling in this unique bus. I wanted to reach Baramulla during the day but now I feel that it will be dark.
To go from Srinagar to Baramulla we are going on National Highway No. 1. This highway is from Leh to Uri via Kargil, Zojila Pass, Srinagar and Baramulla. It took us a lot of time to get out of the traffic here in the evening as there is a lot of traffic in Srinagar. This road is under BRO and is part of Project Beacon. The head quarter of BRO's Beacon Project is here in Srinagar and Beacon itself looks after the BRO roads in Srinagar. From here the left road goes towards Gulmarg.
Gulmarg is 38 KMs away from here and is also a popular tourist place in Kashmir Valley. There will be a lot of snow there right now. And we have left for Baramulla. The road here is double lane and looking at the digging around, it seems that it will also be widened soon. Being a border area, connectivity is very important here and continuous work is being done in this direction.
It is winter season so this valley is very dry. Nowadays, it is the time of snow so all the regions remain in such drought. According to us, if you come to visit Kashmir Valley, then the best time is when the entire valley is lush green, nowadays, if you want to come then snow-filled Gulmarg, Sonmarg or Pahalgam are the right options where there is good amount of snow. And before Pattan village, this flyover comes under which the Baramulla-Banihal railway line passes. Broad gauge railway line is also laid in Kashmir valley, about which we will know in detail in our next video and we will also take you on a train journey from Baramulla to Banihal, Sangaldan.
Now we have reached Pattan which is a big town on this Jammu-Baramulla road. A large population lives around here. The distance from Srinagar to Baramulla is 55 KMs and it usually takes 1-1.5 hours. But these are private buses, so you will have to sit in them without any worries because the buses run very slowly and stop wherever someone says. And people make the bus stop in front of their house even if it is nearby.
Well, the same thing happens in our Himachal too, but here there is a dense population so the bus can hardly run continuously for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, many big and small villages keep coming. We started from Srinagar on this NH-1 and beyond Baramulla this highway goes till Uri which is 45 KMs away from Baramulla. Then after Uri comes LOC i.e. Line of Control.
Due to its proximity to LOC, many terrorist incidents have been taking place in this valley by infiltrators and separatists. Even now, while roaming around here, you think of all those things but now the situation is normal. Evening has set in and it will become dark in some time. The cold here increases as the evening approaches.
The high mountains around the valley are covered with snow, so cold winds keep blowing here. After this we reach Sangrama and from here a separate route, NH-701, goes to Sopore, Kupwara and Handwara. For Baramulla we have to go directly on NH-1. There is still light snow on the roadside.
After this it became dark and I reached Baramulla at around 7 o'clock. This 55 km journey took much more time than expected i.e. 2 hours. And the bus dropped me at the Main square here in Baramulla.
And I stayed in a hotel near here. It doesn't make much sense to go out here when it's dark. That's why I kept passing my time in the room and then went to sleep after eating. So friends, let's end today's video with this. Hope you liked this short bus journey. In our next video, we will show you the train journey of Kashmir Valley in which we will travel from Baramulla to Sangaldan via Srinagar and Banihal.
And we will also learn in detail about the Jammu to Srinagar broad gauge rail link. If you liked this video then please like and share it. If you have ever come here, please tell us your experiences in the comments. THANK YOU!
2024-04-08 18:37
