Day 3

At dawn, we woke with honking horns and army men guiding vehicles out of the camp.

The road to Pahalgam is really scenic. The Chenab is mesmerizing. Just by looking at the river, you can tell how far it has been travelling. It is enormously enigmatic.

At the Pahalgam check post, he had our baggage checked and the car went through a frisking post. They had installed a kind of scanner you see at airports and the people from small towns were really excited with the high tech frisking devices.

We walked through the post, excited that our walk was about to begin in a few minutes. Just then we got to know that Chandanbari, the destination, was inaccessible due to bad weather. No one was being allowed to go ahead and the people already there were stuck for two days without food, we were told. We were supposed to start the trek just 6 hours after leaving Jammu but it had been two days and two nights now.

We had to get inside the Pahalgam military camp again with at least 5,000 other people, delicious langar food and rented, moist, smelly, army tents.

The Indian Army was everywhere, and I mean everywhere. They would even keep an eye on people visiting the toilets at night.