On Sunday 5 May we took another private taxi from Gulmarg to Sonamarg, which cost 3500 but I paid 4000 (£45) with a tip. It was a long day to get there but a beautiful journey and a stunning place once we got there. With my driver we checked out quite a few hotels before finally settling on the Thajwass Glacier Hotel where I negotiated the room for 2000 (£23). It was particularly lovely and finally some sun to dry the nappies!
Most of the nicer resort style hotels are along the main road before you reach Sonamarg town itself which was around a 20 minute walk with the Army camp just outside the town. We walked back and forth as this was the only place to buy provisions and to organise onward travel. For cheaper budgets there are hotels with rooms on the main high street in Sonamarg town, but definitely considerably more dilapidated than where we stayed.
Lack of wifi was a bit of a challenge in Sonamarg which was tricky. None of the hotels had wifi, except hot spotting off someone else’s phone. Also the Delhi bought Airtel SIM didn’t work here and it isn’t allowed for foreigners to buy the local one which does work! ATM was another issue. There is a lovely tourist complex at Sonamarg town with a bank/ATM but it was empty the whole time I was there!
We stayed two nights in Sonamarg and had a lovely time enjoying the awesome scenery and walking quite a bit (well as far as carrying a baby would allow).Again this is a place for pony trekking, particularly to the glacier, and full of pony men but again, it wasn’t something we could do.
The taxi stand was the place to organise transport to Kargil and I knew I definitely wanted a car not a bus to Kargil…. Prices were going up but I was over a barrel really as had to get there. We paid 5000 Rs (£57) plus tip but this journey was in a lovely car and over the Zoji La Pass 3528m, and took 4 hours.
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