Kashmir Was Straight Out of a Wallpaper

The journey

I genuinely don't think my camera did Kashmir any justice. Every five minutes someone in our cousins' group would say, "Wait... stop the car!" because the view outside somehow kept getting prettier. At one point, even the driver started laughing because we were asking him to stop after literally every turn.

This trip was with all my cousins, so honestly, it was never going to be peaceful. There was always someone making reels, someone looking for food, someone arguing over the playlist, and someone sleeping through half the journey. Pure chaos... but the best kind.

The first thing that hit us was how unreal everything looked. The mountains, the rivers, the pine trees, the fresh air... it honestly felt like we'd walked into a movie set. Even doing absolutely nothing felt fun because the views were that good.

We stayed in a cosy hotel with mountain views, and every morning the first thing we'd do was open the curtains and just stand there for a minute. No alarms, no office calls, no deadlines... just snow-covered peaks and hot cups of kahwa.

Gulmarg was definitely one of the highlights. We spent half the day playing in the snow like little kids. Snowball fights became way more competitive than they needed to be, and somehow everyone decided that targeting the person clicking photos was the funniest thing ever. Safe to say... nobody returned with clean jackets.

Dal Lake was a completely different vibe. Sitting in a shikara, floating through the calm water while the mountains reflected around us... it honestly felt unreal. For once, everyone actually kept their phones down for a while and just enjoyed the moment.

Of course, that peace didn't last very long. The second we reached the floating market, everyone suddenly remembered they wanted souvenirs. Bargaining became a family sport, and somehow we still ended up buying way more than we had planned.

The funniest part of the trip was definitely trying to take one proper cousins' photo. We found the perfect spot with mountains in the background, set the timer, and just when everyone finally smiled... one cousin slipped in the snow. Nobody got hurt, but we laughed so much that the "failed" photos became our favourites.

Evenings were honestly my favourite. We'd all sit together, order way too much food, play cards, roast each other for absolutely no reason, and somehow the conversations always ended with "Guys, we seriously need to do another trip."

Kashmir gave us beautiful landscapes, but it also gave us something even better—time together. No distractions, no routines, just family, endless laughter, and memories we'll probably keep bringing up at every family gathering for years.

Honestly... if heaven looks anything like Kashmir, I totally get the hype.