Rosewood On the Meadow

Gulmarg is dotted with charming hotels of every hue. The newest would be decades old, for quite simply new ones are not allowed to be built. Rosewood, up a little hill is comfortable and unpretentious, offering sincere hospitality

 

Rosewood Hotel, perched upon a hill in Gulmarg

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

The way Gulmarg is set it is very easy to make acquaintance with it. You understand the lay of the land on the very first day you are there. In fact it takes just a few hours, it's that tourist-friendly a place. You reach Tangmarg, the base town in over an hour of driving from Srinagar, chug uphill for another 30 minutes and reach the town or rather the main market and lo and behold, there spreads before you a vast basin of a meadow, fringed by a ring road, with charming cottages and log houses scattered alongside and on the slopes of the hills, peeping through dense pine trees. There is a temple in front, a church yonder, a mosque and a gurudwara right in the market place within a stone's throw of entering Gulmarg.
There are no homes in Gulmarg, only hotels and resorts. And they don't allow new ones to come up and are very particular about constructions and repairs etc. Which is why Gulmarg has remained so pristine. And thank God for that.
For some reason I like to stay in different places when up here. This visit had me making my way to Rosewood, which I had already gone and checked out in winter. It's a modest hotel very beautifully located. Past the cable car base, tucked on a slope. You can take the car right up the climb to the entrance, or walk up and down the 15 odd steps whenever you feel energetic enough.
Rosewood has been refurbished and offers a comfortable stay. My room overlooked the rear, which is quieter, more picturesque. There was a small stream making its way downhill and there was regular human traffic too, local people walking through the forest, always leading ponies and horses. I think the hotel is in the pathway between the town down and the horsemen's habitat mid-way up to Kangdoor, the first cable car station.
I didn't end up using the common areas much, because all my free time I would spend in my private verandah, listening to music on my iPod. Where would I get such privacy, solitude or the view. Even the natural fragrance of the pines was mesmerising.
But yes, a lot of time was spent in the restaurant of Rosewood, which serves very wholesome and tasty food. For some reason it was vegetarian food that I ate predominantly and it was outstanding. I was under the impression that Kashmiri food is good only when it comprises mutton and chicken, but I was wrong. At Rosewood I enjoyed saag, paneer, aloo paratha, dum aloo, rajma. But I was convinced by their chef that I have to return in winter and try their Kashmiri non-veg food, which is excellent too, they said.
The service staff, like most Kashmiris was very pleasant and helpful and they did everything to make me feel at home. They were also busy gearing up for the oncoming winter season. Refurbishing, renovating; fixing a roof here, creating a shed there. A room was being readied to house the ski equipment of skiers when they return from their ski sojourns. Winter is special in Gulmarg, a time when the sporting and adventure junkies land up in hordes. It's when you will not find too many empty rooms going.
As for me, I love going to places when it is off-season and I was happy with the fact that it felt like Gulmarg was all mine. Or ours, since I had family with me. We made the most of our time, driving around, taking the cable car up to Apparwat at 14,000 feet. Checking out other hotels, planning future trips.
Meadow of the flowers, you will stay in our minds until we see you again. Keep blooming.