Does anyone know of any nice, scenic places to visit around Muzaffarabad? I am planning to visit there, but I don’t think I will be able to go very far out, and I really want to witness some of the beauty of Kashmir. Thanks 
The route to the valley is devoid of trees or any greenery. For almost an hour of drive we saw nothing but the crushers eating up the dry and rocky mountains along the road. The slope is not too steep but it is continuous and the river flows continuously way down deep inside kind of an abyss, far from the edge of the road in the opposite direction. As we moved further in to the valley, the mountains started getting covered with thick vegetation. The autumn was taking away the green color from the shrubs in the valley. It seemed like a huge oil painting canvas laid down in front of us, so beautifully painted in green, yellow, brown, mustard, red and I don’t know how many colors. Deep down the valley, far from where the bus was crawling, there the river Neelum was flowing like a huge emerald green serpent whose head and tail we couldn’t see. The sight was breath taking.
http://muddleheaded.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/neelum-valley.jpg?w=300&h=199River Neelum flowing Deep Down in the Valley
When we reached “Kundal Shahi”, our night stop over, it was already dark. We had left Muzaffarabad at around 1230 HRS and it took our five to six hours to reach here, pertaining to the slow moving bus and the terrain of the area. People of the town had already disappeared inside their abodes. We saw only few guys near Madni Hotel, where we have been referred to by the bus driver as his guests. The kitchen of the hotel had almost been closed but we were treated specially by the owner and he got food for us to eat and later provided us a room at the back of the hotel. The night was very comfortable as compared to the day. The door to our room opened towards the river and at that particular place it was too noisy and it was making the environment, sort of dramatically frightening. But among all this we managed to sleep early.
We did not have the chance to see the surroundings as it was dark yesterday, so we started exploring the nearby points by foot. The first place to go was the river. Here it flows very close to the level of the land. We could have dared to enter in to the water but the prevailing insecurity regarding the depth of the river prevented us against any such venture and we relied on just dipping our feet in it. It was freezing cold. The town of Kundal Shahi or I must say village is beautiful in its own way. The soil is golden brown in color and especially in autumn the grass dries and turns it more husky and shiny. It contrasts with the emerald green water of the river exquisitely. As we did not have any kind of luggage and we already had checked out from the hotel, so we left Kundal Shahi by foot. While we were moving upstream the river, we saw a bus crawling up from the town and we availed the opportunity. The driver took us to the next stop with in an hour.
“Athmuqam” is the sub-divisional headquarter of this area. It contains all the civic services to a certain extent like hospital, post office, bank, a telephone exchange and a few small bazaars. If you need anything then you must buy it from here because this is the last stop where you can find reasonable commodities in quantity as well as in quality. Apart from the fact that this valley town is very unique in its beauty with respect to the other places we had yet visited, it is also significant as it marks the beginning of control line with Indian Held Kashmir in Neelum* Valley*. You can see people across the river with similar faces, same outfits, and of same creed and most probably from same families but no body can go beyond the control line. The loved ones are separated from each other for quite many years, even now after the establishment of cease fire line. They can see each other across the line but can never touch or communicate in any way.
http://muddleheaded.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/athmuqam.jpg?w=300&h=196Suburbs of Athmuqam
We came out of the town and wandered around for an hour or so, capturing the scenic beauty of the river and the surroundings. People were working in the farms. It seemed they just had harvested the seasonal crop. We took a jeep and moved further. On our way we came across a small bridge which was made over a small stream crossing the road from north-west to south-east. A few houses were constructed nearby but now abandoned by the owners. The tin roofs were battered and had holes in them. A passer-by villager told us that a few months before the cease fire between India and Pakistan, there used to be a lot of shelling from the border side and the residents had moved to nearby villages in order to be in peace.
We reached “Sharda” around 2 hours before sunset. The sun sets early when you are in mountains. Sharda is yet another small town which spans on the both banks of the river. The major part of the town lies across the river and is connected with the Neelum Road by a beautiful long wooden suspended bridge. The town has a small shopping market which offers local handicrafts and households.
http://muddleheaded.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/sharda.jpg?w=300&h=199A View of Sharda Town
Towards the heightened portion of the town on the adjacent hill, there lie some ruins of an ancient Buddhist University and The Sharda Temple. The area is under control of Pakistan Army and they don’t allow the visitors to peep in to the ruins for more than a specified time and that too under continuous supervision. But we somehow managed to reach right in the middle of the ruins beside guard soldiers continuous scolding us. As specified on the information board there, it was built in reign of Kanshak-I in 24 to 27 Century BC. But my later research on Sharda Temple revealed some other interesting facts.
The exact date of building the Sharda Temple could never be ascertained but according to historians it must have been somewhere in 3000 BC when Saraswat Aryans settled in the Neelum Valley (Kishanganga Valley). The temple was built in the name of the Hindu goddess “Sharda” which is considered as another form of the goddess Saraswati. As “Brigadier Rattan Kaul” states, “The goddess Sharda represents matrix of the universe displaying in her hands; jar full of nectar, book signifying learning, rosary signifying subtle nuances of universe, source of Upanishadic knowledge and three Shakti’s {Trimurtis} known as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Iswari”](Kashmiri Pandit Network (KPN): Home). Since the ancient times till to date the place is visited by enormous number of pilgrims for religious purposes. But according to certain sources the place has also been the epicenter of knowledge and wisdom during Brahinism and later Buddhism era in the subcontinent. There has been an ancient university, The Sharda University where diverse subjects like Spiritualism, Astrology, Literature, Medicine, Mathematics, Arts, Architecture and Linguistics were taught. This was the time when Sharda Script](http://www.koausa.org/Languages/Sharda.html) was developed. It is the same script which had been used to write ancient Mahabharata.
http://muddleheaded.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/sharda-temple-inside2.jpg?w=300&h=199The Sharda Temple from Inside [Courtesy of PBase.com
The local people told us that there is a huge statue of Gautama Buddha in a long cave somewhere inside the mountains. But the place can not be accessed because of the security. It is opened once or twice every year only for the Buddhist pilgrims to visit. The visit to Sharda proved to be very interesting and informative. On the way back from the ruins we were just imagining ourselves 5000 years back on the same land which, in many ways, was better developed than many of our present day cities, in terms of knowledge and spirituality. It was the land of goddesses and statues and miracles and beautiful architectural designs.We remained awed for quite some time during our trip.