INDIA. KASHMIR HOUSBOATS

Typically for us, and many travellers in India, plans, routes, times all get rearranged and re scheduled somewhere along the way.

For us it happened about 15 hours after arriving in Delhi। We were jet lagged and disorientated, but wanted to reacquaint ourselves with Delhi, so we strolled around the Paraganj area like old timers, and decided to book our tickets out of there to Varanasi that day. We found ourselves at the train station and followed the directions from a 'very nice man' who put us into a rickshaw and took us to a tourist office, where of course, there are NO trains to Varanasi until the 7th June, so we MUST go to Kashmir instead, where the climate is much better and there is a tulip festival going on. Very beautiful. So, being the suckers that we are we believed everything he said and took his advise and flew to Kashmir the next morning!

We were staying on a houseboat on lake Nageer, in a town called Srinagar in the very north of Kashmir. A beautiful setting, opposite a stunning mountain with a fort on top. The Houseboat was one of MANY that had been built by the British, as they were not allowed to own any land in India when they came here, so they are very fancy, if a little old fashioned. The typical layout is two bedrooms, one next to the other, both with en suite bathrooms, followed by a small kitchen (but not for your use, as you have a cook, who now days cooks on another boat) a large dining room and a sitting room, with chandeliers etc!

One of the disadvantages of staying on this houseboat and making this whole deal through a company, is that they were really out to get us with extra tours that we didn't want to do, and extra commission on transport fees, it was silly. We ended up having a huge row with the tour company manager, he got so so angry that we didn't want to use him for anything, even a train ticket. He got so stupidly angry that he started to say that if we were to travel on our own, we would either get kidnapped in Srinagar or shot in Jammu (where the closest train station is) Obviously we had looked into the situation and were not so naive to believe everything he said. We left his office very low, and went back to the houseboat. we had a quiet dinner that night, we were both puzzling about what we should do, and mulling over the argument. Our waiter came later to our room with two full hot water bottles, as despite the claims in Delhi, it was bloomin freezing up there at night time, and where was that tulip festival hey?!

The next day we slept and slept, finally letting our jet lag catch up with us, then slept some more। When we finally did get up, much to the disappointment of another guide, we walked into Srinagar ON OUR own। It was fantastic. Just by following our noses, we ended up on the mountain of the fort, but unfortunately you cannot get up to the fort, but we still had a walk round the temple and looked out over the town.

After more exploring, we ended up close to our houseboat again and found a massive market with people everywhere, food stalls, clothes stalls, and just about everything stalls!

There is a huge military presence in Srinagar, which is a little unsettling at first, but after a while, you feel quite safe with them all around.
The next morning, after a bad, cold nights sleep, we woke at 5am and took a ride on a water taxi around lake Nageer, in the dark at first, and then by the time we got to the floating markets, the sun was coming up and we watched the locals going about their business, buying and selling all their fresh produce such as foods, vegs, fruits and flowers. We stayed in the market area and floated around for about an hour, watching the sun rise, while drinking freshly made green tea, a speciality here. When the sun was just rising above the mountains, we made our way back, watching the route we had come in daylight, come to life with people starting to move about the tiny channels and waterways.

Later in the day we got a taxi to take us to some gardens outside of the city, where in one we noticed a group of people and a whole load of dresses (!?) So, we put on the dresses and a professional photographer took photos of us dressed up in traditional Kashmir's clothes, I have to say that we do look rather wonderful in these clothes, and I will Post some pics as soon as I can। We really enjoyed it, I LOVE DRESS UP!

Our last evening, and we decided to go to lake Dal and do another water taxi from there back to our lake। We got a lift from a very sweet guy and his daughter, and they showed us more sights of the city and dropped us off at the Dal houseboats। The journey back was beautiful and it also gave me the opportunity to take the photos that I missed when my cameras batteries died on the floating market that morning.