Coconut Travels: Goodbye Delhi, Hello Beautiful Srinigar (Paradise on Earth)

Our flight was at 10 am. We left the Aditi B&B at 8 am. We had a couple of parathas and we waved bye to the help. I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with Delhi, but I think in another 10 to 15 years it will be better. The drive to the airport was nice and quick as traffic is light at 8 am.

We arrived at the airport and at first everything was going smoothly. Check in was nice and quick with Air Deccan, but that's where the relaxation ended and the frustration began. We were shuffled into a lineup for security checks on the hand baggage as well as the scanning of individuals. There were 5 lanes. 1 lane for the ladies and four for the men but the lines were huge. There were only 2 police officers regulating the five lanes. It took so long for people to get through the security checks that some passengers missed their flights and others were shuffled to the front of the line so that they wouldn't is theirs... After half an hour of that we were finally sitting with a view of the dingy domestic departures. Once again we were shuttled to our flight, which wasn't that different from Spice Jet and we were on our merry way to Srinigar.

The flight was nice and quick. We arrived in Srinigar an hour later and at first sight it looked amazingly simliar to Calgary, except more luscious with greenery. At first sight, Kashmir truly lives up to its motto "Paradise on Earth". The climate was similar to Calgary, but a little bit more humid. The Srinigar airport was tiny and as soon as we got off the plane we noticed the heavy police and military presence here. Every officer was carrying an AK47 rifle. There was only one baggage claim and the arrival building was a 20 x 20 foot building. The baggage claim looked like it could only hold suitcases as wide as a shriveled up midget and the washrooms had paper sheets attached to them identifying which was mens and which was womens. As a law, all foreigners have to register with the Kashmiri governing body by filling out a form stating what you are in Kashmir for, who you are visting, for how long, and where you are going to go once you leave Kashmir. They really do their due dilligence here I must admit.

Brother of Travel Agent & Houseboat Host

We walked out towards the car and met the brother of the travel agents in Delhi. We drove into Srinigar and I was startled to see houses as big as the ones in Canada with big windows and plots. Even the malls were a bit more modern. It was kinda weird considering this state is on the border with so many other countries and is the most remote part of India. There were army and office personnel on every block monitoring the streets with their rifles and bullet proof vests. Kashmiris are increibly white and pale. You could easily mistake them for caucasians dressed up in fancy traditional clothing.

Houseboat on Daal Lake

Shikara on Daal Lake

Inside of Shikaras, Daal Lake

Half an hour later, we were staring at our destination; a beautiful houseboat named the Highland queen across Daal Lake. We had to take a sikhara, which is a fancy word for a boat to get to our accomodation. The Shikara boats are similar to the thailand floating market boats, but the colors in the shikaras are more punchy.

Fishing in a Shikara on Daal Lake - This is how relaxing it can be in Srinigar

Strange Green Undergrowth, Daal Lake

The lake is ten to fifteen feet deep at the deepest point. It also had some strange green growth underneath the water that you could almost touch if you stuck your hand in there. It looked like submerged pine trees only smaller and thinner. Once in our houseboat, we had some kashmiri tea.Kashmiri tea consists of green tea and other herbs as well as cinammon and is quite tasty. You can either have it with sugar or without. I of course chose no sugar and it was yummy :)

Traditional Kashmiri Dress

Kashmiri Outfit Photographers

After tea, our host made us dress up in traditional kashmiri outfits and take photos which was fun. Interestingly the photographers were still using film cameras 25 years old. The dressing up was fun and something different. We had some lunch and headed on our way for sightseeing around Srinigar. The scenery is beautiful from the houseboat.

Srinigar - View of Daal Lake with houseboats

First stop was a temple up on a mountain. Oh yeah, there's also mountains everywhere in Srinigar and it's about 600 m higher than Calgary. These are the start of the himalaya mountains and these are tiny. I can only imagine how much larger the mountains are as you further north. Anyhow, once we went through two security checks of careful inspections of our hand baggage and our vehicle we drove up a long and narrow windy road to the base of the temple. Another three hundred steps up and I was staring at a Shiv-ling, which is a big black barrel with three white lines on it's "forehead". Apparently this temple was built in the fifth century and it is where Shiva rested. As a result a lot of hindus come here. It's quite the view from the top and that itself makes the strenous trek worth it. As a side note, all religious places of worship will not allow you to take cameras so either be prepared to leave your luggage with the army or give it to your driver.

Moghul Garden, Srinigar

Some Native Flowers to Srinigar

Our Tour Guide at another Mughal Garden, Srinigar

Mother and Son at Moghul Garden, Srinigar

We then headed back down and went to various mughul gardens. These are the same gardens that the moghuls used three to four hundred years ago. Nothing to great to see in my opinion. Well, I should be fair, I was very tired I've seen better and far more impressive elsewhere. But, the gardens are beautiful and well maintained. It's pretty wild to imagine that these were the same gardens that were used by the moghuls centuries ago and it's understandable why they loved this place.

Looming Rain Clouds

Floating Vegetable Garden and Harvester

Beautiful Daal Lake at Srinigar

Vegetable Picker Daal Lake

We came back to the houseboat and decided to go for some shopping. The cool thing was, we got to take the shikara and travel around the floating market. This part of the journey in the evening was quite relaxing and beautiful. Of course it started raining on us and we found ourselves inside a papier mache and carpet place. Kashmir is known for their papier mache and kashmiri carpets which are world renowned and right up there with persian carpets. We quickly perused the papier mache stuff and then decided to go look at carpets. The sales guy at the carpets place was nice but the price of the carpets were just too out of our range.We took a look at some silk on silk carpets that costed as much as up to $15000 canadian for a 9 x 12 carpet.

Papier Mache, Floating Market on Daal Lake

Carpet Salesman checking his books

We backed away from that place as quickly as possible and instead focussed our efforts on kashimri shawls and dresses. The dresses were ok, but the shawls were cooler. After some intense bargaining and a slight shuffle of the feet we walked away with 14 items at an incredibly good price and headed back to the houseboat. The power had gone out so of course we couldn't take a hot shower. Called it a night at 8 o clock.