In Srinagar, there is the Dal Lake. There are houseboats on it. I am staying in one now.
There are also Mughal gardens, like this one. They are very symmetrical.
Anyway, so when we left off I was in Pahalgam. The next morning I was going to hike more but it rained, so we went back to Srinagar. Then today I went to Gulmarg. Pictures of all this will be coming up. Tomorrow I'm on another long bus to Amritsar via Jammu; I actually am looking forward to getting out of Kashmir. It's pretty but expensive (burn rate ~$75/day, but that was because I booked this driver half-accidentally) and kind of isolated. My phone doesn't work, the internet cafes are few and far between, I don't know how to meet other travelers, and I have to ask my houseboat operator whenever I want to go to land. In addition, everyone wants to plan your whole trip for you, and this is frustrating. When I ask "how do you do X?" the answer is always "okay, I'll do X for you." (and then ask you to pay for it after it's done.) Finally, everyone's always asking for more money, tips, etc; welcome to touristy parts of India, I guess.
It has not been awesome! But there have been awesome parts. More later about those.
Hi Dan! It's Grampa's birthday. He says the mountains there look like Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteNice pictures!
It's breathtakingly beautiful! OMG! Is that sunrise or sunset on the water? Either way it looks like an awesome place to meditate I bet. Did u try it out? I'm sorry to hear that you're having a hard time with the supposed *guides*. Thanks to you though, I'm able to appreciate these wonderful places. Oh and Happy Birthday to your Grampa :-) Mine is tomorrow :-) Varsha
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Grandpa! (and Varsha)
ReplyDeleteI mean, it wasn't really all that peaceful, probably because of my rushed schedule and all the additional hassles.
They do call it the "Switzerland of India", though, numerous times! I think I'd rather go to Switzerland. They're similar: beautiful, mountainous, expensive! Instead of chocolate, though, you have Kashmiri food. (...which actually is really good and I should write a bit about that.)