Moving our base

We slept in today. It was a leisurely breakfast before leaving the houseboat at 1100. The houseboat is actually docked on the side of the lake close to a small road, even though we had rowed across from the other shore when we arrived … I suppose that is for a more dramatic effect.

The houseboat had organised a taxi for us, again at a rip-off price which required us to bargain it down to half. The taxi took us to our new base in Srinagar city, the Lonely Guesthouse, which took forever to find.

The grounds of the guesthouse was a mess while work was in progress. The guesthouse itself was clean and simple, but not too central. The other choices were either far out (as well) or overpriced and lacklustre.

After a rest we took a tuktuk to the museum (which was closed) then to Lal Mandir and walked around the main shopping streets. Initially, the shops were quite upmarket with many beautiful craft shops.

As we walked around by the river and towards the clock tower, it became more authentic. There were lots of shops selling cheap clothing, housewares etc, some in beautiful old wooden buildings. The tuktuk ride back took us through colourful and interesting areas as well.

Srinagar doesn’t feel like any part of India, or even Jammu in the same state. It is quite clean and so very Muslim, whereas even Jammu is extremely Hindu. The people that we’ve dealt with seem to speak good English and are more understandable.  And tea is usually lightly sweetened green (without milk) rather than strong and milky.

The architecture is very different too … ugly flat roof concrete blocks don’t exist here due to the winter snowfall and instead the buildings have sloping roofs.

Sadly, due to the unsettled nature of life in Srinagar, there is a huge military presence along with plenty of razor wire coiled up, ready to be stretched out if necessary.