Srinagar, Kashmir Valley

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3rd September 2006 - Blue Bird boat house, Nigeen Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir Valley.

We were really glad to leave the Hotel Namascar this morning. I had another poor night's sleep (not helped by the sound of the television in the hotel lobby carrying very easily up to our floor through the huge gaps covered only by metal grates!) The air conditioning unit was a catch 22 affair. Whilst it resolved the muggy heat and resultant sweat problem, its operating volume made sleep just as difficult.

So today we are flew north to Srinagar in Kashmir. This is an area that the British foreign office advise against all but essential travel to. I did not realise that both Pakistan and China were occuping parts of Kashmir. Of course, this is a rather Indian perspective - the area that Pakistan are occuping is called "Free Kashmir" in Pakistan.

Delhi Domestic Airport was a nightmare. To sum up, we queued at the wrong queues, had bags scanned, tagged, then they had to be re-identified on the tarmac before being loaded into the plane - none of this intricate set of procedures was explained to us beforehand.

"WILL MR D FOX AND MISS V PRICE TRAVELLING ON FLIGHT 853 TO SRINAGAR PLEASE IDENTIFY THEIR BAGGAGE IMMEDIATELY" announced the tanoy...

Panic. Confusion. Identify our baggage? We've already checked it in! It's been scanned and tagged! What more do they want? Whilst some of the airport staff were entirely unsympathetic others seem to be well aware our confusion. After obtaining three more stamps on our boarding passes, we were allowed to board the plane to Srinagar after a further two body searches.

On the plane we met a brother and sister travelling duo, in their early twenties, from Colorado called Rachel and Connor. When I asked them where they were from Rachel almost had a look of apology on her face. "It's nice to see Americans outside of America", I said. There was, however, a lot of symmetry between us - they too had arrived in Delhi on a one-way ticket and were also staying on a houseboat in Srinagar.

"Do you know if it is safe in Kashmir?", Rachel asked. I thought "It's a bit late for that..." but passed on some reassurance that we were many miles away from the potential trouble near the border and gave them our spare India map which they appeared very grateful for. They also had plans to visit some far eastern Indian states and were meeting family in Kathmandu. We passed on a link to our blog. I hope that they get in touch.

Landing at Srinagar felt like being dropped into a warzone. It's more of an army base, than an airport as I knew it. It is surrounded by a huge military village and there are soldiers EVERYWHERE. Apparently it is the most heavily guarded airport in India. So in one sense I suppose we were very safe.

The airport staff were very friendly. "You are British? Ah very good. You are staying at the Bluebird Houseboat? Ah yes that is very nice. A man is waiting to collect you outside. Please sir, put your passport away now. Nobody else needs to see it."

Kashmir was just recovering from three days of freak rain and it was quite a mission to navigate all the huge puddles and muddy pools in my sandles in order to reach our waiting car. I was very grateful to Vic for packing our anoraks and jumpers as the temperature had dropped from 35 degrees celcius in Delhi to a very brisk 12 in Srinagar (over 1000m above sea level)

The 20km drive to the lake raised lots of questions. The roads were very good, lined with huge houses, so different from the shanty squalor of Delhi. These were architectually magnificent.

"What are the main industries here?", I asked our guide, "Is there any oil, or diamond mining?", I added.

"No there is no petrochemical industry here.", he replied eloquently.

"You have some very big houses here in Kashmir", I added, in an attempt to provide some reasoning for my questions.

"We have some very big families.", he replied.

Vic and I were not convinced. There was definitely something going on here, or there at least had been.

The houseboat looked like it had seen better days but it was very homely and we were made to feel very welcome by our hosts. The rain stopped and the skies cleared to reveal a beautiful sunset over the lake. Other than the occasional wailing from a nearby mosque the place was extremely peaceful.

We initially thought that being the only guests at the houseboat (which can cater for up to 8 people at a time) was a bonus - our package included bed, breakfast and evening meal. However when our host stood and watched us eat, constantly egging us on to eat more, it became rather overbearing and we began to wish there were other guests here to dilute the attention we were receiving. We retired to our room immediately after dinner.

4th September 2006

Oh dear. We thought we had escaped Delhi pleasantly innocent of the famous "Delhi Belly" but, it was waiting for us here in Kashmir.  I promised you tails of diahorrea and much that I would like to disappoint you I'm afraid I have to blog in detail, squirt by squirt, just how our bodies our "adapting" to our new "gastronomic milieu". Or in other words, we're both shitting through the eye of a needle at the moment...

Unfortunately we are reliant on the same source of food (from our houseboat) that we suspect has given us this poisoning. We are both spending the day in bed, fully clothed as it's pretty damn cold here. Vic and I are playing "toilet tag team" and have already sent our host out to buy a precautionary five toilet rolls. He also kindly offered to obtain some beer on the black market for me (controlled by the army) which, reading on the label is "no less than 5.2% ABV and no more than 8.5%" - but alas that did not come through.

So our plan, once our stools solidify, is to catch a bus to Leh via Kargil. It's a 24 hour journey so we are splitting it up over two days. There's a weekly flight tomorrow from Srinagar to Leh and we were tempted to take it. But I think that slowly our attitudes are changing so that we regard the travelling itself as important as the "destination". So whilst a 24 hour bus journey with less than perfect guts isn't exactly a golden prospect, I think it may provide the "hardening" we so obviously need. Also, by gradually ascending the further 4000 metres to Leh we will minimise altitude sickness.

So far then we have seen very little of Srinagar, cooped up in our boathouse cabin. But it's actually really nice taking a few days out after Delhi, and we need to concentrate on getting better so that we can move on to Kargil, which is just a few kilometres from the Pakistani line of control. We can't catch the bus until we hear that the road to Leh is passable again as it has been flooded since the unexpected rains.

The next paragraph is one I wrote in secret as I had already scared Vic too much by likening our predicament to a plot in a Stephen King book ...

I have to admit that I feel a little bit vulnerable on this houseboat. Whilst our hosts can't seem to do enough for us, I am still getting paranoid thoughts that they are slowly poisoning us in order to extort our travel insurance through a "medical practitioner". These stupid thoughts are not helped by the way our host loitered around the dinner table last night trying to pile as much food onto our plates as he could and then watched us eat it. I will be glad to leave, I have to admit, and regain a sort of independence that I feel we have lost in coming to this houseboat. However, it is nice being waited on when we feel as shitty as we do.