Travel Magic - Independent World

Skaria carries whatever you can imagine

Kashmir is considered to be a beautiful - some call it "Heaven on the Earth". And yes, it's so different to the in Kashmir then in Ladakh. From a dry and rocky country you come to an amusing greenery. Higher mountains keeps snow all year round and it mix with the green of the grass and trees in summer. There are many trees everywhere and coming from a rocky & dry mountains (which I really love) you just cannot help it and you have to keep staring! It takes a while, before this amusement wears off and your mind rest and eyes starts slowly browsing around.

After arriving to Srinagar (capital of Kashmir) I of course stayed on the houseboat. This I believe is really the must, when you come there. At least for one night. It is so beautiful to be cut of the usual surrounding with all its noise, streets, pollution and also cars, tracks, walking people. You are left with a boats, water, birds and nice views. Sometimes enriched by a passing "shikara" (local small transport boat with a shelter like small roof). They can carry anything you might imagine - from a passengers, to a different load like household things, big gas canisters, vegetables, whole shops from the food to a carpets, .... If you want to go for a ride, you just catch one passing or you use a smaller boat, which every houseboat owner has for use.

My host and his more than a hundred old nargile

It is unforgettable to wake up early in the morning, make a few steps and be on the boat terrace watching the sunrise. Surrounding mountains and its reflection on the water surface just enrich the whole view. This experience followed by a yummy breakfast (local bread with butter, honey, egg vegetable omelet and Kawa) followed by a Nargile (if only they had an Egyptian style tobacco here, it would be absolutely great). What else can you ask for?

I stayed on the Dal Lake - the biggest of them all and situated near the Srinagar main city. Dal Lake itself is 8 km long and 4 km wide. It has three main islands - "Ropa Lank" (silver island), popular "Char Chinari" - with a four Chinar trees and "Sona Lank" (golden island) at the south end. There are around 1.200 houseboats on it with up to 2 -6 double bed rooms including bathrooms, with modern furnishing, dinning rooms, kitchen, terraces. Most of them are decorated by a beautiful carvings made from "deodar wood". There are some normal houses in between the boats built on the small pieces of land, also floating gardens, ....

Locals resting in the Botanical Garden - near Cheshmashahi

The family I have stayed with was living in the small hat built just behind their luxurious houseboat, which they use as a source of income and inhabit it, when the tourists are not about. There was a small peace of land around the hat, but n my time it was under the water due to too much rain in last few days. The hat itself is secured on the poles, high above the water level. Family has seven members - three sons and two daughters (one of them is married). I made a friends with them and usually stayed talking and eating in their house, rather then on the houseboat.

Evening on the Dal Lake - Srinagar - Kashmir

Water merchants - my host and nargile in the morning

Because of the problems in Kashmir and recent killings of some Indian tourists I had the whole houseboat for myself. This mean a luxurious houseboat consisting of two large rooms, kitchen, living room and terrace - in wonderful quiet location of the back gardens with a stunning view on the "Aqua Fort", open water space with houseboat village in distance and surrounding mountains. There were just a few tourist in Kashmir, when I arrived so I paid only a fraction of usual price for such a luxury. For this kind of Supper Deluxe houseboat with a very good view and including food (breakfast, dinner, tea all the time, nargile, ....) you would have to normally look deep in your pocket. Out of season at least 1.000 RS (13 British Pounds) and in the season you start on 1.500 RS or much more per night! Of course, this would not be something likely for my budget, so I was again lucky with the timing :) Thanks to the reasonable price I stayed for a four nights.

To get ashore, you just need to take a local small boat or catch a "shkaria" to take you there. It is normal way of the transport, so you can just hitch any of them passing by. Lakes have their own community, much separated to people living on the land. You can find there everything - floating - wanna shave, see a barber on the boat, also medical services, tailor, various shops, restaurants, phone, internet - whatever you might think of - it is all floating around you.

Continue your reading here: - "Kashmir - Shalimar, Dal Lake, Moughal gardens, 2/2

Shalimar garden - water ways

Srinagar and it surrounding has some interesting sights to visit: There is an "Aqua Fort" situated on the steep hill in between the lakes. It creates nice view point from the houseboats, but as it is occupied by the army, it is not possible to visit. In the Mughal times many gardens were built. The most famous are situated around the Dal Lake. Closes to Srinagar is "Cheshmashahi" (Royal Spring - 9 km). On the foothills of Zabarwan mountains, with the famous spring, known for its medical properties. The garden was laid out in 1632 by Ali Mardakhan. Just under it, is a newly built Botanical Garden. It was created by an Indian government for local people to have a place to rest and relax. It is quite big, so everybody has enough space to enjoy a picnic with nargile on Sunday. Above the Cheshmashahi garden - three km up to road is "Pari Mahal" (palace of fairies) - it used to house a school of astrology built by Prince Dhara Shukho, eldest son of Shahjahan, who was interested in observation of stars and Sufism. There are spectacular views on lakes and surrounding mountains. The only spot on the visit is strong army presence and sandbags bunkers build in every corner. Next garden is called "Nishat Bagh" (garden of pleasure - 11 km) and it is a largest of the Mughal gardens, measuring 548 meters. It is followed by "Shalimar Garden" (garden of love - 15km) - built by emperor Jehangir for his wife Nur Jehan in 1616. It has four terraces, with water channels running through its middle. Just above it is a smaller "Harwan Garden" (20km) with a big water reservoir. You can climb up the small hill to enjoy a view on it. Nearby lies trout hatchery and Wild Life Sanctuary, where you are supposed to find the Kashmirs stag "Hangul", black bears, leopards, musk deer, marmots, various birds and unique shrubs and herbs. To get permit for its visit is quite hard - money and time consuming. Also we managed to pass through the most obstacles and entered into the reservation we were stopped by army about 2 km from the entry and even so having all the permits not allowed to continue. Well, that is India. Of course, the money you spent are NOT REFUNDABLE.

Shalimar garden - one of the Moughal gardens around the Dal Lake

There is also famous "Hazratbal Shrine" (10km) which enshrines the holy relic of Prophet Muhamad (Pbuh)". 'Moi-e-muqadas' the sacred hair was brought to India in 1634 by Syyid Abdullah and acquired by Khwaja Noor-ud-Din Ishbari a Kashmiri trader in 1692. It's displayed on some religious occasions during the year. And also "Jamia Masjid" (5km) the oldest mosque founded in 1398 AD by Sultan Sikandar. It is an architectural wonder with 370 wooden pillars supporting the roof.

I made a good friend in Kashmir. He is from Shalimar village, which is about 15 km away from the Srinagar. I have spend some nice time with him and also visited some local places, met with some of his friends and stayed in his house. There I had a lots of very good Kashmiri food.

Trout shopping

Last evening we cooked a dinner with another guy from Austria for our friends family. We got this idea with Uli (Ulrich), when we went to a local trout hatchery. We both eat the trout in the similar way (just cleaned stuffed with garlic and some salt and pepper - in the end sparkled with lemon), so we thought - why not to make a dinner for our hosts instead. It was really interesting for us to just occupy their kitchen and cook the dinner for them as they all very watching our effort. We cooked a 9 rainbow trouts (freshly obtained from the hatchery in the dream price for the western world - 150 RS per KG), with potatoes and lots of salad. Then we served the dinner to all the family and one friend who stayed for dinner too. It seemed to succeed well. And we had all good fun. I have finished the evening by smoking a nargile with Ashik's father.

In general, I find Kashmir very beautiful place with nice people. Though on the other hand, the strong army presence creates many problems. This is not really because of the separatists & militant groups, which for sure do exist! But in many cases because of the army behaviour to the local people and the way how the area of Kashmir is ruled. Most of the local people are really sick of the army and the way, how Indian government deals with them. This opinion is very common between all the levels of the Kashmir nation, from the simple people on the street to a well educated ones.

I must say, although the country is so beautiful and didn't have any direct bad experience there - I still felt under the pressure. Something like not being really secure and all the time expecting something to occur. This was a bit strange.

view from Pari Mahal - the old castle

I think, this was created by the stories I heard around and things which had happened only in one week of my staying. Like: I have learned about the granate blast & open fire on the army jeep on the road to Srinagar, which we passed by bus about half an hour before. Also six Indian tourists were killed not even a three weeks before my arrival in Srinagar. Sometimes I could hear some shooting in the night silence and two days before my departure the army shot to death a young - 22 years old guy - student - without an apparent reason. They left him lying on the side of the road in very inhuman way for quite long time (looked like some kind of trophy). You could see the picture of it in the local newspaper and all the locals were so angry about this, you can not imagine. Army's explanation of the incident was very poor and contradicting. And I am sure, this will cause many further problems in near future. There were already some demonstrations going on from the students and army had reacted by going to a college building later on and beating lots of students very badly there. Looks like no human rights are applied there at all.