Days 4 - 6

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So we woke up ready to explore Srinagar...

After a lovely breakfast prepared by Javi, Bashir (another guy who worked on the House Boat) told us he had to take us to the 'office' to formally sign in, and that it would only take 30 mins. So Bashir took us on the boat to the 'office' which was in a completely different part of the lake in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was really shifty - obviously, but once we got there we saw that a Greek guy who was on our bus from Delhi to Srinagar was staying at the 'office' - which was actually a shabby shack pretending to be accommodation for Tourists.

We arrived at the 'office' at 10.30am, after asking and asking why we were even there an Indian guy who ran the place, called Ali, basically lied his way through everything - despite claiming to have our best interests.

Us: "Ali, why are we even here?"

Ali: "Oooh English, Fish and Chips! You need to give me photocopiesof your passport and sign them."

Us: "Well we had them in our room, so why were we brought here??"

Ali: "ooohhh well we will get a boat to take us into town and you can give me photocopies. Relaxxxx, it's cooooll, this is a hippy island, just chilllll. Come on English, y'know... Fish and Chips!, Chicken Curry! Relaxxx."

Us: Not impressed. At all.



5.5 hours later, there's still no sign of a boat after constantly asking. So finally, Ali brought us a boat. A tiny crappy boat to fit himself, another Indian guy, us two, and the people who were staying at the shack which consisted of three French guys, Costas (The Greek guy) and a middle aged Italian woman. The boat ride back into town was about 30 mins long, and because the boat was so overloaded water was constantly seeping in. The boat was slowly sinking, with 9 people on board.... haha it was the funniest yet the most ridiculous thing.

But we eventually arrived into town. We photocopied our passports, signed them and gave them to Ali. Before he had a chance to try and get us to book our next accommodation and tours with him, we left and went back to the Boat House.

We were both really annoyed because we'd wasted a whole day - doing nothing. Nikki unleashed the rage in Bashir's direction once we arrived back. He didn't know what to do or say, bless him.

We chilled out that night looking out at the lake and things were much better the next day. Nikki puts it down to her outburst, of course.



We went into town and walked and walked and walked. It was lovely. The sun was out, there weren't any clouds in the sky and we didn't have Ali in our faces! Nikki bought a Pashmina scarf, and we were pretty happy all in all. We took an hour long Shakira boat ride, and the guy controlling the boat made Nikki a flower bracelet and picked out lots of water flowers for her from the lake. Once we got back to the House Boat we spoke to an Irish guy who was staying there, and he gave us loads of tips for our next destination, leh, Ladakh.

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Comments

[grandad]

first reply
I envy your adventure.have fun , take care ,look after yourselves .If you see a place called Jellalabad thats the name on my regimental cap badge ,dont forget that travel in asia is like scuba diving ,watch out for sharks