I'm OK, really - don't worry

Day 6 and I'm alive, no worries everyone!

OK, so the internet really sucks here; I can't access work or comcast accounts for some reason and connection is super slow.

Besides that, I am having the time of my life. Unfortunately, y'all will have to wait until I get back to Delhi to download the photos onto this blog.

Hope you can read thru this 6 day journal, I'll try to make it short..and in bullets so it'll be easy to read.

1. Made it to Srinigar on wednesday OK, super tight security..lots of scarey looking military guys with big guns!

2. Irshad met me at airport and took me to his family home

3. Met his fabulous family - decided to stay with them for the duration of trip; so no fabulous and luxurious grand palace hotel for this gal

4. Incredible people, I think I've been adopted into this family. Wait till you see the photos!

5. Lucky me, I tagged along to his sister's day 5 wedding celebration at the in-laws. Very interesting and formal. More later

6. What! squat toilets? Oh yes, girl! Hey, they're cleaner than the ones in china for sure. Just a few cultural differences that I'm finally adjusted to; sleeping on the floor is nothing! No way am I taking cold baths.

7. LOVE the family - they totally opened their hearts to me; they truly are warm, generous and loving. HUGE family...and they're all nice! and the food! Can you say rogan gosht?

8. Took 1st road trip to Gulmarg (the swiss alpes equiv)...got caught in a huge thunderstorm, got soaking wet but got some great pix of boys and girls! They didn't know what to make of me; got a lot of stares for sure. Didn't make it up to see the glaciers since it was storming. Overall nice, but lots of litter and there's construction going on.

8. Jet Lag! no sleep for about 2 days...not bad actually

9. Friday - just a beautiful sunny day; finally got a chance to catch up w/ reading in the garden while the boys helped mom do the laundry....sweet....in case you haven't figured it out....family's number one in this culture

10. Did I mention breakfast? It's always kashmiri naan with...get this...milk tea with salt! No kidding; it's actually quite yummy. Make sure you dunk the bread in the tea, you'll choke otherwise

11. Friday - short road trip after lunch to Dal Lake...going thru town was dusty and your typical chaos..once you get past the string of houseboats and get further away, you can see why it's spectacular...wait for the pix! Oh yes, there's the military guys posted everywhere along the lake...makes you feel warm and fuzzy

12, All parks are closed friday afternoons because of prayer.....no big deal. We stopped off at the big shrine on the Lake, it's the Hazratbal mosque and shrine.

13. What can you get for 50 rupees? a henna tattoo on my hand..I think we overpaid. Got it at the park by the lake.

14. Fantastic market along the way to the mosque....pretty yummy stuff...of course they're all deep fried. What a way to end my first 3 days.

15. Stay tuned for Part II ...coming up next

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