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Published: October 2nd 2007
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Leh to Srinigar
The road cuts through barren ravines
After Leh I decided it was time for another horribly long bus ride in uncomfortable seats... I decided to opt for the middle seat completely at the back... Or in fact the man at the ticket counter must have read my mind and gave me this most auspicious seat... Ah, how I love to be bounced around with nothing to hold on to... The bus ride in question was from Leh to Srinigar with a five hour stop over in Kargil... I was in luck and had two lovely Korean girls to keep me company in the back... The scenery was spectacular as usual... We left Buddhist country just before Kargil, from there on it is Muslim and minarets dominate the towns... The trip from Kargil to Srinigar was done during the night on quite a bumpy road and accompanied with some screaming in the middle of the night... Yes, waking up to an Indian girl screaming (presumably something like 'we are all going to die' in Hindi) and the bus tilting precariously to one side is something else... But as you can read, nothing horrific happened and I am still able enough to write this tale...
We came to
Leh to Srinigar
Insterspersed with green valleys
Srinigar in the morning and after looking around a bit for a suitable houseboat found a great deal on Dal Lake, with a friendly fellow. I had my own room with attached bathroom and hot water for a mere 200 rupees and that included a good breakfast and a good dinner and a tea for lunch. The boat was very nice, the weather wasn't... The Gods had decided it was time for some rain... I must say I liked Srinigar, it has a very beautiful old town with rickety old wooden houses with lovely carvings on them, the Kashmiri style Mosque's are also quite special and unique and if you are tired of the crowds you can go to the Mughal gardens on the other side of Dal Lake... Ever wonder why Islamic gardens always have some kind of waterway straight through the middle of them? No? Well neither have I, but I was informed this was because in the Holy Quran there is a description of paradise and it says it is cut in half by a stream of milk and honey... Since they couldn't recreate the milk and honey, they went for the next best thing, which is
Leh to Srinigar
One of the last Buddhist monestaries before leaving Ladakh
a garden cut in half by a nice stream. If ever this question comes up with Trivial Pursuit you stun your opponents by knowing the answer to it...
After a few enjoyable days in Srinigar we left for different destinations, I went to Dalhousie, a former British Hill Station and the two Korean girls to some other hill retreats... Apart from Srinigar I shall remember Kashmir as the place with the golden vales... Or so it seemed, with the wheat fields covering the valleys interspersed with little wooden villages... And maybe they were really made of gold, as there seemed to be an Indian soldier guarding every field...
So Dalhousie it was and a very peaceful place it is. Small and uncluttered and of course blessed with great views as all the Hill Stations are... I took a day trip to Chamba, which has some interesting Hindu temples, dedicated to the various incarnations of Vishnu... And the next day I was gone again... On my way to call on the Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj... But unfortunately he wasn't home... I left a note under his door... There were however lots of tourists... And a both sobering and
Srinigar
Houseboats on Dal Lake
depressing Tibet Museum, telling what has happened to Tibet in the 50 odd years of occupation... And of course, many, many Tibetan monks and refugees...
As I was doing a tour of the Hill Stations, my next destination was Shimla, once the summer capital of the British Raj... In fact, it seems until 1939, the whole British administration packed up it's bags and left for Shimla come summer. There are some impressive reminders of this time and parts of it look just like an English country village... It is also a favourite of the well to do Indian crowd and now is peak season for them... So maybe it looks like an English country village inhabited by loads of Indians and a bunch of monkeys, with the odd foreign tourist strolling around.
And now I am in Mussoorie, yet another British Hill station and also crowded with Indian tourists... But today I leave for the plains, and as I am writing this I am breathing in the last bits of fresh and cool mountain air... Alas, it is time to go...
My conclusion, the wise take their time and hike around, the fools rush from one Hill
Srinigar
Salesman on his boat
Station to another in cramped buses... But sometimes you need to be a fool to appreciate the wise! In the words of a famous Austrian: ' I'll be back'
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Jenny
non-member comment
wow
yeah, i am just going to say that again. wow