Living it up on a Houseboat in Kashmir


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Asia » India
April 1st 1974
Published: September 12th 2021
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It was an early start for our run into the Indian capital city, but the heat certainly wasn’t giving us much of a break at that time. Fortunately, near desert conditions, few people and minimal traffic, along with a good quality road resulted in a quick run through to Delhi and we arrived at 2pm. This included a stop off at Amber City, a 16thcentury fort high up on a hill overlooking Jaipur. My body, which has not been in great shape since Kathmandu, took a further turn for the worst today, and I didn’t get to see much of the fort except for the toilets!

The road into Delhi was surprisingly desolate, right up to within 40kms of the city. As a city, it appeared very much cleaner, less populated, and all round a much more appealing city than Calcutta. It still had the same landmarks – street water pumps, hand pulled rickshaws, Kwality Ice Cream stalls etc, and we were advised it also had its own ‘dry day’ for alcohol. We stayed at the YMCA in Jai Singh Rd, which fortunately was close to the centre of New Deli and all the action. Connaught Place, the main tourist thoroughfare, was divided into sections, and was a real shopper’s bonanza for those not on a budget. After some mango milkshakes, we four had dinner at a Kwality Restaurant.

Next day, we took an early morning excursion around the city on the bus, starting at 9am. A general drive through New Delhi showed us that that part of the city is probably the most appealing of all the big Eastern cities – clean, with well laid out gardens, few stalls and beggars, and some quaint architecture. We first visited the Qubt Minar (the Muslim tower of victory), and in true touristy fashion, we put our arms around the famed unrusted Iron Pillar. Other morning visits included the Red Fort (another one!), Parliament Buildings, Ghandi’s tomb, and a couple of Indian handcraft centres. We finally got dropped off at the Chandri Chouk, the bazaar of Old Delhi, where apart from a few toiletries, my main buy was a magnificent 2Rp one pint mango milkshake.

We took in a ‘Sound and Light’ show at the Red Fort in the evening – found it a bit boring, but maybe I was just tired. Julie, crook from earlier in the day, took off early, taking Peta with her. We had dinner at the Moti Mahal restaurant, where our Tandoori chicken was pretty costly at 17Rp, but well worth it, as we took advantage of the buffet format that allowed us all to really tuck in and it gave us our best meal of the trip to date. The days and nights are still really hot, and sleeping is difficult even when you are dog tired.

The following day was pretty quiet for us. I was invited to have a game of tennis with one of the local boys after breakfast, and succumbed badly after taking a big lead, which was no doubt a combination of the steamy weather and a good indication of my then fitness level! We strolled downtown for a quick look around and a visit to American Express, before splitting back for a Cholera booster (with a minimum of hassles, but nothing like sharing your needle!), and to cash some funds at the bank, at rip-off rates. Finally, we then made it down to the Imperial Hotel for a swim.

Our big night out that evening was at ‘The Cellar’ in Connaught Place, where we took in some great disco with music from the Beatles, Stones etc, coupled with a very competitively priced meal of soup, pizza, ice cream etc for 12Rp. No grog allowed, but in the hot weather that didn’t bother us too much. We kicked on till about 11pm, then back to the Y to pack up for an early start in the morning.

Our 650km drive to Jammu was the longest of the trip to date. After a delayed start till 9am due to some mechanical problems on the bus, we travelled through much lusher countryside to the Punjab and Kashmir regions of Northern India. We passed through a greater number of towns, which appeared cleaner than most but lacking some of the character, eg limited ruins and mosques etc. The weather was a little kinder to us today, as it was overcast for most of the trip. We even picked up some cool in the afternoon as we got our first glimpse of the snow-covered mountains of Kashmir.

My health again didn’t treat me too well, and I was personally responsible for two ‘crap stops’ through my persistent diarrhea. I have a feeling I’ll have to take some action on it soon. The main events of the day were the sighting of a porta-gas transport carrier which had been blown to smithereens with its contents spread over 50 yards, two errant dogs run over by Ted, and a number of peacocks seen by the side of the road.

Arrival at Jammu was around 9pm, and we made straight for the luxurious Jammu Hotel which, although high priced, was super flash and just what we needed after a long day’s drive. Dinner was typical Indian fare, but not too spicy, but the prices for extras and grog was a shocking rip-off.

The following morning was the drive through to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, and despite the fact that it was only 300km, it was a 9-hour trip through very winding mountain roads, similar to those in Nepal. However, it was possibly the prettiest scenery we would see all trip and that certainly helped the time to pass. Kashmir has been described as ‘Paradise on Earth’, and certainly did not disappoint as we wound our way through sheer mountainous road, flanked almost the whole way by the snow-covered peaks of the tail of the Himalayas. The countryside is very lush, and provided tremendous contrast with the pinus radiatas, the small rocky mountain streams, and as we neared Srinagar, the brilliant yellow fields of mustard seed.

We witnessed heaps of army activity along the route, due to our proximity to the Paki border. And we actually had to at one stage pass a convoy of over 50 army trucks on the winding road which was quite a challenge. We reached a height of around 8,000 feet before going through a 1.5-mile tunnel then down into the Kashmir Valley, which stands at around 5,000 ft. We also sighted plenty of wildlife in the form of packs of eagles, vultures, shaggy mountain goats, odd looking sheep etc.

Arrival at Srinagar brought more surprises. Dal Lake, with its rows of houseboats, was quite a magnificent sight. As luck would have it, we scored the pick of the houseboats being directed to the deluxe ‘Baber’, and were allocated a great crew from the bus of Andy, Nola, Peta, Jules, Bob & me. For 25Rp full board, you got 3 houseboys and a cook, along with a fully furnished and decked out boat – you couldn’t ask for better than that! I had a quiet night flaking out on the sofa drinking cheap Indian rum.

After a late breakfast the following morning, we took a shikara (the local canoe-like wooden boats) to shore for a morning shopping excursion. We took in Persian carpets, dresses, paper mache, jewellery and suede gear, and in true touristy form I bought myself a Kashmiri fur hat. We were shown some very expensive carpets (up to 10,000Rp) whose quality was quite superb.

This afternoon’s shikara ride was a marathon 3 hours, which will go down as one of the truly memorable occasions on our trip. The six of us went out to a Muslim festival about a mile down the lake. The trip downstream was through beautiful green shrubbery, which looked a bit like undernourished poplars, and really quaint 2-3 story brick houses with fancy wood carved windows. With the mountainous backdrop ever present, it was a scene of serenity and tranquillity, even a bit ghostly at times. The people were really fascinating – we are now well and truly into Muslim country, where female faces are rarely on show. We also passed a number of boats containing very gypsy-looking people. We stopped at a wood carving place where I renewed my enthusiasm for buying chess sets, having lost my Indonesia chess set with my suitcase on Thai Airways. On the way back, a storm started to blow, and we four cuddled under a blanket and watched the flower blossoms and leaves blow into the shikara – just fabulous!

The night’s party was on the main houseboat, with the best participation yet from the wider Sundowners group, although half of them had left by midnight. We kicked on till 4am, leaving a little the worse for wear after many rum and cokes.

The following day, a Sunday, was spent mainly hanging around the houseboat. We spent the morning sunbathing and then looking at chess sets, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to be taken around the lake on shikaras free of charge. I spent the afternoon writing postcards and then a little later, there was a shikara race, with Andy, Bob and I being close runners-up. Heaps of entertainment was on display for the locals as they came out of their houses to watch the races. After dinner, I went the whole hog and bought another wood carved chess set and table for USD90, for which I just hoped they could be trusted to post it back home!

We set off the following morning for a place called Gulmark for some horse-riding. We travelled in a local bus and reached the set off point about 45 minutes later. The pony ride up took about an hour for a steep, slushy climb through pine trees and intermittent snow. Gulmark is reminiscent in many ways of the Aussie snowfields, with quaint chalets surrounding snow-covered slopes below low-lying cloud. Later in the day, I had my first taste of tobogganing – great fun until I got too adventurous and ended up a cropper with a badly swollen ankle, which we thought might even have been broken at first. The trip back in light rain was absolute misery, with the cold and the jolting of the bus running right through my ankle, and we were really glad to finally get back to Baber and a warm fire around 4pm. Needless to say, I had a pretty quiet evening, reading Newsweek and generally feeling sorry for myself!

Our extra day on the houseboats left us a day behind schedule but it was well worth it. This necessitated an early start that day in order to skip Jammu and make it straight to the Pakistan border. We got away at 6.15am after a fond goodbye to houseboys Abdul, Mohammed and Goalem, who had been great company, and had really enhanced our stay on the houseboat. It was a beautiful crisp morning with the mountains looking absolutely magnificent with the rising sun reflected straight off the snow. The trip down showed this up even better than our arrival since it was a clearer day. We reached Jammu around 2pm and then passed through an interesting town called Batala at around 6pm – a complete engineering town, crammed full of foundries, machine shops, and light and heavy industry.

We finally reached Amritsar, home of the Sikhs, at 7.30pm after a 500km, 13-hour trip. We stayed at the Hotel Astoria, where we had a classy dinner of Pork Chow Mein at the restaurant next door, but an otherwise quiet night, as I had by then completely run out of Indian money. The following morning, we had left the hotel by 9am to visit the Golden Temple at Amritsar. This is the preeminent spiritual site of the Sikhs and built in the late 16th century around a large square man-made pool. It was not dissimilar to other temples we had seen except bigger and much more luxurious, especially with the gold surroundings. The voluntary kitchen was perhaps the most fascinating part of the tour, with chapattis thrown left, right and centre by the showoff volunteers in a real mass production effort.

That completed a stay of over a fortnight and more than 3,500kms travelled in India as we then moved on to the Pakistan border.


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15th September 2021

Kashmir
I don't know if I'll ever see Kashmir but it has been on the bucket list for a long time. I enjoyed this blog. Thanks. MJ
15th September 2021

Kashmir
Yeah, it's sad that such a beautiful part of the world should have been caught up for so long in politics.

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