Srinagar-Ladakh-Delhi Trip: Day 1: Srinagar City

Its been a week that since I've been back from my holiday, and I'm still feeling the withdrawal symptoms! It was the best holiday of my adult life, and I just didn't want to come back to my  mundane Pune life!
Anyway, its over and I'm gonna have to survive on these memories till the next holiday, so just sharing a few here.

Before leaving, we had to weigh all the bags, since we couldn't cross 15kg per person, and we had a lot of stuff!

In the air finally, after months of planning!!

We left at 7.10 am and reached Srinagar at around 1pm, after hour long halts at Mumbai & Delhi!

There was a 2-day bandh in  Srinagar, to protest the Zubin Mehta concert taking place here, and these two days just happened to be the first two days of our holiday! Though it turned out to be a good thing for us, since the roads were practically empty, and we didn't have to face any crazy traffic.

The deserted streets of Srinagar

After checking in at the guest house (courtesy of my aunt, who has contacts!!), we went out for a quick lunch at a dhaba, and had the best, most awesome paneer ever! It was so soft and just melted in my mouth; now I know how my North Indian friends feel when they have the paneer here! The dhaba was just opposite the famous Dal lake, and so after eating, we went to have a look at the Shikaras there.

The area was empty of tourists, and only the shikara/houseboat owners were sitting, and looking around for tourists. As soon as they spotted us, we were surrounded by them with various offers of shikara rides and houseboat stays also. One old guy got hold of us a little early and convinced us to have a look at his houseboat, after which we could decide whether to spend the night there or not. I wanted to, since it would be a totally new experience, but I don't think and of the others were that enthusiastic, other than my uncle.

Anyway, we hired a shikara (400 INR for an hour-long ride), and decided to have a look. Getting into it was a very complicated feat, and required us to properly balance ourselves, since the boat would just sway in either direction and look like it was about to capsize with us in it. All of us got on safely, not without a few scares though, and left the shores.

 

Shikaras

The water was filled with some weeds of some sort, so I think even if we fell into the water, we might not have sunk too deep. There were some people fishing as well. When we asked about the type offish and if crocodiles were there in the lake, the guide seriously replied: "Crocodiles are not allowed in the lake!" I instantly had a picture in my mind of a crocodile being denied entry and having to go back sad!

Apparently, they had experimented some years back by putting a crocodile in the lake, but it caused a lot of disturbances, overturning the shikaras and all. And so was removed from the lake, and since then crocodile are not allowed in the Dal lake!

 

Houseboats

There were a wide range of houseboats to suit nearly every type of tourist, domestic, foreign, rich, not-so-rich. The one we were taken to was very old, and dusty and moth-ridden! Yes, we got one of the sad ones. Anyway, I didn't even go inside since we were asked to take off our shoes before entering. The others went and had a look and didn't like it at all, so we carried on with the shikara ride.

Below is one of the older houseboats in which people still live. It was the biggest one we saw.

The lake was filled with lotus plants, whose roots I think are used by the locals in cooking.

Half an hour was already spent and we had another half remaining, so decided to go to the market area, which was also practically deserted due to the bandh. A few shops were open, mostly of clothes/shawls and dry fruits. We stopped at one one of the dry fruits stores and got on to dry land. We left after considerably lightening the load in our wallets, and went back to shore.

 

The Shankaracharya temple at the top of the hill.

 

A shikara selling stuff like cold drinks and chips!

 

Lost of birds around

After the shikara ride, we wanted to go shopping in Srinagar city, but due to the bandh everything was closed and so we couldn't go anywhere. Our taxi driver Tahir, suggested going to the Jama masjid, and being without many options, we agreed. The area around the masjid had a lot of shops selling burqas and such. Tahir took us around the mosque for a tour to see it from all sides. Its supposed to be one of the oldest mosques here, with a capacity to seat around 30,000 people! Anyway, as we were walking, we noticed some young boys playing cricket within the compound, and when they saw us, they suddenly started saying slogans(?) out loud, like: "Go back India! Go back!" We were shocked! I mean, this was India, so where were we supposed to go?? Makes me think that they were in the wrong country!
Anyway, that worryingly summed up the attitude of the locals here. Apart from those profiteering from the tourists being here, the people (mostly men) around looked very unfriendly and downright hostile!

As we took a full a circle, we met two adorable kids who were out for a walk. The people here are really very good looking. All fair and light-eyed, with sharp features!

 

Later on we went looking for a place to have dinner, which was proving to be difficult since most places were closed.Tahir finally found us one restaurant that was open. Decided to try some of the Kashmiri specialties, like Gushtaba (a mutton dish). The food wasn't that great, but thankfully it was jut this one restaurant that was a problem, the coming days brought us yummy, tasty food!!!

 

Stepped into a neighbouring bakery and had a look around. The bakeries here are supposed to really good with breads not found elsewhere. 

 

We went back to the guest house and to our beds, and thus ended the first day!