June 3rd: Views of Srinagar from a house boat

Jim and I were awakened at 5 am by the sound of men praying and chanting. It was one of the five times a day that men pray – quite moving in the stillness of a town not yet awake. We looked out the window for a while and saw the shakaras beginning to move as people began to come from the far side of the lake into town for the day. Small children dressed for school, boatloads of tourists with their luggage in another boat. Women with their heads covered, an occasional woman in a burka.

Jim and I decided to go for a walk, and went all of the way down the lake to where the lake widened. So many things to look at – a military man standing up through a sunroof, the driver’s window and side windows completely covered with essentially a wire fence, children standing by the side of the road, all dressed for school in a variety of uniforms and the parent who was with them was their father -- almost no women were seen--, and a boat filled with some green material being pushed by another boat

Early morning boat transporting just harvested algae/sea weed, which will be dried and sold as fertilizer

Woman miraculously perched on her long boat




– and looking at that was literally my downfall. I was looking at the boat and did not see the rock in the dirt path which I tripped on and BANG down I went, right onto my chest, my forehead, my chin, and my hand. I was very lucky. The major injury was to my chin, which promptly began to swell. The pain in my head and chin was pretty bad, and I think I was very stressed by everything that had happened in the first 18 hours in Srinigar, and I began to cry. Finally we got back to the hotel, got my chin cleaned up, and off we went to find something to eat. After a cappuccino at the coffee store, and a few parathas with potatoes and cheese that David brought from a nearby store, we were ready to move on with the business of the day – finding a houseboat so we could move from the oh-so-charming Hotel Sunshine.

Jo, David and I headed off in an autorickshaw to find a shakar boat that could help us in our search. We found a very nice older man who really did a great job. He took us all around this portion of the lake, and Jo and David went into every boat that had two rooms open for tonight and the next two nights. We were looking for Super Deluxe because anything less was probably not going to be acceptable.

As an aside, you are taking a big flyer on this whole experience because you are contracting for breakfast and dinner as well as accomodations –and you are essentially on a boat you can’t get off of. We finally found the New Flower Garden, which after some negotiation of price, and then going off to see some more boats, we finally settled upon.

Back to the hotel to get Jim, off to the same restaurant for a quick lunch, a quick stop for fruit, bread and water – and then back across the lake to our new home. Decorated in an eclectic Victorian fashion with gingerbread railings, chandeliers, oriental carpets in various stages of repair, and a glorious view of mountains surrounding the lake, the boat was deemed perfect and we settled in.

As I sit on the porch, and watch all of the amazing yellow boats with colorful roofs that are filled with tourists go by, I marvel that we are actually sitting in India.

See anyone you recognize?

David and Jo are currently off in a skiff, enjoying an early evening boat ride.

Jim has been up on the roof, enjoying the late afternoon sun, and I have been journaling – looking up after every few words to admire the amazing parade of boats going, by while there is a background of chants coming from across the water. Truly like a scene from a movie. The pictures will not capture the sense of enchantment. The scene from our porch is completely unbelievable – boats, kayaks, crew teams in kayaks, and a huge selection of salesman coming by in boats -- flowers, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, dried fruit and nuts, “cashmere sweaters”, snacks, water, camera chips –

Dinner consisting of a chicken dish, green beans, rice, dal, and a semolina dessert (pretty much the consistency of milky cream of wheat) with almonds, cardamom pods, and raisins. Then we all learned to play the beginner’s version of Oh Hell, or Diminishing Bridge. Our host appeared to clean up the kitchen, and then bought some books for us to look at which dated from the time that his grandfather started the “Flower Garden” houseboat in the early 1900’s. The first letters dated from 1916; many were fragmenting. We only looked at a few of the initial pages, but he left them with us to look at later. Off to bed, with noisy neighbors on the bordering boats – but of course since dinner in this country is frequently at 10 pm, they were probably just enjoying after-dinner conversation.