Day 99-108

At long last, an update! I've been out of sorts, lately... variously sick, anxious and depressed. I've really lacked the initiative to write anything. But, I must keep at it. Whatever "it" is supposed to be. This update will be casual: I'm just trying to put pen to paper.

To catch up:

Srinagar was actually quite wonderful. The Kashmiri touts who haunt all of India and Nepal can be quite annoying away from home, but it seems like when they are in the homeland, they dial back the obnoxiousness a fair bit. Meanwhile, the soldiers at ever street corner are foreboding, the razor wire on the sidewalks in dangerous and the military checkpoint at the front door of the post office is annoying.... but all of it is quite adventurous from the perspective of an outsider.

The town has a somewhat interesting, if incredibly loud "old town," full of architecturally amusing mosques, temples and shrines. The real jewel of the town, however is the world famous (uhhhhh) Dal Lake. which is home to hundreds of houseboats, used by both locals and free spending tourists. The lake also is a home to floating gardens and a morning floating market. It is a stellar place for early morning row-boat trips.

I learned that at one point there was a Hindu Quarter in this time, but that that population mostly left the city following the civil violence of the 1990s. One can see the big old houses of that community on a boat trip around the canals of the old city.

Humorously, as I took a boat trip one day, some souvenir sellers approached me on the broadsides, trying to sell their tat pirate style. Points for originality, perhaps.

In Srinagar, for the first time since somewhere back in CHINA I actually felt quite "at home" in my hotel. I stayed at a big, rambling old guesthouse run by a local family, which was headed by a generous old patriarch who spent most of his days sitting out front forcing apple slices on all who passed by ("he could manage in English, "Kashmir Apples are best"). Cleaning and things like that were taken care of by a 30sish son, somewhat disabled. It made me happy to see him well taken care of by his big family... he was doing better than so many other disabled guys I've seen on this trip.

The tour work for the hotel was done by a 16 year old nephew, a real cute kid. Strolling one night with a French woman I had met earlier in the day I found him hanging out on a street corner with some much older looking dudes. I chastised him for hanging out with such shady characters (especially on a school night), much to the delight of those shady characters. He took it all in stride, and when the French woman kissed me on each cheek in parting (as the French are prone to doing) the kid demanded to know why I wasn't taking her back to the hotel.

Only in Kashmir, right?

More catching up next time.