Kashmir / Srinagar

After 5 days of Delhi which was just enough to see everything and be out before starting to wheeze from the pollution; Kashmir, a must see is a quick direct 1 hour flight or 2 hours via Jammu. Our flight on SpiceJet(Indias cheapest budget airline) was timeous and felt rather short, the seats felt more cramped than usual or I just became taller, but that was fine because the seat next to me was empty, there were no more than 20 people on the leg from Jammu. Just to note when flying in India you require a print out of you're flights checkin itinerary, its fine if you forgot but this would mean you having to go to the counter outside and getting it printed – without this you would not be allowed to enter the airport building.

The airports at Jammu and Kashmir are camouflaged with heavy army militia, their presence is noticed almost all over Kashmir. The airport is tiny with about 2 baggage carousels and arrivals and departures separated just by a meter high screen, the public facilities weren't up to scratch. Prepaid taxi staff and the taxi driver Abdul Majid was very pleasant in a new luxury toyota. Travelling in winter there were remnants of the previous days snowfall, the air was thick at a cool 4degrees but bearable.

We stayed at the Gurkha Houseboats which is part of the WelcomeHeritageGroup located on Nigeen Lake (I will add a full review later), the houseboats are accessed via a Shikara(watertaxi) which took about 10 minutes, I felt rather uneasy having an old man oar us with our luggage for so long in the cold weather, but thats just a means of living here, when I asked him how much he will charge he said “as you wish” I think its sort of a gamble between himself, so I gave him half a muffin we had and he was off... just kidding!! we gave him about US$5. Everyone in Kashmir seem to speak english well, other languages spoken are Kashmiri and Hindi.

They look quite different to those in the rest of India, I asked someone why their features differed, he said, “in the rest of India, people are shorter and fatter because their diet is unhealthy, and the sun is more stronger there thats why they are not as light(skinned)” haha I'm sure its just intermarriage though, most probably with people from Pakistan which is just a couple hundred kilometers away by road – Indians are not allowed to enter Pakistan nor Pakistanis into Srinagar, UNLESS they have to visit family, intermarriage point proven.

Due to security reasons getting cellphone access in Kashmir is impossible if you are a tourist, this includes access on your roaming enabled phones from overseas – wifi is available at most hotels even some houseboats; be sure to tell your families in advance that you will be without communication, in some cases I think it would be a blessing not being glued to technology, leaving more time to soak up this beautiful town(I thought that my sisters blackberry was sewn onto her hand until now).

Srinagar is village quaint and old, and quaint and old did I mention that its quaint and old? But this is what makes it so charming, almost as though you have been transported 200 years back(apart for wifi and new toyotas else it would be 250 years back) the roads are not all tarred and sometimes so narrow you will need to wait to give way to oncoming traffic, if you can comprehend this for a relatively big town there are no traffic lights(like another town I love to hate back home - Underberg)

From the locals, Kashmir is an all year round destination, as an indication you can check out the 4 seasons and what Srinagar has to offer for each -

http://www.kashmir-houseboats.com/four-season-tours.htm after seeing the pockets of snow on arrival, my sister hoped it would fall again. Almost every hour she would be at the window checking, until she went to sleep. We got up at 7am the next day, I went to see if it snowed, sleepy eyed through the mosquito mesh I told her it looked like it did, maybe, and still is, or its just rain, she was unfazed and thought I was lying, but when she got up she said I was crazy to not notice it was infact white everywhere and snowing lightly.