Asia
Kashmir
Srinagar
So, here we are: the legendary Kashmir, a land with their own identity and language (Urdu) that doesn't want to belong to either India, Pakistan or China… but is not only split among them; it's also highly militarized, to the point that has even been the source of dispute that lead India and Pakistan to 4 wars, and to be on the brink of a nuclear war in the last one (2001-2002) besides many border skirmishes. Luckily, right now there is not much tension.
Anyway, I decided I will geopolitically name this stage if our trip "Kashmir" instead of "India": India is occupying, but Kashmir is so different to India… as Basia said today:
"I can't get over how clean, fresh, the flowers… Kashmir is definitely not India"
And if you don't know (more likely THINK you don't know) the title song, stop reading now and follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvmuDH8cgG0
And for more tourist info about Indian Kashmir, go to: www.jktourism.com
Breakfast was delicious! Tea "the Kashmiri way" is called "Qawah" has green tea, saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, herbs and sugar. Absolutely addictive!
From the balcony of house boat…
… we could see fish, birds; lots of weed (since it is not a sea, I'll call it "lakeweed" ;) We relaxed a but and then went to a City tour; our first stop was the Heritage Mughal Garden Shalimar
Then we drove by the Dal Lake. This large lake is connected by a narrow strait to the smaller lake where our residence is, Nigeen Lake. On both lakes we saw many boats that mechanically harvest the weed to use it as fertilizer.
Next stop was the high ground and impressive Mughal Garden Pari Mahal…
… but before that, we gad to get off the car and pass a security check…
You can read "BSF (Border Security Forces) Prevent Smuggling"… dude, with the effort they put on checking me, I could've smuggled 10 kilos of anything!
Now let's go back to the important thing: an impressive view
There is a strong military presence in this monument
And a fu ny note: World Record! Shortest 200 meters! :P
Then the driver insisted on tali g us to a Carpet Factory and Store… we know how that works: they push to sell, and if they succeed, the driver gets a cut. But we didn't want to fight and we went.
The manager showed us the steps of the process to make a carpet:
Graphing
Designing
Coloring
Coded (system family owned; the weaver sees only a part of the code they have to weave and then return it to get the rest)
Below you can see a Weaver working. The Code of that small part is the stripe of paper at his eye level.
We also learned carpets are mostly made of one of these combinations:
Silk-silk
Cotton-silk
Cotton-wool
I got quite tempted with one (fragment below)
… But with U$760 we can do a lot in Egypt… }:-)
Finally before lunch we went to an Old Mosque:
This particular one has a Male entrance (main) and a Female entrance (back)… funny I wasn't aware that this separation is the rule and nit an exception in Mosques… I am quite disappointed about the way Islam has evolved; I really want to read a good translation of the Quram (until I learn Arabic }:-) because I can't make sense between the interesting and wise fragments I've read and how it is applied in society.
After lunch it was time for a trip on a small part of both Lake Nigeen and Lake Dal. It was lovely (if we forget the merchants on boats).
We saw eagles, ducks, cranes; lots of other birds
We learned they use Floating Islands to grow different vegetables and plants
Getting closer to the "city", we noticed it was like a Venetian favela…
… Where we saw funny things like cows eating the grass on a cemetery…
… and very lazy dogs!
(let sleeping dogs lie)
Returning, the call to prayer (Azan; our second song of the day) is, as every time, a mix of eerie and beautiful sounds coming from multiple mosques… eerie is the outcome ;)
Once back to our houseboat, we do some "homework", have dinner and I eavesdrop on the TV show that Sahil, our butler-handyman, is watching: a fundamentalist Muslim telling how Christians are "invading" in a new crusade using money and credit cards and taking people form the "true religion"… "same same" as Christian fundamentalist televangelists would say.
Pondering about this sad aspect of intolerance in most humans, and also pondering why I are so much a dinner, I shall sleep soon. Hours of trekking lie ahead if us tomorrow.
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