Beautiful and peaceful Srinagar

We arrived to Srinagar airport with no expectations or what so ever. First thing we had to do after getting our luggage was to fill a form with local police officer. Just that they can keep count how many foreigners come to Kashmir in total. We were supposed to have a driver waiting us, but it really didn’t happen. So we took a taxi and head straight to our houseboat called Dandoo Palace.

It was quite a shock when we arrived to the shoreline filled with the local boats. I’m sure they have used the same kind of boats for ages in Srinagar. So we hopped on a boat and the trip began. It did not take more than a minute for the first “business man” to show up next to our boat. Guy was selling us some pipes that you can smoke some cigarettes with, but as we can’t carry any extra weight we had to turn the man down. All in all, the view on the lake is just stunning. You can see the fishermen casting their nets, hawks fishing and the backdrop is snowy mountains, not bad, huh.

At the houseboat we met our hosts and they all seemed really happy and welcoming. They said that they are sorry for not heating the boat in advance, but for us it was ok. We are from Finland, the land of winter, for god’s sake.  It was probably minus something inside at first, but as soon as they got the heater going it was pretty decent plus 15 in our place, haha.

In the evening we met a really nice local guy called Ali, or Ali Baba as we call him sometimes. Luckily he was a travel agency owner, so we got a really nice deal from him for our upcoming trip to Gulmarg. He also is building a house boat which no one has ever built in Srinagar. His already past father was a boat builder, so this one is built for his memory. We went to see the carvings they had made on that boat and I have to say that the skills of the carvers working there are just out of this planet. Normally a boat is build in 3 months, but to finish Ali’s boat it is taking 3 years because of all the details in the carvings.

We also went to see the floating market of Srinagar, from these boats you can basically find everything you need from a cell phone to a cheesecake. It really was nice to see the local people doing their thing while our boat slowly passed by them. I just wonder how beautiful the landscape in Srinagar is during the summer. Luckily we got invited to come back in summer and Ali lets us stay for free in his new houseboat.

Next we are off to finally go do some skiing, and to do it in famous Gulmarg. How the snow was and how the skiing in general in this area is, you will here in the next post of mine.

The first trip of the season.

It is again time to start traveling. Last year we travelled to places where people don’t normally expect any snow to be found. This year everything changes as we set for a trip to go and see where the best possible snow in the world is. Our first destination is India with some said to be very light Himalayan powder. Here you have the first part of the story of the trip.

We came to New Delhi with an overnight flight from Helsinki and landed here on Friday morning. First we dropped our bags to baggage drop, so that we wouldn’t have to carry all the skis and everything around Delhi. Next we of course had to find a place to stay and this time it really didn’t go as usual. We took a train from the airport to the city center and walking out from the underground station was something I never had felt before. The amount of people in New Delhi is just mind blowing, to understand the true feeling you really have to come and see it yourself.

We started to walk among the really busy traffic and walking without any clue where you’re heading was kind of funny. I had previously looked from the internet that near the main railway station there might be some cheap accommodations to be found. Well, it was a lot easier to find these hotels and hostels in the internet. We spotted the railway station, but ended up just standing next to it trying to figure out what to do and where to go.

Luckily the local people are really nice in New Delhi and they really put out some salesman stuff on you. It didn’t take more than a minute to have dozens of offers from taking a taxi to finding a hotel. A really nice elder man advised us to take a taxi to the tourist center and told that they surely will help us find everything we ever need. He even fixed a taxi and talked a nice price for us, so that we would not to be fooled to pay more than what was enough.

When we got to the tourist office, we realized that there apparently are probably hundreds of these tourist offices more likely to be called as travel agencies in our country. More or less we got what we needed. The guy at the office fixed us really nice price for a deal including a night in New Delhi, a car with driver for our own use in New Delhi, flights to Srinagar on Sunday, two nights in Srinagar including meals and more for only for a mere 120 Euros.

The rest of the day we drove around the city trying to find cool stuff for filming. But more what we actually did was just gasping about the traffic and the amount of people everywhere. We also opened the game of getting our stomachs messed up by going to this local restaurant for dinner. It probably was not the wisest thing, but in these cases you just have to wait to see what the next day brings.

One thing I have to mention is the eagles or hawks we spotted In New Delhi. I don’t know why, but for some reason there seems to be almost as many of these magnificent birds hovering over the city as there are normal seagulls in Helsinki, Finland. It is just crazy to see those huge birds flying everywhere and it really brings some balls to some of those med evil buildings.

Next day we met our local friend Kevin. We had met through Couch surfing website in the internet and he kindly offered us a place to stay for the second day of ours in Delhi. We met him next to a 7 star hotel, surely we would have liked to go and see how the place looks from the inside, but for a great surprise we weren’t actually the material they probably are letting in. After this not that big bummer, we had lunch with Kevin in his work place and head off to see a stupid mall. Those really are the very same in every city you go to.

In the evening Kevin invited us to his place for some dinner and of course for the promised stay in his place. He made us a nice  local Indian dinner and the evening went nicely forward talking about how the life is in India. The dinner was followed by some guitar playing with Kevin’s friend Sam and enjoying a glass or two of local(and really good) rum. We really had great time with these guys, so thanks a lot dirt bags, haha.

Next day we were ones again off to airport. First we were planning to go to Kashmir by train or bus, but the agency we bought the package from adviced us to take a plane. This we later realized to be a really good thing and an advice. Firstly the bus to Jammu takes a nice 24 hours and the train half of that. Secondly the road from Jammu to Srinagar was blocked due to some snowfalls. And thirdly, the flying  is just easy and cheap way to move from place to place in India. We payed around 50 Euros each for the flights, so not bad. Sometimes you get even cheaper flights in India starting for 10 Euros or something.

After some fuzz at the both airports we finally arrived to lovely city of Srinagar, Kashmir, but what happened there is a different story and it is to be released shortly.