I am fulfilling my long-held dream of staying on one of the gorgeous houseboats on DalLake. Back in colonial times, the ruling Maharajah of Kashmir refused the Brits landowning rights, leaving them no choice but to build and live in houseboats on ...
... the narrow valley to the huge ice patches across from us: beautiful in the cold morning light. A few jolting hours later, heads and arses bruised from being thrown around in the back of the jeep, we were driving along the shore of the fabled Dal ...
... border so the Indian army are here in large numbers.
For the next two nights I'm staying on a houseboat in Dallake close to Srinagar, the boat is one of dozens around 50 metres off shore, it's like a village on water with walk ways ...
... and bunkers around their perimeters - including one which was aptly named the Rambo Continental!! Despite the unrest in the town the quiet DalLake seems a world away and we found an idyllic houseboat (the New Lorinne) to stay on, with great views of ...
... with a boat ride and picnic at Manasbal Lake, whose clear spring-fed waters and emerald submerged vegetation showed me what DalLake probably used to look like before the raw sewage, trash, water diversion schemes, and encroaching squatters.
Finally, ...
... requesting what I can do here that someone will pick me up tomorrow to take me for a Shikara (boat) ride on the Dallake. I wonder how much this will cost seeing as money has not been discussed? Back in my warm kerosene smelling room I head to ...
... Women collecting lotus leaves to feed the cows and men impressively digging up lotus roots with two long sticks. This is not the Dallake I had pictured in my mind from what I'd read and been told. I was expecting clear water lots of tourist driven ...
... , especially in 2006 when militants attacked civilians and some Indian tourist with a series of deadly grenade attacks.
Srinagar is famous for Dallake and its now been 20 years since the beautiful house boats were filled with holiday makers.
After ...
... were in India in the 19th Century, as they were denied any land to build homes on. It is a crazy sight, a HUGE lake (DalLake) right in the middle of the city, filled to the brim with these amazing houseboats, some more elaborately decorated than others ...
... negotiate a price for having him as my driver until 7pm and then headed to Chashmashahi Moghul gardens. It was on the opposite side of Dallake so took a good 40mins to get to. The garden itself was smaller than Nishat being only 3 'steps' but it had the ...