My dear family and friends,
From Kabul we flew to Delhi, stayed overnight, then
flew to Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, please look at my
map,
It is the most Northern State of India, beautiful
mountains, valleys, flowers, lush greenery, lakes, formal
gardens, favorite vocation place for Indians,
a lot of bloody history between India, Pakistan
and Kashmir, now it is quiet. but everywhere are
soldiers of Indian Army, because of close borders with
Pakistan, China and Afghanistan,
To get out of airport and get to our gate to depart
took us 10 security checks--few times luggage x rays,
few times body searching, few times carry-on scanning, it
was endless but we are all okay because of this.
Srinagar is a capital in summer for 6 month and Jammu
is a capital in winter and all government employees move every 6 month to work
in different capitals because of the climate.
We stayed on the boat houses made as a hotel with the
staff and cook on the lake Dal,
Very peaceful, all small boats--shakaras sell
everything, children go to school by boats, market on the boats, the city like
all Indian cities extremely noisy because all drivers honk the horn all the
time, motorcycles make terrible sounds, people are screaming. Now New York City seems to me like a quiet town.
We walked in an old formal gardens where locals have
their rest, as always a lot of people come and
ask to have photos together, they do not see a lot of blond people
much,
we took a 47 km drive to the mountains to see
a ski resort Gulmarg there is also golf course on the
highest altitude in the world 2,653 metres,
Kashmir is a Muslim state, we saw a lot of mosques but
different architecture,18 million people, 80% Sunni, 20%
Shia, no Christians, no Jews,
no alcohol, no dancing, no bars, no disco, most women
on the streets are in traditional outfits,
food is spicy for me, i eat only rice, good place to
loose weight.
Kashmir is very colorful and interesting,
we have only 2 countries left to visit--Bhutan and
Nepal, both Buddhist,
my love and thanks to all who repled to
me,
Internet is slow and we have very intense
itinerary, after dinner everybody resting but i do my "labor
of love" share what i see and learn with my family and
friends.
Inna
