Arrived to Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir the 14th of October by plane from Delhi.

We decided to go to Srinagar after a David's French friend met in Mongolia recommended to go there. He stayed in a house-boat, by the Lake Dal with a Kashmirian family.

Srinagar is a big city of Indian Kashmir, it's situated in 1700m high between the mountains and the Lake Dal. The city is also well-known for the house-boats, which are all over the Lake.

The problem of the Kashmir and Jammu region is very complicated and has been for years. The region is situated near Pakistan and for more than 20 years there's been a fight from this region: India wants to keep the region for itself, Pakistan wants to own the regions, and the Kashmirian people wants the independance.

After May 2010 there's been a lot of violence and demonstrations and strikes, so there's still the Indian military everywhere. There was also a curfew when we were there so after the dark we stayed in our house-boat.

So before arriving to Srinagar, we called the family where David's friend had been to negotiate the prices. The owner of the house-boat was called Shafi and he said that because we were friend of David's friend we could have any price we wanted! So we tried 300 roupies per night and for meals 100 roupies/person. And he accepted! The next day we took a flight from Delhi to Srinagar. We arrived to Delhi airport like 3 hours in advance because everybody told us that there's going to be a lot of people because it was the last day of he Commonwealth Games in Delhi. They had closed some roads and police were everywhere. But when we arrived to the airport, the place was almost empty! So we were there really early!When we passed the security , they said that I had a lighter in my bag, (which I didn't have!)and that I had to take it out of the bag. And they didn't believe me when I said that there were no lighter there! So they passed and passed again like 6 times my bag through the security scanner. Finally I took everything out of my bag and they still didn't believe me so they started again their show by passing it through the scanner... In the end they maybe understood that there wasn't any lighter, that it was their mistake, but of course they didn't admit it .. SO they just told me to leave...

We had a lunch in the airport, a sandwich and I took also a cappuchino, which was a mistake... I will tell you later...

When it was time to board, we showed our tickets and passports again. There was also a security guy who checked if we had in every hand luggage a ticket with a stamp from the first security check. But of course I didn't have the stamp in my bag because the stupid security guy didn't gave it to me because he was so busy checking a lighter in my bag!!! So I had to run to the nearest security check where they checked ahgain my bag and finally I had the stamp!!Yeah!So we could board.

The flight took about 1 hour and we saw the mountains and beautiful landscapes from the plane. When we arrived to Srinagar airport, our house-boat host, Shafi was waiting for us. We had just spoken with him on the phone, so I had spelled our names so he could do a card with our names on it. And when we saw him, he had written our names: "JULER & DAVID". So my name's now Juler! We laughed about it the whole stay with him!

When we arrived to the Lake Dal, we had to take a Shikara, a little boat to the houseboat. Our house-boat was really nice. It reminded of our summer cottage, but which was a boat! It really felt like home. And there was real europeen toilets! A luxery!

The first afternoon we spent our time at Shafi's place, just next to our house-boat. We tried to negotiate the prices for a trek in the mountains for 4 days, but it was too expensive. So we decided not to book and to see everyday what we want to do.

We met also Shafi's family , his wife, and 2 children, a 10 year-old boy and 13-year old girl. We had dinner there and then we went to bed.

And about 2 a.m. I woke up and I was relly sick the whole night! I thought that I would die. Or that I had a cholera or something. An awful night. The next day I was just sleeping and couldn't eat anything. But with all the medication I had with me, I got better for the evening and could eat! I think that it was the cappuchino at the airport that made me sick, because David wasn't sick and he didn't drink the cappuchino!

The food that Shafi's wife made for us was the same that they eat, rice with dal(super spicy vegetables). I didn't like it so much because it was everyday the same...but at least it wasn't expensive!

Everyday we woke up late and had breakfast.

We visited a Hindi Temple, Shankaracharaya Temple. We walked there and in our guide book it was marked that it's going to be a 30-45 min walk, but actually it was 1h15min walk!and it was so high in the mountains , that we were very tired when we arrived at the top! But the temple was beautiful!

At Srinagar there are also beautiful gardens to see. We decided to visit all of them so we left by foot. In our guide book there is a map and the gardens are situated near the Lake Dal. Well, we walked for a really long time and saw no gardens and everytime we asked someone they said it's still far away! After about 2hours of walk we decided to take a rickschaw because we were too tired! And the driver told us that the garden is still far away, so we got in. He drove about 5 min and then said that this was the place!So we were really close and the driver tricked us to pay for the ride which was only few meters! The garden's called Nishat Bagh and it's really big, there are many fountains and flowers and big trees. A beautiful place!

That's about all we visited in Srinagar. We stayed a lot in the house-boat and with Shafis' family.

We left Srinagar Wednesday morning, and took a jeep to Jammu (350Rs/pax). We shared the jeep with 5 other Indians. It took about 8h and we went through the mountains so you can just imagine what kind of roads there were! The jeep moved and jumped all the time, and the driver was really crazy! There wasn't enough space to bypass the other cars or trucks but he did it anyway! I prefered to close my eyes and try to sleep, because I was so scared to watch him drive! Somewhere in the mountains there were a big traffic jam and the driver decided not to wate in line so he accelerated and we passed by all the cars who were waiting. And then the driver stopped quickly in a little spot, so that the cars on the other way could pass. And then we saw the reason of the traffic jam: there were like hundreds of goats and sheeps trying to go to the mountains. They were everywhere!

Finally we arrived to Jammu, a horrible, polluted and dirty city, where people just stop to change a bus, etc. We tried to take a bus to Dharamsala, but the next one was in 4 hours and wasn't direct or an other one in the morning at 8 a.m. We decided to take the one in the morning and stay the night in Jammu. The hotels were very expensive and dirty, but we had to take one, se we checked- in. But we stayed only like 15 minutes because I saw horribles bugs everywhere and the room was really dirty. UI went to see the hotel manager and begged that we don't have to pay for the room. Finally he accepted and we left that horrible place.Then we just hanged around in a restaurant before taking the bus to Dharamsala. They tols that we should change the bus in a city called Pathankot to go to Dharamsala. The bus took about 3hours and in the middle of nowhere, the bus stoped and said that this was our stop. We went out of the bus, and there were nothing! Only some rickschaws waiting. So we took one to go to the bus station. At the bus station we saw that the next bus was at 4 a.m.!and it was 11p.m.! I started really get angry and frustrated! We were now been travelling for 18 hours and all I wanted was to take a shower and go to bed. So we found a hotel, not the cheapest one but almost the cleanest one I had seen in India so far! It was almost like in Europe but with dirty sheets! :)

Next morning we finally took the bus to Dharamsala. It took about 3 hours. And the driver drove almost like the crazy jeep driver! Again I just closed my eyes and wished that I would survive!