Well we got to Delhi in the middle of the night and by the time we got to the hotel in was 3am! mind you the drive to the hotel was quite something as we got our first experience of Indian driving.. its goes something like this... honking the horn, running red lights (night time only) and 3 cars on a two lane road, overtaking whenever!
anyway as Claire and I havent seen each other for ages and we stayed up chatting all night (jet lag probabaly helped too!). Next morning we braved the crazy Delhi streets and contrary to the annoying manager in the hotel telling us not to walk outside we set off into the streets. We got swarmed by people asking us where we were from but we got an autorickshaw (little 3 wheeled car) and went off to a tourist office where we possibly made of first mistake in the country. We booked a tour through the agency which may have been a bit expensive but at least we designed our own tour and got all our transport/accomodation taken care of for half our stay. We are not sure if we did the right thing though
:-/
Kashmir 24-30 Nov 06
Anyway soon we were off to the first stage of our adventure - Kashmir. We went there by aeroplane. Did someone tell us that this was the place of conflict between India and Pakistan. Yes we knew this but we still went. We can be forgiven for thinking the airport in Srinagaar, Kashmir was an army base! There were so many soldiers. We were starting to think we made a mistake in coming here but then our driver arrived to take us to our houseboat on Nageen Lake and it was ok. The first day we didnt really do anything apart from taking a tour of the lake on a little boat and walking through the markets. Srinagaar is a Muslim city and there were a lot of beautiful mosques and chanting.
Then came the next mistake we made in India... The manager of the houseboat told us about some treeking we can do in the Himalayas. Now who wouldnt want to do that! But guess what - he showed us the summer pictures of people hiking through the mountains and camping each night. He conviniently 'forgot' to mention that as it was winter there would be no camping! So we paid the price of a propper trek which we didnt actually do! anyway although we were annoyed and upset about this we still had some amazing experiences on the 'trek'. Let me explain...
So on the first day of the trek we drive to a little mountain village called Gagangir (a Muslim village) . It is a beautiful little village nestled in the mountains, with breath taking views. We sleep in a gypsy hut (they sleep in the village in winter and go in the mountains in summer). There is no furniture, and we eat and sleep on the floor. The next day we did our 'trek' which was a 15km walk on the road and a bit through the snow in the mountains. It was ok in itself but not worth the price we paid. Anyway the thing that was priceless was - that night 3 couples in the village were getting married and we were invited to the wedding...
The wedding celebrations usually last 5 days and we were there on the last night. After dinner we went to the little hut in which one of the wedding celebrations was held. As we enter, a little unsure of ourselves we see 3 rooms, two full of women mostly and one full of men. We go to the women's room where eveyone is staring at us curiously, it is really crowded and all the women are wearing colourful scarves on their heads. The bride is in green with a huge gold bindi/trinket on her forhead. Then suddenly the women are making signs at us. At first we are not sure what they want. Then someone says 'dance, dance'. One lady pulls me up and I try and communicate that I dont want to dance alone (I was shy). So a girl gets up and another gives me her scarf. Then suddenly the singing and drumming starts and we dance (well I try and copy her). All the women laugh and when I want to sit down they wont let me so I have to keep dancing! Then the person who was filming the wedding starts to film us and people are looking in through the windows. I was a bit embarrassed but who cares it was fun. Claire and I also danced together and some of the other village girls did too. We also saw them putting henna on the bride's hands, making intricate patterns. The groom also gets a henna mark on his little finger to show that he is married.
Anyway we stayed at the wedding for 4-5 hours until 4am! Then we went back to our hut to sleep. The next morning we lazed around the village and watched the wedding procession go through the streets. The grooms were dressed up with a white turban threaded with gold. One of the brides had a black veil that totally covered her face and eyes while the other didnt. It was an amazing experience and we felt privilaged to be part of it.
After that we got back to the house boat, spent two more days there then did a 14hr drive to Dharamsala, the place of exiled Tibetans refugees, and also home of the Dalai Lama...
the saga will continue, so stayed tuned for more on this in a few days :-)
