Kashmir.....

Okay, I'm going to have another go at describing the last week or so, the internet is cheaper and we are delaying returning to our houseboat where we our 'family' will continue to try and get more money out of us.

The pics from Dehli, Manali and Ladakh all have comments now....

So we left Delhi about a week and a half ago in a 'sleeper' bound for Manali in the Himalayan foothills. I was convinced that lying flat on my back for 18 hours would be the most luxurious bus ride I had ever taken. Not so. Being in a dusty box in the luggage rack with sinuses cemented with mucus for the entire 18 hours was more of a torture technique - Guantanamo bay guards should try this one (meanwhile did I just see something in the news about the liberalisation of media ownership laws in Oz - good one Johnny get that FDI at all costs you moronic troglodyte).

Manali was a very relaxed little town with more signs in Hebrew than English - if you know what I mean....But tourist season is all but finished anywhere in the North as the winters sets in and roads close, so we had Old Manali almost entirely to ourselves.

With the first snowfall of the season imminent we organised a shared jeep to take us via the Manali-Leh highway to Leh in the Ladakh region. Of all the overland journeys I have taken, this was the worst (ie. the best). Almost 18 hours to cover 450km of winding, bumpy, dusty, precarious, high altitude motoring in the very back of a rough old jeep. Our driver was pepped up on some strong stimulants and was twitching like a squirrel when he wasn't tossing tapes out the window that he couldn't get to work. Early in proceedings I got some motion sickness after a dodgy cup of tea. For the remaining 12 hours I fought off the urge to vomit as we were tossed about in the back seat. Heather wasn't enjoying the massive drops off the sides of the road but we both got into a travel trance and managed not to kill each other as every kilometre of the 474km trip seemed to take an eternity. We finally arrived in Leh after sunset and checked and after a few unsuccessful attempts to find room in a guesthouse (all full with Indians) we found a cheapish hotel (with no hot water) and splashed some water onto ourselves before collapsing on the wooden board of a bed (a common theme with Indian beds).

Ah - I have to cut this short as the cafe people have to close so they can go and pray (another Friday in Ramadan- apparently today has even more meaning than most Fridays)........okay they are back from praying sooner than I thought so I'll keep going with this.

We woke the next morning in Leh to snow, falling on our hotel receptionist as he boiled a drum of water for our morning shower out of a bucket.

We found a cosy little guesthouse in the centre of Leh (the night before was on the outskirts) with apple trees and a nice old Tibetan man with a Yoda-like voice and we spent the next four days trying all the different Tibetan, Indian and Chinese meals in a selection of the restaurants in Leh. We also managed a walk up a hill to look out over Leh (and for me to get the heart pumping at such a great altitude - 3500m). Leh was wonderful - I loved the Tibetan influence and indeed could almost have been in Tibet - the weather worn faces of the majority Tibetan population had an utterly Bolivian appearance to them - especially the quaint old ladies with their toothy smiles selling their wares on the side of the road. Monks wandered the streets and people rolled the ubiquitous prayer wheels as they passed.

After finally recovering from our flu and jeep ride we booked the bus to Srinigar - another 400-odd kilometre journey with an overnight stay in Kargil- the gateway to Kashmir and the entrance to a section of one-way road open at certain times for traffic in different directions.

We managed to get seated across the isle from an alcoholic who knew everything about everything but forgot all his English as he got drunker during the journey and ended up talking in Hindi. After a night in the shabbiest, smelliest hotel I have ever seen we got back on the bus at 4am for the final haul down through the Himalayas to Srinigar - getting snapped up by a houseboat owner before we arrived, which saved us the mammoth task of arguing with every man and his dog for accommodation on Dal Lake.

We knew we were in Kashmir from the moment we passed through Kargil - the military presence was suddenly tangible (it was also in Ladakh with the Chinese border also a sensitive area - but this was something else). The first thing I saw was a sign saying 'be cautious, the enemy is watching you'. The most interesting thing has been the opinions of the Kashmiris. Intensely proud of Kashmir they don't consider themselves Indian (proud of their Caucasian bone structures and slightly paler skin) and their Muslim faith offers them more kinship with Pakistan - they want an independent Kashmir before anything else, and the idea that the problem is an Indian-Pakistan dispute is totally irrelevant to Kashmiris - they blame the US for intervening and turning it into an issue other than an independent Kashmir.

Interestingly, there are also Israelis traveling here (Kashmir is almost unanimously Muslim) - some of which choose not to be identified as such for fear of resentment from the Kashmiris. But as out houseboat owner told us - they have no problem with Israelis or any individual - it is a government problem.

Kashmir is famous for its handicrafts, or so we are told constantly as everyone tries to sell you something. Our tour of Srinigar by our Houseboat owner yesterday involved a one hour 'tour' of a carpet factory (handmade carpets though) and the expectation that we would buy something, 'because it is an investment and we can sell for 3 times the price in Europe'. The price was $2,900 AUD for a 4x6 100% silk Kashmiri carpet - negotiable no doubt - how does that sound? Not that I'm looking to buy.

So fed up with the constant pressure - despite living in very comfortable style in our houseboat we tried to organise a bus to Jammu and train connection to Amritsar. It has been pouring rain for the past 24 hours and people are saying the Srinigar-Jammu road is becoming impassable for buses due to landslides. A flight to Jammu is only $40 so we will fly there tomorrow then get our train overnight to Amritsar. There is a Dengue fever epidemic at the moment and I'm not taking any Malaria precautions so getting away from a stagnant lake sooner rather than later is probably a good idea.

Amritsar is the Sikh heartland so we will have seen Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Sikh dominated cities in this small but tough corner of India - surely one of the most diverse regions in the country.

Thanks to everyone for emails and pictures, I will try and get around to replies and comments on photos asap.

Oh. And has the cluster bomb debacle in southern Lebanon been on the TV there? The most excessive and outrageous use of an unnecessary weapon that is still killing Lebanese civilians.