Taken from Back to the East, India, Nepal, Kashmir on Amazon
4th
May
A
warm day, much spent just enjoying the sun on the houseboat..
Lesley, Brad and Kerry were all feeling better. Now I was slowing
down! I felt fine.
We
called in to see Yussef Baktoo in his office. He said that in
Kashmir Lesley was “Puxley” and Alun was “Ali”.
The
guy who met us from the bus, Gulab Khar, told us a tale. When he was
a baby of four years old, a vulture swept down and carried him off;
his father quickly threw a stone and it hit the bird which dropped
little Gulab ten feet and the father caught him. Lucky Gulab!
5th
May
We
spent most of the day lazing around on the deck of the houseboat,
watching the clouds and shikara boats. We had a splendid view of
snow-capped mountains. I bought a silver box, also earrings with
coral.
The
local Islamic people were fasting today.
It
rained heavily during the night.
6th
May
Suddenly
at 7 Am we were awoken by loud voices and knocking on the door.
“Quick,
quick, come quick, water is coming into the boat”.
So
with pounding heart I jumped out of bed and put on some cloths,
making sure Lesley was doing the same. I am not sure she believed
what was happening.
We
rushed outside then Bashir says “No, it is OK, go to sleep, as they
are bailing out the water with buckets."
Apparently
one end of the boat was lower in the water and caused a panic.
By
noon it was too hot to sit on the sun deck.
It
was either a holiday or a strike.
7th
May
Trying
to find the Thomas Cook office was not easy despite the offers of
help from the holiday company. Mr Kahr said it was at the Oberai
Hotel.
Lesley
bought some medicine called Amelast that contains dioxamide and
tridazole, an intestinal anti-parasitic drug.
In
the afternoon we went on a shikara ride to the beautiful lake Nageen
to see the new Butterfly Houseboat, which looked palatial with
beautiful paintings in the Mogul and Indian rooms, carvings in the
Kashmir room, and in the Shikara room a bed shaped like a shikara.
On
the way back we called at a carpet shop. I bought a woollen carpet in 1981 for £200, so did not want one this time, but Lesley bought a
beautiful silk one for a deposit and then monthly payments when back
in the UK. They will send it to her my air mail. Of course there
will be duty on it
so it will cost her over £400.
8th
May
So
far we had seen shikaras selling jewellery, now it was saffron. It’s
cheap though.
Lesley
had developed a habit of saying “Maybe later” and inevitably they
come back.
I
wrote a letter to the Sitar shop to arrange a later date to meet the
guy back in Delhi with the Sitar I bought as we would be there later
than expected. I gave it to Jimmy to post.
9th
May: The Valley of the Shepherds
We
went
by taxi to Pahalgam and a few miles more to the toll gate. It was
raining hard. By
the time we walked to Aru we were soaked.
In 1981 we had camped by the river but now it was too wet so
we are staying in the Rest House in the little town of Aru, before we
start our pony trekking tomorrow. Our guide was another Ali.The
village lies on the left bank of the Aru river, which was a tributary
of the Lidder river.
The
village was a base camp for trekkers to the Kolahoi Glacier, the
Tarsar-Marsar lakes and the Katrinag valley. It was also a base for
the treks to Lidderwat, the Vishan-Kishansar lakes and Kangan.
Aru
was situated at 9,000 feet. The population was less than 50.
