Ladakh - part 2 - Srinagar: gateway to Ladakh

It’s 4:00 AM and the sound of the first morning prayer slowly wakes me from the deep sleep. The singing feels calming same as the evening one did. How much difference can the way how you are woken up make (right, Robert?). And then they let you sleep again, until the next prayer comes. Reminding me of Alva Edison who was taking naps with a ball in hand to wake him up by the sound it makes when he falls asleep and the ball slips on the ground, hoping to bring him new ideas. Similar effect should have the morning prayers that keep you half-awake to meditate on your thoughts.

I like the taste, smell, and sound of orient. The feeling it brings, drastically pulling me out from my casual predictable life. Srinagar being close to Pakistan has to deal with challenging religious problems leading often to fights and wars. 

Right now, it is however calm time and we can in the evening sit on the terrace of the houseboat on the Dhal lake, watch sakiras (wooden boats) slowly moving on the water surface with Indian women in beautiful colorful saris, eat vegetable curry with rice and enjoy the sunset while muezzin is calling for the prayer. 

 

Until…

“Ma’am, want to see some jewelry?” man in a sakira stops by.

“No, thank you,” I smile at him, but keep very strict uninterested voice. I learnt already 10 years ago in Sri Lanka how to reduce the time I have to spend with those tourist hunters and show immediately that I am not a good target for discussion.

“Maybe keyrings? Look. Only 50 rupees.” Seems I am not going to enjoy the sunset anymore.

“They are nice. Maybe tomorrow? I talk to my husband.”

“Ok, I stop by tomorrow morning,” man closes his jewelry box and paddles to show his offer to other people in houseboats or on the boats. I am happy I managed so quickly.

 

For the one who likes to have private time, India is not the right place. White man or woman walking down the street is simply not allowed just to walk, or just to sit. Take one blonde little boy with you on top and you can say goodbye to any private silent time. Quite a challenge for people like me. But you can also accept it as a part of the experience and have fun.

We want to walk 1 km to the town from our houseboat. I take a deep breath before leaving doors of. As soon as we are out…

“Sir, wanna drive?”

“No, thanks, we want to just walk.”

“Rickshaw?”

“No, thank you.”

“Sir…”

“No, thanks.”

Every meter there is a guy who is sitting in his tuktuk/rickshaw offering to take us. As we walk through the streets, the guys in tuktuk are rotating to just stop by and ask if we want a drive…You learn to answer automatically. It feels like trying to get through a very dense bush. You have to put all those branches that try to catch you aside to find your way to the sun.

As we walk around the lake and through the streets, we see a lot of plastic. People say it got way better over last years, but it still feels sad to see the plastic everywhere. They don’t know how much more beautiful their country would be if they keep it clean.

And then we found a park. A tiny park with few trees where each shadow is already occupied by some family. We sit in one small shadow of a bush and try to eat some bananas.

“Ma’am, only 50 rupees,” small girl comes with a bunch of pens.

“Thank you, but we don’t need any right now,” I answer with a smile, but already tired.

“Ma’am, 40?” the girl doesn’t let us be.

“No, we don’t want,” I answer more clearly and the girl leaves. It takes approximately 30 seconds and the next kid comes. Boy with a scale.

“Sir, wanna weigh yourself?” asks the boy this time Jan. But he should know that this is the wrong service plus Jan also got tired of the offers.

“No, I don’t want.”

“Sir, only 50 rupees!”

“No, thank you.”

Boy is not leaving, standing in front of Jan, moving the scale from left to right and waiting.

“I told you, I don’t want to,” Jan tries to send him away, but it doesn’t work.

Every minute comes someone to offer us drink, coconut, pens, socks, or just ask for money…I know that under the cover of salesmen are amazing people and many interesting stories. But we have here only one day and we cannot hear all those stories, we don’t have time to become not the wallet but their friends. So we better keep our conversations short. Or at least I do. Because I never know who wants to really talk to us and who sees us only as a possible source of money. Jan is the first time in India and has still to learn this. He likes to talk to people, but doesn’t know that people here are all incredibly skilled in selling. Everyone has a friend from the country you come from, but…

“Czech republic? Beautiful country!” the most excited voice with shinny eyes that seem it brings a nice memories to the guy.

“You have been there?” I ask with a smile already knowing what comes.

“Oh, no, not yet, but I have a friend from there.”

“Oh, you know where Czech republic is?” This time, I have a mood to provoke although I know the answer already.

“Oh, no, sorry.” Smiles the guy back with an apology. He was caught by a lie, but it was a small lie and those don’t count, right?

It is really fun and it all fits to get the right feeling from the place and sometimes it can go even better…

“Hello, my friend. Where are you from?”

“Europe.”

“Europe? Beautiful country.”

“You know where it is?”

“Oh, no, sorry…”

When we arrive to the airport, we get caught by one of these salesmen. Jan just went to ask if any bus goes to Dhal lake and the guy already offered him that he takes him by taxi to his houseboat (for free, just to see, you are free to leave, if you want, of course, but you will see, my place is really nice).

He is incredibly good salesman and if you are not prepared for it, his magic can immediately catch you (“I tell you as a friend.”). He actually knows where Germany is and he knows how to talk a hole to your head. I insist we share the costs of the taxi so we don’t have to feel in debt to him. But we go by sakira to his houseboat (“I take you to your place by sakira and we can just stop on the way to see my house.”)

I keep repeating that we can see it, but that we already ordered another houseboat through internet and if we are not really disappointed by the other one, we definitely don’t need any other. I feel also really affected by his suggestive talking, but Jan is like if cobra looks into his eyes. The man talks and talks to him and offers him a roll and a tea, tells him what all his houseboat has and the other doesn’t, speaks with him about Germany…and Jan keeps listening. He will get even better than I am in bargaining and recognizing their unhonest offers, but this is the first time he encountered it. I have to pull him away to go to see our ordered accommodation, otherwise he would really stay there and pay another night.

“Thank you, but we want to check our accommodation. Maybe we can stay b

y you the next night?”

- “I tell you as a friend what my place has and what the other doesn’t. I just got another request for accommodation, people are coming to stay by me because they are happy here. I don’t need to push you. But I see that you are good people and have a kid, I am also grandfather of such a boy so I want to help you and if you are already here, I can tell the other people not to come.”

– “Thank you, we check the other accommodation and if we don’t like it, we come back.” I put our stuff to sakira and pulled Jan out of the houseboat.

As soon as we get out of that place, the magic disappears and Jan can again think straight. We get to our houseboat, and it is perfect, same perfect as the other one. But with a huge benefit – the owner respects our privacy and doesn’t try to push us to anything. And he has a very cute 4 years old daughter. However, he is still very helpful and we are happy that they make us nice, cheap and NON spicy dinner.  

Next day we leave by shared taxi to Leh. Kashmir mountains are beautiful, Srinagar is interesting and I will have very good memories to it. But tell them to get less noisy and stop covering their towns and nature with trash. It was good to first see Srinagar and then Leh. You can really see the difference between people, culture and lifestyle…

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Read more: 

Ladakh - part 1 - dream comes true