So I landed in Kashmir, but before that I had some nice days in New Delhi with free sightseeing and food.
Afterwards I took a flight to Srinagar, Kashmir and in first place I didn't like it at all. Everybody was telling me that the pollution is a lot less there than in Delhi but I think it is worse. In Delhi most cars are running on gasoline instead of petrol, the factories are banned to the outskirts and there are a lot of trees being planted. There is even a forest within the city where a lot of holy monkeys live. It is (most of times)possible to breath without a dusk mask or something similar. In Srinagar on the other hand there are a lot of old cars and the output of those is really worse. The pollution on the streets is more or less the same as all Indians always throw their waste on the streets even if there are dustbins. They are used only by non-Indians.
The place I was going to stay was a houseboat on the Nageen Lake, a bit outside of Srinagar and there the air was really good. The boat itself was in a moderate condition but I guess for Indian standards pretty good. It consisted of two double rooms, one dining room, one living room and a balcony. But the best place was on the roof, where I got at least some suntain. The first days were pretty boring as I was the only tourist and over the time I met three different guides.
The second day I was going on a river tour in a little boat (shikara) which was really nice. We were driving through a lotus flower garden (so beautiful), the old city (very dirty), and floating gardens. On the way we visited a big white mosque and as I'm a woman I was brought to a separate room to pray. But it is not my religion anyway. Kashmir is predominately muslim, therefore you are never far from a mosque and the sounds of the mosque (calling for prayer). Each mosque is calling 5 times a day for prayer and unfortunately not at the same time. So if you live close to several mosques you will hear it at least 10 times a day and the first one starts at 4 or 5 o clock in the morning. I always heard that one and it always killed my sleep.
The next days I was visiting the Moghul gardens which are a bit like Schoenbrunn (Vienna), really beautiful gardens with mostly roses, the old city of Srinagar, a wood carving factory and a guy who produced clothes, furs and leather. This guy was also one of my guides and as I always (since my first day in Delhi) wanted an Indian dress (frack suit), he made one for me. It was pretty expensive but I liked it and I was always wearing it in India. It consisted of one loose red trouser and one red dress. In Kashmir everyone is wearing that and it is pretty comformtabel. In the rest of India young people are wearing a frack suit whereas the older ones are wearing a Sari, which is a lot more complicated.
One afternoon I spent with the family of one of my guides and that was really cool. So I could finally talk with woman about all the things that I was interested in like arranged marriages, relationships in an Indian family and so on.
In India most marriages are arranged by the parents and husband and wife meet for the first time at the wedding day. In the villages in Kashmir people get married at age 18,19 and in the towns most people finish their education first and marry at around 26, 27.
Sometimes it is possible that a man can choose his wife, but the parents don't always agree. They are always looking for a girl with the same family values and income. In the family I visited one of the guys had chosen his girl, whereas the other one met his wife at the wedding.
The boy/man always stays with his family whereas the woman moves to the house of her husband. Most woman are just housewives but in the city it is possible for some to have a normal job. It all depends on the family. In Delhi or Bombay it is a lot easier for a woman to have her own job.
As I really liked that family I decided to stay there for some days after my trekking.
First it looked like I will be the only tourist trekking but fortunately one day before we started a Japanese guy came to Srinagar and I persuaded him to join me and to my surprise also the sister of my guide and his little daughter came on the trek. They made the trek a lot better and I learned a lot more about Kashmiri culture.
The trek was for 6 days in the Himalaya but only to a height of about 3,500 m, which was enough for me.
The first day we just drove for some hours to our starting point (Sonamarg). We had our tents next to a river and at night time we made a little fire. On the houseboat I also got a lot of food but the food here was a lot better and I also got a desert (sweet dish) every day. So I couldn't loose any weight. The next day we got our ponies for the luggage and also to carry us. As everybody was riding I also did it. But after some time I felt so sorry for my pony that I decided to walk. But as soon as I was walking one of the guys who accompanied our trek was riding my pony. So it was not much better for the horse. After half an hour I gave up walking again as I was really exhausted. But after some time I had to walk again as we crossed a field of countless little rocks and the horsemen decided that it was a lot saver for the ponies and us to walk seperate. So we walked (climbed) and it was quite fun despite the fact that I fell down and my trouser had a nice hole afterwards. But anyway that's trekking. The nights were pretty cold and the thin matrasses didn't help much against the hard ground.
The next day we went to our final destination, a place with two lakes close by. But as the weather was not so fine we stayed in our tents and played cards. The next morning was very nice with sunshine and so we walked to the two lakes. This time I didn't take a pony, but the others did after some time, especially the Japanese guy was very exhausted. After 45 minutes we reached the first lake, Veschnissar Lake, which was really beautiful. (I already sent my pictures home, so hopefully they will be online soon). It was a medium sized turquoise-colored lake with snow on some of the shores (borders). The temperature in the mountains was pretty nice when the sun was shining (about 25 degrees), but very cold at night (about 5 degrees). Almost everything was green or stonecolor, but there were also some snow fields left and on the top of some mountains the snow never disappeared.
The next lake (Kreschnissar Lake) was another 30 minutes to walk. It was also nice but not as beautiful as the first one. After returning back to the camp the sun was shining again and so I was lying in the sun for about 15 minutes. As the sun is pretty strong at that altitude I got sunburned on everything uncovered (my face, arms and part of my legs). But I didn't mind so much about it because it was a lot warmer in the night that way.
The last night of the trek we had a fire again and the horseman were playing very good music with plates and cups and forks and were singing Kashmiri and Hindi songs to it. The music was very rhytmic and so I just had to dance. First I was dancing only with Sanah (6 year old daughter of my guide) but after some time I could also motivate the Japanese und one of the horseman to join me. That night I finally felt warm again. Dancing is always a good way to warm up. :)
The next day we were walking again for some hours and just arrived at our first camp when the rain started again. So the guys built up our tents very quickly so that we could wait for the jeep without getting too wet. After the trek I was brought to the family where I already had the rest of my luggage and where I finally got a shower again. I felt so dirty during the trek and now I began feeling like a human being again.
The next days I did more or less nothing but staying with the family and then one of my friends came from Delhi to visit me and his family and I moved again to the houseboat for some days where there were some more tourists now.
I also met a guy from America there who only wanted to do trekking with me so I went for a second trek, but this time for free. The route was the same but as the guide and the tourist was different it was a different experience. This time it was not so cold in the nights as we had more blankets and also a hot water bottle. On the second trek I was riding my pony only for about 30 minutes in total, the rest I was walking and it was a lot easier than the first time. I had also a lot more contact to the horsemen this time as I already knew them from the first trek and they were trying to teach me some Kashmiri. But the only words I could really remember were the colors for playing cards. I learned some Kashmiri games, e.g Truf (similar to "Bauernschnapsen"), a kind of Rommee and one game called Shithead. But it was fun to play.
After the second trek I spent again some days with my family and then I took a bus to Delhi. The drive was for 26 hours and I was pretty lucky that I had some nice company. Normally every Indian is smoking everywhere, so also in the bus. But as I told them that I could not stand it, they all went to the drivers cabin for smoking and they also tried to make a bed for me in the bus. But I couldn't really sleep as the bus was jumping too much.
In Delhi I was just enjoying being in a hot place again and spent most of the time with some people from the travel agency as I also stayed at their house for free.
Then one day a girl from Holland, Flora, came and one of the guys told us that we would go altogether to Kashmir for 5 days. We were supposed to be 5 people but in the end it was only Flora and me. Flora was ill the first day and they found that she had little stones in her kidneys. But the next day she was fine again. But then I broke part of my tooth when I was biting a nut. So I was seeing a dentist in Kashmir. It was pretty ok and looked very clean. Fortunately the tooth was already dead, so I had no pain and got just a new filling.
The weird thing is that yesterday I broke another tooth with another nut and so I already visited a dentist in Bangkok. I must say that I felt a lot saver here but still the methods are not comparable to an Austrian dentist, but I can't say who is better. At least the prices are a lot better in Asia. In Kashmir it was 12 Euro and in Bangkok about 14 Euro.
After Kashmir I got back to Delhi again and after some days I finally went Rajasthan, where I was riding on camels and elephants, met some Hindus, some Army men and some crazy drivers.
Some days ago I finally went Thailand and in 20 minutes I'm going to a small island called Koh Tao, where I will hopefully get some suntain.