In Srinagar, there is the Dal Lake. There are houseboats on it. I am staying in one now.

There are also Mughal gardens, like this one. They are very symmetrical.

Anyway, so when we left off I was in Pahalgam. The next morning I was going to hike more but it rained, so we went back to Srinagar. Then today I went to Gulmarg. Pictures of all this will be coming up. Tomorrow I’m on another long bus to Amritsar via Jammu; I actually am looking forward to getting out of Kashmir. It’s pretty but expensive (burn rate ~$75/day, but that was because I booked this driver half-accidentally) and kind of isolated. My phone doesn’t work, the internet cafes are few and far between, I don’t know how to meet other travelers, and I have to ask my houseboat operator whenever I want to go to land. In addition, everyone wants to plan your whole trip for you, and this is frustrating. When I ask “how do you do X?” the answer is always “okay, I’ll do X for you.” (and then ask you to pay for it after it’s done.) Finally, everyone’s always asking for more money, tips, etc; welcome to touristy parts of India, I guess.

It has not been awesome! But there have been awesome parts. More later about those.