Kashmir diary-House boat stay @ Dal lake

Dal lake is famous for its house boats but.Nagin lake and Jhelum river also offers the wonder called house boat for me it was a dream come true.
I was too eager t step onto Shikara(small boat) that would take us to our houseboat

As soon as the shikara starts its way into the heart of Dal lake, you can see shikara selling various stuffs coming towards you, we were told to keep away from them as the prices would be sky high.

One can get to see different kind of life on Dal Lake ,you get everything on water even a cup steaming cup of tea and snack.

The horizon started to fade away its glow slowly and watching the horizon from shikara was a beautiful site

Our first destination was the floating market that sells handicrafts since it was getting dark I couldn't get good pictures yet I savoured everything I got to see 

I found the price really high after sailing through the market for a while and having tuzzi this time it were of chicken but I must say the one outside Chashm-e-shahi was tastier and cheaper than this

Finally we moved onto our house boat.Our boatman told us that hell pick us up early for the vegetable market ride.Our house boat attendant was waiting for us with a smile.His name was Ali and he looked quite young for this kind of job.He told us that this boat housed four suites 2 of them being 3 bedded and 2 bedded one with single bed, he also told us that only one was occupied.He took us through the narrow path

 to our room that was by the end of the passage

And wow I felt as though I stepped back into time.The interior was such that with elaborate wood work that could be found in the victorian era. Our bathroom had a tub too all very classy.

Ali served us coffee and we got started chatting.He told us that he is involved in the embroidery and explained about different types of stitches and work.He also told us that on season he works here and would go back to his family in off season and get back to work as he prefers that over his work in house boat.

We were all too tired after a long day that we all slept quite early skipping our dinner. At

5:45am we started for the vegetable market, it is a energy packed site with lot of huzzle and buzzle .I forgot to take my cam  but you check here to get a hang of the site.

We got back around 7:30 and hot Kehwa's aroma invited us .We had specially requested for it.Later on we 

 had English breakfast and relaxed on the balco of our houseboat .

We had neighbors too

Through my window I saw this small kid coming to this boat taking control of it and move with absolute elegance and brillance

Around 9:00 am out shikara greeted us again and slowly and steadily our house boat began to fade from the view and bank started to show off clearly.That was a brilliant experience, a must have in every tourist's itenary.

And that's what I wore for the day, you can check it out here.

Note:

Have a word or two with your fellow tourist for the shikara ride fare.Look least interested to them when asked for a ride to floating market and vegetable market in the morning so that you get to bargain for the best prize.Do not shy away from bargain let the best spirit spring from.

Vegetable market sparks into action before dawn so get ready to get to feel the real spirit.

The prize for the goods they sell on Shikara are real high, so think twice before buying and bargain profusely.