To Far to Kashmire

I was told by Mr Goona Junior, that the bus ride from Delhi to Dal Lake in Srinegar, was about 27 hours, which in fact it took nearly 40 hours. The Himalayan Mountain Roads, were something of a nightmare, apart from the spectacular scenary, it was close to suicide, with the driver, over taking on blind bends, with no crash barriers, and the wheels being only inches from the edge of the mountain road, the sight of burnt out vehicles at the bottom of the valley uneased me even more, not to mention the amount of military, in the disputed region. Small rocks would sometimes, throw themselves of the mountains above, with one crashing through a window on our bus, hitting a guy in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious, the bus dropped him off at the next village to get urgent medical help. We eventually arrived in the north of Kashmire and to my destination Srinegar, burnt out buildings from rescent insurgent attacks, made me feel why did I come here. As was promised Mr Goona senior, was waiting for me at the main bus terminal, and he ushered me in to his jeep, his driver sped off down the dusty road. A soldier on the side of the road noticed me in the jeep, and waved his rifle for the jeep to pull over, Mr Goona shouting at the driver to floor it, which he did, leaving the soldier standing in the road. Why he wanted us to pull over, and why Mr Gooner panicked is any ones guess, but I had a good idea. We drove a few miles out of town, to the shore of Dal Lake, where we got on a small rowing boat, to the wood panelled house boat, which was to be my home for the next week. Surrounded by the majestic Himalayan Mountains, the sun shining on the silver lake, it was a million miles from where I’d just come from, not a sound or a soul.