Allāhu akbar! The Muslim call to prayer at dawn woke us all from our deep sleep on the houseboat. They must have a special New Year’s Day version of the call because it seemed to go on forever. It was a good alarm clock for me though as I wanted to get up at dawn and check out the lake since we arrived in the dark. From the bedroom window though I could see it was still dark as we were completely fogged in so I went back to the warm bed.
A few hours later I got up again and woke up Raj who was sleeping in our living room on the floor. He jumped up and immediately went into service mode. ‘Good morning, sir’, he said. ‘Can I bring you a coffee?’ I told him to go back to sleep.
Outside, the sun was barely cutting through the fog. A thin layer of ice coated the lake as it had dropped below freezing during the night. I could see that there had already been some boat activity and a channel had been cut through the ice.
I saw our shikara pilot scurrying around in the early morning getting the boat ready. It was a cold and frosty morning and Padma doesn’t take well to the cold so I asked the man if he had a heat pot as I didn’t see one in the boat. He lifted his phiran and pulled out a heat pot. You can fit a lot under those loose garments and the Kashmiris carry their heat pots inside the phiran during the winter to keep warm.
As soon we our shikara shoved off from the houseboat, we were mobbed by vendors in boats who attached themselves to our shikara. We didn’t mind as they were all good natured and due to the fog there wasn’t much sightseeing to do on Dal Lake. This man called himself ‘Day Bird’ by day and ‘Night Bird’ by night. He made us laugh and got the new year off to a good start. I think Joseph bought this Elmer Fudd hat as it was dirt cheap. He’ll probably never wear it in Australia but it doesn’t matter. We had fun negotiating the sale with Day Bird and we were happy to be his first customer of 2015.
While Xander and Joe were trading with Day Bird on the port side of the boat I was dealing with the tea and spice man on the starboard side. He had saffron but as we had already purchased some I asked for some kahwa or Kashmiri tea. We drank kahwa quite a bit while in Kashmir and loved it. The tea is made by boiling the leaves with cinnamon and cardamom. We’re not big tea drinkers at home but my sister-in-law, Jo Voola , likes tea so this bag was for her. So Jo, each time you fix up some tea you will not know when and how we bought it!
This man is collecting organic material from the lake to be used to enrich the soil for crops.
Shikara boats on Dal Lake awaiting some customers. They won’t get much as it is winter there and the distant mountains are covered by fog or haze. We decided that definitely we must return to Kashmir in summer as that’s when the true beauty of the land unfolds.
Even on dry land we were mobbed by vendors. But again, unlike some parts of the world, the Kashmiri vendors were all good natured and fun and the products they were selling were all quite appealing and very cheap. As I was trying to get in the car, this man pulled out a beautiful velvety soft leather passport and money bag for A$8. I couldn’t resist and I liked the man so I pulled out 400 rupees and wished him a happy new year. Looking at the photo now I see we were wearing our fake fur hats the wrong way – he has the fake fur to the inside which seems as if it would be much more comfy.