Jan. 5-6

Jan 5

Wow. Woke up this morning, it was freezing. I managed to sleep relatively well despite it, thanks to a millions layers of protection but it was damn cold. I think this is the coldest weather I’ve ever slept in, colder even than Nature, but I was more fortified so I felt it less. Unfortunately, I think my computer was affected by it. I even thought about keeping her warm and put the covers over her, but covers only work to keep in warmth that's being generated from within, it doesn’t really do anything if there’s no warmth to begin with. So, I tried using the rjs on the computer today and it wouldn’t register. I hope it’s not permanent or I’m going to have serious problems getting work in and out. At the same time, my cell phone’s memory chip has been acting up, causing me to lose a lot of pics, and my usb flash memory won’t format so I can’t even use that. Basically, it’s not as bad as a total system failure, but it’s seriously hindering my abilities to get work off and onto my computer, getting pics and a slew of other things that are necessary to my functioning properly here.

These hot water bottles do wonders. They keep their heat for a few hours only, unfortunately, but they are very effective while they’re hot. I think though, that I’ve had enough of battling with the cold. If I wanted to be cold I’d have stayed in Montreal. And at this price, it makes no sense to stay here. So, tomorrow, I’ll wake up early, and leave for Jammu, then onward to Amritsar. I’m a little sorry to leave the family behind, but I feel too confined here, confined to the island, confined by the cold, just plain old confined.

Got quite a bit of sleep last night so I wonder if I’ll manage to get to sleep soon but I hope so. The sooner I sleep the earlier I can get up and the less time I’ll spend sleeping without the comfort of the water bottles. I think I’ll bring the laptop closer today to my body and hope that it’ll not get as cold as yesterday. I would feel terrible if things got worse or even if the network port were dead permanently. I always thought it would work better in the cold but I guess not. I can’t see what else would be at the root of the problem, but right now, it’s weighing pretty heavily on me.

I’m gonna miss this family though. It was so refreshing spending time with them. Cindit, Bilal, and Lilu are awesome, a lot of fun and the old man, he’s a good man, but you can see that life has not been to good to him. I realized that I simply don’t understand the family structure. It got confusing, partly I think because they were playing with me, partly because they call the other brother or sister often and that was throwing me off.

I can’t say I’ve seen much of srinigar, it’s been cloud covered and foggy the whole time I’ve been here but what I have seen has been really nice and a taste is all I wanted and I’m satisfied to leave it at that. Maybe I’ll come back in a few years and see the family again, that would be nice, in summer of course. Meantime, unless they make me an offer I can’t refuse, I’m going to be heading back into the black sun, polluted skies, noisy calm of the rest of india, but also back to the colors which lack here, the warmth and the new adventures that await me.

That’s all I have for now. Signing off.

Jan 6

I’m stuck in srinigar, just my luck , I get here and the next day it snows. But as if that weren’t bad enough, the next day it snows even harder. Now the pass through the Himalayas is closed and there is no way to get through just yet. Maybe another day and the roads will be cleared. In the meantime I must make do with what I have at my disposal, but, do not mistake my comments for chagrin, they are far from that. Though I am stuck here and being stuck is never consoling, if there is any place that I’d be happy to be stuck in it is this place. I’ll explain why.

First of all I renegotiated the price and managed to bring it down to 300Rs. That’s a great thing considering I was paying 500 just a day ago and that the average price is considerably higher, and that the average price of a budget hotel room, single room is 300. Meanwhile, I have a whole houseboat to myself. So, that’s a wonderful and unique thing, I believe. Secondly, my laptop is fine. My network port works fine, it was either the internet shop I went to or a temporary cold driven glitch. So I feel relieved in a way I cannot explain. So, even if I ‘m locked away here for a few days, I can work. Thirdly, in addition to this wonderful family that has taken me in in ways I could only have dreamed of, I’ve made another friend here at a neighboring hotel who has been very welcoming and warm. Son of a rich agriculturalist and carpet manufacturer, he sat with me, offered me some tea and biscuits and we talked for about an hour and a half, but I’ll get to that in a minute. So, yes I am stuck here but I am stuck under the most magnificent circumstances and in a fantastic place.

Before I continue, let me say a little something about my day. I woke up late, my alarm didn’t’ go off because I set it for the wrong day. Mistake number one but in the end a blessing. I got up around 10 or so. I had planned on getting up around 7:30 to catch the bus or jeep to jammu and continue on my journey. It was not to be. I awoke to a snow filled landscape and another day of fog covered horizons, but I wasn’t cold, surprisingly. I didn’t even put on the faron I was given and I walked over to the family’s home to bring back the water bottles and inform them that if possible I’d be leaving. They sat me down for some tea before I had the chance to say anything. Eventually I got the words out but it didn’t matter, by then it was too late to leave anyway, the buses and jeep only leave before 11, and usually more like 8, since the ride is long and driving at night is highly discouraged, for security and safety reasons. So, I sat with them, they offered me winter wives which I generally refused, they gave me tea and cornflakes in hot milk and we talked and hung out. It was nice. They were all in a great mood for reasons I didn’t know but didn’t care too much about. Eventually, I decided, for lack of cigarettes and a feeling that I shouldn’t hang out there too long, that I should move and walk around, maybe get online if there was anywhere else available other than the place that charged me 80Rs an hour. So, I got up and wished everyone a good day. In the meantime, I paid Ghulam, father and patriarch of the family the 500 I owed him for the night and explained I would be sleeping elsewhere as I got a cheaper price. Upon hearing this, he offered to match the price and so I decided at 300 that it was worth staying on the boat and being close to the family for one more night.

As I left, a man from the house boat Owners’ travel Association who had paid them a visit was also leaving. I left, walked to the end of the peer and stood there admiring my surroundings, waiting for a small and cheaper shikara to show up, allowing me to cross for 1Rs. It didn’t show by the time Feroz, the man from the HBOTA showed up next to me. He asked if I was crossing and suspecting he didn’t have the best of intentions, said yes but I was in no hurry and was waiting for a small shikara. He stood next to me and waited with me, asking me random questions in his poor English. He wanted to get across too. After a couple minutes he had had enough waiting and said he could get us a large shikara for 10Rs. Well, I was a little curious as to how he’d play this out, so I said I’d go with him. He called one, it came we got on and in the end he didn’t offer to pay his half. I suspected as much. He then asked where I was going, I told him I was walking and that I needed to get smokes first. He walked the 20 feet with me to the store offered to arrange for the sale, I agreed then, he asked me if I would get him a pack, I laughed in an obvious facetious manner and agreed, but clearly not appreciating the request. It didn’t bother him and I got 3 packs, one for me, one for Ghulam and one for him. Then, without saying thank you he wished me a good day and walked away. Typical. Anyway, I decided I’d walk in the direction of the hotel I had falsely told Ghulam that I had made a deal with curious to see it. I walked to it, then passed it, then, curious about it, walked back to it and knocked on the door. I was greeted by a Nepalese worker who understood no English and who had me come in while he got the manager/owner. This was the start of a new mini-friendship. The owner, Rouf, was a young man, very open, very welcoming, who spoke quite good English. A Kashmiri who had obviously had an impressive education. He even knew where Haiti was. He offered to show me the rooms, which I agreed to, and showed me a couple rooms, all with brightly and newly painted walls, clean floors, good bathrooms, in fact, by Indian standards, immaculate. I was very impressed, but more than that I was impressed with his candor and openness. We walked back to the reception and he had tea brought in and biscuits and we talked. All in all for over an hour and a half, about a range of topics. He was a good man, and unlike most of the men I’ve known, he asked nothing of me and in the end offered his internet connection and a free ride around town the next day if I happened to still be in town, at no charge. I ended up telling him that I didn’t work for the lonely Planet but was authorized to post comments, and that I would gladly recommend his hotel, all of which is true and I plan on it, because his warmth and accommodation was purely from a level of enjoyment and without gain. He never even tried to sell me a room. I was so impressed.

After being recharged by the experience I decided to see if that alternate internet shop was open and see if I could find an ATM, as I’d need it the next day for the jeep or bus and to pay for the room for an extra day. The shop was closed but the ATM was close by and I used it and the security guard who came in there with me, making me a little nervous did something strange. Not only did he stand next to me the whole time I was withdrawing my money, but when it came out of the machine, he reached in and grabbed the money. It occurred to me that I might have to end up fighting for it, but he handed the money directly to me. Strange but interesting. With the confidence of having money, I chose to get some food from the nearby Dhaba, ate a veg meal and went on my way back to the family home as a few hours had passed.
I got there, was ushered in, offered tea and a winter wife, asked how my day was, and made comfortable. I hung around talked to the children mostly and as usual they ended up asking about my cell, or laptop or this or that. Sameer, asked me to teach him how to download files from the cell onto the laptop. I opened up the laptop and showed him. That opened up a whole series of computer lessons, which I was more than happy to provide. In the meantime the girls wanted to see my girlfriend. I didn’t go into the details, didn’t tell them we weren’t actually together and why, I saw no reason to and was all too happy to show them the 2 pictures Erin had sent me of us together with friends. In the end, hours were spent showing them things, teaching them things, taking pictures of them, taking down their email addresses. It was all soooo shanty. The family really seemed comfortable with me by then, even laughing at my poor attempts at Kashmiri and letting me know that they would miss me. It was so nice. I told them I would too. Long story made short, in the end I let them be around 10:30 and came to the boat. Ghulam wasn’t ready for sleep just yet and I offered him some rum as a substitute for the charas he usually smokes and he joined me in the houseboat for a couple drinks and we talked. It was nice. I think he finally actually let me in, after a night of seeing me patiently and openly let the kids have at it on my laptop and providing them with lessons, he saw me not as a tourist to be taken advantage of but as a person with a heart that he could appreciate, who wanted good things for him and his family. He left after a few drinks and many smiles, feeling good and knowing I was grateful for his hospitality. I will write him a good but honest review on LP. In the end, the day was even better than the previous. I felt more like a family member and less like a tourist than ever and the family accepted me more than they had before and we shared laughs, all of us on multiple occasions, genuine, heartfelt moments that I hope to remember forever. It was, in fact, my most genuine Indian day, though really it was not an Indian day but a kashmiri one. From eating with my hands at a Dhaba to hanging with 2 different sets of good people, I enjoyed this experience more than any other on this trip, save the moments that I really enjoyed with my own family. Things are looking up, and it is because of this that I don’t mind, am not stressed and don’t’ fear being stuck here a few more days. I only hope my budget will allow for it and that I can leave a parting gift to the family as well.

So, that being said and me not finding any more words to say, I leave the 6th behind and look forward to the 6th, when Hakim will show me around town, as he offered, if that’s still on the table. It should be interesting. Then, if all goes well, the roads will be clear and I can leave the following day and make my way to Amritsar, recharged by these moments and for the first time, truly excited about continuing this journey into the heart of India.

Time for another drink, another smoke and a movie.