An evening at Dal Lake

During my Srinagar-Leh-Ladakh tour Houseboat stay at Dal lake was wonderful experience I had … Being inside the lake and staying on floating water is experience in itself one can remember for …

When I booked houseboat stay for two days one of my friend told me that the lake water stinks and hence you should have taken only one day stay in houseboat … but may be this year the lake water is clean I even did not felt it …

BTW … when we got down the tempo traveler .. there was water taxy service available to reach the houseboat at other end of lake ! Here we learnt getting inside boat without toppling it ! ha ! ha !! I am a good learner !!! Boats are comfortable indeed …. they give you luxury feeling …

I started capturing lake photos as I got inside the boat .. reaching my houseboat Hazar Dastan this was the first look of it …

I was greeted by the houseman, the houseboat has 4 rooms so full of houseboat was allotted to my group ! Each room had different layout .. but all of them were good .. I opted for the last room … here is glance of the room (suit !) WOW … it was not room it was full fledged suit … completely made of wooden carvings … it was classic ..

Exterior of houseboat where we had our dinner with some drinks was fascinating … with chilling weather we could enjoy tasty mutton prepared by the chef .. it was so nice and homely .. yummy …

After spending some time to get refresh (hot water was available all the time) … we went on for shikara ride (They charge 200 Rs per shikara for shopping and dal lake ride) … There are floating shops everywhere … it is like shopping lane of Tulsi Baug of Pune … You have got pashmina shawl, ladies dress material, spices, maggi, floating hotels selling mutton, chicken, veg food, ladies purses and what not … But be aware the shikara man will stop only where he gets his commission, if you wish to stop at place you like he will be so reluctant that you have to fight with him if you wish to stop !! (This is bad thing and they should avoid such malpractices in my opinion, this reduces credibility of these floating shops, also I had been warned by drivers and my friends not to buy things from these shops and so do I felt)

Although as a sample purchase I fought with the shikara man and stopped it at some other place than he wanted .. here we had our first purchase of ladies purses … costed 60 Rs each …

We spent about an hour in shopping and ride before we returned to houseboat … Evening views were magnificent … It was bit cloudy so I could not get shots as expected … but here is glimpse of it …

Dinner was quite good … he had prepared mutton as per our request … and I could enjoy it with drinks in the outhouse of boat … Night views of Dal lake during the dinner were as good as the food 🙂 … Just relaxing and nourishing to my body and mind … wow … just can’t forget those golden moments of life … with my love and friends …

Morning I got up early to see beauty of Dal lake … Movement of birds and boats had started at around 5 am ! lake was having clear views … I could see beautiful floating gardens and captured many shots …

Tips for houseboat stay & Shikara rides :

• Many sellers will come to houseboat to sell their goods, you can simply tell them that you are not interested, else they will eat your valuable time (one fellow will not move for an hour or so !!) so better to be blunt .. also their quality and cost does not match … they tell thousands of rupees for small items !!
• While you ride in shikara, sellers like keshar, flowers will follow you and waste your time, here you can tell them that just 5 minutes back you bought it from some other seller !! this trick worked for me ! ha ! ha !! learning & experience count ! 🙂
• Keep notes of 10 Rs with you to give tips to people, they expect something from you, like your taxy to houseboat is being paid by the houseboat owner, however giving 10,20 Rs makes them happy …