around the world in 180 days

Our last day in Srinagar wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Our conversation with the houseboat manager didn’t go too bad, and we ended up getting a nice, full day tour of the lakes the town is built on. We saw floating gardens, a floating market and a whole section of the old city (which was pretty nasty) that had canals through it, sort of like a 3^rd world Venice. It was a pleasant way to spend our last day.

I think I’ve been a bit unfair to Srinagar because we’ve both felt like we’d been fooled into coming here. While it isn’t the paradise on earth it claims to be (too much pollution), it is a beautiful place. Anna and I have had a very pleasant time sitting on top of the houseboat in the evenings and watching the sun set and the stars come out. The salesmen are relentless, but it is only because they have to be to survive. Once we stopped looking and just responded with a polite but firm, “no thanks,” they were much easier to handle. You have to say it four or five times, but they get the point.

It is a difficult life in Kashmir. The area has depended on tourism since before the British arrived and India and Pakistan’s pissing contests here have chased many tourists away. The locals don’t care much for either government and would just as soon be an independent Kashmir. They refer to themselves as Kashmiris (as opposed to Indians) and people from other parts of India as Indians. They are a people who are fiercely proud of their land, to the point that every person you talk to asks you three questions: how are you, where are you from and how do you like Kashmir, in that order.

So, all day today, we’ve been telling people that we like Kashmir very much, even if we don’t care for the haze of smog (China? India?) that hangs in the air and blocks our view of the mountains or the toilets in all the houseboats that drain straight into the lakes. It is a region that has had more than its share of difficulties and has still managed to keep its identity, which is something I respect.

We’ve been watching the English language Al Jazeera since we left the US and I can’t believe they don’t carry that station at home. As far as Middle Eastern, African and Asian news goes, it is by far the best source I’ve ever seen. The bias that the US media has made so much of must be either relegated to the Arabic language station or a fabrication, because the English broadcasts we’ve seen have been balanced, fair and full of quality reporting. The big advantage Al Jazeera has over most of the rest of western media, the ubiquitous CNN included, is tha they have permanent correspondents in every single country over here. Al Jazeera has a permanent correspondent in Zimbabwe. No one else can say that.

Whilst watching Al Jazeera this evening, we saw a story on the children of India and a report that the Indian governent released recently that said tha upwards of 60% of Indian children suffer physical abuse, more that 50% suffer sexual abuse and half work seven days a week. These numbers include all children, 0 to 18. They are staggering. We’ve certainly seen plenty of children working, from the four or five year old kids we saw in Delhi hawking cheap necklaces in street markets to the twelve year old we saw today who tried to sell us saffron, but I had no idea it was that bad. Almost ½, or 440 million out of 1 billion, of India’s population is under 18. That’s a lot of abused kids. Very sad.

Tomorrow we have a 12 hour bus ride, followed by another 12 hour bus ride. Sound like a blast.

Tags: Travel

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