July 16th 2008.
Morning we woke up at around 7am and found that the contacts person Salim was present to help us take our bikes to the transport people and then take us around Srinagar just for sightseeing.
We went by the boat to the mainland took our bikes and went to withdraw money at an ATM. Done that we went with Salim who was joined by Yusuf via crowded Srinagar streets to the transport company office from where we would send the bikes back. We reached that place in about 30mins out of which 10mins were lost in the middle of the ride to locate Amit, Nikhil who were lost in the traffic and were not following us!
We made a deal with the transport company guys for our bikes for 2k including packing and transport but they said they only transport to Mumbai so we said fine and they said will take around 15days. We decided to have our get-together in Mumbai at Purvesh’s place while taking the bikes back home from Mumbai. All set and done we bid our goodbyes to our trusted steeds and came out from there where Salim had arranged a Tavera for us for roaming around Srinagar.
We went to the hotel near Dalgate first where we had our fill of lunch and went back to the market to get dry fruits and again into the market where Purvesh bought a blanket. The day was hot and humid unlike the other places and we were shocked to see this climate in Srinagar too which was cool unlike other places. Shopping done we went back to the houseboat. We had decided to go today itself to Jammu but were informed by Salim that today it was a strike in Jammu because of the Amarnath fiasco, hell! So we had to stay in Srinagar for today and go tomorrow to Jammu from where we had our train at 9.45pm in the night.
Going back to the houseboat had some rest for around 1-2 hours after which we took a shikara ride around the lake for around 2 hours and enjoyed the beauty of the lake to its fullest. The lake is around 20sq km in diameter and has many places of importance like a floating vegetable market and floating shops and all. We were amazed to see shops in the middle of the lake selling their wares from rs.1 for a chocolate to rs.50000 for a pashmina shawl!
The sun started setting down and the views became amazing in the hue of orange. Finally darkness descended and we came to the mainland, ride done. We went just idly walking on the banks of the lake and sat down. Our ride was almost done and we reflected on the days gone by on our ride and the memories of that and soaked in that happiness like small kids in a mela.
We went to a restaurant Mughal Darbar and had the finest food of my life there. I would never forget that place for the food for the rest of my life. Coming back to the boat point we bid our farewell’s to Salim and Yusuf our guides there and our new friends who without even resting came with us all around in the day.
We went back to the houseboat where the houseboat owner informed us that he had booked a Sumo for the morning 4.30am which would take us to Jammu well before our train time.
Tired with our travel and sightseeing today we were asleep before anyone knew it not before packing our stuff for the next day.
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