Houseboats of Kashmir
Kashmir
is a kind of beauty that bowls one over, however much one may have expected
from it. There are a wilderness of lakes, torrential mountain streams and placid
valleys, gigantic sun-tinted, snow-capped mountain ranges glistening in pink
and gold and rust, idyllic fun spots where the world is all too far away, and
magical bubbling springs, majectic waterfalls, streams of trout.
Kashmir roads are eminently motorable the year through. Even when it snows a
snow clearance task force has the road clear before you can say 'Santa Claus'!
There are plenty of hotels, tourst huts, and so on, to suit every budget, every
taste. So come, take to the road in magnificient Kashmir. All you need is an
indomitable spirit of adventure. And, ofcourse, enough gas in your tank!
Kashmir's magic has attracted tourists for endless years. Hill slopes of pine,
chenars, poplars and willow clothe the land in varying shades of soothing green,
with coniferous trees partly covering several ranges as well. The Jehlum river
washes the capital of Kashmir, but the focal point of attention for most tourists
are the broad lakes north of the town. The most famous, the Dal Lake, is connected
by a system of channels with the Nagin and Anchar lakes and here on the placid
waters are moored hundreds of houseboats that so typify the Kashmiri scenario.
Chashma Shahi lies at the foot of a hill 8.8 Km from Srinagar.The smallest
of Mughal Gardens chashma Shahi (Royal Spring) was laid out by Shahjahan, the
site of a spring of ice-cold water, famous for its medicinal properties. Nishat
Bagh (Pleasure garden):this garden 12 kms from Srinagar is laid out on the high
land between the Dal Lake and the slope of a hill which forms its background.A
canal runs down the centre, dropping from terrace to terrace in a series of
cascades. The topmost terrace commands a magnificient view of the Dal Lake below.
The Pleasure garden was laid out by Asif Khan, brother of Noorjahan.
>> MORE