The 26H Bus Journey to Kashmir

With our bags at our feet we made our selfs home on the bus that would take us to Kashmir in 26H. There was plenty of room on the bus and we had great big push back seats, the bus stopped regulary allowing us to stretch, feed and water as ness. It has been a great opportunity to catch up on our sleep that we have missed. During the stops we were looked after by a group of Kashmiri lads on their way home, these guys where most welcoming we shared meals with them and they taught us some Kashmiri too, yet, they did have a knack of talking about god all the time - David and I are definatly not the people to talk about god with, we get bored very quickly. The mood in the bus was warm and was excitable by the time we crossed the border into Kashmir (marked by a long tunnel), on exit everyone cheered and welcomed us to Kashmir - lovely! They talk of paradise and heaven on earth when they talk about Kashmir.
The diet change from Chinese to India was severe, but we had no ill effects and excitment began to grow within us over the new foods we had to try, the new people we'd meet and the environment we'd experience. The prodominant religion here is Muslim and it's very visually evident.
As soon as we crossed the border soliders started to appear and the road ascended and descended. At Srinagar a man boarded the bus with a card that read 'Mr David', in a 4x4 we where taken to Dal Lake ghats for a Shukera (flat bottomed gondala) cruise to our boat house 'Holy Night'.