I've made my way up North, at the moment I am residing on a houseboat on Srinagar's Dal Lake - one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Kashmir is so different from the rest of India, a vast Muslim majority, balanced climate, mountains overlooking you wherever you are. And the tea ... Green tea with cardamon, saffron and cinnamon - what more can you say?
There's so much to say, many adventures, good and bad experiences - but overall I'm really enjoying my time here. Okay: Some impressions from the past days.
Taj Mahal... maybe one of the most photographed buildings in the world. For a reason! I was a bit sceptical about going there, but it was on our way from Varanasi to Delhi and was definitely worth the visit. We spend about 3 hours there and it's of a beauty that I've never seen in a building before. As you can see I was happy!
Some detail shots of the Taj. Even though the builder (Shah Jahan, father of Aurganzeb for the history junkies reading this) was a Muslim he respected the other main religions of his time (Hinduism and Sikhism) very much. See how the flower forms an 'Om' sign?
Beautiful Arabic calligraphy on the outside of the Taj. It looks like it's painted on the marble but in fact they cut out small pieces of it and replace them with black stones. When looking at this magnificent architecture I thought "How could anyone ever speak of European superiority, completely dismissing Indian culture and science. Is there anything comparable in Europe?"
In one of the side-buildings. It's a bit blured and there could be some work done on the colors, but not now ;-)
Approaching Srinagar from Delhi. See the mountains, the landscape... Simply amazing.
A couple of minutes before touch-down. Green, green, green - wherever you're looking!
Dal Lake, Srinagar. This is where we're staying, this is our view everyday. A magic combination of water and mountains. Never seen anything like that before!
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