Hello from Kashmir. We're in the city of Sriningar right now staying on a houseboat on the lovely Dal Lake. We left Dharamsala without any Dalai Lama sightings, but still had a great time and learned a lot about Tibetan culture.
Next, we took a bus to Amritsar, which is the prominent Sikh area of India. The Sikhs wear the turbans and practice a religion somewhere in between Hindu and Islam. They are also wonderfully polite and everyone wanted to be sure we enjoyed their famous Golden Temple.
One of the best parts of our visit was going to the India-Pakistan border and watching the border ceremony. Each evening, about 4,000 Indians and Pakistanis come to the border and gather in bleachers for an elaborate show the soldiers put on. The Pakistanis get their citizens all riled up on loudspeakers and the Indian soldiers do the same. The crowds chant and sing and the Indians scream "Long live Hinduism" and I imagine the Pakistanis were chanting "Long live Islam." Then the soldiers march to he border, throw open the gates, puff their chests out at each other, kick their legs up in the air, and try to out-tough the other guy. But it's all in good fun. Given that India and Pakistan are ready to come to blows in real life, it's kind of sweet they readily agree to put on a fun show each night. From there, we travelled north to Kashmir. Kashmir has a bad reputation but has actually been safe for the last 3-4 years. We arrived yesterday and it may as well be a separate country. Well, separate except for the hundreds of Indian police lined up along the road getting here. I've never seen such a heavy police force before. There are checkpoints everywhere and several Indian military convoys.
Northern Kashmir is predominantly Muslim. It used to be a huge tourist destination because of it's beauty, but fell into decline after two decades of terrorist attacks. It's surrounded by the Himalayas and there are mountains and lakes and greenery everywhere.
We found a nice houseboat out on the lake and are staying for a few days. The family who owns the houseboat is adorable and invited us to a big Kashmiri party last night. Their friends just moved into a new house and were hosting a housewarming party. There must have been 20 different dishes that we were told took 3days to prepare. The men ate first in the house, and the women ate next in a tent that had been erected. The ladies were delighted to see Lori and I enter the tent, and they were very patient in teaching us how to eat the food. We sat on the floor and each group of 4 shared a huge plate of rice. We ate with our hands and every 5 minutes, someone came by and scooped out a new dish to pour on the rice. Kasmiri food is more like Persian food and there was lots of lamb served. I thought I ate pretty fast but you should have seen these Kashmiri women!!! Wow, I had to be quick just to get a few bites, and 
this wasn't easy. Have you ever eaten rice with your hands? I think half of my food ended up in my lap. I must have done something right though because when I finished, an enormous woman came up and gave me a bear hug and a huge kiss on the face. This is our last day in Srinigar. Tomorrow we leave to Ladakh, which is a 2 day, difficult journey over some of the highest mountain passes in the world. Apparently Ladakh is like no other place on earth and we'll be entering Tibetan territory again. That's what I love about India. Every state and city is so completely different from the other.
Okay, until Ladakh.......
