oh, let the sun beat down upon my face.....

I am in Kashmir after 25 hours of the scariest adventure bus ride of my life... we drove through a torrential thunder storm in the middle of the night near Jammu and I swear I felt the tires break contact with the road under about 2 feet of water .. althought the bus was fairly comfortable, it was abit nerve racking being the only white person on a bus filled with local people goign to a region most of the people in the world think is filled with terrorists...

Kashmir is glorious and the people that I have met on the bus and while I have been in Srinigar have proved to be very sincere and solid... I am going trout fishing in the mountains tomorrow and then heading to Ley... Kashmir is amazing. so so so lovely.... and some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen.
I am staying on a lovely houseboat in Dal Lake.. I stumbled upon this hookup in Delhi and it has proved to be an amazing connection... so serene this little houseboat is with the most amazing family... I sit in thier kitchen and they let me cook with them I am learing a ton about Kashmir and it is most interesting to be in a region that is 'occupied'... if you catch my drift.. Indian soldiers everywhere... everywhere...
the eldest son of the housboat family is my personal tour guide and took me to see bears ad a snow leopard at a wildlife sanctuary and tomorrow he is taking me 2 hours into the mountains to go fishing near some Mogule ruins...

As an aside... I need to get the hell out of Kashmir before I buy the most beautiful silk rug that I have ever seen and ride it straight back to Alaska... I swear to god that rug was made especially for me... everything about it is perfect.. it's truely magic.. I was joking with the organizer of the carpet cooperative that if I buy the damn thing, it should come with a pack unicorn so I can carry it around the rest of India with me... only in my dreams...

going to eat some Kashmiri Lamb. I probably will try to be out of touch for a bit now.. just wanted to let some peoples know that I am safe and settled.