After our wonderfully relaxing couple of days on our luxurious boat we were met by our Khajuraho connection who goes by Super Mario for the foreigners because he looks just like Super Mario. Anyway, he said that he would take us sightseeing and invited us to lunch at his house! He walked us around the old town of Srinigar and we got to see so much that we never would have on our own. I loved looking into the little shops and seeing people making food, smoking hookah or running their tiny shops. Unlike the rest of India people do not stare at you in Kashmir, we got lots of friendly smiles but no one stalking us with their camera or anything else gross. We happened to pass a Muslim wedding and everyone insisted that we go behind the tent and see the food being prepared. There must have been at least 50 men cooking tons of food in huge black cauldrons over big fires. There is tons of good meat in Kashmir and we were given a taste of everything. More of those lamb kebabs that we had had the night before and some other kind of lamb meatball that was amazing. All of the food was amazingly flavored and there was soooo much of it! All the men doing to the cooking were so nice and not at all creepy. The entire day I waited for someone to do something creepy or for Mario to start taking us to his friends shops but not once did I feel like anyone was trying to get something from us. When we got back to Mario's house we had to beg him to show us some of his rugs and scarves. His family has sold Kashmiri goods since like 1840 or something and we had seen his shop in Khajuraho and knew that if we were going to buy anything in Kashmir we wanted to buy it from him. The rugs were all handmade and absolutely beautiful. We looked at tons and each found a perfect one. After going through the rugs we went to a room filled with pashminas and I got a little carried away. They all were so beautiful I couldn't resist.
After all our shopping we were served a traditional Kashmiri lunch by one of his nieces (he lives with both his brothers and all their kids). First the girl came around with water and a dish for us to wash our right hand. She then served out rice, two dishes of lamb and one of chicken. We ate the meal with our right hands which for Danielle and I was definitely a new skill. The food was delicious and all the meat was really good. In the rest of India meat has been hard to find and the little bit of chicken we have had has not been good. We were totally stuffed after lunch and were then served like our fifth cup of kashmiri tea and then Mario insisted that we would stay with him and his family for the next two nights! His family was about to move into a new house out in the country and it was huge and amazing. All our meals were prepared and we were treated just like family. It was really amazing to experience such hospitality from someone that we had just met and to truly not feel like they wanted anything from us. We got to play with all the little kids and eat way too much amazing food.
Being in Srinigar, which is pretty much entirely Muslim, I wasn't sure how it would be different from the rest of India. Frankly I haven't spent any amount of time with Muslims and wasn't sure how I would be viewed or treated both as a woman and as an American. In Srinigar for the first time both Danielle and I felt totally comfortable talking with people. People seemed truly honest and it didn't feel like everyone was out to get money from you. While I was still bothered by the position of women in society- we barely got a chance to interact with the women in Mario's family as they were never invited to eat with us- but Danielle and I were treated wonderfully.
Staying with a family was a really amazing opportunity and I am so thankful that we were able to meet such generous and wonderful people in Srinigar.
After all our shopping we were served a traditional Kashmiri lunch by one of his nieces (he lives with both his brothers and all their kids). First the girl came around with water and a dish for us to wash our right hand. She then served out rice, two dishes of lamb and one of chicken. We ate the meal with our right hands which for Danielle and I was definitely a new skill. The food was delicious and all the meat was really good. In the rest of India meat has been hard to find and the little bit of chicken we have had has not been good. We were totally stuffed after lunch and were then served like our fifth cup of kashmiri tea and then Mario insisted that we would stay with him and his family for the next two nights! His family was about to move into a new house out in the country and it was huge and amazing. All our meals were prepared and we were treated just like family. It was really amazing to experience such hospitality from someone that we had just met and to truly not feel like they wanted anything from us. We got to play with all the little kids and eat way too much amazing food.
Being in Srinigar, which is pretty much entirely Muslim, I wasn't sure how it would be different from the rest of India. Frankly I haven't spent any amount of time with Muslims and wasn't sure how I would be viewed or treated both as a woman and as an American. In Srinigar for the first time both Danielle and I felt totally comfortable talking with people. People seemed truly honest and it didn't feel like everyone was out to get money from you. While I was still bothered by the position of women in society- we barely got a chance to interact with the women in Mario's family as they were never invited to eat with us- but Danielle and I were treated wonderfully.
Staying with a family was a really amazing opportunity and I am so thankful that we were able to meet such generous and wonderful people in Srinigar.
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