House boats are the flag symbol of Srinaghar. They were in our minds before we arrived to the town. We knew where we wanted to stay. When we get off from the car from Jammu, one man came to us and offered some of his boats. Unfortunately the standard of those ones didn't satisfied us and the price was not worth that. But we were pretty stacked as he made all his neighbours to tell us that all the boats around were taken. he took a ride with us just to prove us that further searching is pointless, but we decided to be a real pain in the ass and kept going, and asking everyone we saw from the boat. All the owners are in a community, and support each others, but one broke the rule as he realized that the one by us was very naughty, and invited us to his boat. The one who was with us didn't like it. Probably not realizing that in the now days all tourists can share information in internet so he was slightly cutting the branch he was seating on. But that was already the past. We have never seen him again.
The boat we entered was bigger than the others around, we entered through the stairs to the terrace on side, which was linked to the other terrace in the forehead of the boat. The outer terrace was linked to the living room and living room to the dining room. The interior looked pretty posh, in the (British) imperial/Indian style, dominated by red colour (carpets, cushions..) with some golden patterns. Also outside, the boat had many wooden ornaments, also in the British imperial/Indian style.
The boat man was very kind to us, didn't have any available rooms on his boat but it was late and offered us a coach in the living room just for one night, prepared a dinner and breakfast next day, and found a boat which was only for us (three of us) next day. He erased all the bad impression from the day before.
Next day in the morning we moved to the boat nearby, personal one, only for us. We were waving everyday to the man who welcomed us first night. Our new host was also very nice, older man told us a lot about Kashmiri history and how day suffered pretty recently, now all they want is peace......
The boat was also decorated by wooden ornaments outside and posh interior in the British imperial/oriental style with red dominated colour and golden patterns carpets and cushions. But a little little bit pourer than the previous one. The layout was the same the outer terrace - living room - dining room - corridor to the bed rooms. We spent most of the time in the social space - living room and on the outer terrace. Sometimes we have guests, actually everyday. Young chaps from the boatman family were coming to watch TV to our living room, sometimes we had to tell them "guys we would like to stay by ourselves, privately", or "guys, go to bed!" Interesting that each light bulb had a separate switcher, there were many light bulbs.... many wall lamps and one chandelier. The structure of the boat was pretty simple. Flat floating base and house box on it. Analysing the balance and more advanced sailing terminology, that boat is only for quiet steady waters, couldn't be completely used on seas, or even rivers with bigger waves might get that one in troubles. However the base was pretty wide to keep the balance in terms of size (not in terms of weight - wing wise), but the wooden structure looked weak an sharp edge is needed for any further sailing on a river or so. The name "house boat" describes it perfectly. All life in the same place.
All the house boats create a town with streets, main square, active frontages etc. The water is pretty shallow about 1 m depth, but small boats are still needed for the transport purpose. The water town layout is very organic, most of towns have orthogonal grid of streets, measured precisely. Water town has a huge open space which can be compared to a market square. There are also many narrow lanes, which you can cross by boats, colourful shop facades, opened to the water, real town, but water instead of paving. Thinking about Venice? Yes, sort of... When you hit the bank and get off the boat to the mainland, the magic world disappears. Welcome back to the reality. Cars, paving, walking pedestrians... it was a very nice staying in the water town in Srinaghar.
Text for CNN Go. More about Dal Lake here: http://www.cnngo.com/mumbai/life/houseboats-kashmir-155642
