Overall the houseboat itself in terms of comfort and suitability for a stay was fantastic, the structure. We booked through a travel agent in Delhi after our plans changed and had a lovely time in Sriningar. However we did feel like we were constantly being scammed. We got talked into paying about £370 (INR 37,000) for hiring a car for three days including to the airport, doing a 1hr boat ride on the lake as well as going round Srinigar city, then one day to the mountains. I feel this overall didn’t cost as much as we got charged. The hotel manager also several times tried getting his “friends” to sell us at various times including breakfast things such as pashmina scarves, wooden stools, Kashmiri tea and plant seeds which I think was highly inappropriate. The final thing which frustrated us is on the day we did a tour of Srinigar, the tour guide took us to a *** named Bashir’s house who I presume owns the houseboat and he tried selling us several “gemstones” and jewellery which we were clearly not interested in but kept being pushed on us, which again very frustrating because we are tourists on our honeymoon trying to enjoy ourselves and felt we were trying to stop being scammed in every moment, and having to keep a watch out. Everyone was overall very nice and hospitable and views were priceless, however due to bans on signal from outside Indian states in Kashmir (unless you are connected to wifi you can’t contact anyone even if you have an Indian SIM card) definitely do your own research and hire a driver yourself prior to arrival, maybe even try get a Kashmiri SIM card. It will be significantly cheaper and a better experience. Also don’t go in January it’s bitterly cold. Summer is better apparently and the mountains still have snow.
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