Delhi drivers and Kashmir cash crisis

To Delhi and another wonderful flight from Singapore Airlines who get our star award. Spent an informative and entertaining five hours at Changi airport, going to all three terminals via the Skytrain and marvelling at the entertainment, shopping possibilities and even the food court where we had chicken and rice for less than five pounds each.

Delhi was a culture shock with the taxi driver qualifying for the world's worst driver award within five minutes of leaving the airport - sadly the Prince Polonia hotel, recommended by Lonely Planet, was no better - dirty sheets etc and not ready for us even at midnight when we arrived! Bad start. But we soon fetched up at our travel company where Javed put us in a nice little boutique hotel and fixed up our trip round Rajasthan. Only problem was he recommended the chance of a lifetime - four days in Kashmir including flight to Srinagar - "It's very peaceful now, sir". Er, no.

But before we flew to the Himalayas we had a wonderful lunch with Edmo, an old colleague of Colin's, whose wife Alex is Sky's Asia correspondent and recently won the Royal Television Society's reporter of the year award. All this and four children to manage!

Edmo himself declined Colin's offer of tennis on the very reasonable grounds that he had had an operation two days earlier. But he managed to host a great lunch at Punjabi By Nature - great food . Hopefully Alex won't be busy when we return to Delhi and we can return the favour. Edmo has taken to life as a Maharajah with surprising aplomb. Even the guard of his sumptuous home looks like Jaws from James Bond!

On arrival at Srinagar there was a plentiful supply of army presence at the airport and even more in the town. We should have been suspicious when we were body searched four times before leaving Indira Ghandi airport and had to identify our luggage before boarding. India is in the throes of post Mumbai security alerts.

The boss of of the Swan houseboat on Dal lake where we were due to live for the next four nights said we would have the most memorable stay of our time in India - and he was right for the wrong reasons. We had been told it was 20 degrees but it never rose above 14 degrees during sunny days and there was a biting frost every night. The houseboat was unheated and damp, save for parafin heaters and we were stranded in the middle of the lake at the mercy of the shikara wallah (the boatman). We were persuaded (forced) to have four tours including trekking twice in the Himalayas (Colin with a strained thigh from the Cameron Highlands and Linda with a bad knee) to keep us out of the town which was the subject of an army curfew. We couldn't return before 4.30pm having set out before 8am.

The Himalayas were stunning and gorgeous although our guide's driving was similar to that of our Delhi taxi driver. We negotiated with him not be on his mobile the whole time as he steered us round hairpin bends on a steep, rutted single track path up the side of a sheer mountain. Every night we were sitting ducks in the houseboat as various carpet, jewellery and spice salesmen peddled their wares. "It doesn't cost anything to look sir," they began. We developed a hostage mentality and felt quite molested. We met two other Englishmen on the second day, a silversmith from Birmingham called Stephen and a goldsmith named David from Bromsgrove who had similar feelings to us. But the British sense of humour won the day, even if we have more booty from Kashmir than we intended. As Colin remarked to Linda who wanted to abort our second mountain venture "Is this the spirit that won the empire?"

During the first trek we had some five hours to kill before we were allowed back into Srinagar (due to the curfew) and were entertained in a mountain guide's family home. The wife prepared chapatis and delicious Kashmiri tea (including cardomon, saffron and honey) on an open wood fire inside the house. Her three small children (one at the breast) played around her while her husband tried to persuade us to use his ponies. Sadly we weren't up to that. Seeing the poverty and receiving their hospitality was quite humbling.

The Kashmiri people would love to be independent from both India and Pakistan who have been fighting over their bodies for 40 years. There are 600,000 Indian troops in the area and daily you are made aware of it. On our return we had our bags and bodies searched again no fewer than four times at the airport (by the army) but they only found three safety pins on Linda to confiscate. The people are lovely but poor and desperately need tourism. Neither Pakistan nor the Indian army are doing them any favours. We wouldn't recommend a houseboat and it's best to go in the summer when the flowers and water lilies are at their best. Never did we imagine we would be grateful to see Delhi and feel the heat again. Bliss.