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2003-08-01 - Srinagar (Day 108)

To try to get my bearings I go and take a ride around the bigger Dal Lake and Srinagar. Dal Lake was worse then I had been told, in that it was simply packed with boats one upon the other. While there are still relatively few tourists compared to what there were before the Pakistan - India tensions, shakiras (flat bottomed taxi boats) ferrying Indian tourists around were everywhere and it was busy, crowded and very touristy. I realized that again that I had been very lucky not knowing where to go, I still stumbled on just the right place.

Around the lake there were numerous signs encouraging one to "Save Dal Lake" though there weren't any more details then that. I can guess that the pollution one sees everywhere is probably killing the lake and that much of the sewage and refuse from the boats and the towns goes right into the lakes. Not withstanding, the lakes appear to be reasonably clean with a lot of plant life, mostly lotus, people swimming and even fish.

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