Kashmir

Friendly people in the valley, which equates to a copious amount of apples and frequent tea breaks. Amazing mountains, on the few days they're visible. Always entertaining and or stressful traffic conditions, like a video game with consequences. Punctuated by the odd scene of mob justice when an offending driver tries to make a quick getaway.

Mob justice also extends to petty theft, most notably when somebody tried to swipe our drivers cellphone from the open window of our parked car. After trying to dart off into the market he was hauled back into a crowd of pissed off locals and presented to a witness, me, to confirm his identity. After staring at the guy blankly, with no idea if it was in the fact the same guy, he was pulled back into the crowd, slapped in the head a few times and herded away before things got out of hand.

No matter where we are in the valley, it's impossible to forget that we're in a military occupied state. Patrols on the roads every morning, ubiquitous military bases, and military sentries who usually have their guns slung lazily over their shoulder and pointed carelessly into large crowds of people, reassuring. As an added bonus at the end of their patrols they comandeer taxis for free rides back to their bases, dumping the locals on the side of the road. Just to highlight their laziness, they tried to take our cab to get a ride to their base a half a kilometer away. We've been lucky in that all three times they've stopped us, they were loathe to kick a couple of foreigners onto the street.

Other pleasant experiences with the military include trenching by the firing range at the military base. It feels like a vanilla version of trench warfare, logging in the trench with AK's going off a hundred yards away. Every once in a while it sounds like bullets are richocheting over the trench.

Love the fact that a small jar of Skippy Superchunk peanut butter costs twice as much our accomodations, I refuse to give up the chunky western goodness. I also have yet to try life without toilet paper, you usually have to search high and low for the white gold, but life is so much better when its around. As a 6'5" white guy, I never cease to feel like a circus attraction to the locals who can't seem to stare enough at Chris and I when we walk around Srinagar.