Dal Lake Shikara Ride

A shikara is a hand-rowed cedar boat with a canopy and cushioned seats, and an hour in one is the single most photographed thing anybody does in Kashmir. It is also the least demanding: you step down from a ghat at water level, sit, and the boatman does the rest.

What you actually see

The circuit most boats run leaves the Boulevard Road ghats, crosses open water towards the houseboat rows, then turns into the channels between the floating vegetable gardens before coming back past Char Chinar island. The open-water stretch at the start is the quiet one — the Zabarwan hills sit behind the houseboats and, on a still evening, the whole thing is mirrored.

Timing is most of the experience

The same ride is worth very different amounts depending on when you take it. An hour before sunset is the hour to pay for. Midday is flat, hot and crowded, and the light is the worst it will be all day. If you can only go once, go late.

There is one other hour worth knowing about: the floating vegetable market forms near Ghat 16 at around five in the morning and is finished by seven. Very few hotels will suggest it, and it is the most interesting thing on the lake.

The vendors

• Boats selling saffron, papier-mâché, jewellery and kahwa will pull alongside mid-ride. This is normal.
• Buying is entirely optional, and declining politely is completely routine — nobody takes offence.
• Saffron sold from a boat is a gamble. Buy it from a shop with a bill if you want the real thing.

Agree the price first

Rates are quoted per boat, per hour — not per person. Almost every dispute we hear about traces back to that one ambiguity, and it is settled by asking two questions before you step aboard: how much, and for how long.