Saturday, May 18, 1929
Mort and Abdulla went to a show in town last night. Got caught in a rain and had to stay on Abdulla’s uncle’s boat all night. We moved out of the lake about nine or ten with three trackers poling and Mort mixed up some pancakes for breakfast as we floated down the canal.
But soon trouble came along. One of these floating merchants came by, not to mention half-dozen others, and the temptation to get a necklace for Eleanor was too much. These Kashmirians sure hate to lose a sale and I got him down from ten rupees to four, which was a real bargain. Got a cigarette box inlaid with turquoise chips for 2-8-0. Didn’t bargain here. It is a trick these people have, to offer you the first thing at a ridiculously low price to get you interested and to get you down to their shop if possible. Of course, one seldom grabs the first thing offered, and they immediately raise the price to normal. If you do take the first thing, they try to get out by saying they said more. Thus, this man offered this 5- or 6-rupee box to me at 2-8-0. I took him up on it and he tried to add 8 annas, but I had the box. A sample of the fine paper machie [2nd try wasn’t any better than the first] work, and then I am through buying before I am broke.
We are returning to town by a different route and a very pretty one. You can get glimpses of the native life along the shore as we slowly pass. Canals are everywhere and reeds and willow trees grow along the canal’s edge, with tall poplars in every direction. Again it is cloudy and often the mountains are completely hidden by dark masses of misty gray.
Parked in the old place by Dal Gate. Mort, Abdulla, and I went to the post office and bought a book on Ladakh on the way back. Had a reading session before and after dinner. I read about 100 pages to Frank and Mort and we all decided we had better not miss this opportunity for the unusual, cut out southern India and Ceylon. Wrote to Delhi for our money, and if all goes well, should be able to start within ten days.
Later we moved on through town to the river, past the palace to a place by the bazaars below the fourth bridge. I went to bed en route. As we floated down the canals, we could hear Indian music and sometimes catch a glimpse of the people squatting around a small lamp in a thatch-roofed boat. Woke up at midnight and walked up to the street above the river. The moon on the river, temples, houses, and mountains was charming.