If you get up before sunrise, and then head to somewhere well away from “your” (or anyone else’s) houseboat, it is still possible to “feel the serenity” on the waters of Srinagar’s Dal Lake.
However, the next chapter in this teaser series is more representative of what most tourists see and experience on Kashmir’s emblematic lake.
i took this post’s photo whilst en route to Dal Lake’s floating vegetable market; it opens/operates sufficiently early in the morning to “escape” most of the many thousands of tourists who frequent Dal Lake, during the warmer months.
(Currently, almost all of Indian-controlled Kashmir’s tourists are Indian citizens. Presumably, to most of them, “a floating market” is rather less novel/alluring than it would be to most Western tourists)