Kashmir

Dal Lake is not a lake so much as a floating city. The houseboats along the shore — many of them architecturally ornate, with carved walnut woodwork and living rooms furnished like Victorian parlours — have housed travellers for centuries. In the morning, before the mist lifts, the shikaras move silently through the water carrying flowers, vegetables, and tourists who cannot quite believe where they are.

The best moment is the early morning: a shikara ride at dawn when the mountains are reflected in the still water and the only sounds are oars and birdsong. The Zabarwan Range turns pink, then gold, then white as the sun rises. It is the kind of sight that becomes the reference point for all other beautiful things you will ever see.

The Mughal emperors came to Kashmir for exactly the reasons you might expect: the unbearable heat of the plains, the lure of a landscape that looked like paradise. They built three formal gardens — Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh, Chashme Shahi — that step up the hillside above Dal Lake in terraced levels of chinar trees, fountains, and flower beds. In autumn, the chinar trees turn red and orange and the gardens look like something from a medieval Persian manuscript come to life.

Gulmarg, an hour from Srinagar, is Kashmir in a different mood entirely — a high-altitude meadow ringed by Himalayan peaks that in winter becomes one of Asia's finest ski resorts. The gondola ride up to the upper slopes offers views that require no commentary.