Heading east to the Himalayas

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Autumn is coming, it must be time to pack our bags and head out. On Tuesday, September 11th we'll be on a plane to India.

After a night in Delhi, we will fly north to the Himalayan province of Ladakh. Then, after a few days in the Leh area, we plan to drive west, over the high passes to Srinagar in Kashmir.

In Srinagar we will stay on a houseboat on the lake before we head south to Amritsar and the Golden Temple. We'll then use local trains to get to Shimla, a colonial hill station, before we head back to Delhi.

Many of you will know, we had plans to go on to Tibet. Well, the Chinese are not keen on letting foreign tourists in at the moment. This is probably due to unrest in Tibet and a recent visit to Britain by the Dalai Lama.

Instead, we will fly to a tiny airstrip in the village of Lukla in Nepal, before trekking north towards Everest. We'll be taking it gently with plenty of time to see the villages and monasteries on the way.

We've posted some maps to help make sense of our plans. Our next post will be from somewhere high in the Himalayas.



Alistair and Gill

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