On my itinerary today was a short excursion towards the west (on the road towards Srinagar) - along the Indus up to Alchi monastery ... The village of Alchi in lower Ladakh is to be considered one of the most important cultural sites throughout the Himalayas. Consisting of four separate hamlets, the village contains numerous historic monuments of different ages and in various states of repair, the oldest and most famous of which is a monastic complex. It is this complex, which accommodates some of the most fascinating Buddhist monuments in the Himalayas... Traditionally the foundation of Alchi Monastery is attributed to the great translator Rinchen Zangpo (Rin-chen-bzang-po; 958-1055) and this complex is from the second "spreading" of the buddishm in 11th century. However, the oldest monuments preserved are to be dated to the period from ... read more

Another morning of early rising... damn... i will slowly get used to it... at 2:45am :) My low-cost airline Air Deccan time of departure from Leh was at 5:20, so... before I get from Karol Bagh to the domestic airport, check-in... well, it is time consuming... :)))) Anyway, as international terminal looks like a proper airport, this domestic terminal looks like a bus station (no offence to readers from India). Check-in is a joke... OK, 15kg limit (got it just right) and they WROTE destination on my backpack with a chalk... When I started to be completely appaled, they fortunately also stick a sticker... whew... close call... Anyway, oddities didn't end here... Around an hour before check-in all passangers to Leh were called... to identify their luggage... interesting touch... so, you identify your backpack before being ... read more

This time I'm going to Ladakh, India... trekking trip for almost two weeks, total on trip just a bit more than 3 weeks... Probably this will be my last holliday before summer 2008, so it better be good... and this time next year, i will hopefully start on a prolonged trip RTW... So... in a few hours I have to wake up :( Packing too much longer than expected... 2 hours ago i still had a huge mess on my floor... So, for the next time I have to remember... I have to START packing earlier, not late in the evening before departure... I just wonder what have I forgotten... hopefully nothing important... What have I taken with me... (obviously for trekking purposes) - a backpack (obivously) - underwear for almost a week (tooo much, but ... read more

So, one month has passed. And a maiden trip overseas in almost over. Bought many souvernirs. I bought a wooden elephant, Adi bought a huge lion. Last evening we tried lobster in our familiar open-market restaurant. Coming back to Dar was a bit of shock... after peace of Zanzibar we came to hustle and bustle of Dar. Our bargaing tactics improved and were excellent and soon we got a taxi to airport. Actually, we came to the airport some 4 hours before the flight. But that didn't puzzle us. We had some food on us, and therefore it was time for a picnic just outside the airport... not that was the best looking place to have picnic, but it was certainly the most convenient :) we even bought some fresh fruit for the trip... As I ... read more

After a few days of doing nothing every paradise gets boring... so, we decided to head for a few days to a east cost beaches... but there was one problem... at that time it was impossible to do that trip in one day... so, we had to stay another night in Stonetown... again... :) We hit the market... again :) (i already bought extremly useful sandals there). We wanted some fruit, and bananas were the name of the game... different sizes, colours... so, let's get the biggest one... a red one... well... seller was noding a bit, but she clearly didn't speak english, neither did we speak swahili... so... only when we tried banana was clear what she wanted to say. That was clearly not a banana to eat raw, but to cook... it tasted, well, ... read more