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 [View Full Entry]

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What can I say... new morning, brilliant sun in Leh... Better mood already and some facts about Ladakh and Leh... Ladakh is a high-altitude plateau north of the Himalaya situated geographically in Tibet. It's a miniature version of Tibet, the people are Tibetan in their culture and religion, and there are many Tibetan refugees. The Ladakh and Zanskar regions of India, although not politically part of Tibet and China, lie on the outer regions of the Tibetan plateau. These regions share a spiritual center in Tibet, and remain among the last outposts of Tibetan Buddhism. Yep, when you look at [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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... to continue where i stopped the last time... I slept just a bit (2-3 hours) and it was time to wake up. Ride to the airport was uneventful, though not so short (actually, airport is some 350km away, of course our national airport is only 50km away, but hey - would be more expensive). What was probably the most exciting thing, was choosing my literature for the forthcoming trekking (yep, thats what you have to do, if you forget your books at home). I got two books, more will probably be bought in Leh :) I had a fixed idea [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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When you land in Havana (or anywhere in Cuba - expecially if you go there during the summer) the humid air strikes you in the face, and oppresive heat, even in the evening. It takes you a few days to get accostumed, and then you are fine. Already at the airport you can see, that this is a different country. Cars are older, there are plenty old US cars parked and a few Lada taxis. We got a ride with the Lada taxi, and that returned me in the 80's when my dad used to have Lada. Even I had [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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In the last "Stonetown" entry I almost didn't mention anything about the town itself. Stone town is regarded as Zanzibar's capital. The town was named after the coral stone buildings, largely built during the 19th century. The town is known for it's narrow alleyways, large carved wooden doors and covered balconies. The doors are part of the Swahili culture and were largely influenced by Arab and especially Indian motifs. The large brass studs on the doors became decoration after having served as spike covers to protect the inhabitants from elephant raids during the Indian wars. The town curren [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Its time to hit some beaches... The fishing village of Nungwi straddles the Northern tip of Zanzibar and its shade is a welcome relief after the barren stretch of road that leads there. There are a number of local guest houses in the village and on the West side of the cape there is a number of guesthouses and a couple of loud bars. There are fine sandy beaches around the cape and excellent diving and game fishing off the coast. I would say this is one of the best beaches on Zanzibar, as there is no seaweed and the tide [View Full Entry]

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