Blogs from Leh, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia - page 17

ADVICE: Don't get sucked in by travel agencies in Delhi (especially Kashmiri houseboat owners) - they will chew you up and spit you out! NEWS: I have a new fiancee - a gorgeous surfer we cut from a magazine - it's always nice to have a photo to ward off clingy suitors! WHERE I'VE BEEN: Delhi - Srinagar, Kashmir - Leh, Ladakh WHERE TO FROM HERE: ?? Plans always open to change - Dharamsala - Amritsar - RAJISTAN Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur - Agra - Varanasi - NEPAL Where to start? India. My first introduction was a Bollywood movie on the plane - an English girl travelling to India to shoot a film on the revolutionary movement, and her friends ended up losing their lives in the fight for freedom and truth. Heart rendering. Then the ... read more

Well from one extreme to another. When we first arrived it was unusually hot for the region which sometimes made it slightly uncomfortable however I would prefer that to what we have now. We set off for our first day of trekking which was a relatively short unstrenuous walk of only 2 and a half hours, in our usual heat, gaining very little altitude but places to camp are at a premium so you camp where you can and so these determine the lengths of the trekking days. We set up camp as ususal and played a little volleyball between us and the sherpas. We won relatively easily but i doubt they have played very much before. Then in the evening the fun and games started, rain began to fall lightly and we watched a spectacular ... read more

Well what can i say, since i last wrote I am in better spirits and not feeling the affects of altitude anymore although even the smallest amount of effort needed can often leave you out of breath. Rafting was an experience down the Indus river, it is not quite the grade three rapids you will find in Colorado or anywhere like that and hours can be spent drifting on very flat water. However when you do hit the rapids it does set the adrenaline racing and the striking valleys of mountainbs that you travel through really are something to behold. We spent three days rafting down different sections of the river camping close or nearby each night which was really good. On the third night we were a little way from the river and were camping ... read more

Lost the original text. Will try to insert it later. ... read more

Car Rally: Raid de Himalaya 2005 (Oct 01 to 08, 2005) Participants: Shyam Khandelwal & Varun Choukhany Category: Reliability Trial Car: Hyundai Viva 1.60 ABS (Petrol) (Front Wheel Drive) Breakdowns: Nil, no punctures Driving 300 odd kilometers on Himalayan roads every day is not easy.. but its fun!! There are some stretches of road enroute to Leh that would put Delhi roads to shame and some roads that come straight from Mars. For more information on the rally, visit http://www.raid-de-himalaya.com On the whole RDH is worth doing once (or maybe more). This is an experience that will recharge your dead batteries, but at a cost. The rally ain't cheap, both in terms of money and time involved. The downside is that you can't act like a tourist and miss out lot of places that needed to ... read more