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11/23/2008 to 12/28/2008 | Bangladesh  123► As I scanned my surroundings I thought of slogan on the poster in lobby of the Bangladesh Embassy in Delhi, “Visit Bangladesh before the tourist come.” They hadn’t come yet, at least not to Tamabil, the small border outpost in northern Bangladesh that seemed to have twice as many coal trucks as […]  1234► legacy gallery with captions Phejin’s village of Shiyong is in the Mon district of Nagaland home to the Konyak tribe. Traditionally in the Konyak men were required get a face tattoo at the time of adulthood. The practice was long abandon and now only a few of the older men have the […]  1234► legacy gallery with captions I was back in Delhi to take care of a laundry list of tasks that required my presence in the confines of the capital. I needed a new laptop thanks to the Goan cook relieving me previous one in Leh, I needed to clean my camera sensor which […] 11/7/2008 to 11/11/2008 | India , Uttarakhand  123► legacy gallery with captions “Five Hundred?” I exclaimed in disbelief. “No booking, shared jeep.” I said. “No shared, only booking to Kausani,” the jeep driver retorted with an expression and mannerisms of a man who knew that the last bus for Kausani had already left and who thought he had caught a […] 11/2/2008 to 11/7/2008 | India , Uttarakhand  1234► legacy gallery with captions “I only take the Rajdhani, the other trains are no good, Rajdhani is good train.” Indian trains, hardly the first topic of conversation I would have expected from a holy man who lives most of the year in solitude at the inhospitable altitude of 3600 m just below […] October 2008 | India , Uttarakhand  1234567► Legacy Gallery with Captions Having escaped the snows of Spiti, I headed for the neighboring Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, formally known as Uttaranchal. The state’s most famous destination for foreigners is the Meditation/Yoga/Asram/neo-Hippi meca of Rishikesh made famous by the Beatles’ stay in 1968. For Indians the state derives its fame as […] 10/15/2008 to 10/17/2008 | India , Uttarakhand  123► legacy gallery with captions I reached Joshimath in the evening after a long series of jeeps and buses from Wan, although relatively close geographically the poor roads and transport connections made it a long day of travel. My primary purpose of visiting Joshimath was to hike up to the Kuari Pass for […] 10/10/2008 to 10/13/2008 | India , Uttarakhand  12► legacy gallery with captions The mysterious lake of Roop Kund sits below the towering 7120 m (23,350 ft) face of Trisul, on the western edge of the Nada Devi Sanctuary, mountainous region surrounding Nada Devi the highest peak solely contained within India. The lake draws its notoriety from the large collection of […] 9/19/2008 to 9/28/2008 | Himachal Pradesh , India  1234► legacy gallery with captions Day 1 (9/20/2009): I stared out of the window adjacent to my bed. The steady rain which had started early in the morning was now turning to fluttering white flakes of snow. Looking across at the gray skies which now isolated the white flat roofed Tibetan buildings of […]  1234► legacy gallery with captions We awoke in Korzok, the village nestled along the northwestern bank of the high altitude sailine lake of Tso Moriri, to a mass exodus. Anyone with any mode of transportation, horse, donkey, tractor, jeep, motorcycle, truck, anything that could move a person to some where other than Korzok, […]  1234678► legacy gallery with captions I walked up Chanspa road in Leh towards the Sandwich Bar where a group was meeting to discuss the logistics for a self organized trek to Zanskar. I had planned on doing the Lamayuru to Darcha trek across the remote region of Zanskar, so when I noticed a […]  12► The most common way to enter the Nubra Valley is via the 5602 m (18,375 ft) Khardong La which the Indians love to tout as the highest motorable road in the world, a title which is apparently somewhat debatable. In any case, I decided to hike in via the lesser used pass […]  123► In between treks and lazy days in Leh, I made a few day trips to some of the monasteries near Leh. Spituk monastery is the closest major monastery to Leh and was mainly interesting for the sand mandala that was being created by the monks at the time I visited, an undertaking […]  12► legacy gallery with captions Stok Kangri rises like a white sail above the Indus valley opposite Leh. Looking up at the snow covered peak watching the last rays of the setting sun bathe the white massif in a golden glow, I found it hard to believe I had stood that morning watching […]  1234► legacy gallery with captions As I slid down the glacier my speed increasing with every passing moment I struggled with all the might my oxygen starved lungs could muster to slow my acceleration, thrusting my trekking pole into the ice with as much success as one might have in forcing a pencil […]  1234► Shortly after I arrived in Ladakh, the festival at the Monastery of Hemis was scheduled to take place. Probably among the most touristy of the monastic Cham dance (traditional Tibetan masked dances) festivals in Ladakh, due to its proximity to Leh and the fact that it takes place in the summer during […] 6/5/2008 to 7/11/2008 | Himachal Pradesh , India  123► The toughest leg in my journey from Nepal to Ladakh in northwest India was not the bone shattering 24 hour Manali to Leh bus along one of the highest and remotest roads in the world, nor was it braving the heat, humidity, and down pours of the Indian monsoon while passing through […] 5/28/2008 to 6/4/2008 | Nepal  123► The previous day’s phenomenal weather at Knobby View was not a fluke but rather the beginning of a trend. The sky was yet again spectacularly clear the morning we hiked westward over the Renjo La (5417m/17,772 ft pass) from Gokyo to the neighboring Bhote Valley. From the prayer flag strewn top of […] 5/24/2008 to 5/27/2008 | Nepal  12► Knobby View Panorama It snowed most of the day I hiked to Dzonglha, the last lodge before the 5420m/17,782 ft pass to the Gokyo Valley known as the Cho La. At the lodge in Dzonglha I met, Ben, an outdoor enthusiast from Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the accent to match. He had started […] 5/20/2008 to 5/23/2008 | Nepal  123► As I hiked towards Gorak Shep, at the foot of Kala Pattar, and the last lodge settlement on the route to Everest Base camp, I struck up a conversation with a friendly Nepali man, named Kili Sherpa (pronounced Kee-Lee). I ended up hiking with him and his cousin most of the way […] 5/16/2008 to 5/19/2008 | Nepal  123► My principal goal in Chukhung was to climb the near by peaks of Chukhung Ri (5559m/18,238 ft) and Chuckhung Tse (5857m/19,216 ft), the highest point in the area not requiring an expensive climbing permit. On my first day I climbed up Chukhung Ri to test my acclimatization and see if I could […] 5/6/2008 to 5/15/2008 | Nepal  12► Everest, it’s a mountain that has fascinated the western world ever since it was determined to be the highest point on the planet in the mid-19th century. It has drawn travelers and mountaineers to the region surrounding it, known as the Kumbu, ever since. Seeing Everest for the first time inevitably brings […]  12345► Sikkim is in northeast India and it sticks up like a little peninsula into the Himalayas. Bordered on the west by Nepal, the east by Bhutan, and the north by Tibet its culture and landscape is closer to these regions than most of the rest of India.. I was heading to Sikkim […] 4/11/2008 to 4/14/2008 | India , West Bengal  123► When I left Hampi around two in the afternoon I was not looking forward to the journey ahead of me. I usually try to avoid long hauls preferring instead to make my way slowly in a particular direction stopping to see places along the way. However, I had spent longer in the […]  1234► On my first trip to India, having seen my father’s pictures of Hampi, I immediately wanted to go there myself. The 16th century ruined capital of the Vijayanagar empire, set in a fabulous landscape strewn with boulders appeared to be a perfect place to live out my “Indiana Jones” fantasy. As soon […]  123► Central Karnataka was ruled by the Hoysala dynasty during the 11-13th centuries. Their temples were characterized by incredibly ornate sculptural detail, possible because the soft steatite soapstone used in construction oxidizes and hardens when exposed to air, beautifully preserving the artistry for almost a thousand years. The Hindu temples of Halebid and […]  12► The Ghats are southern India’s mountain range which stretches from its southern tip northward. Before branching into the eastern and western Ghats which create the boundaries of the central plateau of India the Ghats run along the boarder between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It was this region in which I spent the […]  Prologue: I once met someone who said they’d like to write a travel book only about the other travelers they met while on the road. The places would be irrelevant to the story of the people. As I write about my visit to Cochin thinking about what I will remember from the visit, […] 3/21/2008 to 3/26/2008 | India , Tamil Nadu  123► I had seen a great deal of Tamil Nadu on my first trip to India so I hadn’t really intended to go back, but I found that a short foray through Tamil Nadu would permit me to head North without retracing journeys I had already made in Kerala. Plus it would give […]  If you mention the words “Sabarimala,” and “Lord Ayyappa,” to the average Western tourist in Kerala and you will be most likely be greeted with a blank stare. I would have been one of those blank stares if I hadn’t started thumbing through my Kerala road atlas looking for places to break the […] | |||
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