Sikhs and Swords

By |2022-09-07T15:46:48+02:00January 9, 2016|South and South East Asia|

Harry and I rush, like fools, into the stuff of rebellions. Smack bang, face-first … hurt and angry young men rise from the ground and stop us ... We ride peacefully in the agricultural region of the Punjab. Then out of the blue, clusters of branches lie across the road. They stretch-out and alternate from the left, then from the right, at ten metre intervals. This is no place for cars but other motorbikes (piki-pikis) zigzag along merrily. We follow, albeit double the [...]

Mending Borders

By |2022-09-07T15:47:03+02:00January 6, 2016|South and South East Asia|

Every afternoon just before sunset members of the Indian and Pakistan military meet at the border post between Attari & Wagah to engage in a display of military showmanship. Officially the purpose of the ceremony is to lower the national flag and close the borders but what really happens is a mix of formal marching, chest beating, foot stomping and high stepping as the two sides try to out do each other. Oiled moustaches and over the top dress uniforms only add to [...]

The Tibetan Government in Exile

By |2022-09-07T15:47:16+02:00December 30, 2015|South and South East Asia|

En-route to Dharamshala   ...   Mad Max type taxis and goods carriers   Splutter along at walking pace under single cylinder diesel power   Another ingenious goods carrier sends its loads to settlements high up   Dharamshala is home to the Government of Tibet , in Exile as a result of Chinese occupation   The Tibetan national flag , banned in its homeland   The narrow streets [...]

The last of the Tibetan highway

By |2022-09-07T15:47:35+02:00December 21, 2015|South and South East Asia|

Kaza is one of only 2 villages in the Spiti valley and sits on the eroded flood plain of the Spiti river. It is also a spring board to the Ki Gompa. Perched on a hillock at 4116m , it is one of the highest Buddhist monasteries in the world. In Spiti there is a tradition of ‘donating’ the youngest son to a monastery , a custom that still prevails today. The young man remains celibate, learns the scriptures and is allowed to visit [...]

! A Mother’s Reach !

By |2022-09-07T15:47:49+02:00December 9, 2015|South and South East Asia|

LOSAR looms LARGE in our minds. It’s the last village before the hardest stretch of the Hindustan / Tibetan Highway. A riverbed of a road that separates two icy passes; the Kunzum La and the Rohtang La. The last translates as ‘pile of dead bodies’. Yikes! - After the hundreds of travellers who freeze to death here over the centuries. ‘Look-on-the-bright-side-Harry’ sighs with relief that it’s from the cold and not the road! We plan to cross these two passes well before November. [...]

The Buddhist village of Tabo

By |2022-09-07T15:48:05+02:00December 3, 2015|South and South East Asia|

Tabo, hemmed in by scree slopes is one of only two villages in the Spiti valley. It is a windblown place riddled with caves once used by local hermits as meditation cells. The Tabo Gompa, a world heritage site was established in AD 996. Behind its mud walls are said to be some of the finest Indo –Tibetan art in the world , blending western Tibetan, Indian & Kashmiri styles. Beyond this is also a much newer Gompa which dominates the town. As [...]

The Hindustan Tibet highway part 4- The Spiti valley

By |2022-09-07T15:51:08+02:00November 30, 2015|South and South East Asia|

As we travel west we enter the Spiti valley, one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world. The landscape is one of rugged interlocking river valleys and high altitude deserts ,hidden in the shadow of the Himalyas, a stark contrast to the Kinnaur valley from where we have come. A chunk of Tibet marooned in India . Here are a few pictures of our journey through this region to Tabu, one of the few villages in this serrated moonscape   [...]

The Hindustan Tibet highway part 3- the medieval village of Nako

By |2022-09-07T15:51:21+02:00November 24, 2015|South and South East Asia|

Nako (at an alitiude of 3600mm) is a small remote village in the Kinnaur valley, Himachal Pradesh. It lies in the sensitive restricted zone along the border with Tibet and is said to date back to the 8th century, when Buddhism was first introduced here. The extraordinary difficulties travelling to Nako were already reported by Captain Alexander Gerard, surveyor for the East India Company in the early 19th century. Sections of this ancient route continue to be used today, forming part of our [...]

The Hindustan Tibet Highway -Part 2 Chitkul to Rekong Peo

By |2022-09-07T15:51:42+02:00November 19, 2015|South and South East Asia|

The Kinnaur valley, stretching from Sangla to Chitkul, is a deeply carved cleft between high mountain slopes covered by evergreen forests. Chitkul is the last stop on the old trade route to Tibet and remains the last inhabited village near the Indo-Tibet border. The Indian road ends here. During winters it is covered with the snow and cut off from the outside world, with some inhabitants moving to lower regions of Himachal. As an extension to my Regency hotel birthday treat we decide [...]

The Hindustan Tibetan Highway- Part 1

By |2022-09-07T15:51:57+02:00November 12, 2015|South and South East Asia|

The old Hindustan-Tibet Highway, built by the British as a potential invasion route into Tibet runs NE from Shimla through the Kinnaur valley's apple  orchids, temples and villages that have not changed over the millennia. Our plan is to travel along the Sutlej river towards the greener Kinnaur valley (part 1 & 2) and then onto the high altitude mountain deserts of the Spiti valley(part 3 and however more posts it may take) , close to the India/Tibet border. To do this requires a special permit as this is [...]

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