Wednesday 28th July 2010

I know I just wrote a few days ago, but honestly there is so much to tell you I felt a need to write some more down!

I left Leh at 4.30am on Monday morning, and began a gruelling 2-day bus journey down to Manali, in Himachal Pradesh. The bus was comfortable enough, although the woman behind me refused to let me put my seat back, and the views as we crossed the Himalayas were breathtaking. On the first day we crossed several passes, including Taglung La, the highest point on the road at 5350 metres. It was cold and snowy, and very stunning. I used up most of my camera battery on that first day, as well as all of my ipod battery, and the journey finished for the day in a small town called Keylong, about 16 hours later. We had travelled 230 miles, and were put up for the night in “tented accommodation”, which sounds like a very posh way to say that you’re sleeping in a tent!
However, the tents were surprisingly comfortable – they were big while canvas tents, tall enough to stand up in, with 4 camp-beds per tent and nice clean sheets and blankets, even an electric light! I slept surprisingly well, and the next morning we set off at 7am for the last leg. Continue reading →

Friday 23rd July 2010

Hello all,
After my rather rushed email last time I thought I would try for something slightly more interesting!

My trip to Srinagar in north-western Kashmir got cancelled. Two days before I was due to leave I met a friend at a party who had just come back from there and said things were heating up again. Lots of fighting in the streets, military everywhere, a couple of civilians had been shot last week and an almost 24-7 curfew, meaning you can’t really leave your hotel room anyway.
Not exactly my idea of a holiday! Continue reading →