Archive for the ‘ Locations ’ Category

Jodhpur

n Jodhpur I had a really great cup of cappucino. … That’s it.  That’s pretty much all I could come up with to write about Jodhpur.  It’s a great city to visit.  It has a nice fort with a good audio guide, a palace with a hotel in it, a beautiful mausoleum and an atmospheric old city.  [ READ MORE ]

Dreams and the desert of reality

As I sleep in the upper berth on the twenty hour train ride to Jaisalmer, I wake to a massive cacophony of English language wasted energy.  Two English women, a mother and daughter team, are trying to fit three massive bags into the smallish compartment area while shouting and complaining at each other at high [ READ MORE ]

The Tourist Tax in Agra

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I’m trying to get caught up while hanging out on the beach in Goa.  Some of these posts have been sitting around my laptop for a long while. he most famous sight in India is the Taj Mahal.  Every tourist visits it.  It’s one of the wonders of the [ READ MORE ]

The Planned City

After partition in 1947, the former capital of Punjab, Lahore, became a part of Pakistan.  This meant that Punjab in India needed a new capital. The government decided that none of the existing cities were suitable.  So, the first prime minister of India, Jawarhal Nehru decided to have a new city built to represent the [ READ MORE ]

Amritsar

hen the bus pulled into Amritsar, I could see that I was finally back in India.  I had left the mist-capped mountain retreats, the hummus-peddling tourist restaurants and I was back in the land of cycle rickshaws and dhabas.  Also, I had been traveling with people since Leh, so I was on my own again, [ READ MORE ]

The Dalai Lama’s Home in Exile

spent one week in the city of McLeod Ganj near Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradesh.  The primary draw of this place is that it is the home of the Tibetan government in exile and contains the monastery of the Dalai Lama. In 1950, China invaded Tibet with 30,000 troops, overwhelming its meagre defenses.  [ READ MORE ]

Paragliding over Manali

spent about a week in Manali.  This is quite a great place to get caught up.  I stayed in the Dharma Guesthouse in a room with a private balcony and the views in the morning and evening over the valley were breathtaking. I was completely lazy here.  My one major event was the day I [ READ MORE ]

Buddhist Leh and Why Hippies Annoy Me

Kashmir is actually separated into several regions.  In the north, the Kashmir Valley makes up the western section, is predominantly Muslim, and is covered in forest.  The eastern section is called Ladakh, is mostly Buddhist and is a desert mountain region.  The city of Kargil, where India and Pakistan fought a war in 1999 separates [ READ MORE ]

Kashmiri Mountains Continued

Please read the previous post if you haven’t.  This is a continuation of that post: Anyway, at the end of the fourth day, we got to camp and as we were setting up, the Army told us we couldn’t camp there and we had to hike another click and about 300m up.  I was done.  I [ READ MORE ]

Kashmiri Mountains: Beauty and Discomfort

  The mountains of Kashmir must be the most beautiful in the world.  They are covered in forest to the tree line, grasses and greenery beyond.  Shepherds herd huge flocks of sheep and cattle through the hilly parts and gypsy huts dot the many rivers and lakes. The closest mountains I could compare them to [ READ MORE ]

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