A long, winding day of riding took us from Manali to Amritsar in the west, around 30 kilometres from the Pakistani border. This is the centre of Sikhism, an offshoot of Hinduism founded in the 15th Century, which also maintained…
Leh, Ladakh and Khardung-La
Finally in Leh, we took an easy day of exploring the sights while recovering from three hard days on the road. Our first sight was Thiksay monastery, a typically Tibetan-style Buddhist monastery. A wander through the main bazaar of…
The Leh-Manali Highway
Finally escaping the madness of Delhi, we pushed north. A quick overnight stop in Chandigarh (notable as a completely planned town designed by Le Corbusier; grids of housing linked by roundabouts and a hierarchical system of roads), before starting our…
New Delhi
I’ve been in Delhi for over a week now, while Ghighi flew back to France to attend a wedding. To start this post, I want to make two thank yous for places that have made the time here much easier.…
Agra and the Taj Mahal
Perhaps the title of this post should be “The Taj Mahal and Agra”, since the iconic building is far more famous than the town, its silhouette instantly recognizable across the world. Before we got there, however, we had to spend…
Varanasi, the holiest Hindu city
Entering India again proved to be a fraught experience – several encounters at the border with officious little so-and-so’s, who have been given a small amount of power and let it go to their head. Three hours of sitting around…
Closed Roads and Country Number 10
Our plan from Darjeeling was to strike north into the Himalayan state of Sikkim – a once independent kingdom that only joined India in 1975. Its proximity to the border with China and its relatively recent annexation means that special…
Through India’s North East to Darjeeling
It’s been quite a while since the last post – it takes a lot of time and energy to keep it up to date, so there’s a fair bit to catch up. Rewinding a little from the end of…
Mountaintop Monasteries, Mandalay, and into Manipur
After Bagan, we had a fairly short run to the storied city of Mandalay, so we took the opportunity to stop on the way and see a palm products shop. Here they produce everything from palm sugar sweets to palm…