Hotel Vikram Srinagar

... Srinagar or day trips. It seems I had covered most of Srinagar so my best bet was a day (or 2/3 days) trip to Gulmarg or Pahalgam. The prices for a jeep to take me there and back were reasonable so I said I would return to the taxi office when I was ready to go as there was no need to pre-book. Great!
I dodged another couple of touts and went to visit the Hanuman temple before heading home. On the way I tried to take out money from 3 different ATM's but couldn't. Sh*t, doesn ...

... tables in front of the monks who are sitting closer to the center. A very specific cymbals are placed onto these tables. In the corner there are two horns (these are very long - some 3+meters) placed on a special stands. These alone produce terrible sounds, but when accompanied with the cymbals the cacophony reaches it's zenith. The situation is rescued by the monks singing. It is relatively enjoyable. 
I didn't know that the morning pray could take 3 hours, but at least they ...

... it became colder, but in a pretty severe way. When I reached the check post - South Pullu - some Indian tourist was very surprised with me having no hat, and was very kind to give me one - called Monkey Hat (it just took it off the head of the the ladies in the car, which made her surprised as well :). So now equipped with the Monkey Hat, gloves, full helmet, thermic underwear, boots I was going to pass the Khardung La @5.6 km. This would be the highest point for me to visit ...

... ja hindu-ameeriklastest. Ülevalt (3750 m) on muidugi vinge vaade. Prantslased kukuvad kohe filmima. Märkan eemal tipul palvelippe ja otsustan sinna ronida. Ilma kottideta on see imelihtne. Tipust paistab kogu tuldud tee ja isegi Hemis-Shukpachu küla. Ja järgmine kõrgem tipp, kus oleks nagu ka palvelipud. Asja uurima minnes on sealt vaade võimsam, aga palvelipu toigas ümber kukkunud. Ehitan kividest aluse uuesti ja sean toika püsti. Lipud hakkavad kohe r ...

... No mina küll kedagi ei näinud.
Ülesäratatu osutub peretütreks, kes räägib mõne sõna inglise keelt. Kuivõrd mu geniaalne kell on mingist hetkest taas alustanud ajaarvamist esimesest jaanuarist, saan ladaki keeles kella küsimist praktiseerida. Kell on pool viis. Päritakse, mis kell tahan õhtusööki ja mida tahan süüa. Üritan küll öelda, et söön sama, mida nemad ja siis kui nemad, aga neiu ei anna järgi. Pean valima seinalt menüüst. Valin momod, sest vahepeal on saanud jälle ...

... of a place i can stay.
Down we go back into the streets of beautiful Delhi, the welfare district may I add, as strewn banners all across the streets called out, looking for shithole number two. Well, we found it, and it was everything i had dreamed of. We walk up a fire escape to the fourth floor of a rundown project building and climb into the main stairwell, which was locked below, leading to the whole fire escape escapade.
We ring the bell to this one flat ...

... the remained of my time on the boat. It was hot during the daytime but it was chilly of a night and the mornings. In the night there were plenty of blankets to sleep under but I still wore a few layers in bed even with a lovely hot water bottle prepared for me ...

... breakfast as I was now leaving town wit an empty stomach and didn't know when the next town was. I caught up with them in no time, we stopped for a chat and exchanged stories of yesterdays journey and then set of as a group. We stopped for breakfast in the next town which was Drass 'the second coldest inhabited place of earth', (we were informed by the road sign). As were waiting for our cold eggs and hard bread we heard the unmistakable sounds of some more ...

... did. Ushered into the office of the senior officer, we sat and waited for him to finish his business before we were summoned to take seats in front of his desk. We sat there like bold children in the principal's office, awaiting our fate, while he explained the law at length and asked us what we thought he should do. "Give us our beer, you corrupt *@*$#*@**!" was the obvious answer but we played the ...

... hitch-hiking might be a quicker option. The driver of the first car we flagged down (there aren't many private vehicles on this road) was a tourist from Lucknow, and he happily agreed to take us to Dha. On the way, he gave us a brief history of the people of Dha, Beema and two other nearby villages. The people are Aryans, one of the two formative races of India; the other, older, race being the Dravidians. The isolation of these four Ladakhi villages has ensured a pure ...