A flavour of the Orient
Rai & Stephie in Asia

Photos from an incredible 4 day trek from Spiti to Kinnaur. The valleys at the start were colourful with no vegetation. The valleys at the end of the trek had hanging glaciers, pine trees,green meadows...what a contrast ! And in between we had a snowy pass at 4865m ! At night we nearly froze with all our clothes on in our sleeping bags..it was that COLD !

Photos from a wonderful 4 day roadtrip to Spiti and Pin valley...The scenery kept on getting better and better ! More high altitude lakes, monasteries and snow covered mountain peaks....

From the mountain valleys of Kashmir we headed to the fertile plains of Punjab and the Sikhs' holy city of Amritsar and what a brilliant city it is. Yes it is congested, yes it is dirty, yes it is noisy but it has the amazing Golden Temple which sits in the middle of the atmospheric old town. And the locals are super friendly and photo crazy !

The Sikh philosophy is that everybody should be treated equal...no difference between poor and rich, between ordinary and VIP. This might explain why Barack Obama and his entourage were recently not allowed to have the palace all to themselves....Worshippers from all religious backgrounds come here to bathe in the purifying waters of the temple tank. There is also free accommodation and a free communal canteen where more than 10,000 chapatis and black dhal dinners are prepared every day...very tasty indeed. All this is done with the help of volunteers....noooooo sadly rai did not help out in the kitchen ! The temple is opened 24 hrs a day and there is continuous  sublime singing and readings. Very relaxing indeed....

Soooo next time you are in Delhi take the train to Amritsar....you are in for a very unique experience away from the main tourist trail!

Http://www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com

With two horses, two new israeli friends, two tents, two guides we headed off on a 4 day trek from Aru village in the Kashmir valley.  Base camp was set up at 3300m between two rivers after a 4 hr walk across green meadows, nomad camps, clear water streams....what a life ! Weather was good until our tasty rice and dhal dinner arrived. Dark grey angry clouds came in quick and it rained rained rained....was it really such a good idea to set up camp between the two rivers ? We trusted our kashmiri hosts as we slept among thunder and lightning in a moist tent....

 Next day with light rain we headed for the 9hr return trip to the Kolakoi Glacier with our brand new flashy goretex jacket, trousers, thermals... Having photographed the glacier mostly covered by thick mist (not that interesting...) we headed back....unfortunately  one of our friends had a knee problem sooooo horses had to be fetched from base camp to rescue them...they got back to base at 9pm having encountered two hungry bears on route.....

Then the clouds got really angry and it rained non stop for hours and hours. Our planned excursion to see the Tarsa lakes next day had drowned in the rain. Not even the horses could cross the mighty river required to get to the lakes. By midday our campsite was also looking decidely dodgy soooo we had to make new plans....the river was tooo swollen to return to Aru village and our guide was cursing non stop..." what to do, what to do, fk this rain !!!"... Finally  we decided to walk to some mountain huts which were being built further down the valley. Some of the walls of the house were still missing so with plastic liners we improvised, made a fire and dried our bags, our clothes, ourselves...everything was wet wet wet...and we were cold cold cold....

Luckily by the end of the afternoon the sun which had been lost for what felt like an eternity came out. The high mountain peaks were now covered in snow......beautiful....the nomadic herders appeared from their tents and we celebrated with hot chai (tea) and some good picture taking moments....next day the river had calmed down and it was time to head back to Aru.

Flash floods were reported throughtout the kashmir valley while we were trekking....we certainly had some fun even if we missed out on the lakes !

Www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com

After 2 weeks in Ladakh ("land of high altitude passes")  it was time to head 500 km  west to the idyllic exclusively Muslim Kashmir valley on another spectacular mountain road. It was goodbye for the time being to the Tibetan prayer flags and rocky hilltop monasteries. Instead on the 2 day shared taxi ride we had to endure listening to songs like  :

"I am tarzan, tarzan is handsome, tarzan is strong, so listen to the jungle song...tarzan is here so come on kiss me babey" ! hahahaa.. Steph got hold of her ear plugs....hahaa

In the last 20 yrs or so Kashmir has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons. The conflict between Kashmiris and the Central government in Delhi erupted in 1989 and has resulted in over 70,000 deaths with 112 deaths alone reported during the summer protests of 2010. The kashmir valley has the highest army concentration anywhere in the world - more than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma.....

But beyond the barbed wired, army patrols and checkpoints we have seen a beautiful place...green pine tree filled mountain valleys with saffron fields, fresh rivers for rai to swim in and 3 to 4 storey wood and brick houses not too different from the swiss alps and a stark contrast to the scenery left behind in Ladakh. Srinagar which translates as 'beautiful city' is the summer capital of Kashmir and Jammu province and is located among the stunning Dal and Nagin lakes filled with 1200 houseboats. 35,000 people live on these houseboats and they are desperate for tourist money... We saw few foreign tourists so it was tout heaven again....I had to be on special alert after my mistake in Delhi to avoid landing on a half sunken houseboat with no access to dry land. No mistakes were made but we ended up staying on a very nice guesthouse NEXT to the lake which was a very quiet affair until 60 visitors arrived from Gujarat with their cooks, maids and cleaners ! A kashmiri wedding also took place just outside our window to make things doubley entertaining. We were also invited to have traditional english tea and biscuits at Clermont Butt...famous houseboat where our lucky film making friend Reeve was staying....the likes of George Harrison, Michael Palin, Roosevelt stayed here too. Apart from some houseboat fun and checking out the delightful old town we hitched hicked with lovey dovey couples from Srinagar to some well kept moghul gardens for some siestas...perfect relaxation!

For a nice entertaining read on Kashmir check out  "In the Valley of Mist" by Justine Hardy and  "Until my Freedom has come", edited by Sanjak Roy...yeeees its amazing...rai who is definitely not a book worm has managed to read two books in the last 14 days!

Http://www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com

Photos from our great trek from lamayuru to chiling village in Ladakh. Two high altitude passes over 4500m with fine views of the East Karakoram, Ladakh and Zankskar range. Beautiful wild camping and a wonderful nepali cook !

Rai photographed these two characters which were resting outside our guesthouse in Korzok village. The lady was non stop praying while trying to hide from the burning mid afternoon sun. The man was taking great siestas and looking confused and dazed....