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Showing posts from 2012

Sikkim: Leap of faith and adrenaline at 17,000 feet

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When I was amongst the people selected to go up to Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim I was exalted. I had to been to Gangtok many a times, but this was the first time I will go to one of the highest lakes in the world and the best part was it was located just 5 kms away from the Indo-China border.  Out of a group of 30 odd people only 15 were declared fit to go to Gurudongmar Lake, located at an altitude of about 17,100 feet. And I was riding high on my experience of having trekked all the way to Siachen Glacier in more inhospitable conditions. So began the journey from Gangtok to Lachen. We started around 9.30-10 am in a bus for our destination. The road was washed away in many places considering we were travelling in the month of September. But the rain had made the landscape amazingly beautiful. It was green and misty till where your eyes went. We stopped halfway at an army post to have hot Chai and Matthi!! It was the ultimate bliss in the weather.

Magnetic Hill of Ladakh (Letter from Leh)

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(2008) You may not believe that a vehicle with its ignition off can move, but in Ladakh seeing is believing. Not only do vehicles move without the engine being turned on, they even defy gravity by climbing uphill. A hill on the outskirts of this picturesque cold desert town is so full of magnetised iron that it has the power to pull any vehicle in its vicinity towards itself. Perhaps inevitably, it is called Magnetic Hill. The hill is situated about 25 km from here on the Leh-Kargil-Batalik national highway and is bordered by the Indus river, which originates in Tibet and flows through Ladakh on its way to Pakistan.  Trying an SPG like stunt at Magnetic Hill! The engine is switched off and the Safari is climbing up on its own! Try it to believe it. The legendary powers of the Magnetic Hill have ensured that it has a place in the itinerary of most tourists visiting Ladakh. However, you might just miss the hill in this mountainous region if you fail to se

Siachen Trek - the experience of a life time

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The Gateway to Siachen Glacier Siachen Glacier : It was for me the experience of a lifetime: an eight-day trek up the Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir, once regarded as the world's highest battlefield at 22,000 feet where the guns have been silent since 2003 after an India-Pakistan truce. The 80-km trek from the Siachen Base Camp to Camp 3 and back by a 32-member group of defence personnel, military school students and journalists served to vividly bring out the hazards and pitfalls Indian Army soldiers have to face on what was also the world's coldest battlefield where temperatures dip below - 65 degrees Celsius. Getting bit of training at the Siachen Battle School Food goes stone cold as soon as it is taken off the burner, washing your face becomes a luxury, and drinking water smells of the kerosene used to melt the ice. Yet, the soldiers stoically endure this, serving for a minimum of three months on the glacier in a two-year ten

Andamans for virgin beaches, Indian history lessons

Along with its crystal clear blue water, long white sand beaches, mangrove-lined creeks and diverse marine life, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands also provide the visitor with vital insights into Indian history. The infamous Cellular Jail here -- now a museum -- stands mute witness to the torture of incarcerated freedom fighters. Completed in 1906, the jail has a seven-pronged, puce-coloured building with a central tower acting as its fulcrum and a massive structure comprising honeycomb like corridors. It acquired the name cellular because it is entirely made up of individual cells for the solitary confinement of the prisoners. "The light and sound show at the Cellular Jail was very good and aptly covered this vital part of Indian history," said Akash Jain, a 15-year-old who came to the islands with his family. The next stop in the history tour is Ross Island, now effectively a suburb of Port Blair and the place where the British had the headquart

The Last of Jarawas in Andamans leaving on handouts

As we drove from this capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands towards the Mayabandar forest reserve, four Jarawa children blocked the road with bamboo poles and demanded 'paan' (betel leaf) and 'biscut' (biscuits) in broken Hindi. The tribe with its population now down to 260 is getting dangerously dependent on handouts.  Aged 12-15, the boys with paan-stained teeth let us move only when we promised to bring them paan and biscuits the next time. They refused to be photographed. One said: 'The flash will harm us.' Inhabitants of a dense rainforest in the Andaman Islands, the Jarawas have been living for thousands of years as isolated hunter-gatherers. Anthropologists everywhere were excited when they first made contact with the outside world in October 1997. Still, very little is known about the Jarawas -- one of the four Negrito tribes of the Andamans archipelago -- apart from the fact that they use rafts, live in oval huts and are excel