The sky became darker as the bus wound its way up the mountainside towards the Indian hill station of Dharamsala. As it had been threatening to do all day, the weather finally broke and as it began pouring rain there was a mad scramble to get all the bags off the roof...
Thirty kilometres west of Amritsar is the India/Pakistan border crossing of Wagah. Every evening a border closing ceremony is performed here for patriotic Indians, Pakistanis and tourists at sunset to mark the official closing of the border. Soldiers from both sides...
Bright orange turbans, long silver swords, incessant honking and streets where everything from elephants to rickshaws have to compete for space, Amritsar is an assault on the senses like no other place I’ve ever visited. The Old City is a maze of narrow,...
Leaving the barren, rugged mountain desert of Ladakh behind us, we drove west through the night to the capital of Kashmir, the lakeside city of Srinagar. Fifteen hours and five hundred kilometers later the enormous Dal Lake Srinagar appeared on our left. Driving...
In eastern Ladakh on the India/China border is an enormous lake called Pangong Tso. The six-hour drive to the lake takes you through remote settlements in huge valleys over the Chang La road pass at 5,289 meters, the third highest road pass in India and treats you to...
The drive from Manali to Leh Ladakh was very long but the scenery driving through Ladak was just incredible. The trip took a total of nineteen hours and the road took us over a total of five different road passes; Rohtang La (3,978 meters), Baralacha La (4,9550...
Manali is the self-proclaimed adventure capital of India and is a huge draw for domestic tourist, all looking to escape the unbearable Indian summer down south. Avoiding the heat is only part of the attraction though as it’s also the first time for many of these...
by Brian Barry | Last updated May 15, 2016 | Published on Jun 11, 2012 | 1 comment
You hear a lot of horror stories about Indian trains; people being robbed, people getting drugged, people having their luggage stolen and so on. This, our maiden Indian rail voyage was going to set the bar for all future rail travel in this huge country and it all...
