supplies for siachen

Army convoy at khardung la

khardung la

Tibet

There's a massive demand for freedom in Tibet. Just shouting "free tibet" on a Lhasa street may get you ten years! Still, there are hundreds of posters like these around the city.

chang la!

Pic 1: at the chang la pass(18500 ft)
pic 2: at the pangong lake on the indo tibetian border
pic 3: road to pangong

in search of the buddha - days 3 and 4 (hemis, alichi and tibet)

Sorry for the lack of updates. There's a gprs blackout in tibet it seems. I did get a connection close to the border though.. Here are some pics from day 3 and 4. Will try to keep you updated!
Pic 1: with young monks in tibet
pic 2: the road to lhasa

In search of the Buddha - day 2 (Leh)

Buddha gets closer. We touched down at Leh today morning at 8. Leh is the largest town in the region of Ladakh and the largest district in India. Temperatures here hover close to zero with the nights being even colder.
Ladakh is not your everyday hill station. In fact its closer to a desert. The hills are barren. Brown draped in white. A study in contrasts. Leh is at an altitude of 4500 m and the oxygen levels are 30% less than normal, which makes breathing hell for the first few days. We spend the day acclamatizing to the conditions, which is a must for any tourist on their first day here. We spend the evening at the market which is small, but vibrant. The town has a mostly tibetian population with a few Nepalis. Buddhist monks and monastries abound in the region. Tomorrow we visit three of them. Thiksey, Hemis and Alichi.
Its getting colder and my fingers have started freezing. Signing off for now, but I'll try to upload more pictures later this evening. Till then, bye!

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In search of the Buddha - day 2

Leh city

Hey! No photography allowed!
The Leh airport.

In search of the Buddha - day 2

Finally reached Leh this morning. Check out these amazing aerial shots.

With cousin bro @ delhi

Day 1 pics (Delhi-Noida)

In search of the Buddha - Day 1

Indian airlines sucks. The hell on wings was scheduled to depart at six. The creatures at the check in counter manage to arrive for work at a little before 6. But when they do, they make sure they sit at the counter right NEXT to the one where all their passengers have queued up. The next few minutes are replete with absolute mayhem as the janta find themselves in a mad scramble for position. Its not over. These guys do not give up that easily. "I'm sorry sir, but this system's down. Would you please move to the next counter?" <stream of abuse follows as the mayhem builds up again>
The hell box will be late, they tell us. Nobody's leaving till seven. That's ok. This is India. And in India they dont give a damn. Half past seven and the thing finally arrives. <Let me remind you at this point of time that the air hostesses are NO chicks. In fact the company's air hostesses and aircraft have a lot in common. Both deserve retirement. Immediately.(buy em Mr Mallya!)

9 am: All hell breaks loose as the ageless monster lets loose a musical fart and climbs into the skies.
ok. We've a stopover at Kochi, but hell-in-the-air has is circling around Kochi for a good half hour now. Just as you get the feeling that the captain is dead at his stick, his voice starts to resonate inside the cabin . He's drunk. I'm sure."Ladies and gentleman, we're currently *hovering* over Kochi due to some *foreign objects* on the runway. We'll commence landing in ten minutes." Another half hour and the monster begins it musical fart again. We touch down at 10. A new speed record. Trivandrum to Kochi in 4 hours flat! (beat that Branson!). Old boy hasn't even come to a halt when drunk announces a change of hells in kochi. Till then I'll have to kill time in Kochi.
We leave Kochi at 11:30. On the flight I meet David. He's a freelance photographer from the UK on his first trip to India. A formula one freak, he's been to almost half the GPs this season. We connect instantly. The dude's even been touched by Schumi. That was in 2002. After he won the Italian gp at Monza when he was enroute to the press conference. Lucky boy David.

Its three when we reach Delhi. The flight to Leh is at 5 am tomorrow. Till then we'll stay at Noida. I'm on the way to Noida right now and just left Delhi. Hope to post again soon! See ya...

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F1 everywhere - The Force India F1 banner at the Kochi airport. Mr Mallya you rock!

Mikepitt's omanair flight to Muscat

In search of the Buddha

Ladakh. The land of the yak. The land of the Buddha. Red robed monks and ancient monastries dot the land of the llama. Temperatures dip to sub zero and the weather unforgiving. My trip to the land of the Buddha begins today... Follow the broken concept in his quest for spiritual salvation. May the Buddha bless you.

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