Why travel to Kashmir and Himalayas

OK, I’m aware that Kashmir is not the most recommended destination due to the political instability in the region but there is just something about it that attracted us. Here are some of the reasons:

It has the coolest name - Kashmir – it just sounds sexy

Most of the travelers who have been there loved it – especially the photographers

It won’t be crowded – there is a travel warning for the Kashmir region.

It’s cheaper than the Swiss Alps.

And final reason is that since when I was a child, browsing through my older brother’s World Atlas, the Himalayas were always a spot on the page where my eyes would stop and I would envision the snow covered peaks and Yeti (I was 5 or 6 at the time) strolling around in front of his cave.

Also, in all my travels, 6 continents and 50+ countries, the most beautiful destinations were Alaska (in the photo), Norway, Canadian Rockies and the Lake District in the UK. I can’t help it – I like the mountains, so Himalayas was a must.

I do take warnings about the region seriously but like with everything else, a bit of research and a lot of common sense go a long way. To start with we won’t be hanging around in front of the police station or a military post - that should cover most of the risk.

I remember when we were headed to South Africa few years back and people warning us to be extra careful – one warning, repeated by several South Africans, was not to rent a good car because we gonna get carjacked for sure. We ended up with a tiny Toyota and I got on the road to Capetown to find myself in a river of brand new Mercedes, BWM and Audi luxury sedans and I didn’t see a line-up of carjackers anywhere.

Now I do now that these things happen but crime happens everywhere – even in the gorgeous, squeaky clean Copenhagen, on our way from Tivoli gardens we got onto the train station to see a guy smoking a crack pipe right there on the platform – and there are parts of many big cities in the US where I wouldn’t dare walk even in the middle of the day. Anyway, we spent amazing 5 weeks in South Africa without an incident.

So with that in mind – and with plan to spend the sunsets and evenings on the terrace of our houseboat on the Dal Lake and not doing solo treks towards the Pakistani border I think we’ll be pretty safe in Srinagar. It’s the driving across the mountain passes that scares me more. You should be able to see some pictures from those roads in just over a week.

Semi adventure on the almost top of the world

From this point on, DarkoRoom will take a slight turn from Travel Photography blog to Travel & Photography blog which depicts a journey of discovery, both inner one and that of a place wherever we might end up. The journey, this time around, leads to India and Nepal and the inner part of the voyage began weeks ago with me calming myself down in the office of the Indian Bureaucratic Irritation Machine but more on that later.

So here is the brief breakdown of the “travel plan”: we’re heading out of London on September 10 and flying into Srinagar via Delhi on September 11. For those of you not familiar with the region: Srinagar is Kashmir, which is northern part of India, which is on the border with Pakistan. There is a bit of a political situation in the region but I won’t go into that. If you have a favorite news website you can look it up and if I figure out what is really happening there I’ll make sure I announce it here on the blog.

From Srinagar we’re heading into Himalayas and some cool (feel free to use either fashionable or temperature meaning of the word) places to visit on Indian side of the mountains; Ladakh and Darjeeling being some of them. In Nepal we’re headed up the famous and apparently very busy trek towards the Everest Base Camp. When winter arrives (I was surprised to hear that winter ever leaves these places) we’ll be heading south to relax on the beach. More detailed plot will appear eventually on these pages.

Today’s photo was taken on the warm-up hike in the Lake District. This was taken about a week or so ago since it’s been raining every single day this week and we didn’t go out much. I know what you’re thinking – we should have been hiking in the rain to prepare ourselves for months of trekking which await and what if it rains on the Everest trek. Well then I won’t have the option of staying in a warm home so I’ll have to deal with it. Anyways, the view is of Crinkle Crags from our hike to the Pike of Blisco.

The adventure begins in one week and in the next few post I’ll go through the details of preparations for the trip so if you are planning to go to Kashmir, Himalayas, Nepal or India or wherever – come into the DarkoRoom