The bus to Chitkul departs from Peo at 9:30 am. I was at the bus stand chatting up with Shravan when I met a fellow backpacker—Kunal Bindra. He was headed towards Chitkul. Unlike me, he was travelling through the Spiti–Kinnaur circuit in the other direction and was nearing the end of the trip. Kunal works … [Read more…]
Shravan—the hotel caretaker—walked me off to the Post Office opposite to Reckong Peo bus stand. Kalpa is about six kilometres uphill from Peo. I was waiting for a maxi van to Kalpa when a local person gave me a lift to Kalpa bus stand. When I offered him money, he refused. I had forgotten how … [Read more…]
It took me thirty-three hours to reach Reckong Peo! I left my house at 7:00 AM yesterday in a cab to catch an AirAsia flight at 11:00 AM to Delhi. The flight landed at 1:00 PM or so. I picked up my luggage and made my way towards ISBT Kashmeri Gate. Delhi Metro is laid … [Read more…]
The medical kit that I carry around has six distinct components—stomach ailment, antibiotics, fever and pain management, skin care, sprain and wound care, and speciality medicine. Stomach ailment Aluminum-Magnesium Hydroxide (Gelusil / Digene): Good for mild acidity and indigestion. I usually carry an entire strip. Ranitidine 150 mg (Aciloc / Rantac): Decreases acid production in … [Read more…]
Like all previous years, I had called my sister and my mother to Bangalore in March. It’s usually to escape the heat wave that builds up in Kolkata at the onset of summer. Sadly, this year it wasn’t a good decision on my part. Kolkata had much pleasant weather as compared to Bangalore, which regularly … [Read more…]
Nowadays I enjoy some bit of hiking and backpacking. It wasn’t like this. Allow me tell a story that started it all. It is also a story that involves failures of spectacular proportions. I hope that would be mildly entertaining. In April 2008, I was about to complete my second semester as a doctoral candidate. … [Read more…]
I saved the best for the last. I had to vacate the hostel room by 10 AM. I freshened up, took a bath, repacked by big rucksack for one last time and headed off to the reception. The free luggage storage facility was super handy. My bus was at 10:20 PM and I had the entire … [Read more…]
My bus landed in Brussels at 9 AM. I consider myself fortunate that I am not troubled when it comes to sleeping in any mode of transport. Although I must admit that I often develop a stiff neck from sleeping in awkward postures. The prices for hostels in Brussels was quite high. I booked one that … [Read more…]
Me and Partho had already reserved our respective departures from Berlin late tonight. Our booking at the hostel was supposed to expire at 10 in the morning. So we packed up, deposited our big rucksacks in the luggage room (2 Euro for a medium locker and 5 for a large one), and made our way … [Read more…]
The cost of the night at our hostel (A&O) had skyrocketed to more than the double of nominal price. I wasn’t sure if we should stay there. I was able to get better prices on places in prime locations. Our current hostel had luggage facilities. We packed our bags, checked-out, left our big rucksacks in … [Read more…]
