I’d spent some time with a couple of ladies who were sitting by the prayer wheel in Tia Village Ladakh. Initially they didn’t want her photo taking and that was fine. I chatted with them via my guide to learn a bit more about their lives. The lady in black had walked to the village…
People of India – The Young Naturalists – Surya Ramachandran
Who you are (naturally!) Difficult one with many answers but i’d say…Naturally..i’d say i’m a storyteller, a sports lover and most importantly, a proud south Indian who seems to want to spend 10 months of the year exploring the wild corners of north, north-east and central India. 2. What inspired you to become a…
Snapshots – Ladakh
Snapshot – Ladakh. I’ve been to two lots of polo in the last three weeks, the terribly sophisticated polo we are all more familiar with at the Rajasthan Polo Club and then the slightly less sophisticated verson played in Ladakh! Health and safety (on behalf of the spectators) was clearly not a concern for anyone,…
Snapshot – India in a nutshell
A snapshot on India: Sitting in Manchester Airport, the man next to me asks where I am going and grimaces when I say Delhi. The second sentence out of his mouth is, “My wife won’t go there, there is too much poverty.” I reply in all innocence, “Oh, have you been?” He replies, with a…
Matho Gompa Oracle Festival, Ladakh
“Follow that king!” I cried, with a wry grin, as I jumped into the car and pointed to the jeep in front. The king in question was Raja Jigmed W Namgyal, the 38th generational descendant of the Namgyal Royal Dynasty of Ladakh and the reason I was on this trip. Our destination was Matho Gompa…
Delhi Diaries, Encounters with Locals, part 2
It seems that it is impossible to walk down the street in India, or get through a single day without having some sort of wonderful if unexpected encounter. Here are some more random, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant encounters from my daily wanderings. Seriously, the Kohinoor Diamond? I was quite happily walking to work the other…
19 Things You May Not Know About Ladakh.
It is fascinating and stunningly beautiful, yes its full of monasteries and monks, but there are some things I hadn’t figured on: 1. Ladakh has the smallest cows and horses I have seen in India, however it should be renamed as the land of the enormous chickens, they were HUGE. 2. 10% of the population…