Now that we have given you lots of reasons to visit Ladakh, here are some itineraries that you could follow. The main constraint most people seem to have is time.  We are listing the two most feasible 1 week itineraries that you could follow. One Week (9 days Saturday – Sunday) : Can’t take lot of time off from work, worry not, You can still see Ladakh, at least the top spots. Since you cannot take more than a week, we are assuming the following. You must be an important person at work (we read this as someone with a, fat paycheck). So you wouldn’t mind taking the expensive flights. There are flights from Delhi to Leh and if you book in advance you can get some nice deals. When we say plan ahead, In terms of Ladakh it means at least 2 – 3 months. We are not big fans of tour packages, but the ones for Ladakh left us thinking. Some friends of ours booked a tour package for Ladakh for 28,000 – 30,000/- each. You leave Delhi on a Saturday and come back next Sunday. The package includes your flights, accommodation,  food, sight seeing for the 8 days you are in Ladakh. The flights itself can cost you upto 20,000 return, so this package is a great deal for those who are short on time. If you are doing this trip on your own, you follow the below itinerary. Itinerary Number One Day 1. Delhi – Leh Flight Day 2. Acclimatize Day 3.  Acclimatize ( Get your permits ready) Day 4. Trip to Pangong Tso Day 5. Pangong Tso to Leh Day 6. Local Sight Seeing ( Shey Palace, Thiksey Monastery) Day 7. Trip to Khardungla Pass ( Highest Motorable Road in the world) – We all Love bragging, don’t …

We believe anyone who has done a road trip in Ladakh has done everything, now most things in life don’t hold any meaning. We salute everyone who has taken time out, spent the effort in planning, reading forums, convincing friends, bosses, family. Once you hit the road, you realize everything, every effort was completely worth it, you were rewarded more than what you came for. Now the ones who are still planning, think no more and make sure you are in Ladakh this summer, Take a bus, take a tour package or if you are ambitious enough get a ‘BULLET’ and ride through heaven on Earth. We did the same last year in our lazy style spending about a month. So feel free to ask all the questions that may arise in your mind. For starters, below is a break up of the money we spent in this road trip. Category Expenses for 2 people  INR USD Fuel 11500 186 Accomodation 18750 303 Breakfast 3760 61 Lunch 4210 68 Dinner 7110 115 Bike Rent 18200 294 Miscellaneous 3400 55 Total 66930 1082 For those who love to see pie-charts The route we followed was Delhi – Manali – Leh – Nubra Valley – Kargil – Zanskar Valley – Kargil  – Srinagar – Jammu – Delhi Summary of where we spent our money. 1. Bike Rental : We have a BULLET, but did not take it for this trip and had to rent one out. It cost us INR 650/- a day and was a major chunk of our daily budget.  They are easy to rent in Karol Bagh in New Delhi. All you need to know about renting motorbikes is here 2. Food :  Once you are in the mountains, food tends to get simpler, tastier and international at the …

Getting to Laos may sounds more complicated than it is because there are no direct cheap flights from India to Laos. To save money, you could fly in and out of Bangkok. Laos has a land border with Thailand, which several travelers cross on a daily basis, however, Indians do not get a visa on arrival for Thailand if you do not have a flight ticket for your onward journey and the VOA issued is valid for a single entry. However, all the complications can be put to rest if you get a prearranged multi entry Thai visa that covers the length of your stay in Laos so that you can leave Thailand and return via the land border, saving you lots of money. The visa for Laos is available on arrival for Indians. All you need to know about Visas for Laos is here. You could fly into Vientiane from Bangkok. Most flights offer packages which means you get flown to the Thai border town of Udon Thani from where you board a bus or car that brings you into Vientiane. There are several flights everyday and is a good options in terms of saving you money and time. You could also take a train or bus from Bangkok. The bus takes around 14 hours and costs about THB 700 from Khao San Road. The train takes about 1000 THB. If you want to add adventure to your trip you could head to the North Thailand and take a boat out to Luang Prabang from Chiang Mai. The boat could take multiple days and takes you through Laos country side on the mighty Mekong. This way you get to Luang Prabang first and can make your way down to exit out of Vientiane to Bangkok.

Here are the 11 joys, the eleven pleasures that will entice you to mountains every time. 1. Drinking straight from the waterfall – You carried two bottles of water but they are both empty now. You can’t buy Bisleri along the way. But you are thirsty? Look for the next stream of water that falls on your way(…Make sure it doesn’t fall on the walking path for you don’t want to be drinking another man’s elixir). Ah! the sweet taste of mountain water, from snow melting at the top somewhere. Why has the water never tasted this great before? Because you hardly came to the mountains before. 2. The patchy mobile signals – You are on first leg of your trekking trip and already the mobile signals are weak. Nobody can reach you, not the boss, not the family, not the job, not your relationships, failed or successful, nothing can contact you. It worries you, bothers you and irritates you. But when the moment here and now absorbs you, you feel grateful that there is one place where facebook notifications don’t chase you. 3. The God sent noodles – Just when you are getting hungry, there appears a tent on the horizon and from within it appears a man with a pan in his hand and you ask him, “can I get something to eat” and he asks in return “will maggi do?” and you say with a desperate relief, “Yes!” And then you enjoy the noodles with oodles of greenery and a view to behold for a lifetime.     4. The wonderful smiles of the villagers – You pass by the villagers walking on the trekking path and wonder how come they are so much more energetic. They are not even wearing your fancy branded shoes. They are running …

Its been months we have been traveling now…when we started traveling we realized what a great decision we took. Along the way we learnt why one must travel.  

If you haven’t been to Ladakh yet, then here are nine reasons why you must head to Ladakh this summer. And if you have already been to Ladakh, they still hold valid. For warm Thukkpas and momos – I will not say I am a huge fan of Ladakhi food but who doesn’t love a bowl of hearty soup with noodles. The no fuss reliable taste of thukpa with a lashing of red chilly at your heart’s desire when the winds are chilly and dry is a great solace. And the steaming momos are a wonderful snack for every stop you make along the unending roads of Ladakh. For the ever fluttering prayer flags – The sound OM Mani Padme Hum can be heard under the breath of the winds sweeping the vast deserts of Ladakh. Even when you are travelling away from the world, on a lonely pass will stand a stupa meditating in solitude of towering altitudes, dressed in the many colorful flags making your journey from challenging to serene shifting your travels inward rather than outward into the remote corners of your own soul. For The friendly locals – A smile on every face and a ‘Julay’ on every lip, Ladakh is one of the friendliest parts of India. People serve not for money but with an honesty and hospitality that is heart warming. To stretch your money with Cheap accommodations – One of the best and cheapest accommodations we found anywhere in the country was in Ladakh. In Leh we paid Rs 600 for a two bed room and bathroom that overlooked a field and the mountains beyond it. One of the most breathtaking views we have had from a room. To be a great photographer – Anywhere you look in Ladakh, just click and it …

It is an otherworldly place. The only place we went in South East Asia where English was not understood, foreigners and travellers from outside were few and far in between, people were genuine and hospitable and no matter how hard we tried, we could not explain what vegetarianism meant. People smoked all the time, everywhere: inside the air conditioned buses, in public areas and offices,  but yet they smiled so politely piercing your soul and warming your heart, that you don’t mind the smoke, the discomfort of the tight vans and minibuses, the crazy drunk drivers who are popping in tablets to keep themselves high. The torrential rains and heavy winds made you feel as though they would blow the roof of your head and sooner than later the water would come gushing in your hut which they fondly call bungalows following the command equatorial climes but minutes later the sun would shine just as bright as the smiles of the people and dry your back like there was never a drop on it anyways. We could relax all day by the lake with no pressure of things to do and activities to be accomplished. Sumatra is one of those places where you just are rather than trying to be. It is for us the ultimate place to relax, a highly recommended “cool spot” by our definition. For more information on Sumatra and what not to miss on the island…Read here

We spent a week in Bruges, but if you don’t have that much time, you should at least spare a weekend to this lovely fairytale town. Bruges is well connected by rail to most parts of Europe, and if you are feeling ambitious and don’t want to spend too much Eurolines is your answer to getting there. We have found some unbelievable deals on bus tickets for as low as 10GBP for a return ticket from London to Bruges. Here are top 5 things that you must do when you are in Bruges. 1. Battle of the Fries In the main square, two fry sellers have been battling it out for the best fry in town award. It is not an official award but all locals claim to have their own reasons for choosing one over the other. We loved the one on the right side if you are facing the entrance of the el Salvador Dali museum. 2. Belgian Waffles If they Belgians do something, they do it really well. Their Waffles are undoubtedly the best in the world, what better way to end your meals with freshly baked waffles topped with Cream and fresh strawberries. 3. Beer   There is a saying in Belgium, that they export the bad produce from their breweries to other parts of Europe, the good ones are available in Bruges. There are an infinite number of bars around the main square, look for the one, which serves cheese on the side. In Belgium Beer is not just a drink but it is a science. Each beer has a different glass to complement the taste. One of the breweries offers a tour, and it is a must do when you are there. 4. Countryside Most Locals use bicycles to go around town, adding to the charm …

We love Sumatra and in Sumatra, we love Lake Toba so much so that we ended up spending about 60% of the month we had in Indonesia in Lake Toba which also meant we could not move to other parts of Indonesia besides Sumatra. Now you must think, since we were in Lake Toba for 17 days, we must have seen all that was there to be seen, done all that was there to be done many times over. But our laziness was at its peak in Lake Toba, we managed to tick a few things of our list. We present to you the 5 things we really enjoyed in Lake Toba. Almost all the accommodation in Lake Toba is in Tuk-Tuk village in Samosir Island and there is only one connection to the mainland, and if you are here in the off-season you are likely to know most tourists. We bumped in most of them at the many sites that are scattered in various parts of the island. Lake Toba is the largest lake in Indonesia and the world’s largest volcanic lake and Sumatra is home to Bataks, the natives of Indonesia. The setting is very pretty, people are nice (this applies to all places in Sumatra, all of them love Indians and they are big fans of SRK) food will please your taste buds if you don’t experiment too much, and you can walk for weeks and are likely to find some hidden corner to sit and admire the view. Here are the top 5 things we enjoyed in Lake Toba. Walks around the Island – It takes about an hour to walk its circumference of the island. You can sit any guest towards the lakeside, and enjoy a nice cup of tea, coffee (both with condensed milk) …