Holy See; the other one

I woke up really worn out today, considering I had such a great night sleep. Maybe it was the single glass of wine last night (the first in 2 months) or the meat (first significant intake after 3 weeks in India). I couldn’t face going to Dilijan by public transport (which would take some 3h […]

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Lakes and monasteries the easy way

With limited time in Armenia, I chose to do a tour with the hostel which covered several sights. It’s the easy way; it would take me at least two days to cover the main attractions included here if I had taken public transport, and their deal includes some lesser sights too (and lunch and entrances). […]

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Genocide museum

After breakfast in the hostel, I shared a taxi with some others to Tsitsernakaberd (Armenian Genocide Memorial & Museum) which was located on the fringe of the city centre up a hill. Strangely for such a significant site, it opens only at 1100 but luckily we knew that and didn’t set off too early. We […]

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World’s first Christian nation

Leaving Delhi My taxi collected me at 0045. Leaving the Paharganj area at that time was interesting. Being a summer evening, there were people sleeping on tables, stalls, tricycles and beds (on the road). The journey to the airport only took about 30 minutes. Check-in had already opened when I got there 3h prior to […]

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Preparing to go our separate ways

Above: View of Pahar Ganj from the restaurant we ate at. We didn’t do any of the touristy sights of Delhi in our 2-plus days here. For me, I’ve done it all before even though it has been 19 years ago. And the main sight of the Red Fort, I had kinda just done a […]

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Flying to the capital

It was a very civilised departure time of 1110 for our flight from Leh to Delhi. We arrived at the airport about 2h prior to find the queue quite long. As usual, security was tight (but inconsistently enforced, eg. some people snuck water bottles through while others weren’t allowed). After takeoff, we had a normal […]

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Back to Leh

A wet start I woke to the sound of rain in the middle of the night. It felt very cold and I was pleased we had extremely heavy blankets to keep me warm. I went back to sleep and woke before 0700. I took a sip of water from my bottle and it taste very chilled. Stepping […]

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Off to Pangong Lake without Kim

Possible renal failure due to Diamox? Kim was unwell during the night. He had to go pee a lot; the symptoms resembled when he had acute renal failure. This made sense as Diamox works by (according to Wikipedia) altering the normal kidney, which after several intermediate actions causes the blood to take on more oxygen. […]

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Sights of Leh

The palace and the fort We had a leisurely breakfast at one of the several lovely garden cafes in our corner of town. The plan was go visit Leh Palace (which resembles the Potala in Lhasa) and also the ruins of Tsemo Fort. It would be a hike to the former and another to the […]

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Up to Little Tibet

We couldn’t decide on whether to eat breakfast or not; precious minutes could mean missing a minivan to Leh and having to wait hours for the next one to fill. We ate anyway, in the hotel restaurant, before taking the short walk to the taxi stand. As with yesterday, we were the first again. We […]

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