So I’m in India, finally. I was super anxious several days before my departure, mostly about how the heck am I gonna pack for those nearly 3 months I will be spending here? Since I will be in the mountains, desert, beach, city – every location has specific set of clothes and other gear, and it all had to fit in one 65l bag. Well it did fit. With total weight of 18,1kg (+ 7kg daypack)🙄 I know that some people manage to pack themselves for a year of traveling but I’m still learning.
I know, the weight sounds terrible. But almost 1/5 of that big bag weight is alcohol (😅) so I won’t be carrying it for too long. Note: nope, I won’t be drinking it by myself btw😄

So on Friday (Saturday 00:20 actually) I landed in Delhi and got myself to the hotel. As soon as I stepped out of the arrival hall into the hot humid air outside, I realized I will be sweating until October, nonstop. Just standing there waiting for taxi to arrive cost me at least 0,5l of sweat but I must say I got used to it pretty quickly – waiting at the railway station for 5h without AC helps I guess, but I’ll get to it yet.

I didn’t want to waste much time in Delhi so I took a train to Agra right away – next morning. We were supposed to leave at 14:05, we actually left at 15:05 and I got to the hotel in Agra at 7pm or so. Train was okay, with AC, sometimes even too cold inside. Hotel, well.. I decided to go relatively low budget this time so hotel ok I thought. Until! Until I went to bed relatively early cuz I wanted to wake up for the sunrise at Taj Mahal and suddenly sth ran over my legs!!! Just imagine, lying peacefully in your liner, almost asleep, earplugs in, eye mask on and suddenly this shocker! Heart rate over 200 and thoughts as follows: ‘WTF! A ghost! A cockroach! WTFWTFWTF! It felt heavy! Take the eye mask off!!’ I turned on my phone torch and was looking, nothing on the bed, nothing in front of or next to it. But there was one more place to look – under the bed. Every time I’m about to look under the bed I feel like I’m gonna witness a gateway to hell or something similar, so nervously I moved my head down, expecting the worst (a cobra maybe even!) I shed a light there and what I saw in exact order was this: disgusting carpet, ton of dust, breadcrumbs, garbage and a rat. I looked her into the eyes (she probably couldn’t look into mine because of the torch that was blinding her), shivered and was glad it’s not a cobra. I called the manager, he called two guys to take care of it, they turned the room upside down and rat was nowhere to be found, so of course they didn’t believe me. But I could even hear her squeaking there, somewhere! And then one guy moved the curtains and there she was – 30cm long! Yuuuuuck! So she ran away through the door and guys were all so happy that rat is gone, telling me that now I can sleep peacefully there. Yeah, right. Not after I saw the rat poop all over the carpet from underneath the bed (the breadcrumbs from earlier, as I thought).
The hotel was fully booked so I couldn’t change the room so I agreed with the manager to at least not charge me for the AC. But still, for the rest of the night I was half expecting to feel sth running over my legs again.
After 3-4 hours of sleep I went to see Taj Mahal. Clear skies, no line at the entrance, not so many people inside, perfect conditions for great pics. And I took some nice ones, I must say. Taj is so indescribably beautiful, especially when this soft orange sunlight is slowly shining on its white marble, while the palace reflects itself in those small pools in front of it. I really was amazed.

Then I had nice breakfast and went to the railway station to catch a train at 10:15 to Delhi because then I booked a bus at 17:15 to Manali. Train arrived 13:40. Guess what – I didn’t catch the bus. Luckily, some nice Indian family in the train helped me to agree with the company to go to Manali at 8pm with another bus. And maybe it was a good thing because the earlier bus was seater and the later one semi-sleeper, so I even managed to sleep for good 7h. You see, everything works out in the end. Because if it’s not ok, then it means it’s not the end yet😜

And so today, on Monday morning at 10, I arrived to Manali. I took a shower – first hot shower in India (previous hotels had only cold water), had an excellent chicken biryani for lunch – my second warm meal in India so far (you see, I was careful about eating on the street or at the train station so at the end I ended up eating nothing at all..maybe some biscuits) and then I thought I will go for a walk but it started to rain so I decided I can just chill on my balcony. I have plenty of time for some exploration.

Don’t know how long will I stay here, boyfriend will arrive tomorrow (yay!😍) and then we’ll decide. But since it’s supposed to rain all week, I guess we’ll move to Ladakh sooner than later.

Manali was great except that it was raining most of the time so we couldn’t do much. Din still had his clients over there, finishing their bike tour so I spent those first two days (night and half a day) with them. They were French and although I don’t speek a word in French, I had quite a good time. Beer eliminates all the gaps and differences between people😄
One evening the weather got better so we went for a short bike ride around Manali. Roads were good and views were amazing – clouds very low, floating slowly between the trees and nature around bursting with life. Sometimes it even seemed like it’s all arranged – perfectly mowed grass with small bushes and stones all around the roads, like it all was designed by a garden architect.
I also tried Indian street food for the first time. I already forgot all the names but everything was delicious and I had no stomach problems afterwards (and I’ve been fine until now, fingers crossed).

And because it was raining all the time and weather forecast promised rainy weather for the next days as well, we decided to take a bus to Leh.
Bus was supposed to pick us up at 4am, it came at 5am (I’m slowly getting used to this) and the whole journey took more than 18 hours. We arrived to Leh after midnight on Friday. Bus wasn’t as comfy as the one from Delhi to Manali – regular seater and not much space for legs (my knees are still pretty bruised up) so I couldn’t sleep at all. However Dinesh slept through most of the ride which I just can’t understand – I mean, the roads were sometimes so crazy that the bus was jumping from left to right, up and down and I was barely holding myself to not fall off the seat and then I look at Din and he is sleeping like a baby next to me. Incredible.
The views were amazing though, totally breathtaking. We also managed to cross 4 high passes (three of them above 5000m). I had only mild headache but some people didn’t feel good at all – huge headaches, vomiting.. Completely understandable if one was never that high before.

So now we’re at Leh (pronounced ‘Lay’), at around 3500m above the sea. The town is very ancient and dry, with small oasis of greenery here and there, giving me very relaxed vibes. You can see Royal Enfield bikes everywhere since this is the starting point of many bike tours which you can take here. We were on one mini tour already (lasted two days) – driving (me sitting in the back of course) from Leh to Pangong lake (4200m), through Chang La pass (around 5300m). It was almost 200km to get to the lake and it took us 6-7h on a bike 🏍. The lake was gorgeous – crystal clear turquoise water surrounded by 6000m high mountains, stretching from left to right as far as one can see. The lake even continues to China and since Chinese borders were so close, Indian army was very present all around us.
We slept in a tent very close to the lake. But it wasn’t normal tent as we know it, it was super luxurious huge tent with attached bathroom (with western toilet, sink and shower) and normal bedroom with proper, ultra comfortable bed.
Just imagine going out right after waking up – all you see is the lake, mountains and beautiful sunrise right in front of you😊

Then we rode back the same way because the other road to another destination was blocked and today we were just chilling, getting ready for our 6-7 days long Markha Valley trek which starts tomorrow. Bags are packed, supplies bought (some Indian snacks for Din, cookies for me, and Czech salami and slivovice for both of us😎) because non of us has any idea how it will be like during the trek there. We will be crossing two high passes – Ganda La at 4900m and Kangmaru La at 5280m. Hope I’ll manage😆

Btw, the internet in Ladakh is almost nonexistent and although I have an Indian number and phone says I have 3G available, I don’t. And hotel/restaurant wifis are pretty much the same so I really can’t upload any pictures yet. Will try later on😉

Day 1
So Dinesh and I set off for a trek nearby Leh where we will trek through Hemis and Markha valley.
The official starting point is at Spituk but we would be walking on an asphalt road through some construction area and because that doesn’t look like trekking at all, we started at Zinchen (around 12km further amd taxi from Leh can take you there for some extra charge).
First day should have been quite easy – from Zinchen to Yurutse, around 6km, 400m of elevation. But somehow I couldn’t manage. It was super difficult for me to get to the village, at 4000m I got a bit dizzy and short of breath. There was a possibility to go up to the lower/upper base camp of Ganda La which was another 30mins/one hour further but I couldn’t. So we stayed at the only home stay in the village which was pretty cool! Very ancient-like and authentic with no electricity nor running water. We showered in the nearby stream, had dinner and went to sleep.

Day 2
Next day was a big day because we had to cross a pass at 4900m and with my previous day’s performance in mind, I was quite afraid that I won’t manage. We set off after breakfast around 8am and I felt great! 800m of elevation, 6km to reach the pass and we made it in 2 hours💪 yay! But then my beloved descent was awaiting. 13km, 1400m of elevation.. First half was quite ok on a dusty trail but second half sucked a big time, mostly going through a river bed with huge rocks so the trail wasn’t as smooth as I expected, which also took more time. We arrived to Skio at around 3pm, after 7 hours of trekking all together with breaks. Description of the trek said that it takes 8-9h with 25km to go – no idea where they got this number, since it really is only 18. Maybe my maps don’t consider all the turns and zigzags but I find it hard to believe it. Let’s see about tomorrow – should be 18km with graduate climb of 440m so if my feet regenerate properly, it should be long but not so difficult day.

Day 3
Today was also quite a long day, although maybe not so difficult. Our destination was Markha village and we walked for about 20km. However, walking through a river is quite exhausting and my feet were already telling me since yesterday that they are not happy in my boots. There were quite many tea tents on the road and I was counting meters until we reached each one of them to get some chai – 400m seems like forever when everything is hurting! Total ascent wasn’t that crazy either, from 3400m to 3770m but still… And I’m especially nervous when I’m walking in a horse ‘caravan’, gosh.. Always worried that a horse will try to overtake me and hit me with it’s load (which already happened several times).
We reached Markha after 3pm, so again 6h of walking, passing by Sara village where there is also possibility to get a room in a home stay.
Markha was so beautiful! On a hill above a river, set amidst wheat fields and we stayed at a very cozy home stay, little bit further from center. But we were the only ones in a room and basically lived with the whole family for that evening – got typical ladakhi dinner (cooked vegetables with pasta-like noodles) and kids were sleeping in the dining room. It was also last place where we could take a shower and wash hair – so bucket it was, filled with fresh and cold spring water, which almost gave me a heart attack and surely did give me a brain freeze cuz I couldn’t rinse the shampoo from my hair at all😰 But! At least my hair was clean again😊

Day 4
Markha to Tatchungtse (4000m). Again not so difficult ascent with only 13km to walk.
We (again) started as the last ones and (as usual) finished first. We’re just the best, I know😜
Anyway, we passed through two villages – Umlung and Hankar. Hankar had a nice tea tent and we refreshed ourselves with fresh apricot juice (I didn’t even know you can squeeze an apricot and get some juice! Thought it’s too pulpy to do that) and then continued. At that point my right pinkie toe gave up and I thought I won’t make those 5k that were still ahead of us. It’s incredible how such a small thing on your body can cause so much pain. As it turned out at the end of the day, my pinkie toe became one huge blister, ugh..
When we reached Tatchungtse, we thought that there will be some guesthouses available but not this time. Only tents were available at the local camp and we got one just for ourselves. Nothing fancy, simple tent where there is hot during the day and cold during the night. Well at least we had somewhere to sleep😉

Day 5
Tatchungtse to Nimaling (4730m), 7km. That was a really easy day and we deserved it. However, at the beginning when full of energy and blisters-free, we thought that maybe we could merge the trek to Nimaling with Kongmaru La crossing. Well thank god we didn’t pursue this idea at the end. Nimaling was such a beautiful place to stay at and chill, in a wide valley between two mountains with crystal clear river running through it. This was also the place where all trekkers met at once and the dining tent was packed for dinner!
It was probably my favorite place during the whole trek and maybe if we had more time, we would stay one night longer. We also did a mini acclimatization climb up to 5000m to get ready for the pass next day and the views were amazing – we clearly saw the pass in front of us, Yang Kartse mt. next to us (above 6000m) and to sum it up, it was a perfect day all together.

Day 6
Crossing Kongmaru La (5285m) and then all the way to Shang Sumdo (3730m) and back to Leh by taxi. The trail to the pass was only 2,5km long and we reached the top in like 1,5h. First 500m consisted of a steep climb up, then 1,5km was a graduate climb and last 500m again steeply up. Dinesh was always in the front and I didn’t mind, but few meters before the top he stopped, waited for me, took my hand and said ‘let’s reach the top together’. And that was like the sweetest thing I’ve ever experienced❤️ It was around 9:30 when we reached the top.
The way down was long, sometimes boring, sometimes difficult and my feet were hurting a lot. It was around 1500m to climb down, through river beds and steep and dusty trails on cliffs but finally around 3pm we reached Shang Sumdo and met our fellow trekkers with whom we also shared a taxi to Leh. Then we had a nice dinner at the Penguin restaurant (meet and beer!!!!), shared stories with friends and went to sleep. And it took only 2 beers to have a mild hangover next day😅

Some information to note
Staying at local guesthouse/home stay is around 1000rs per person. Also in the tent, except for Nimaling, they charged us 1200rs
The price also usually includes dinner, breakfast next day and packed lunch (egg, potato, puri bread, chocolate and juice).
You can do it alone, without a guide or agency without any problems.
Having a tent will cost you much less – you don’t pay anything for the tent space.
No need to bring any food, there are plenty of tea tents on the way (chai 20rs, maggi noodles 150rs for example). But it was nice to put some cheese and chunks of tuna to the noodle soup, just sayin’😉

I took a train from Delhi, leaving at 5:35pm, booked the best class possible (2AC, around 1800Rs), so only two bunk beds on one side, leaving me with more space which was great. What wasn’t that great was the fact the I booked the upper bed. One could argue it would give me more privacy which would probably be true, but the thing is that I was like 40cm away from a huge AC fan. And with jeans, shirt, hoodie, jacket and scarf on, plus covered with blanket, I was freezing. It felt like I’m somewhere in Siberia and the result of that came very quickly – cold sores near my mouth (thank god not on it directly! It will heal quicker).
Well anyway, we arrived to Jaisalmer with ONLY – and I really mean it – 30min delay. Which is incredible since the whole journey took more than 18h and we covered almost 1000km. Then again the tuktuk hassle started and surprisingly I managed to bargain a ride for only 20Rs to the city center.
I found my hostel, seen my room and diceded I will rather lose my deposit of 1,2$ than sleeping there (Backpacker’s Panda – don’t even try it, no windows there and it smelled terribly). But manager seized the opportunity and quickly offered an alternative – Lonely Planet’s recommended Shahi Palace hotel (above my budget so I didn’t even try to book it at the beginning) and he gave me a room for the same price of 450Rs, and quite nice one! And the conclusion here? Don’t book rooms in advance during low season through a booking app. Prices are high there and if you come to a hotel directly, you will manage to bargain a good price, because little money is better than no money at all for them
I showered the train ride off me, stepped outside, sweat covered me from head to toes so shower effect got cancelled immediately and went exploring the fort. Entrance fee to the palace was 600Rs with audio guide and it was quite interesting, going through the royal rooms etc. plus beautiful view from the roof over the city.

And then I just strolled around, had lunch here amd lassi there, then took a nap and went for dinner😅 Yeah I know, what a hard life.

But in the meantime I booked a camel safari for next day, leaving in the afternoon and coming back the day after. I went to the LP recommended Sahara Travels and prices have gone up since the book was published – 1500 for tour starting in the afternoon (1900 from morning – guide says 1500 for the longer one). What to do, bargaining not possible.

So next day I had a breakfast at a hotel rooftop and like 6 hours to kill before the safari starts. So I went to the fort again, sat in a restaurant and read a book. And had banana lassi, yum yum. Then had lunch, ate very slowly and then booked a bus ticket to Jodhpur for after I’ll be back from safari.
We set off with jeeps towards some ruins of an old village (30mins ride, 10mins inside), then to an oasis (another 15mins ride, 2mins there because it was just a dirty lake) and then another 30mins to the place where camels were awaiting us. Finally!!
I knew exactly which camel I want to ride, we had a connection from the first sight – pink blankets on him (her?) and it had dots on it’s skin, like a dalmatian. So special! Just like me. Haha, just kidding.. Or am I actually?😂 And the camel was very friendly and walked smoothly and I totally enjoyed the ride.

Just the group I was with (Turkish people) didn’t share my enthusiasm for camel rides and wanted it to finish as soon as possible, so after like 40mins we arrived to the dunes, desert guys prepared dinner and beds for us and we went to watch the sunset. Beeeaaaauuutiful! The sky changed its colors so quickly and it was magical. Then the stars started to show up amd again – wooow. Saw like 5 huge shooting stars and Milky way and Orion’s belt and so many more constellations! But up in the mountains the night sky is more clear, here we still had quite big light pollution.
Our guides and also the Turkish guys started to talk about weed and took out some bhang from its bags (I think it’s the whole plant smashed and crushed into a thick, pasty like ball). Guide said it’s better to swallow it, with chai or lassi but we didn’t have any so the guys decided to make a joint out of it which didn’t work to much. Bhang is quite wet. Well I didn’t try because I just don’t try new stuff among strangers.
But to explain more about bhang – it’s totally legal in Jaisalmer to use it and very close to the fort first gate, there is a bhang lassi shop-govt.authorized So if anyone wants to legally try marijuana lassi, go to Jaisalmer
So next morning I woke up in the desert A bit with shock cuz of some weird dream I had but otherwise to a beautiful sunrise that was just starting. I thought I would be super warm during the night so first I slept only in my underwear and covered with scarf, but then I put on my long sleeved shirt, then pants and then the bedsheet (blanket, still quite wet, was my mattress so that was out of question). And I was very moist/wet all over – hair, face, clothes, all unpleasantly sticky. But masala chai brought better thoughts and warmer feeling, and morning sun dried us up during breakfast.

Then we rode on the camels back to the camp and then back to Jaisalmer. And I could feel my butt from the previous day!
It’s also a custom to give some tip to the camel caretakers, so I gave mine 100Rs..

It was 9:30 when we arrived to JSM and my bus was supposed to leave at 12:30 so I went to the bus station and managed to get a seat at the one leaving at 10 – better! For extra charge of 50Rs. I booked the bus one day ahead in some travel office in the center for 250Rs.
I was sitting on the wrong side cuz sun was baking me through the windows and the bus got so unimaginably full!!! No AC and people just kept coming! Then suddenly we are 3 people sitting on two seats – skinny guy, fat lady in the middle and me. I looked around, saw I’m the only one who has it like that and decided to be more proactive ( – some people will get this internal joke). So I told to the guy to stand up and let the lady have the whole seat. First he babbled something, looked like he will do it but no action. So at the next stop I basically pushed him away, pushed the lady to the seat and finally could breathe again. I mean come on! I paid 300Rs. for this f*cking ride and others only 80 or how much, so I deserve my whole seat. Especially when seats behind me were occupied normally. No squeezing happening over there.

I arrived to Jodhpur after 5,5h and didn’t like the city from the start. Big, dirty, meh city with fort in the middle and 600Rs for entrance to the fort? To see sth similar as in Jaisalmer? Sorry but nope. I drove to the fort with tuktuk, took few pics and went to the train station to book a ticket to Mt Abu. Very snap decision but probably a good one. Finally some nature and more human temperatures are awaiting me Will stay there for 2 nights probably, looks like I might like it quite a bit – mountain, lake, forests, temples.. I could even have a morning run around the lake!‍