that has become very popular and I get to reply to lots of comment related to it. Recently I created a list of cycle shops in the NCR (Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida) for a comment on that post. Oddly this information is hard to get online. Therefore I thought I might as well share it as a post.
The list is sorted alphabetically (Name) but you can sort it in other ways by clicking on the column header.
Planning on riding/driving from Manali to Leh? You can explore the route in an interactive map right here and also download a .gpx file of the route for your GPS.
On this 470 km trip you will climb 14,000 meters and cross five major high-altitude passes (called La). If you are cycling, the climb to the pass will seem endless. I have marked all of the passes in the file just so that you know how much more you need to suffer!
Earlier this year we went scuba diving to the Andaman Islands. We spent a over a week at DiveIndia on the Havelock islands.
There is no easy way to describe the vibrancy of the underwater ecosystem of a coral reef. No description can do justice to the experience of being 10-20 meters underwater.
Early morning departure for a dive session
I tired using the word ‘psychedelic’ to describe the colours and the shapes of the astounding range of lifeforms. A fellow diver added, yeah, gods must have been on acid when he did this. This was my first trip underwater. I think I did OK with the diving lessons, but not so well with the photography and the videography. Anyhow here are some images form the trip, hopefully I’ll be better prepared next time.
As far as I can remember, I had one persistent, recurring childhood fantasy/dream: To fly. All by myself.
Some 40 odd years later, it has finally happened. I went through a short training to learn to fly a paraglider. So how was it to live out your childhood fantasy, you might ask? Well, nice! Really nice. But, somehow not as fantastic as the original fantasy!
Mostly because jumping off the face of a high cliff defies your basic instinct. And also because, as a beginner, you are easily overwhelmed by the equipment, and overstimulated by the manoeuvres you need to make in order to get airborne, fly your course and land safely. All of this while you are dealing with some degree of fear of seeing the earth floating away from under you.
The hardest part about Spiti is reaching there. It took us a 22-hour bus ride to get to Rekong Peo. For the sake of acclimatization we had planned the night stay at Kalpa, which is not so far from there, but much higher. And also much nicer. Having had our fill with the HPTDC’s ‘ordinary’ buses, especially given the quantum of our luggage, we choose to just hire a jeep the next day to take us up to Nako (technically still in Kinnaur) – another five odd hour drive.
People often ask me what is the best cycle for touring the Himalayas. It is a hard question to answer, mainly because different people define ’touring’ differently.
For instance, cycle touring may mean cycling hundreds of kilometers self-supported where the rider carries a tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear on the bike, and has the option to stop and camp wherever she fancies. However, many of the well established Himalayan routes can also be toured ultralight, by eating and sleeping in teahouses (dhabas). And then there is the option of riding without any baggage because the support team/vehicle follows the rider(s) closely.
So you’re thinking of buying a new cycle? And you are being bombarded by friends, fellow cyclists and salespeople by all kinds of conflicting information?
I have, in the past, tried to clear some smoke for friends. This is an attempt to make my suggestions available on the web. Do let me know if this post did the job for you. Let me start by saying that you will not get a straight answer. I will not tell you exactly what to do. Actually, I can’t because I don’t know anything about you. For instance, I have no clue where you live. What kind of terrain you plan to ride on, what motivates you, what your cycling goals are, how fit you are, and so on… All I can do is lay out ‘facts’ as objectively as I can, for you to chew on, and make up your own mind. When I say ‘facts’ please realize that these are not uncontested scientific facts of the kind we memorized in school. They are more like generally accepted norms.
I wrote my first piece of code in 1988. And over the years I have abandoned coding for many different things; but I seem to keep coming back to it, like it were my one true love.
In the latest iteration, I started teaching myself PHP and MySQL because I wanted to create a data-heavy, user-editable, personalized website – PublishersGlobal.com. The effort did push the limits of my knowledge of database design and my skills with PHP and MySQL.
Perhaps more appropriate to say ’trying to’ cycle across the Sach Pass. And failing. We did our best, under the circumstances, and failed. No shame in that!
15 odd kilometers short of the Sach pass we had to turn around . The trail (can’t call it a road, even though it was wider than a typical single track) was so steep, and so full of slush that our bikes had no grip. The fact that we had too much weight loaded on the cycle, did not help either. Add to all of this, the fact that I had just recently recovered from a bout of somewhat prolonged illness, and was perhaps not as fit as I thought I was.
