09 Jan 2014
· cycling
Where in the world
do you have a car driver slow down to a halt, to let you finish taking a picture from across the street.
Where in the world
do you have women managing the night desk alone in a small hotel, in a smallish town.
Where in the world
do you have women taxi drivers doing solo cross-country drives.
Where in the world
do you have young women single handedly manage resto-bars on the side of a highway, in the middle of nowhere.
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23 Sep 2013
· cycling
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.
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08 Sep 2011
· adventures
She knew. I could tell she knew that I was in pain. I had been making sure that the violent negotiations between my calves and knees were kept to, well, myself. But she could see through it.
I was determined to take myself and the 20 kilo pack on my back, safely to wherever the trail ended. This was the last, and particularly gruelling, day of a 6-day-trek across the Buran Pass. And I was not going to let my knees or calves come in the way of my finishing the trek. I was not going let myself get distracted by a little bit of pain.
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10 Oct 2010
· cycling
Ride report form September 2010 Ride dates: September 4th to 14th, 2010
Two riders: Sanjay Jaiman and Ajay Jaiman
After years of thinking about it and weeks of planning we finally did it. Close to 600 kms of cycling from Manali to Leh (because Tanglang La was closed and we had to take a detour at Debring and go via Tso Kar and Mahe bridge).
We rode with all our gear including clothes, sleeping bags, tent, stove, utensils, food, water, cycle spares on our cycles – an estimated weight of about 25 kgs (not counting the weight of the bikes, pannier racks, and bags.
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10 Jul 2010
· adventures
In June I traveled almost the entire length of the Spiti valley in the ‘European backpacker’ style. Using local buses (non-a/c with non-reclining seats), hitching rides, and hiking– from village to village and from monastery to monastery; eating in ‘dhabas’, staying in village homes, monasteries; making new friends (some of whom were perpetual travelers – they do not have a stable snail mail address)…
It is an absolutely incredible way to see the countryside. The slow pace of waiting for buses and hitches, or walking the mountains gives you all the time you want to experience the landscape in a whole different way – I should know because I have been through this valley multiple times before, but I saw it differently this time. And if you like landscape photography then the slow pace allows you to see the landscape again and again in changing lights too…
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