P38A India / Bhuthan

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ovalandrover

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l we made it to India and did a tour of West darjeeling and Sikkem provences goin up to about 12 000 ft being driven in a Mahindra and then back to the Boarder town with Bhuthan where we were met by our Guide for Bhuthan who managed all the formalitys at the boarder.
We are now 8 days into our 12 day excursion and visited places with names like Thimphu Bumtang and other unpronouncable places . we have passed been through 2 mountain passes at about 2400 meters above sea leaval and the air is quite thin and experiencing a mild bout of altitude sickness but visisting monastries and getting magnificent vieves in the Himalayers.
The vehicle that we have been allocated is a Toyota Prado not the most comfortable but bettr than most here ther dosent seem to be any land rovers here most are Mahindras toyotas and suzukies for the local taxis
we have a few more days here befor we fly to Nepal where we have a helicoptor flight to base camp Everest and hope we have aclimatised to the altitude as this is 17 600 ft but we will only be there for a few hours and its another thing off the bucket list .
 
l we made it to India and did a tour of West darjeeling and Sikkem provences goin up to about 12 000 ft being driven in a Mahindra and then back to the Boarder town with Bhuthan where we were met by our Guide for Bhuthan who managed all the formalitys at the boarder.
We are now 8 days into our 12 day excursion and visited places with names like Thimphu Bumtang and other unpronouncable places . we have passed been through 2 mountain passes at about 2400 meters above sea leaval and the air is quite thin and experiencing a mild bout of altitude sickness but visisting monastries and getting magnificent vieves in the Himalayers.
The vehicle that we have been allocated is a Toyota Prado not the most comfortable but bettr than most here ther dosent seem to be any land rovers here most are Mahindras toyotas and suzukies for the local taxis
we have a few more days here befor we fly to Nepal where we have a helicoptor flight to base camp Everest and hope we have aclimatised to the altitude as this is 17 600 ft but we will only be there for a few hours and its another thing off the bucket list .
Pictures god damn you😜
 
we are now in Nepal and did the helicopter trip to base camp with a garented landing .It was the most disapointing trip we have had .The landing was at the everest view hotel where they charge $36 US for a breakfast that would cost $2 else where and you cant see everest if you dont buy the breakfast and also they pointed out base camp "its down there you cant see it its behind that rock " the flight was good from Katmando but not worth the money we paid . We also flew from Katmando to Pocara where we had some views of the Himalayers and in pocara we had views of Anapurna 1 2 and 3 also got up at 5am to view the sunrise over the mountains . At the moment we are in Chitwin National park and done a Jeep safari through the park which has Rhinos and elephants and deer and some times youu can see a tiger (not on our trip though).
as for Photos mark i have about 200 on this trip but have not downloaded them yet . Tomorrow we go back to Katmando and the next day we fly to Delhi then to Amrister for a day back to Delhi and on to Colombo Shri Lanker.
the highligt of the trip was the Tigers nest temple in Bhuthan which is perched on the side of a mountain and the only way to get there is by walking the last half as you can get a mule ride up the first half .
we have been away form home for about 5 months now and got another month to go before we start planning taking my Disco 3 on a trip to the High country in Australia
 
We flew to Amrister for the day to visit the Golden Temple as its meant to be one of the sites worth eeing but we were dissapointed as it was noting special and the town itself must be one of the grubby places even by India standards. Im not sorry we went as we would have thought we missed somthing special.
The next day we flew from Delhi to Colombo (sri Lanka ) and the atmoshere is much more relaxed and plesant.at the moment we are in day 4 of a 12 day trip with a driver and car (Toyota Prius) and doing touristy things like riding in a bullock cart and taking tuc tucs instead of taxis. also did a jeep safari of a national park and saw elephant in the wild. The place we stayed at is a farm stay with 4 A fram chalets and a swimming pool and the first mourning we saw an animal that i have never seen before not even in a zoo it was a mongoose just crossing the road in front of the car. The jeep safarie was in a Mahindra (suzuki shape ) and the driver managed to get it bogged and no one had any tow ropes or other equipment to get it out so we were stuck for about 1 hour until i suggested he deflate the tyres a bit and that finally got us moving but the driver and the guide were covered in mud trying to push us out. All part ofthe adventure.
I am now sitting in a beach front tourist resort Hotellooking out over the beach ib Trinkamalee after having visited a hot spring and a Hundu temple (they remind me a bit lke Disneyland with their bright colours and wierd god like the elepant headed Ganash and the Shiva with 20 arms oh well i better go for a swim nowwill update in a few days
 
Mud? yuck, I used to hate it back in my green-laning days but unfortunately it's the main ingredient in UK off-roading.

Can you play down the mention of Jeeps / Toyotas / Suzukies & (most of all) Mahindras as some of us 'real' LR aficionado's are a bit sensitive :oops:

I hope you continue having a safe journey.
 
here are few photos i must admit they are not as spectacular as the real thing .
p1040005 is the merano glacier in chilie the others are in Bhutan
 

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A few more photos all in Bhutan
 

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I dont know about Bata but the Royal Enfied motor bike factory that moved to india in the 1950s is still churning out the 350 cc clasic bike and just recently added a 600cc to its line up. The Himalayer model is popular and you can hire them and do guided tours on them. If i was younger i would cosider buying one and riding it back to the UK but as im aproaching 80 its not an option
 
Today we did another "jeep " safarie in a national park but this time it was in a toyota hilux and actually saw Defenders set up as safarie "jeeps" as well as the Mahindras. well worth it for a 6 hr tour where the park entrance fee was more than the safarie . this time it was not muddy even though it had rained
Yesterday we visited 5 arch bridge and had to take a tuc tuc to get there which looked quite ordinary until you got in it .the driver had pimped it up inside ill try and post a short video of it. i cant seem to upload it
 
Today is our last day in Sri lanka as we fly out to Sigspore and pick up a cruise ship to Australia .we went on a river safarie today and visited a turtle hatchery
 
heres a few more photos
1 tigers nest Bhutan
2 74 stupas Bhutan
3 valley in Bhutahn
4 to get this photo it was a bit like hearding chickens
5 Butahn
6 Stupa Butahn
7 common wiring in an Indian city
8 train from Ayo oupa to Ella
 

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