A recent exchange of New Year greetings turned to travel undertaken in the year elapsed. How it veered towards the lack of relieving areas for ladies escapes me now, but we were soon discussing the perils of an impatient bladder in the vast habitation- and foliage-free landscape of Ladakh, a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. Strangely enough, while a certain travel group appeared to have experienced uncomfortably lengthy periods of self-containment, my friend and I managed to leave a distinct mark pretty much where & when we wanted to. Once again, it entirely escapes my memory why these sites were considered subjects of photographic interest (there was talk of slippery ice and bumping heads, but I can’t really say with conviction). Here they are, regardless.
Outskirts of Srinagar
En route from Kargil to Leh
In Leh Restaurant
Khardung La
Nubra Valley
Return from Nubra
Pangong Tso
En route from Pang to Sarchu
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
