Susan Jagannath's Blog, page 13

August Endings and Beginnings

An update on August

The end of August means a few things – typically, its the last month that you can pretend that the year has not rushed past in unseemly haste, leaving you scrambling to catch up, breathless in indignation that you didn’t really know that time was passing so swiftly. Now, you really must take stock of what you can realistically achieve before the end of the year. But before that, I’ve been thinkin...

Kabuliwallah – Sorrow, Betrayal and Loss

The Kabuliwallahs on the Pilgrim PathThe trouble with travel and pilgrimage is that you meet people who challenge your stereotypical assumptions – and then the world changes and you worry again.This is the path to Hemkund, a Sikh pilgrimage hike high in the Himalayas, where I met this lovely couple – from Kabul, #Afghanistan. I was a bit astonished to tell you the truth, for some reason I had forgotten how close it...

Kolkata to Kabul – A Tale of an Afghan

Kabuliwallah

I’ve read this story of an Afghan in Hindi and Engiish, as a child, as an adult, and now it sprang instantly to mind in the way the brain throws up random links – on hearing the torment unroiling in Afghanistan. All through Indian history, the Afghans have been plunging down the mountains, as invaders, as refugees, as sellers of dried fruit, shawls and nuts.

Which is what this story is about – there is e...

The Bells of Santiago – Stilled on August 13th 997

I’ve had complaints that my book, The Camino Ingles: 6 Days to Santiago has very little historical context, so in the latest version, I have added some cultural context. It has also been completely updated for 2021 with information on the route and the new requirements for walking post-pandemic.

13th August 997 was a deadly day for Santiago de Compostela. On that day, the bells of Santiago were ripped out of the bur...

The Valley of Flowers – Tasty Treats on a Hike

Delicious Himalayan Food

“Dhabas” or roadside food stalls serve generic Indian food on the Valley of Flowers route up to Ghangaria, and onto to Hemkund, and there’s simple free food at the gurudwaras, at guru ka langar.” One you are in the higher mountains, you may find that you have to eat vegetarian food, however, it is delicious, though limited, and there seemed to be little in the way of real local food. Be adven...

Himalayan Treasures

Often, in dark winter days, I wandered in spirit to these flowerful pastures with their clear-running streams set against a frieze of silver birches and shining snow peaks.

—Frank Smythe

Extracts from the book – The Valley of Flowers

Mountain Blooms

High in the mountains, among windswept peaks and gleaming glaciers is a...

The Pilgrim Trail to Hemkund

Today is Day Seven, and the after one day up at the Valley of FLowers we take the right fork to hike up to Hemkund

If you missed the beginning, go back and read.

ExtractReaching for Heaven

With one last pull and push on my trekking poles, the last switchback is negotiated and ducking down beneath the blue tarps, I enter a narrow path lined with shops selling goods and shawls to offer at the shrine. Gleaming silken...

The Valley of Flowers

#ValleyofFlowers Day Six Aug 6th 2019

What it feels like to achieve a goal – whether reaching the valley 4 kms up in the sky , or publishing a bestseller about it at the height of a pandemic – brilliant. Never give up on a dream.

EXTRACT

Darshan

It’s not a coincidence that this feels like worship. Ten thousand years of awe well up in me. A lingering legacy from ancestors who gazed at these mountains and wove them in...

The Russian Doll Effect

Coming to the Himalaya and trekking has a true Russian doll effect – you keep unpacking more and more layers to your inner self and how it relates to you, your life and future. In this featured photo, its a literal image, Im taking the photo in the window, and the mountains are looking back at me – in a reversed panorama. On this fourth day of the adventure, we reach almost there – Auli in the high himalayas, for a...

Reliving the Valley of Flowers – 1

How many decades will there be before the Indian woman is emancipated from the mental, moral and physical slavery she has endured for countless generations?

Extracts from the book – The Valley of Flowers

How many decades will there be before the Indian woman is emancipated from the mental, moral and physical slavery she...