The Land of Moonlit Snows: & Other Real Travel Stories from the Indian Himalaya

by Gaurav Punj

Mrikula Devi temple (if you are ever in Lahaul, DO NOT miss it)

the country they didn’t even know existed, demanded or rather enforced a complete ban on the trade with Tibet (after the 1962 war). An entire way of life altered overnight.

Specious observation. Tibet was occupied by China remember ?

One of the most successful grassroots conservation movements of all time, anywhere in the world, the Chipko Movement started right here, in the villages of Lata and Reni (across the river).

Harrer was a ski instructor (of decidedly murky purpose) for the Gestapo. He had no need to escape since, as an Austrian, the British offered him freedom from internment (a fact that he hides) and which, as a Nazi, he refused.

That your quest to prove something to yourself will always come at the cost of others. Often innocent others, who have nothing to gain from your ride. That nothing, not even a night’s sleep, can be achieved alone, it needs support from an entire ecosystem.