Off to the mountains again

I've booked my flight to Trivandrum for the 26th of this month. This time, I'm journeying solo, and I'm hoping to cross the Himalaya into Ladakh and explore the region. As well as Ladakh, I'm interested in trekking in the Lahaul and Spiti area and the Zanskar valley. I plan to travel by train from Trivandrum to Delhi and then catch a bus to Manali in Himachal Pradesh, the northmost I've been in India so far. From Manali I want to take a local bus to visit some of the villages along the way to Leh, the capital of Ladakh. I might return to Delhi via Srinagar, depending on how things are in that war-torn part of the country.

As with all my trips I've got mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand I'm happy to be on the road in a great big country like India and dying to be in my beloved mountains again. At the moment I'm editing footage Narco and I filmed in India one and a half years ago---the picture's an image-grab from the film---into an introspective short. The film has Keralan hills, Bombay, Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra and Shimla as well as on the spot interviews by Narco. Needless to say, wading through the footage after so long is only adding fuel to my desire to go to India again.

I intend to update my blog regularly on the trip if I can. This is the first time I'm travelling such a great distance on land by myself and I'm wondering how I'll fare.

Since my Himalayan adventure last year I think I've undergone immense internal change and now's the time, I think, for me to spend some time alone and test myself out.

Physically I'm reasonably fit; intense and regular swimming and walking has obviously helped. I've also been training myself to cope with loneliness, which in the recent past I've not been able to too well. But now I feel I'm getting there.

On a negative note, I've been feeling more and more alienated from my immediate surroundings as well as people. Although I still enjoy being with friends I'm also discovering that I can be quite content for considerable lengths of time alone, walking, reading and listening to music. In a way I've accepted that I matter very little to people around me and, perhaps they to me. However, I don't want to shut myself off completely because I really do care about people and I've spent many quality moments with close friends the pleasure of which I don't want to give up for good.

The trick is to find a balance where I can interact with people without intruding.

But that's a challenge for later. For now I need to finish off pending work and get the final preparations for my trip out of the way. I hope everyone who contributed so much to this blog during our Nepal and Tibet trek will visit and equally entertaining exchanges will take place.

Although I'm leaving my friends and family for a while, I want to tell everyone that I'm only taking the good memories of my time with them to keep me company on the journey.