23Y/O female looking for travel partner Aug-Dec 2012

Hi! I'm Julia.

I just quit my job to travel Asia for as long as possible. I'm 23 and I'm hoping to travel India with people around my age. My only commitment is a yoga training course in McLeodGanj in September. After that, I'm very flexible. I have some general ideas of where I'd like to travel below. Let me know if you're interested in joining me at any point on the trip. Let's play, have fun and see what happens!

Note: the reason for the flights in the North is my extreme motion sickness and not necessarily to save time. If you'd prefer to take the bus routes, I'm happy to meet up with you once we've both arrived at a destination.

4-30th August 2012

August 4 - Delhi for 3 days
August 8 - Rishikesh for 3 days (arrive by train)
August 13 - Jammu (arrive at 4am by night train)
August 13 - Leh for 4 days (arrive by 9am morning flight via Jammu)
August 18 - Delhi stop over for night on flight from Leh to Kullu
August 19 - Manali for 7 days (arrive by bus)
August 25 - Kasol for 5 days (arrive by bus)
August 30 - Dharamshala to settle for September (arrive by flight from Kullu)

1st-30th September 2012

McLeodGanj (Dharamshala) for a yoga teacher training course.

1-31st October 2012 (no hard dates)

Places I'd like to see: Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Agra, Varanasi, Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kolkata

1st-30th November 2012 (no hard dates)

Places I'd like to see: Mumbai, Goa, Wayanad, Alleppey, Varkala.

Hi
You are welcome to India, have a nice time in India.

Thanks
Alok

Hello Julia

Welcome to IM. While you go through IM and India, please have a look at the site's standing cautionary regarding finding travel partners online: Women/Men looking for travel partners

A few comments on your itinerary (not that you asked

a) Delhi sight-seeing can be safely pushed out to October or later. I assume the 3 days are just to help you relax from the long flight? If you dont need this time, it can safely be added to Leh / Ladakh.

b) The 5 days in Ladakh are a bit less, check the Ladakh and Zansakr forum (there's a post called , well this one: Leh/Ladakh in 5 days or less , that talks, amongst other things of the risks of altitude sickness. So factor that part in and adjust your days accordingly (unless you've firmed up this plan already including further bookings).

c) Rishikesh as well can be pushed to later. In fact, in the month of August, the rain shadow areas of Ladakh and Spiti are your best bets to stay cool and comfortable. So think if you'd like to alter this accordingly.

d) Book trains early.

Just my 0.02

Good luck!
Vaibhav

Hi Julia.. Am Adithya, 23/M.. Your itternary almost matchs to mine!! I will reach rishikesh on 6th aug and till 16th i will be there in uttrakhand.. And after that i will start to kullu i will be there for some days.. Me too looking for a travel partner, if your interested we can plan together.

Julia - wow, you are really going to see India. I guess by the end of it you would have experienced more of India than I have living here!! Good luck and keep posting.

Hi Vaibhav,

Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it.

In regards to Delhi, the 3 days is mostly to adjust to the jet lag and time change of 9 hrs.

I'm also a bit concerned about the 5 days in Ladakh and the risks of altitude sickness. I would be open to skipping Rishikesh entirely if it will make my experience in Ladakh more enjoyable. I understand that they are very different places, but if I had to choose one of the two, which would you recommend?

Thank you for the advice about the trains and booking early. I've been warned about this by other friends as well. Do you know if the same is true for flights? I will rely heavily on flights instead of buses as I suffer from severe motion sickness on buses in the mountains.

Hi.

We too are planning our travel.. Might be able to join you to Manali, Agra, Varanasi, Darjeeling, Gangtok , Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, Wayanad and to Alleppey.

with regards to your flight bookings, you will get them with ease until a week ahead as well, But the rate differences will prevail. If you book them at least 21 days in advance you will find a better deal..

Hi Julia,
Looks like we will both be in the North West at the same time!
Check out my post:

Travel/Trek Partners North West India August 15th 2012- January 15th 2013

Would be cool to sort something out!

I understand. You could do that in another city up in the hills as well, but perhaps Delhi would make most sense except that it has been unusually hot this summer (over 42 degree celcius throughout). It did rain a bit last night. So hopefully it wont be too bad by August.

There's no need to skip either. You may however, consider cutting down time in Manali and Kasol. Manali can easily be covered in a couple days or three if you include Naggar. Unless you plan on hiking I'm not sure what else would you do for 7 and 5 days respectively in Manali and Kasol. Leh and surroundings (places that do not require you to travel long distances) would easily consume a week+. There are several monastries and small hikes as well.

Only the pricing is affected with the passage of time. some domestic flights to popular tourist destinations such as Leh or Kullu can get exorbitantly expensive. Also, do check on Kullu (someone wrote on the Thorntree forum recently that there are no more flights to Bhuntar starting sometime in July - there was only one airline Kingfisher red flying there and they have cancelled due to financial problems). So basically, if you know that you will get to a place around a certain time, go ahead and book. You can use cleartrip.com to make your own judgment in this regard.

- Vaibhav

hi ...

i am raj from in tamilnadu...

if you come to tamilnadu call me..

thank you

Why not skip leh if you do not have much time? You could explore some other place in a better way in those few days.

Ladakh in 4/5 days is going to mean altitude sickness and motion sickness too, if you have read the post vaibhav has referred you to.

About manali ( I will not discuss about kullu and simla as from my perspective it is just a circus, might interest you if it is your first time in India) - Amazing place but then you will have to bear some motion sickness as its a looooooong drive from delhi, unless you want to spend on the flight as vaibhav suggested.

On a different note- All the hills in the north or north east are going to give you motion sickness, so you would need to plan in a way that you recover from it in a day and spend a justifiable time on your destination, else all the travel is going to be worthless and without much fun.

If you into riding some hills then come over to the western ghats and give a shout!

All the best for your plans!

Flights Status :

Jammu to Leh is possible

Leh to Kullu not possible

Kullu to Dharamshala not possible

so plan accordingly and be mentally prepared to travel by road!!!

Hi, Can i join you... I will be starting my trip from Delhi on 5th july...

Hi Julia,

7 days in Manali seems to be way to long a duration. As suggested by some fellow mikers , you can extend your stay at leh. I am very much interested in jaisalmer and udaipur. Let me have your final itinerary during that time and will see if I can also join you.

Ankush.