WHERE THE SEEDS OF HINDUISM AND ZOROASTRINISM WERE SOWN: ISLAM AND BUDDHISM PROPAGATED.........BY RAMDAS IYER 17.06.2012 I was dropped off at the Uzbekistan border check post about 100 km from Bukhara, by my driver and wonderful guide Salim. The no man’s land created during the split of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan…
OVER THE JUNGLE AND INTO THE LAND OF THE DANI PEOPLE......................RAMDAS IYER 03.12.2008 - 18.12.2008 Approaching the age of 50 one wonders if the time for hard adventure becomes limited. So I decided to embark to places not easily accessible or to have perceived difficulties. Papua has always been on…
PAPUA JOURNAL VOLUME 4 01.12.2006 - 13.12.2006 After a poor night's sleep with insects creeping under the floor of my hut, I woke up to perfect morning light with clean, crisp air, a body of fog in the river valley below and a surrealistic cannibal village under my feet. The…
OBSERVATIONS WHILE TRAVELLING FROM BAMAKO TO TIMBUKTU BY 4X4............... RAMDAS IYER, AUTHOR 01.12.2007 - 23.12.2007 “My father was a nomad, his father was a nomad, I am a nomad, my children will be nomads,” said Inaka*, who was not sure of his age but looked to be in his fifties.…
DOWN THE MOUNTAIN TO A MUMMY, THE FINAL SEGMENT OF THE DANI EXPERIENCE.................RAMDAS IYER, AUTHOR 30.12.2006 - 22.12.2006 The "Baliem Highway" as I call it, is a network of small trails issuing out of hundreds of villages sequestered in the lush mountains of Papua. I was amazed to discover that…
BAMAKO TO TIMBUKTU BY 4X4............................BY RAMDAS IYER, AUTHOR 01.12.2007 - 22.12.2011 Having grown up in India, I often reminisce about my elders and their usage of idioms. My uncle Krishnan Periappa often used the term “It is like going to Timbuktu”: whenever god-forsaken places were mentioned. I now realize that…
A JOURNEY WITH THE NOMADS OF THE SAHARA.......RAMDAS IYER, AUTHOR 07.12.2007 - 20.12.2007 Timbuktu sits where the Sahel meets the Sahara. The Sahel is defined as “ the biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Savannas in the south. It stretches across the North…
A FASCINATING TREK AMONGST A UNIQUE PEOPLE..... AUTHOR RAMDAS IYER 01.12.2006 - 15.12.2006 The third and fourth days of trekking took us to greater heights and deeper into Dani territory. It was an exciting time for a photographer with the land and its unique people offering many opportunities around every…
PAPUA JOURNAL...VOLUME 2 05.12.2006 - 13.12.2006 We packed all our supplies in several bed- raggled cartons covered with tarpaulin and set off for our trek. It was not like Amundsen or Scott setting off for the poles, calculated, organized and fighting every impulse for failure. Ours seemed to be one…
FLIGHT OVER THE HIMALAYA INTO LHASA......................RAMDAS IYER, AUTHOR 04.02.2011 As one gets older the 11 hour jet-lags seem to linger longer than in the past. So at 4:00 Am today I decided to share my thoughts and experiences during our Tibet trip earlier. As an Indian at heart, Tibet is…