From the Ganges
to the Valley of the Gods

Volume 1 in the series
‘A Love Affair with the Unknown‘

The series starts in the Varanasi train station, where I said goodbye to my lover and boarded a train towards Khajuraho. The plan was for Afrika and me to visit a few sites on the way to Bombay, fly to Thailand, and enter Indonesia by land or sea. Instead, a chance encounter led us to Kathmandu, where we got stuck trying to source the veterinary permit which would allow Afrika to enter Thailand. Meanwhile, a local bookworm initiated me into the historical mysteries of the Himalayan regions, sparking my interest in the complexities of the local religions while fanning a desire to visit the most sacred mountain in Asia, Kailash, right in the middle of Tibet’s forbidden territory. The old and much-cherished dream of crossing Tibet hitchhiking, explore the Taklamakan Desert, and visit Pakistan resurfaced, becoming an irrepressible longing. Visas to China, however, were only issued in conjunction with short organized tours.

We remained in the city for two months, all the while meeting interesting people, surviving a life-threatening drama, and learning new fascinating things. All my efforts at securing a Chinese visa seemed to fail, but then, days before our scheduled return to India, I was granted a rare type of long-term independent visa. In the spur of the moment I decided to smuggle Afrika into Tibet, hoping to defeat the local laws and somehow explore the vast high and low plains of Central East Asia on my own.