Ladakh: where the mountains meet in the sky

Ladakh

The Himalaya

The Himalaya

The Himalayas, or Himalayas a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has several peaks exceeding an elevation of 8,000 m 26,000 ft including Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. The mountain range runs for 2,400 km an arc from west-northwest to east-southeast at the northern end of the Indian subcontinent. The Himalayas occupy an area of 595,000 km2 230,000 sq mi across six countries–Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. The sovereignty of the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China. It is bordered by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges on the northwest, Tibetan Plateau in the north, and by the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the south. Its western anchor Nanga Parbat lies south of the northernmost bend of the Indus river and its eastern anchor Mancha Barwa lies to the west

of the great bend of the Yearlong Tsang River. The Himalayas consists of four parallel mountain ranges: the Shivalik Hills on the south; the Lower Himalayas; the Great Himalayas, which is the highest and central range; and the Tibetan Himalayas on the north. The range varies in width from 350 km 220 mi in the north-west to 150 km 93 mi in the south east.

The Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on Earth and is made up of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. It was formed more than my due to the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate along the convergent boundary. Due to the continuous movement of the Indian plate, the Himalayas keep rising every year, making them geologically and seismically active. The mountains consist of large glaciers, which are remnants of the last ice age, Their combined drainage basin is home to nearly 600 million people including 52.8 million living in the vicinity of the Himalayas. The region is also home to many endorheic lakes.

It blocks the cold winds from Central Asia, and plays a significant roles in influencing the monsoons. The vast size, varying altitude range, and complex topography of the Himalayas result in a wide range of climates, from humid and subtropical to cold and dry desert conditions. The mountains have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia and Tibet. Many Himalayan peaks are considered sacred across various Indian and Tibetan religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Bon. the summits of several peaks in the region such as Gang Khar Puensum, and Kailash have been off limits to climbers.

World Travelling

World Travelling

The European Travel Monitor has been continuously surveying the most important data on outbound travel behaviors from all European countries since 1988. In 1995, the European Travel Monitor was expanded to the World Travel Monitor to cover all the important overseas markets United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, India. Data is collected by the architects of the Monitor or by means of working cooperations in the various countries. Today 2013, the World Travel Monitor chronicles about 90% of all international travel flows. Conceived and realis by IPK International, the surveys have the objective of tracking all outbound travel of at least one overnight stay, regardless of travel motive. Apart from holiday trips business trips and all other private trips visiting friends or relatives are also recorded.

The driving impetus behind establishing this information system for Germany German Travel Monitor and Europe was that it was not possible for decision-makers in the tourism field, based on the information available to them up to that point in time, to gain an overview of the European market or any overseas markets in the form of a database enabling a direct comparison of aspects such as the volume and structure of outbound trips taken by the Germans, Americans, British, Russians, Chinese. While various surveys and official statistics were available prior to the introduction of the World Travel Monitor European Travel Monitor, the individual datasets were virtually impossible to compare because there were major dissimilarities among the samplings as well as among the survey methods used in the individual countries.

Travel

Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip.Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements, as in the case of tourism.

The origin of the word "travel" is most likely lost to history. The term "travel" may originate from the Old French word travail, which means 'work'.According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the first known use of the word travel was in the 14th century. It also states that the word comes from Middle English travailen, travelen (which means to torment, labor, strive, journey) and earlier from Old French travailler (which means to work strenuously, toil). In English we still occasionally use the words "travail", which means struggle. According to Simon Winchester in his book The Best Travelers' Tales (2004), the words "travel" and "travail" both share an even more ancient root: a Roman instrument of torture called the tripalium (in Latin it means "three stakes", as in to impale). This link may reflect the extreme difficulty of travel in ancient times. Travel in modern times may or may not be much easier depending upon the destination. Travel to Mount Everest, the Amazon rainforest, extreme tourism, and adventure travel are more difficult forms of travel. Travel can also be more difficult depending on the method of travel, such as by bus, cruise ship, or even by bullock cart.