Welcome to the Indian Subcontinent branch!

Welcome to the Thorn Tree's branch for the Indian Subcontinent.

This branch covers: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

We hope you find plenty of useful information here. It is highly recommended that new users check out the Indian Subcontinent FAQ thread before posting a new thread as you may find many of the answers you seek there. It also contains helpful information about how to search the forum, advice for how to post your questions, and obsolete information was deleted as recently as July 2008! If you are a returning user or a subcontinent guru, please help us keep the FAQ thread up-to-date by adding important information which is absent, or pointing out information which is no longer being represented accurately.

Choosing a country to post to:

When you make a po... more »

Migrating to a new server

Hi all,

The whole of lonelyplanet.com, including Thorn Tree, is changing hosting providers in the following days. While this change takes place, Thorn Tree and the Lonely Planet website will be unavailable for a short period of time. We will communicate the exact time nearer the date. This migration will hopefully be a matter of hours but we have a lot of Thorntree content to move! We will do everything we can to cause minimal disruption to users. You will be able to chart the progress of the work while the site is down through our Twitter account.

Thanks,

Zabba

planning a 5-6 week trip to Sri Lanka

Hey guys,

My wife and some friends are starting to plan our trip to Sri Lanka and possibly to India are getting very excited. Haven't done a ton or research yet, and thought before we got our guide book and started planning it would be a good idea to hear some of your experiences, place we can't miss, places we can, and what we can do in 5-6 week time period.

We really are into most anything and everything when is comes to traveling. We keep hearing that Sri Lanka is the place to travel right now, so were gonna go for it before prices keep rising. We haven't been on a trip in a year now, and we have the itch big time to get out of our town! We have been saving and we still need a bit more before we can take off. Were aiming towards January, let me know if you guys suggest otherwise. I read a little on the weather, and it looks like that is dry season? I may be wrong.

I read ... more »

Double Entry / sikkim

as i have a double entry visa to india with the permission to visit sikkim for 15 days...... what i have done already...(fly to india, visit sikkim, go back through kolkata/delhi back to europe.
So is my 2nd entry to india now already used (because i was in sikkim...) , or not??
i just read.heard mixed answers, so i want to make sure that i can reenter india (2 month waiting period is over ...) without any hassles, or do i need a new visa
(also considered the 6 month validation, thats all ok ...)
thanks a lot to all your visa experts!

Trekking from Cho Oyu to Makalu

I have an obsession with seeing all of the 8,000ers up close.

I was wondering if anyone knew if it is possible to go on the normal EBC trek and continue on past Goyko Ri and trek to the base of Cho Oyu and then returning and going to EBC?

Also, is it possible to hike from EBC along the south face of Lhotse and then continue another 10 - 15 miles to Makalu?

All the Makalu treks I've seen on the internet arrive there going far to the east and then hiking to the base camp while trekking in a north-northwest direction. Is there a reason for that?

Any help would be invaluable. Thanks!

How to ship car from India to Europe?

We did the way to India by car and to take it back home we'd like to send it by sea in container. Can anyone suggest a reliable shipping company from Delhi/Mumbai/elsewhere?

Nilaveli accomodation

Hello, I'm travelling to Sri Lanka late august this year, visiting the cultural triangle, and would like to spend a couple of days at the seaside, chosing Nilaveli as a destination. I have find out there is little choice for accomodation: best resorts have very high prices and often bad feedbacks; guesthouses seem to be not comfortable enough. Can anyone suggest a nice place with all basic comforts and reasonable price? Is it a good alternative finding a hotel in Trincomalee?
I would also appreciate your opinion about the beach (I've read a few negative reports on it and some not enthusiastic about Pigeon Island); in fact I could also skip Nilaveli and stop later in Tangalla, but I'm afraid of the weather in that period, is it good for the beach?
Thank you.
Carlo

Trip from arugambay to negombo

Hi,
I'm travelling next 29th May from Arugambay to Negombo, if someone want to share a private transport, please let me know!
And any idea how can I go from Ella to Arugambay?

Thanks a lot!

Long Weekend in Colombo?

I've got a long weekend (4-5 days) in December, and was thinking of going to see a new city/country for a few days.

Sri Lanka is only a 4.5 hour flight from where I live.

Would Colombo be a good option for this? Obviously not as good as spending 2 weeks seeing the whole country, but more interesting than spending the weekend at home.

Many thanks.