Kashmir Valley to Kathmandu

You'll hear that the safety situation in the Vale is completely unpredictable but there are actually a few recurring events :

• confrontations on the year mark of the hanging of Afzal Guru in February , a five year long tradition now

• Srinagar is always in lock down mode on August 15th

• remains to be seen if the year mark of the killing of Burhan Wani in July also will become a focus for protests , like on the one year mark last year . Since no one including the government can tell , count on curfews that may extend over Kashmirs Martyrs Day .

Then you have the hard to predict things : before the months of curfews and clashes in 2016 there was the India-W Indes cricket match that caused a riot starting from the National Institute of Technology . First Kashmiri students celebrated that India lost , then out of state students tried raising the Indian flag and promptly got beaten up , next it spilled out on the streets and was quashed by a couple of hundred cops.

As a frequent guest to Ladakh I havent stopped going via Kashmir , but I wouldnt lock in to an air ticket to Srinagar. Everyone got full refunds in 2016 , but that was a first , didnt even happen in '06 or '10.

Keep track of the news , have a Plan B. Anything major will come up in the news sticky on my blog below.

Can one trek into Tibet from Srinagar.?

The border is effectively sealed since the war in '62. One part of Gandhis ashes found its way to Kailash ( you'll see a pic in The Way of The White Clouds ) but I dont know by which route. You can take the standard trip from Leh to Pangong Tso , which is cut by the border. The quickest way to the Chinese side of the lake a few klicks away goes via Delhi and Kathmandu....

To answer the original question - we need to know the time of year. You can only go via ladakh and manali, from april - october approx.

...You can only go via ladakh and manali, from april - october approx.

?????

Two roads :

• Srinagar-Leh , that over the last fifteen years has opened ( rarely ) in April to end-May. A few pics from a late run in early December here. Finally closed , unsurprisingly , three weeks later.

• Manali-Leh that never has opened in April. Mid-May still requires optimism -last year , after a winter that started dry , June 8th. Normally closes in November , but early snowfalls can take out the road for a few days even in September.

Lots of buzz for early openings this year . On the pro side the road to Zanskar has just opened , on the con side snowfall over the Rohtang and Keylong ( 15 cm ) a few days ago.

Updates on my blog below

Hi, Heading out on 16th April from Australia to Srinigar. Thanks.

Remember that in April it is extremely hot across the central north (ie 40+ degrees). It will be very pleasant in Srinagar and most of Himachal Pradesh. Perhaps you could slowly make your way from Srinagar, through Himachal Pradesh to Delhi and then fly from Delhi to Kathmandu. Perhaps include some of the state of Uttarakand also to fill out the time.

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