Coming soon...Asian trip Itinerary

The plan is to begin with er pukka-style in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir. Why? Well, I spent 2 years there in the mid 1990's and seem to have developed an unfathomable desire to see how much this charmless city, built from British Asian wealth (that I cruelly detested at the time and was really miserable in; as if in purgatory) has changed with the tide of time. It's not a huge city by any means and I'm looking forward to exploring the chowks. A couple of days should do it. I actually went to a school here for about a year 'Chinnar Public School' where I learnt the importance of 'rote' learning, severe discipline, the ignorance of the science teachers and was introduced to the ignoble pleasures of 'Urdu for 4 year olds'. From there I'll be heading into deepest Himalaya; with base camp being in 'Gilgit', where I plan to acquire lodgings with a 'desi' (local) family and their litter of animals, root vegetables and wobbly-toothed grand Daddies. Again, family life affords you a more rewarding experience and a chance to get to know people more intimately. Gilgit will be a good base from which to make forays into the Himalayan heartlands. Later there's the Karakoram Highway into China to look forward to and then farther on, Mongolia, Tibet et al. But more on that later.