21 experiences
Food in the Himalaya
Momos, wazwan, thukpa and tea
Kitchens, markets and tea gardens: the cheapest and best way to understand a valley.
Photo: Ashfaq ahanger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Saffron harvest at dawn on the karewas
For about three weeks each autumn, Pampore's karewas turn purple with saffron crocus. Families pick the flowers at dawn…
Photo: FADIND SOUL · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
How to buy genuine Kashmir saffron in Pampore
Pampore is the best place to buy Kashmir saffron, but fakes and blends are common across India. Knowing the grades, the…
Photo: Suhail Skindar Sofi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Dawn shikara to Dal's vegetable market
Before sunrise, farmers from Dal's floating gardens paddle their produce to a gathering point near Rainawari and trade …
Photo: Suryadasika · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Apricot orchards and a Balti home kitchen
Turtuk is known for its apricots. In summer, walk the orchards, watch fruit drying on rooftops and sit down to a home-c…
Photo: UnpetitproleX · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Apple harvest in a Kinnauri orchard home
Spend a morning with a Kinnauri orchard family at harvest time: picking, sorting and packing apples, then a lunch of lo…
Photo: Gerd Eichmann · CC BY 4.0 · Commons
Dal and rice at a Batal dhaba
Eat with drivers, bikers and trekkers at Batal, the tiny stop where the Chandratal road leaves the highway. Hot dal, ri…
Photo: Kirechko · Public domain · Commons
Spitian kitchen supper with sea buckthorn
Eat what Spitian families eat: thukpa, tsampa, barley bread, peas from the fields and sea buckthorn juice. Best done in…
Photo: Ikneet · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Lal Bazaar food walk: bal mithai and singori
Walk Almora's stone-paved Lal Bazaar from end to end, tasting bal mithai, singori in its leaf cone and Kumaoni snacks, …
Photo: sushanta mohanta sin… · CC BY 3.0 · Commons
A walk through the Kausani tea estate
Walk the tea rows on the slopes below Kausani, see how leaf is picked and processed when the factory is working, and bu…
Photo: Goutam1962 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Juju dhau tasting and Pottery Square
Watch Bhaktapur's potters at work, try the wheel, then taste the city's famous juju dhau curd set in the same clay bowl…
Photo: SPakhrin · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Dinner and a night in a Gurung homestay
Stay with a Gurung family in Ghandruk's homestay programme, eat dal bhat with seasonal vegetables and pickles cooked on…
Photo: Sundar1 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Marpha apple orchards and brandy tasting
Walk through Marpha's orchards, learn how the Thakali village turned from the salt trade to apples, then taste dried ap…
Photo: Matt Stabile · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Happy Valley tea garden walk and tasting
Walk down to Happy Valley Tea Estate, 3 km from Chowrasta, the closest garden to Darjeeling town. Founded in 1854, it i…
Photo: Shubh.ch1994 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Tea garden and orange orchard drive
A half-day drive through the tea estates around Mirik, including Thurbo, Soureni and the high Gopaldhara garden, with s…
Photo: Krish Dulal · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Cook and eat in a Rishyap homestay kitchen
Spend an evening by the wood stove with your host family, help prepare a hill meal of rice, dal, seasonal greens, gundr…
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
An evening on MG Marg and in Lal Bazaar
Walk Gangtok's car-free main street at dusk, then take the stairways down to Lal Bazaar for chhurpi, fermented greens a…
Photo: Subhrajyoti07 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
A morning in Temi tea garden
Drive about 20 km from Ravangla to Temi, Sikkim's only tea estate, set up by the state government in 1969. Walk among t…
Photo: Bhutanese_hemadatsi_and_rice.JPG: ShashiBellam… · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Make hoentoe in a Haa farmhouse
Spend an evening in a Haa farmhouse kitchen learning to fold hoentoe, buckwheat dumplings stuffed with turnip leaves, c…
Photo: muddum27 · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Archery match and the weekend market
Spend a weekend morning the Thimphu way: chillies, cheese and red rice at the Centenary Farmers Market, then an archery…
Photo: Quentin Talon & Mario Geiger · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
A Memba kitchen evening by the fire
Spend an evening around the hearth in a Memba homestay: butter tea, rice and local greens, perhaps yak or pork, home-br…
Photo: Thinksaurabh · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
An Apatani kitchen: pike pila and rice beer
Cook and eat with an Apatani family around the hearth: smoked pork, bamboo shoot, sticky rice, pike pila pickle and hom…
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