In March 2025, the travel route we had in mind was: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal. And after that destination unknown. We organized everything. The Carnet de Passage (special customs document for our car which is necessary to enter certain countries with an own car) and the visa. We tried to get a visa for India in Kyrgyzstan, but it was not possible. The only options left were: going to Germany and applying there in an Indian embassy or applying for an evisa online and flying to India to get the visa stamped in our passports.

Because getting the evisa stamped in our passports was not possible on the land borders and Rosinante was not used to flying, we decided to take the cheapest flight to Delhi and back to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Our ecological hearts were bleeding but we did not see another option. Later we found out , that it’s most likely possible to get an Indian visa in Tajikistan… No matter what, we made the best out of it and took a flight in the morning/ night of my birthday from Almaty to Delhi. We were tired and so we took a taxi to a park that looked nice on Google Maps. The rollercoaster/ taxi ride was a good introduction to the traffic in Delhi. WTF. We had a lot of experience with traffic in a lot of different countries and I’d say we are pretty fast and active drivers who make use of mostly everything that’s allowed or tolerated in the traffic. But this was different, special, fast and tight. Often only a few centimeters were left between the cars, trucks, busses, tuktuks, people, cows, walls etc.

The park was a good place to ease our tired minds. There, a lot of people did yoga, meditated and practiced breathing techniques. To me it felt nice that these practices were so much a part of the daily life of the Indians.

After breakfast, we did some sight seeing and I absolutely liked the style of the historical buildings.

The next method of transportation, we tried, was a tuk tuk. We got an electric one and had the most relaxed driver. After the taxi ride, that experience was very different. Less pushing. But of course vehicles, animals and humans were everywhere.

We got pretty tired and took a nap on a meadow near one of the historical buildings.

Everybody was super friendly and lovely. Several Indian groups wanted to take a selfie with us which we always find funny.

A nice home for one of the stray dogs.

One of the many tourist bazaars.

An ordinary shopping area in the old town.

Infinite small shops.

We liked the monkeys and the cows a lot.

Packed, tight corridors.

And sideways.

We decided to take a rigsha. Before we started, we showed the driver where we wanted to go because we were wondering if it wouldn’t be too far. About seven kilometers. He was fine with that.

In the car free area of old town, he pushed our rigsha through the tiniest free spots. After some kilometers he got exhausted and driving on the bigger streets of Delhi, with big trucks and busses, felt more and more adventurous. Sometimes he spoke to other locals, told them where he was going and they showed him pretty much respect for his mission. We asked if we should switch to a taxi, but he wanted to get going. In the end, we made it, our driver was happy and I felt that he was kind of proud.

In a small Buddhist temple, I did a meditation and Racki relaxed a bit. After that we had dinner and took the metro to the airport.

Goodbye Delhi after 15 hours to get our visa stamped in our passports. It was a crazy short visit, but an interesting one as well.

Back in the airport of Almaty, Racki got a super discount on Baileys (her favorite drink). A successful end of our trip.

After the visa days disaster in Kyrgyzstan, we checked again how the visa days in Kazakhstan were calculated. And it was the same as in Kyrgyzstan. The amount of days was different, which we of course already knew, but the calculation of the periods was the same. On one website of government there was the exact and right description: “in every period of 180 days you are allowed to stay 90 days”. The most important seems to be the “every” which describes what in German is called a “rolierend” way to calculate the visa days. We applied for a mountain tourism visa in Kyrgyzstan and luckily we got it. Without it, it would have become pretty expensive and complicated to stay in central Asia for the winter for us.

Back in Kyrgyzstan, we did our first ski/ snowboard tours. Racki had a split board and I went up with snowshoes and my snowboard on my back.

We had good fun and the scenery was super beautiful.

On the hunt for more snow we went up to the highest mountain areas of Kyrgyzstan south west of Bishkek on 2200 to 3200 meters. We got stuck in the snow while looking for a nice camp spot near snow covered hills that would allow ski touring.

We found a camp spot but did not check the weather forecast until it was dark only to find out that the forecast was -25 degrees Celsius. With what we had learned the last time, it went all pretty good. We did a nice ski tour but the snow was barely deep enough.

After the ski tour, we drove down a bit to have a warmer camp spot while new snow was about to come. After a few days we went up again and found a lot of snow.

We did another ski tour and this one was very exhausting because the snow was so light that I sunk in it even with my snowshoes. Sometimes waist deep.

But still it was a nice tour with the most snow we’ve had so far.

The main road was in very good condition. Even now in winter.

After the ski touring we went further south west to the Toktogul Reservoir. We had been there before in summer and it was very beautiful in winter as well. We took one of my favorite photos of all time at our beautiful camp spot.

And did some laundry and cleaning of Rosinante’s interior and tent fabric.

We went further south in the region west of Osh because the snow was still barely enough for ski touring and we preferred warmer conditions when ski touring would not be possible. Racki found nice hiking tours. On one we encountered this cute bridge.

Racki’s Slide broke on one of the slopes.

And we found more nice views.

This is the way most locals deal with the snow and wet. They have inner and outer shoes which can be easily separated.

This stuff, which friends gifted us in Almaty, helped a lot curing my throat pain.

We built a nice little website, one which Racki is offering talks and messaging with people who are feeling lonely: https://nicht-alleine.org

And of course we were playing our favorite board games. This round of Spirit Island was crazy but still we won!

We went again up a bit further. When preparing for ski touring with all the equipment it was pretty packed in Rosinante.

Here we had a ski in and ski out. It was a funny tour and we did snowboard down narrow hiking paths.

Our next camp spot already felt like spring.

Slipky (our water kefir) and our plant (called sibling) enjoyed the sun and warmth as much as we did.

And the snow seemed to already be vanishing.