In October 2003, I took the decision to go to India for a bit longer than 1 month, like I did last year, so here I am with a friend, the 15th, on a plane to Dehli. My apartment is sub-leased for at least 6 month, no worry.

My friend Olivier has to come back in mid-December for a new job, so I will travel with other paragliding pilots.

After a 70 hour travel with planes, automobiles and rickshaws, we finally arrive at destination: Bir, in the HP state, 50km from Dharamsala, a Tibetan refugee village. We rented a room in a Tibetan family for about 2 months while flying every day witch is flyable. The village is surrounded by 4 monasteries and a huge one in the forest nearby; Sherab Ling www.sherabling.org wonderful energies in this village that is...

After the first snow, on the 17th of November, we decided to leave for the south and Pune, Maharastra, a 60 hour travel, but much more comfortable in the train. Arrived at destination, I didn't take the decision but got as ill you can get in India, but only for 24hours sharp.

The next day, Olivier and me left Pune for Panchgani, a hill station 4 hours drive away, and met André and Megane, the owners of Eco-Camp, a camping site.... nice to do camping in India, but only for the dry season.
And from the 26th of November to the 27th of December, it was following days of soaring, thermalling and small cross-country flights for me, loads of Indian tourists stopping to take a look or to have a tandem flight. About 150 to 200 people some times were there, just to "look" at us (after all, we are white).

I passed the New Year with other pilots in Kamshet, at Melissa's place pgashram.com, a cute guest-house by a lake and 30 minutes drive from the town. Then again, soaring, thermalling and some cross-country with Melissa, she's a pilot too. One week, we took the jeep, two tents, 4 paragliders and went off the beaten tracks to find new sites to fly from. About 500km… by jeep and 3-4 flights (only) but total immersion in the country.

Then, when mid-January approached, I went with another Italian friend to Pune again to take the night bus for Goa... .aaaah Goa, heard lots of stories about this place but is it true??
After a week in a hotel, it was time to rent a house because to prices are twice the rest of India (tourism, tourism) and I met another Swiss paragliding pilot so we took a house for one month, but 3 weeks later, I was leaving again to avoid growing problems with my house-mate.
Nevertheless, I had excellent flights, a average of 3 hours per day, and techno nights, like every night in Anjuna during the tourist season. Only if you like!! Personally, it was quite hard to me to enjoy myself with all this tourists lost and wasted. Whatever, I was there to fly.

The 18th of February saw me coming back to Panchgani after a travel with the night bus and a postal jeep.
The conditions are stronger in Feb. Better take off before 11o'clock!!
Less than ten days later, on the 25th, I went with a couple of French pilots to Kamshet to join again with the strongest core of pilots in India. Good to see you all guys!!

On the 5th of March, we leave Kamshet for Mumbai by taxi and there, we take a 66 hour train to Chandigarh – by the way, the cleanest town I saw - and then a taxi for 6 hours till we join Bir again. And the next day, Nirvana opened to us, but we had to deserve it; the road was closed the last 4 kilometres so we had to walk up with our big heavy bags for about an hour to reach the take-off field. But after the effort, the bliss!!
The best conditions I ever had in spring; cloudbase never less than 3500m asl and sometimes more than 4500m, thermals everywhere, vultures to show you the way and people cheering and whistling. We were almost happy when a day was unflyable because it took lot of your energy to fly in these conditions.

The 17th of March was my last flying day, I landed badly and twisted my ankle. But in these magic places, I was still happy with what happened to me. Hard to explain, you have to come through to live it for yourself...

When the time to go is here, it is always hard to leave such a country, far far away from our standards but so much more alive. To stay the longer possible, I took the famous night bus from Baijnath to Dehli, 13 hours of jumping and swinging on the roads of Himachal. And after a morning rest and some tourism in Paharganj, I took the night plane back to Geneva, only 12 hours... hahaha nothing, not even hurt!!