husain's VirtualTourist Home Page

2008 was a good year for travel. Managed trips across S E Asia while i was based in Singapore. To Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines... and later to Dubai and Bali.
Was in Dubai/Abu Dhabi in Nov '07 and S E Asia for a couple of weeks in May 07- Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
April 07: Visited Sri Lanka and the beautiful Maldives. The country experienced some serious flooding soon after we left. Its hard to imagine how they will cope with the effects of Global Warming over the years to come.
March 07: Another trip to the hills
2006: A trip to Afghanistan, my 3rd, a world bank project.
2005: Shot a tv show about the Indian Airforce. An incredible experience. Over a month of travel and flying in fancy airplanes and choppers. Flew to Siachen glacier base camp in a chopper, passing low over Khardungla (18,000 feet) and Nubra valley, in -20 cel temperature. The glacier is sometimes refered to as `the worlds highest battlefield'.

Made several trips on assignments to the southern states last summer.
Made a short trip to Singapore/ Kuala Lumpur in March and then to Bangladesh in April for a documentary shoot.
Filmed in Nagapattinam post the Tsunami. Its one of the places where the waves had maximum impact, and thousands were killed.

December '04: Was in Lahore, Pakistan, for a couple of weeks- covering the Champions trophy hockey tournament.
May/June 2004: Africa and Europe. Was away for about two months. Africa was work, Europe was vacation.

In Europe, i spent much of my time in England, but managed short trips to Scotland, Austria and Germany.
Met Richie, Mark and Hanna (richiedisc, acemj and tabatha) in Munich.

Nigeria was my last stop in Africa, and the ten days there were the toughest, as the cumulative exhaustion caught up there.

Also had an incredible trip to Rwanda. Heard some powerful stories there...
Was in Zanzibar, Pemba and Dar-es-salaam, and then back into Tanzania (to Kilimanjaro and Arusha) Kilimanjaro, as expected, was an incredible sight!
Zanzibar was interesting- a beautiful island, and a curious mix of the troipcal, Mediterranean/ European, African, Arab, and Indian.

Was on an interesting trip to Pakistan in March, we were shooting the SAF games.

Was shooting in Kashmir in march. This time with the Indian army, in the mountains on the Pakistan border. Was good to see the guns silent there for a change.

Also shot a dramatised feature on Mahatma Gandhi's famous Salt march. Details on my Gujarat page.

Sept '03.
Shoot some news features in Afghanistan, on my second trip there. Not quite so much `away' this time. I had a computer with a decent net connection in a room next to mine at the guest house.
Things appeared to have improved a little since my last trip, the signs of destruction and decay seemed to be slowly fading. At least in Kabul.

November '02.
Was in Holland and in Belgium for a short visit. Was shooting a small feature for KLM. Met Johnny_CA in Amsterdam.

October '02.
A trip to Japan. Met j-san in Kyoto and we travelled together to Suzuka to see the last formula1 grandprix of the season! Also visited Tokyo, and met Kat_on_moray

Two days in Bangkok on the way back.

August '02.
Was shooting in Afghanistan. The extent of damage and destruction on view on this, my first trip here was incredible. Even so, Kabul was better than what i was prepared for... the Afghan people are extremely friendly- especially to us Indians it seems.
Was in Kabul, and around, then we flew in to Kandahar to the US military base there.

May '01.
England, on a shoot...

August 2000
England, Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. On a holiday...

1999.
Nepal. On a shoot

Between 1984-88:
A few trips to Nepal with my family, and one to Pakistan, to visit my aunt.

Tall buildings, bright city lights, and crowds that remind me of home in some strange way... that was Tokyo for me.
Japan is a trip thats hard to beat as an experience.
While i was there, i managed to catch some Formula1 action at Suzuka too, and even though that was Michael Schumacher and ferarri's most dominant year, i was lucky to see my favourite team and driver manage a 1-2 finish and sign off in style for the season!

Temples temples and more temples...
The man in the picture kind of hints at the pace of this traditional former capital city of Japan:)
Kyoto is a must see!

A trip to Afghanistan is always an incredible experience.
Sad stories, of hope and of despair. The people are incredible. Very warm and hospitable, inspite of the odds that they have to face every day...
I have made three trips to Afghanistan, each of them has been pretty amazing. On my first trip, back in 2002, we spent much of our time filming in Kabul, Kandahar and also visited Istalif.

At the American military base in Kandahar for a few days, i was shoting a story about US army chaplains located there.... It was an interesting experience to live with the American/ Romanian and Jordanian troops and get some interesting and varied perspectives.

Incredible mountains, lakes and rivers... a land for adventure sports and with Buddhist monastries scattered across the dramatic landscape, Ladakh is sometimes refered to as `Little Tibet', since this part of India shares a lot of its culture with Tibet. The highest motorable road in the world, at a little under 19,000 feet, is in Ladakh... and much of this region is at an altitude of over 12,000 feet. Yet you can fly into the provincial capital- Leh on a commecrial flight.
A `getaway' in the true sense. Had been on my list of `must visit' places for too long, and if you are someone like me who loves the mountains, this place is hard to top!

Over a month of travelling to various air bases with the Indian Airforce, for a show produced by the National Geographic Channel- `Mission Udaan'... This experience sure will be hard to beat! It was my chance to come close to realising a childhood dream of being a fighter pilot, and also get to see up close and personal, how this amazing fighting force functions...

On my second trip to Ladakh This time while i was shooting a show for the National Geographic Channel- `Mission Udaan'. It involved having us travel all over the country to various bases of the Indian Airforce, including Leh, Thoise and the Siachen glacier base camp in the Himalayas. A place that is known as `the highest battleground in the world'.