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MEETING YANGLA

 

 

Yangla Tours is a one-woman company, namely mine. My name is Nana Ziesche, I was born in 1963, I’m from Hamburg and I moved to Upper Bavaria because of the mountains. Of course, I don’t really work alone, but together with all my agency partners. We have a clear distribution of tasks.

 

My Part is:

  • Acceptance of enquiries and advice
  • Designing of itineraries
  • Invoicing and taking responsibility
  • Explorer Trips

The local agencies are responsible for:

  • Calculation and provision of tour services
  • organising the tour itinerary
  • Negotiating best conditions and very good people
  • Execution of the tour

I have been working with some of my agency colleagues in India for over 20 years. We always have a friendly working relationship – something I value immensely in this field. And we all have one priority: happy travellers make us happy! That is our greatest motivation and the motor that keeps us tirelessly moving.

Moments of traveling

 

To help you get to know me a little better, here are a few personal happy travel moments.

 

 

Mountains make me happy. So does morning coffee. And this moment was a very happy one: crawling out of the tent early in the morning and shivering up a path in the dark with a trekking buddy and a cheerful guide. It gets light – and then there is this mighty mountain backdrop of Kanchendzonga and the surrounding giants. Marveling and at some point going back. And then a little man comes rushing up with a kettle full of coffee. Wow, are there better daytime starts?

 

 

It’s Holi, the colourful spring festival in India. I am with the family in Bikaner with whom I have spent a lot of time for the last two years. We throw coloured powder at each other. We splash water on each other. We drive with the car with plastic on the seats to other family members. Music blares from the speakers. They dance. I am shy. Come! Come! She smiles at me. She takes me by the hand. I start to move my body. I forget my inhibitions. I am happy.

 

 

The women’s travel group I lead is small. And particularly fine. Together with our local guide Dolma and our driver Nurphel we travel through Ladakh. And on this trip it is a real “together” – never before has a group been so harmonious with our accompagniers, never before has a group been so much more interested in the people than the sights, never before has a group been able to embrace travel changes so casually and welcome the new opportunities with extended arms, never before have I been able to laugh so much with a group. Not that all elements of this did not/do not occur in my other tour groups – but this was the pinnacle of tour guide bliss with me so far.

 

 

A very typical image of me: I write something down. I check out just about everything I come across on my exploratory trips to see to what extent I can include it in my travel work. Whether it’s heights of passes, walking times, village temples, newly discovered features, accommodations, people encounters, By now I can boast of knowing so many areas as well as hardly anyone else in the Western countries. This is of great benefit to my travellers – not only do the tour plans I create for you include special features that are rarely offered elsewhere, but you can also rely very much on what I say. It is not the worst thing to have experienced everything as an older, small, moderately athletic, slightly chubby woman: if I can do something, you can do it too!

Thia India Story

 

I travelled to India for the first time in 1992. I really wanted to see the Indian Himalayas and got to know large parts of Himachal Pradesh. In 1993, I travelled to India again and got to the top, to Ladakh. I was hooked. I fell in love with the area and travelled there again and again. In 1997 I had my first tour leading with a women’s tour (and we ran the absolute first all-female trek – participants, guide, cook, helper, horse women, everyone was female. Only some of the luggage animals were not ;-)). In 2000 I jumped into self-employment and founded the travel agency Ladakh Travel, which I renamed Yangla Tours in 2014.

 

I am in India every year (except during Corona), often for several months, leading tour groups, exploring new areas and offers, making and maintaining contacts and always getting to know a bit more of the vast India.

 

I have always been a rather slow traveller myself, preferring to get to know areas more intensively than to touch on many things superficially. Walking in landscapes and through cities results in many more exciting encounters and surprises. I also love the encounters with the local people – no matter whether we discuss things in English or talk nonsense to each other without words. Of course, my own preferences have a strong influence on what we offer. On the other hand, I have a diploma in education, which means that I try to find a tour/form of travel that suits all travellers best. After all, all people are a bit individual.

And why is the company named Yangla Tours?

I’ll tell you a nice story about that. There is a little girl in Ladakh… Click here

 

Yangla is not only a Tibetan girl’s name but also means “light”, “candle”. We think you can always use a light when travelling!

The new countries

 

Some time ago, so many travellers to Ladakh told me before the trip that they had been to Nepal already. They assumed that I would know what their experiences were. But that wasn’t the case, I had no idea what it was like to travel in Nepal. So I took the opportunity in 2010 to go there. And was actually surprised many times, travelling in Nepal is quite different. Since satisfied travellers of mine also wanted to travel to Nepal through me and I had met a trustworthy local colleague – I expanded my travel destinations.

 

During Corona, India was complicated and I remembered that the world is a big place and that other destinations have great mountains and interesting cultures. And so I travelled to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and later Georgia. On the spot, my tourism vein came through. Thoughts kept running through my head about how I could integrate my own experiences into great tour plans for guests. I obviously have a tourism gene in me and can’t help it. And since I also met partner agencies in these areas, there are further extensions of travel destinations!