Nina Karnikowski, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

This isolated valley is in danger of being loved to death

3 weeks ago | watoday.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

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This isolated valley is in danger of being loved to death

3 weeks ago | smh.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. I’m sipping coffee on the cobbled patio of our villa at Dolkhar Ladakh, watching bumblebees buzz around sunflowers beneath the towering Himalayas, when an apricot drops at my feet. I feel as though I’m in the garden of Eden. Perhaps I am.
Overtourism: best way to avoid contributing to it? Find a creative hobby

1 month ago | smh.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

Travel Writer March 6, 2025 — 11.50am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. It all begins with a pair of socks. Walking down a back alley in Leh, the historic capital of the Ladakh region in the Indian Himalayas, I spot a pair of handmade sheep’s wool socks. I knead my fingers into the lumpy wool, inhale their barnyard smell, decide they must be mine.
I met my hero and was lost for words. It was perfect

2 months ago | smh.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

Travel Writer February 8, 2025 — 5.00am February 8, 2025 — 5.00am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. During a recent trip to the Indian Himalayas, my husband and I found ourselves in McLeod Ganj, home to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile. They say never meet your heroes, but when we were unexpectedly given the chance to meet His Holiness, we were willing to take the risk.
What’s it like to stay at the seasonal luxury tented Sangwa Camp at the remote and scenic Haa Valley in Bhutan

2 months ago | afr.com | Nina Karnikowski

Feb 7, 2025 – 5.00am or Subscribe to save articleEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? I’m standing in a field high in the little-visited Haa Valley in western Bhutan flicking milky water in the four cardinal directions with a sprig of juniper. The Bhutanese man next to me, dressed in a traditional black knee-length gho robe, tells me this ritual is known as lhab sang.
In the age of Instagram and Airbnb, we’ve lost the joy of ramshackle stays

Dec 31, 2024 | watoday.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

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In the age of Instagram and Airbnb, we’ve lost the joy of ramshackle stays

Dec 31, 2024 | smh.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. A painting of a naked woman sits next to a photo of a man flipping the bird, on a ledge above the outdoor composting toilet. Our room, which isn’t exactly a room, but a deck covered with all the things you’d ever find in a room – double bed, couch, dining table, bathtub – is littered with paintings and drawings, sculptures and art books, paints and brushes, antiques and curios.
A new, youthful spirit is putting this city back on travellers’ radars

Dec 25, 2024 | smh.com.au | Nina Karnikowski

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. A three-piece jazz band plays on the fringes of the buzzing farmers’ market, as shoppers peruse dozens of stalls offering handmade cheeses and organic vegetables, artisan teas and fresh pastries, craft beers and kombucha. It’s a scene that could easily have been plucked from the Northern Rivers of NSW.
The Happy House in the Nepalese village of Phaplu is showcasing handwoven Tibetan carpets from Beyul Carpets

Oct 29, 2024 | afr.com | Nina Karnikowski

Life & LuxuryTravelBuy the stunning hand-woven rugs of Phaplu that grace the floors of Happy House, or wander down the road to watch the ateliers at work. Beyul Carpets’ Druk ‘Dragon’ carpet in 80 knots of Tibetan wool. In Tibet, dragons are believed to be the symbol of enlightenment and the power of perfect communication, echoing through the Himalayan mountains.
A new Leh-Zanskar highway will open up access to Ladakh’s Zanskar Valley in India

Oct 27, 2024 | afr.com | Nina Karnikowski

Oct 28, 2024 – 5.00am or Subscribe to save articleEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? The late afternoon sun is setting the fields of Yougar village ablaze as my husband and I wash the day’s grime from our faces in a glacial stream.