Banjara Camp (Sangla) Himachal Pradesh

After arriving on Friday October 2 I proceeded to run myself into the ground, meeting mum's friends, attending teachings, and generally running around finding out what the place was all about. Finally my body decided that it had had enough and it forced me to stay in bed for almost a week with belly issues that made it hard for me to be away from the bathroom for more than a couple of hours. As frustrating as it was to be chained to the bed/bathroom I ...

... stayed at an amazing guesthouse surrounded with beautiful red and green apple trees. Was nice to have good company, play chess with Alon and take short walks in the rain in the beautiful village. When the rain stopped we stayed an extra day and hiked up a mountain. I came to the conclusion that trekking is not always that great. It was 3 hours of steep climbing and 1 hour of steep descending.

... probably like most motorcyclists) how alive you feel just riding, good roads or bad, fast, slow, and regardless of the weather, its just great to be riding through this incredible country.

Well I shouldn't have expected the good times to last, I made 2 big mistakes, first I missed a turn off and like 2 others went down the wrong road for about 60 km, (the road I was on actually went to China), Aargh. Were still not ...

... there and in the surrounding village with greenhouses.

Fortunately I got chatting to one of the hotel's employees who took me up the very steep valley ,past cannibis plants growing as abundantly as stinging nettles, and to a small community who made their living through the cultivation of Kinnaur apples and subsistence arable agriculture using terraced hillside fields.

Reckong Peo, Himāchal Pradesh, India harryvs

... metre away from our vehicle. Within half an hour the barriers ran out and there was nothing to stop us falling to our deaths. Strangely the rest of the bus were not at all bothered by the dangerous driving. After another few hours the road narrowed even further and the concrete ran out, meaning that there we spent hours in clouds of dust. This wasn't helped by the heavy traffic coming the other way that nearly ...

... ones than I had seen before. He drove slowly (shanti, shanti) and while Barbara and him chatted (I sat last) I just looked around and marveled at the beauty surrounding me. The roads are so narrow with steep cliffs, you could see tiny villages or lone houses dotting the mountains, different fruit orchards that criss- crossed each other, I waved at all the locals and got a smile and wave back....sigh. Suddenly he stops and tells us to get off, there's police up ...

... I'm pretty sure someone forced him up here.

The others were cool, the conversation dragged a bit but we managed alright.

Right after class we went to Djoma's house for a home cooked Tibetan meal.

We watched her cook and we all sang some songs from our home countries. I'm reading that last line and it sounds kinda lame but it was actually really nice! Djoma sang some traditional songs and her national anthem, so we all sang ...

... smashed of the lock of the wagon I knew my bike was in, unfortunately it was now burred under hundreds of boxes, I tried to move them but they were very heavy and wet, the aroma soon gave away there contents, they were boxes of fish. Using a piece of wood as a lever I managed to pull some off and then the driver saw that he wasn't going anywhere until I got my bike and asked (finally) some people to help me, it was crazy the stuff coming off ...

The Spiti Valley is not India. It's Tibet without the Chinese. Once part of the Tibetan kingdom but now arbitrarily part of India, thukpa and momos replace chapati and dal as Indian influence almost disappears, with the exception of the occasional cricket oval, somewhat incongruous with the barren landscapes, and the bureaucratic runaround involved with obtaining the 'inner line' permit, necessary for travel close to the Tibetan border; a process that should have taken five minutes but ...

... Our room was simple, had four beds room for little else and a simple and not so clean bathroom. But it was cozy and warm and rain proof, so we were happy. It rained for the rest of the day so we just read, unpacked, and played cards until dinner and then called it an early night. The next day we had a traditional Indian breakfast of Chapati, a spicy pancake made of potatoes and onions, again served with the Indian ketchup. We started on the trail around 7:30 AM and began ...