Hotel Kashyap Manali

... also listened to a guy play a wonderful sitar solo for about an hour.



Now moving on to the Ladakh roadtrip.

The night was pitch black and a vicious street dog fight had just finished when a car arrived to pick us up from the deserted main street of Vashisht and take us to our 2am private bus that would spend the next 20 hours crawling it's way to Leh in the Indian Himalayans 479km away. Ladakh translates into English as "The Land Of High Passes ...

... each and a few spare spinners, and headed upstream alongside a fast flowing river that spewed from the mountains. There were points where the river appeared tame, almost enticing, a dreamy clear blue that begged to be swum in. In reality, as we were to find out when we had no option but to cross at shallow points, the river was fed by melting snow further upstream and had a heart-stopping, alien coldness to it, a mere thirty seconds submerged turned ...

... I've had nothing but bottled water and a few crackers in the last two days) come down with a fun little disease that presents by making me feel like I am absolutely ready to do anything and then, the second I slip on my flip-flops and take the handle of the door, crippling me with what feels like nothing so much as a wrench being turned in my intestines. But I have made it to Dharamsala safe and sound, or at least marginally sound, and from all early ...

... rain (it usually passes within 10 minutes) and walked up the road to Manali. We stopped at the wine shop again (this time kiwi wine) and headed towards the Mexican food restaurant. On the way we stopped at the tourist guy to book our bus tickets back home for the next day. For some reason bus tickets back to Manali were cheaper (400 Rs), some people had told us to expect this ahead of time so we weren't surprised. As we were buying the tickets our ...

... I peered down at the river from both VERY high and low feeling a little more aware of my own mortality than the previous four weeks in Shimla. Always a good thing. Special mention must go to a troop of monkeys I saw playing in the water. They were going for it, throwing themselves in with vigour. I spied them from a distance but even from so far away I was amazed by the distance they were able to project themselves into the water. I guess they're usually aiming for the ...

... ticket (and there must have been 30 of them) took another hour or so, and in the meantime every time the bus lurched forward I had to wave to my friends, thinking we were leaving. Finally had to give up on that after sixty times or so. I'd send them the V for victory sign when we finally got out of sight, after that purpose. At long last, we pulled out on the road, but then it was full on rush hour going out of Delhi. By about 9 o'clock (we left the travel office at 4), we were past ...

... but bike-able 80% is "OK", and that's being generous. The road is paved, but this should not in any way be confused with "smooth". They have phenomenally elastic pavement here, so very few potholes, but the pavement is rippled like a bay with a good breeze. We almost never exceeded a measly 30 kph, even on a good downhill for fear of rider and/or bags departing the bicycle The remaining 5%, is excellent - brand new pavement which hasn't had time to ripple yet. And I ...

... to be). at this time they held the closing ceremony where they put the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy book) 'to bed'. This involves bringing a very heavy-looking golden carriage to the temple, wrapping up the book and swaying the air around it with pampus grass to keep it clean. its then carried away in a huge crowd. This happens every morning and every night. Later that day we went to see the border ceremony at the Pakistan-India border. Again, this ritual ...

Friday 14th July '06 (Diary) '...Ok, wake up call from the hotel even through I had set my alarm, packed and left around 5.45am - bit of a rush for the 6.05am train! Stormed through the station and along the bridge connecting the various platforms to platform ten. Was a tad concerned after the Mumbai train blasts - especially now during commuter time! Train was waiting and I stumbled along the platform eventually finding my carriage - it's always reassuring to look on ...

... flags were strung up along the entire journey between McLeod Ganj and Manali. The tibetan rural slums we passed are imbued with a sort of cheerfulness by the butterfly prayer scarves flittering above their abject poverty and loss. The houses are mostly made of corrogated metal and wood, and most had large stones sat on top to hold the roof on. I thought that would make a nice title for a novel on the Tibetan plight -- Stones to Hold the Roof on -- (yknow, a clever metaphor ...