Devidyar Hotel Manali

... appear.

It was quite late at night, The Ladakh Festival is starting and His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama had just left town so there were many tourists around. We allowed a hotel tout to guide us to a budget guesthouse in Upper Karzoo which turned out to be a good deal. Sometimes the bus touts come in handy, they know where to find the rooms when nothing else is available.


We are safely up in the mountains and the Ladakh adventure begins.

... t fathom taking anything off. On day 3 our lovely companions had to go back to Mumbai and we left the following morning. Manali was nice, the mountains were lovely but I think I've spent enough time in the Himalayas and it's time to get down and dirty (literally) in the real India. p.s - After spending so much time with Kad, I picked up the famous Indian head bob/nod thingy. I do it naturally now and it's driving me mad!

... Despite having some of the best food we've ever had here in India, it was nice to get a change of flavours and something that reminds us of home. For Justin and I (Andrew) we are reaching our last few weeks here in India, and taking in as much as we can before we return to the West and our lives in the big city. Natalie is not quite halfway through her trip here in India and loving every minute of it, excited for the many new and interesting experiences that lay ahead ...

... on Thursday. Friday morning when we woke up from the little sleep that we could get on the extremely uncomfortable bus, we were driving through beautiful mountains. It was gorgeous, and I spent the whole morning drive, about 3 hours, with my head out the window, taking pictures and marveling at the extraordinary views. Before I left for India I didn't think that this would be a trip where I could experience beautiful wilderness, but so far the ...

... down south--the reason I haven't been posting too many here is that I have been here before, and when one is fully familiar with a place, the tendency is to be a bit lax in firing off evidence to the homefront. Heck, if you want Manali pics, go to the previous blog, and you'll find tons. We shall see what is out there again. Pray to Gonesh, the great elephant-headed deity, the remover of obstacles, that I may have smooth sailing. I'll check again when I reach Delhi.

... city has now become a valley of traffic mess. As it is usual with any city in India, roads here too were overcrowded by vehicles. It took us 1.5 hours to cross a stretch of 6 Kms! Manali was still 40 Kms away! Our final stretch was dotted with my wife perpetually smiling till will reached Manali. She consistently kept talking about Apple orchids, Beas river and mountain peaks with just a hint of snow. Finally i got a call from Sarthak that they have ...

... On the other hand, they are really nice and are always helpful ie giving us lifts everywhere, cooking special food for people who are ill or have allergies, making us chai and just generally they are good natured. On the Saturday we went to Dharamsala and from here we went up the mountains to Macleod Ganj. This place is absolutely brilliant. I loved it so much. It is really high up with amazing views, it was really sunny, much cleaner than Palampur, there are tonnes of ...

... per se, was pretty uneventful - everyone was real quiet..either lost in thought or sleeping it out. Surprisingly, we did cover a fair bit of ground, bad roads regardless, and reached the destination we had in mind for the overnight stop. Albeit, a few hours later than planned. We camped for the night at Sarchu. The camping site is nestled in a valley, surrounded on all sides by intimidating, mammoth mountains. The cold here was somehow worse than Pangong! To ...

... her here, and indeed in india. Last night, after 4 days she waved at me from the bus window, goodbye for now, and beginning her journey back to the tight-***** country of Germany. Perhaps we shall meet again, who knows? The world is both large and small, and life is long. One does tend to miss another a bit after sharing so much time and experience with each other, but when something ends, another thing begins. Farewell Linda, and Godspeed! Spent the evening ...

... Taiwan, Tibet, Israel, France, Spain, America, Canada, Australia, Germans (not as many as I expected), and Japanese. It was quite overwhelming when I first arrived. In the month and 1/2 that I have been in India, I haven't seen so many tourists. I am quite used to it now and kind of enjoy the mix of dreaded, out there, been too long in India, INdiaphiles (me?...nah...not yet anyway), Tibetans, very rich and very poor Indians, and don't know ...