Hotel Glacier Resort Manali

I was very surprised to find out that it's not that cold in the room, probably the nursery effect of the building does it's job. As a matter of fact it's not only these pseudo-windows, the whole building is very old and made of mud and wooden sawdust - this is probably why is it so warm, relatively to the concrete houses. 
I got up and went out to take some sunrise pictures. The praying hall here has lots of windows and it's possible to watch from ...

... oncoming trucks, petrol tankers, military convoys and other buses on the single lane road, dodged ridiculous cliff drop-offs (sometimes of hundreds or thousands of metres) where the ground threatened to landslide at any moment (it was best not to look down) and took diversions and short cuts when he thought it was safe to do so. The drive took us across the More Plains which is an uninhabitable area featuring some stunning sand and rock natural formations and ...

... the day, 1 broken headlight &amp; 1 bent foot peg.<br><br>I cant stop admiring my trusty steed, it runs like a sure footed mountain goat over any and all terrains that I put in front of it This country is so beautiful that there is great photo opportunity round every corner, the only problem is I must have turned 2000 corners today.<br><br>The riding has been extremely demanding an much tougher than I expected, but an experience that I will never forget.<br><br><br>

The following day I found the guesthouse owner who gave me the tip about Tosh. I shouted down to him from my balcony (like a full on Israeli) a quick thanks for the tip and told him I'm heading to Manali. As I was going back to my room a young Indian couple stopped me and asked if we wanted to share a taxi there. Seeing as my back was still broken from the gov bus ride and the ****** mattress at our guesthouse, I jumped ...

... but who really knows? I already had a train ticket booked for Varanasi, so I went and was sick in a hotel room the whole time. It was nice though. Better temperature then Delhi, more comfortable bed, and good friends with me. It was as good as anything I could have done that weekend. I was sick for the next week and didn't do anything that weekend. I was really miserable for a while. As more time passed, and as I wrote about Gamps, thought ...

... journeyed on a 12 hour busride that turned into 16 hours, as we got in an accident (of course). I knew something bad was going to happen, I just had a feeling. Indian drivers are crazy in general, however our driver was even more erratic than usual, and halfway through our journey our bus ended up crossing the median and landing in oncoming traffic. The details I am not sure of, whether we hit someone or were ...

Finally all sorted out here in Manali, and hitting the road in the morning early to make as much distance as I can from here in one day. It is possible to get to Delhi in one day, but not too likely, as it is 500 kilometers away and that, by indian road standards is quite a lot. Probably I will stop in the small town of Ambala, on the edge of Punjab and visit some people I met last time, and getting a good rest after about 300k. There is a good and clean hotel I ...

Twelve days. Twelve whole days. That's the length of time for which I ended up staying in Leh. I'm pretty sure I haven't stayed anywhere else for quite that long at one go. Not even Kathmandu. And it would have been thirteen days, were it not for a strong lobby from the one-man French contingent in the multinational assembly of Leh-escapees to leave a day earlier than the vague consensus of the rest of the group was leaning towards. We opted to take the scenic route from Leh to Manali ...

... had been invited by the Tibetan Government in Exile to lead this workshop!!! They want to learn how to ensure that their departments are gender sensitive and inclusive. SO EXCITING! The workshop today was phenomenal. Martha and Tulika were on fire in that room and the energy they stirred up was incredible. It was eye-opening. These two strong and confident women say that in EVERY workshop, many of the men in the room (no matter their class ...

... seen elsewhere even though this is a favourite spot for Indian tourists. We had quite a good lunch with REAL COFFEE for about $3 for both of us including the tip. One other thing that we have noticed here is that no one hassles us. Locals are willing to provide information without wanting a tip, and if we say we are not interested in something the response is "OK, thank you sir". We suspect that this reflects both the prosperity of the area and ...