Hotel New Adarsh Manali

... the spiritual healer was convinced that the river was flowing in reverse and tried to inform all the passengers on the bus about it. It was actually flowing downhill and i think the guy had eaten too much LSD back in the day when he was following The Grateful Dead around. The scenery was quite spectacular and it was good to get away from the heat and up into the fresh mountain air of the Kullu Valley in central Himachal Pradesh state.

On arrival we ...

... ne doit pas depasser 40m de long et au moins l'equivalent d'une piste bleu. Et alors quaund il s'est mit a tomber 3ou 4 flaucons.. tout le monde s'arrete de couduire pour sortir de sa voiture est prendre des photos de famille pour imortaliser ce beau spectacle.

nous arrivons tout de meme a Manali a l'heure prevu. Nous decouvrons une charmant ville de montagne. la ressemblance au paysage Alpin est assez frappant... il n'y a pas des chalets Suisses non ...

... We even have a western toilet, hot water from a real shower and a mirror! I think I've looked in a mirror maybe 6 times in the past couple weeks because there are none at the ashram. Oh, the small luxuries of life!

There's also no mosquito's here, just moths and many more monkeys than in Rishikesh. The owner of the guest house (named Tashi) says they are quite mischievous and I should watch my stuff because they've been known to steal and ...

... to take pictures with us and we very interested in what we were doing. It was kind of flattering, but then annoying when we couldn't get them to go away. We then took the jeep back and had him drop us on in New Manali to check out the shops there. First we had a quick bite to eat, then we all walked around, the boys went to a nature park while the girls shopped. Then it started to rain and we all met up to head back to Old Manali. We waited out ...

... which was above a HydroElectricity generator. I've seen one before in NZ but never one this size, this thing was HUGE. As the river got broader the mountain streams feeding in graduated also and I was stunned to feel dwarfed by the size of the rocks which had appeared at intersections of the river, some of them were three stories high and seemed to have been washed down the mountsain! As the bus careered around bends at break neck speed making full use of its ...

... the same road goes to ladakh... 400 kms. more.several treks also begin from here a month later..all ice melts and the mountains are covered with flowers. any way after we reached we had to extract few more thusands ..for those picturesque ride to see the faroff chandrataal and vashshtha peak .the peak was covered with ice and there were ice scooters imported from newzealand giving us 20 ...

... monasteries on the way which were reputedly worthy of it. The second day saw us retrace our tyre-tracks for a while, and then hop over yet another pass to rejoin the main Leh to Manali highway just south of the pass which makes it the second highest motorable road in the world, before heading south to spend the second night in the 'super deluxe' tents of Sarchu - the usual over-night stop for those completing the trip in two days. The third day was as per the standard version of the ...

... Not much to say about this as I was so unbelievably cold I couldn't take much in. Apparently in the summer it is nice. I bought 3 pairs of woolly socks, 1 woolly hat and 2 woolly blankets. The highlight of Manali was definitely the food - we had trout western style and beans on toast! I know this is hard to appreciate for you england dwellers but believe me, it was a real treat after constant bloated stomachs and burning spicey mouths!

... lands. In this section of Dharamshala there seems to be about an equal split of Indians and Tibetans among the permanent residents. Buddhist monks play snooker and pool in the pool halls, carry cell phones, and wear shoes. There is some discussion as to whether the monks are getting lured in by the call of western materialism, and there is truth in that, though renunciation has never been my bag, the students of the Buddha are ...

... for our seats, the good news was that then i knew we would not miss our stop. after a few hours into the journey, you stop at a little place for some food, there was some special hand shakes going on between the driver and the owner. all in all. you feel over whelmed at times, giggling at others, and huddling in the corner by the end. when told by the whole bus, that we were in manali (4am), we jumped on the roof, and chucked the bags off, and then ...