Manali Heights

... day - reading a little, playing with the laptop, etc. &#8232;At some point I met a group of two Israelis and one Saudi Arabian who just returned from a trek in Parvati valley - they have hired a guide. I felt quite jealous - their stories were interesting - the trek was hard, and they meet the folks who cultivate charas, etc. - very cool! <br><br>

... 11 days' biking (containing 120 pictures) through the highest road in the planet from Manali to Leh and then to KhardungLa Pass.<br><br>Click Here to read the complete blog.<br><br><br><br>

... in Tibetan and waited for someone to translate. But on this he was adament. He broke in with the word "what" and then, when he had our attention, frowned and concentrated, trying to get the words just right. Finally, his thought fully planned in his head, he pushed his way further into the circle and met my gaze strongly. "When you go home," he said slowly and deliberately, "when you are back at your University, what are you going to do about Tibet?"

Here we are in the Himilayas. The views even from here are fantastic and it is a bit of a better temperature! We are staying in a quieter - not quite by any means - town home to many tibetan refugees and also residence to the dalai lama - who is currently here though sadly we have not seen him.. We plan to stay here ...

... Israel, most do there two years army service and quite rightly then travel and chill out for a while). I can see why they are attracted here by lure of the surrounding mountain scenery, the famous cheap Minali charas (marajana)) and the endless option of outdoor activities: ballooning, fishing, jeep safaris, mountain biking, mountaineering, paragliding, rafting, rock climbing, skiing &amp ...

... quiet, relaxed lifestyle of a small village that no longer exists here. It's firmly on the route for anyone travelling in this region, and to meet this demand, the place has become overrun with cafes and hotels, the surrounding valley hardly visible beyond the ugly mass of concrete. I am usually quite willing to let myself get sucked into little places catering to travellers, but I found nothing appealling about Vashist. Somewhat grungy ...

... Steinbeck, who's "Travels with Charley" semi-inspired the naming of my trusty Enfield motorcycle. I could easily spend a lot more time here in manali, it's one of the best places I have been to in my travels, a town with which I share a special, though seemingly unlikely affinity. Things just happen that way, you find the people and places that speak to your heart, and keep coming back. I do some of my best thinking here as well, or at least to my own ...

... environs, et j ai ense a to julien parce que on a trouve un resto qui fait cinema le soir et j ai vu forest gump!!! un tres bel endroit. on est allonge sur des tapis comme partout en inde. cet apres midi on part pour un village et je vais commencer une for;ation en reiki. elisa va etre jalouse mais il y a de tres bons restos tibetains ici. maim miam!!! je mange des momos a toutes les sauces. on s est arretees dans un marche pour ...

... places so I am rather bruised now. The whole experience was just incredible. At the worst point I felt delerious and started crying for my family and told Pooja the nurse all about them and in turn she told me about herself. It was just such a shock to end up in such a bad state after feeling fine 24 hours previously. The next day the doctors turned up at camp because they were so worried about my condition, I thought this was really sweet ...

... breakfast at a table literally in the middle of construction. All the other tables were pushed aside into a higgledy piggledy mess of tables and chairs, and the workers continued to paint and sand a few feet away while we ate breakfast. Dinner in the evening that we arrived was surreal in a different way. We arrived at dinner to discover that, despite the fact we were the only guests in the dining room, the owners had invited outside entertainers. So we ate dinner while puppeteers ...