Silmog Garden Manali

... sticking to eggs and hash browns).

I did a few little walks around, checked out the 400+ year old temple, moved from one side of the river to the other, but for the most part I ate momos and drank warm milk chai.

Its been a nice 5 days, but I think I'm fully ready to head east over to the sacred point where the Ganges emerges from the Himalayas, and of course where the Beatles, in transcendental trances and high as kites, wrote a majority of the white album.

... the concerts of our Guruji and then heading back into the mountains, to the retreat of Rishikesh, a popular destination for people from all over to spend time in the majestic mountains and study yoga, spirituality, and all sorts of worldly subjects. We hope everyone who is reading this is loving life and having fun and we can't wait to see you soon and tell you more about all of our experiences here in the East, incredible India. namaste, Andrew, Justin, Natalie, Jonathan & Shayna

... to get worst and the mountain passes to the north would soon be impassable. I took the last opportunity to give my bike a good check over, tightened all the nuts and found some loose parts and a crack in the leg guard/rest which I got strengthened for the bad roads to come. I also changed the oil to a 50/20 mix, thinking that the lower viscosity would be better for the high altitude mountain passes.

... to our favorite internet café manager) Israelis descend upon Manali in droves for the summer, taking a break from their capital, Goa. As such, we missed them by a week and only encountered the stragglers. Nonetheless, there were still plenty of stoned, natty haired, baggy clothes wearing youths stumbling around the streets and laying around on pillows. Given the special place we have in our heart, not to mention our own slight hippie tendencies, we made ...

... all this however, I have been doing some exercise, studying hindi, reading dickens, and trying to remember all the corny classic rock cover tunes I can in preparation for a final landing in Goa. The fresh air has my smoker's hack all but gone, and eating every night with the family lots of rice, and dal or a mild curry with the indegenous hot peppers to spice things up on the side of my plate has allowed my health to return with ...

... non-existence of any Dutch tourists. Having seen quite a few different spots in the world, and having come across quite a few Dutchies on the route, the grand total for India currently stands at just two (my neighbours Jos and Eline in Leh), but even the Belgians outstrip the number of Dutch. Another eye-opener is the worldwiseness of the foreigners I'm meeting up with. I pride myself on having seen just about every continent for a ...

... deux mille metres d altitude et a leh c a plus de 3500m. sinon il fait frai ici. ca fait du bien! figurez vous que parfois je mets meme un pull!!! je ne sais pas si je vous ai parle de la panne du bus de richikesh a delhi. j ai relu mon dernier message et je n ai rien vu a ce sujet alors au risque de me repeter je raconte. avec elisa nnous avons pris un busd local pour rentrer de ricshikesh. depart a 8h du soir. a une h du mat le bus s ...

After a 16 hour train journey and 4 hour jeep ride up the mountains, on Saturday morning we arrived in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. I am staying in a nice little house with 2 floors with about 20 other volunteers, we have a terrace and a roof we can sit on and we are surrounded by the mountains and paddy fields 360 degrees around us if that makes sense! It is lovely, really peaceful after delhi and jaipur, mostly sunny but ...

... up the valley(s) would also mean being further and further away from Delhi and subsequent train connections. Infact I felt isolated in Shimla - a feeling I'd never had before - almost cut off! For a few days I agonised over what to do - I'd come to India to see the Himalayas - and so there were times my mind was made up I was going further north, then I felt really bad one night and decided India wasn't going anywhere and that I had seen enough and was going to jump ...

... asked around, we found out that about a hundred meters ahead of us, there were two huge snowfalls in the road. At this point we were walled in by snow on both sides of the road, and the people who got out said they heard the snow shifting and cracking above them. Little mounds of snow fell all around us periodically. Let's just say this is when the panic set in. We were going to die in an avalanche. This was really serious... three of the 7 of us in the Jeep got physically sick from ...