The Conifer Manali

... s very safe!!! we met the organiser and he asked us how long we'd like to go up for... of course the longer you're up the more you pay. we went middle of the road and were up for five minutes. you walk up the hill face and some other young fellas carry the parachute for you which is good as i was out of breath anyway with the walk up! severely unfit! anyway they attached all the necessary equipment and when i ask where i hold on the ...

... to Sarojini Nagar and I did my customary shopping there. Had lunch and we were back to our hotel for a short nap, before we headed to the airport. Flight back was uneventful. I was back home in Bangalore and ready to come to work the next day. It was back to the usual routine from here on, but something had changed. I had fulfilled my dream of 4 years, done something to remember for the rest of my life and knew that this was just the start for many more such memories.

... around the town and to the temple by candlelight, singing songs in honor of hopes for a free Tibet. It is heartbreaking to hear their stories and the plight of events that many have endured. Many people have suffered extreme atrocities while imprisoned by the Chinese government. Reasons for being imprisoned could be a simple as having a book written by the Dalai Lama. I guess the Dalai Lama, one of our world's ...

... both pine trees and deciduous trees. The combination of which creates stunningly green meadows with amazing vistas often filled with the apple orchards that the area is famous for. There are great hiking trails that traverse the steep hillsides up towards hidden valleys and remote villages. We only took some short day hikes and unfortunately missed some of the world class trekking that draws hiking enthusiasts from all over the world. Last but not least on the ...

... the washtub, aided by the stomp of bare feet, "wringing" by the use of a flat stone and cricket-bat type beater, another go in the tub with washing powder, and repeat process with clean water. The still-dripping blankets are hung from the fence until only damp, then spread on rocks or shrubs, depending on size. The colorful clothes make a sort of rainbow on the drab pre-spring landscape, a flash of sun on the ground as a precursor of brighter days to come. The weaving looms click ...

... so someone must have a little petrol business out back. And after pushing, whining, and wheedling that we only needed 1L, eventually a small shop sold us the petrol and off we went up the Indus valley enjoying the last few trees and green we'd see for most of a week. We then turned up the valley leading to Tagalang La, the highest pass on the route, and the last bits of civilization. The plan was to reach Rumtse for the night, which meant climbing back up to ...

... He had been told that, due to landslides or some such calamity, that the bus wouldn't be coming through this day. We decided to give until 6AM. Sure enough - no bus. We wandered forlornly back to our hotel where Nate and I took a nap and Lloyd had a wander around town. We had agreed to meet Gary and a friend out by the road at 9 to give it another try. Fueled by 3 Full Power Shak Shukas (apparently an Israeli delicacy), we marched out the the ...

... sledili do hotela, ki ga je ponujal in tam dve noci tudi prespali. Tokrat smo imeli resnicno sreco s hotelom, saj so bile sobe zelo lepe, prostorne, svetle, kopalnica cista. Pa se balkon smo imeli. Skratka "de luxe" soba. Dharamsala je mesto, kjer zivi slaven Dalai Lama, posvetni in verski vodja Tibetancev. Od leta 1959 zivi tukaj v izgnanstvu. V Dharamsali je pa tudi sedez tibetanske vlade. Oboje, tako Dalai Lamovo rezidenco kot tudi tibetansko vlado smo si naslednji dan ...

... a bit of indian cheese, cubed. No masala sauce, not spice - just plain food. It was spot-on - the chef was a good guy - he'd talk cricket to me and I'd pull up cricket statistics on the internet for him to check out. My last night in Shimla, watched TV - a fairly amusing film, plenty of awful acting and basic comedy moments - think it was called 'White Chicks' actually it was terrible but it appealed to my basic sense of humour - tomorrow back down to the heat - night...'

... mountain you knew it was only chance that prevented us from being crushed. But we were okay, and by 2:30, we'd reached the town on the road, Keylong. We were at the bottom of what would be the final pass of the nightmarish journey, however, the road was closed (in fact, for the entire trip since the blizzard began, we'd been driving on closed road, but we had to get to the bottom of the pass to safety), so we would be staying in Keylong... for who knew how long. But at least now we ...