Whispering Valley Resort Manali

Wanted to go to Dha with a bus, but the permit could not be issued till the next Monday because of the holidays today and tomorrow. I felt quite ****** off with this - it's the second time I'm stuck with no stupid permit over a weekend. 
On the other hand the city seemed to collapse - it seems like more than 90% of the shops are closed now. Leh is a city of ghosts now. 
So I walked to the bus station, for the first time, and shopped for a ride back to ...

... a half hour to a hindu temple, where we ahd to take our shoes off to go on. 'once you get dirt in there, you can't get it out... awwwwh in the kitchen, meg?!' It was dedicated to Shiba, shown by a bull outside and lots of orange. (which reminds me, how do you spell ginger upside down? http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 069419&l=59033c8868&id=51107227 4). Some people donated money to the temple, and for this they ...

... 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?"

... Miss Jilly's BIG 22 in super style! Although illness set in for Amelia and we were all a little under the weather for the BIG bday, we managed an early morning boat trip along the Ganges at sunrise, saw some of the ghats and spent the day with a band of Brits we met at our hotel! Said a sad goodbye to our third amigo(Amelia)and off we went to a brand new country, culture and culinary adventure... XXX

... release hundreds of little divas (lamps) onto the ganges, and where people wash in the Ganges. Rishikesh was such a nice place. It was especially good as we went during off-peak season so the atmosphere was really chilled out and there weren't many touts around. There were, however, loads of Monkeys of many varieties! The views in Rishikesh, like in Manali were just beautiful. The water was a clear, aqua colour and there were blue skies every day. The scenery was starkly different ...

... By this I mean that if you require a guide (which due to several mysterious disappearances of trekkers in this drug trade reagion it behooves you to have) you get the whole package deal which includes an entourage of cook, guide, ponies, tents, food, and horsemen. There is no regard to weight of goods nor biodigradability of materials used. Trash is burned or piled in a ditch (this offended our environmental sensibilities ...

... mijescu dzielnicy zaraz kolo goracych zrodel. Z balkonu roztacza sie widok ma restauracje w ktorej trwa ciagla marihuanowa impreza, zmieniaja sie tylko aktorzy- palacze, dzierzacy w swoich dloniach blanty wiesze od cygar. Przy zrodlach tlocza sie praczki i amatorzy goracej kopieli. Z glosnikow saczy sie spokojna chilloutowa muza. Jestesmy we wlasciwym miejscu...

... they would say they actually weren't interested in going to Gramphoo. We were in limbo....until I saw the original driver, who had turned us down in Tabo. 2500? Bargain! Sold! So we were on our way. The road was crazy and the roughest, scariest, narrowest road we would encounter on our trip. In places, a ten foot wide path was chiseled out of the valley wall. In other places we climbed over landslides as workers tried to clear them. At one ...

... up before driving the front wheel into 2 feet of dust on the side of the road. Managed to back out and get going again but the Indian guy trying to follow me up in his little, little car (how smart is that?) had to also stop and back all the way down. We never saw him again? (I got the feeling he backed himself into 5 feet of dust and hasn't been uncovered yet). Past Rekong Peo and then ...

... Made my way to the Railway Reservation Office as it re-opened for the afternoon (2pm), no queues - just a booth off the Mall, perfect. Got all the information required - thought for a second - then bought my tickets outta of here! Toy train@10.30am the next morning, a connection to Delhi from Kalka - arriving in the city around 21.30hrs, would stay a night in Delhi and then take the Rajdhani express overnight - reaching Calcutta friday morning. There were flights ...