8 Auspicious Him View Hotel McLeod Ganj

... not buy a ticket yet and was trying to move in our seat and hope that we would just cave in). The irony was that the son had to squeeze the mother in with his other children and then was complaining to the conductor that they did not have enough space. Also the lady who was sitting next to the old lady trying to tell us to move elsewhere ended up getting extremely car sick on the way and heaving out of the window....she was pretty nice though and we tried to offer her some food and ...

... But whedn I got #40 as my number on the waiting list the mechanisms of cognitive dissonance convinces me that it'll be too cold here, especially in the nights, so it's not a good place to meditate. 
So my visit in McLeod Ganj was limited by a walk to Dharmkot, to visit Yoav's recommended hotel-restaurant - Shivalay. The place is super quiet and the rooms are really high-class. The food is great as well. Too bad I'm alone here with no one to share these...

... place, so loads of people waiting around for these buses, in the woods, at sunset. It felt like being 18 again & going to an illegal rave, except most of the other passengers were monks & nuns!!! After travelling for about 4 or 5 hours we stopped at an Indian roadside transport cafe-type place, where I had the best curry of the trip so far- veg buffet and chai (sweet tea) for 80 rs (about a quid)

I slept for quite a bit of the journey, and woke up to find ...

... trek. We were lucky enough to be able to start a trek the following day with 35 other people. We turned up the next day to find that we were once again 'the only gays in the village'. The first day was a short walk to acclimmatise that didn't start till the afternoon. We were invited to walk to a local waterfall by 4 very friendly Punjabi men. At the waterfall we were entertained by one of our new friends taking a dip, and the falling down in the river a few times on ...

... It has made us all realise the value of our lives and our culture and also thankful that we live in a country that is free from these despicable things that are happening today in the world. It has given us a new perspective on our lives and all the things that we should be thankful for. We have been so lucky to have an amazing place to stay; a cottage home that once belonged to a British Commander back in the British Rule. It looks out over the main town of ...

... tell you exactly where this stretch is, it was that memorable. So even though we're going down, and not working so much, it's still rather slow going, and the sun is setting. We make it 10k, find a water source and acceptable spot to pitch the tent at 16,500 ft (exactly 5000m), for our highest camping spot of the (bike) trip. It got down to right about freezing overnight, but was otherwise pretty nice. The stars were amazing. But every few hours I'd wake up gasping ...

... on giving us a tour of his abode and serving us Israeli coffee and biscuits. Vinita said she hoped there was no hash in the coffee! He has lived there for 6 years-must be pretty harsh in the winter. Next stop was Kalpa (the legendary winter home of the god Shiva, who is said to retire there each winter for some hashish-inspired meditation), a village above Rekong Peo, where my innerline permit was supposed to arrive that night. There was a spectacular view of Mt. Kinnaur Kailash ...

Mudh is a beautiful Tibetan village at the end of the navigable road from the Spit Valley. Tourism has become very important in recent years, and as a result, a number of guest houses have sprung up. We spent a leisurely day where we didn't venture too far from the guest house. The decision was made to not get up for the 7AM morning bus to Kaza, the main town in the valley - there was only one bus per day. We instead spent the day washing our ...

... their land. People just literally throw everything on the ground. We have now coined the phrase "India, The World is our Trash Can/Toilet". It's really disappointing. After the hike our guide took us up to the Viceregal Lodge. Built in 1888 this gothic masterpiece served as the home of the British Viceroy (governor of India). It was built before the narrow-gauge rail and thus all the wood and bricks were transported up from Kalka via Mule. The lodge is famous not ...