Devlok Hotel Manali

... underwear, gloves, hat packed into my small backpack - so feeling I'm 100% ready. You know, I passed the World Highest Mountain Pass with a Vespa, come on! What could possibly go wrong?! 
Guess what, I was (again) wrong - there is a small factor there, in the mountains that one should try to take into account - it's called weather. It started with the colder than expected situation, also I was sitting by the door, and it felt really cold to be pressed ...

... of our only rest to go to a buddhist monastery this time, which was really beautiful and peaceful. i have photos somewhere on facebook. unless they are with the ones that wouldnt upload earlier - :(<br>And then we went shopping in an old marketplace and bought loads of random tat. Oh and to a rug shop where the lights went out every ten minutes and the people sounded really nice, but we thought they'd stab us if we didn't ...

... balcony that had an even better view. I sat inside for a minute and then said to myself, politeness be damned, I'm Israeli.....and I walked out. I sat on the edge of this pretty dodgy looking balcony (this is how I know I'm getting old, I looked at the cracks in the cement and wondered how safe it is before sitting on it) but I had the most beautiful moment. The massive mountain that only a few minutes ago was covered in clouds, was slowly revealing itself to ...

... this in the morning, then go overnight to Mcleod Ganj to beat up the Dali Larma, but I was told that the bus to Rewalsar wasn't going today, but he seemed unclear as to why, the level of English here was much lower than other places I had been, I was under the impression that buses went quite frequently to Rewalsar, but I was being told otherwise. So, fair enough, miss this out and step onto the bus for Ganj, again, no chance - unless I wanted to catch the bus that left at 4 ...

... bike was really staring to loose power at low revs. After about an hour like this it died on me! Before I had even got a chance to examine it, two old guys also on Enfield's pulled up and offered to help, one was Swiss and the other German. One pulled out a warm beer and downed it in two swigs and the other had old hip flask with whisky inside, he took a large gulp and offered it around. I explained to them the problem (which was not enough oxygen ...

... closed." After talking with the man for a little while he proclaimed "You need some food and tea!" as he brought some chic pea flour and spices out of his room and started mixing them in a bowl with water. We entered his room where he began heating some oil on a portable gas stove and cutting pieces of eggplant, cauliflower, potatoes, and green chilis, which he dropped into his batter concoction. The vegetables were dropped into the ...

... and decided to instigate the others to song. No other dog was barking, but this little ******* kept on, non-stop. I tried to sleep, to convince myself that he would grow tired and give up, but he continued until every yip out of his dirty muzzle cut through my brain like a branding iron. Enough! Getting quickly dressed and muttering curses as I did so, I snuck down the stairs as quietly as possible, picked up a few stones, then approached the ...

... 15 minutes of easing in, jumping out, easing a bit further, jumping out, etc, before I was in up to my neck for about 30 seconds. I was done. Lobster red. We took a walk up the side of the valley the first evening. Nice views of the valley and town. In the morning we had a very local breakfast of omelettes, chapatis and chai. My stomach seemed to be more accepting ...

... 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 ...

... availability to my next port of call, Singapore, on both the friday and the saturday evening. Result!! Went for a celebratory beer at a place overlooking the Gaiety theatre on the Lower Mall and ended up drinking with three half-drunk Indians who worked for some cable network or perhaps they set up cable networks. Pleasant enough, happy drunks I guess - although I couldn't drink fast enough. They tried to buy me food and buy me drink, which they succeeded and then ...