Hotel Kalinga Intercontinental Manali

... the local Bookworm shop to get opened, and was more than happy to get myself a brand new Lonely Planet! I'm not sure what to do with the Beni's LP, probably I should sell it, or just give it as a present to some nice traveler.<br>I looked for a cheaper place to stay and was prompted to go to the Old Manali - the most of the foreigner travelers stay there. That was true, i imediately met some Israeli girls, there were also ...

... to arrange an after hours ride home. We drank some whiskey, and some beer, and some local rum, ate some "Mutton Faheetas" and partied with a man who had no legs. Then we walked the 6km home...again. Hooper, in true hooper fashion, drank too much and spent the entire hour and a half walk screaming at his speakers for not working..."****in' 'ell!"<br><br> The main reason for coming to Manali was to see the Mela festival, where the town is supposed to ...

... will make me buff, and I'll take out one of those diamonds and that will pay for everything without having to have phone banking. That's what I need. A bag of diamonds. Well, goodnight, girls!" And he loped off, up the road towards the temple, laughing about his bag of diamonds. Which is all to say, you meet some pretty fascinating people when you travel. There are of course the ones you expect - the drop-outs, the hippies, the ...

... but also for Indians to take a break from the bustle of Mumbai and Bangalore etc. The main attraction seems to be as a jumping off point for doing larger scale treks into the mountains and adventure sports etc. And I was annoyed to discover that there were few other travelers here. I did get talking to an old hippie bloke called Geoff that came here in 63' to rock climb and has been here ever since, only leaving to do visa runs. We talked about India and south east ...

... and we could certainly feel the altitude. If you science teachers ever run out of labs, try buying a bag of potato chips and driving up a few thousand meters. My head felt like that bag of chips at 17,000 feet. By the way, Masala Magic is an excellent potato chip. After a grueling 17 hour day of bus riding, we finally arrived in the Himalayan kingdom of Leh, Ladakh.

... safely at the take-off area, all the Koreans wanted a photo session with the giant from the North. Kind of funny posing next to real-life hobbits. I felt a bit like Gandalf just then. I know, I should cut down on Lord of the Rings metaphors. I was third in line. The first girl took off like a rocket, going almost straight up. I was expecting a bit of running and horizontal gliding, but she was halfway into orbit before I got my camera out. The ...

... all countries. But what to do? If I get growled at on one of my walks up the hill at night, someone is going to get a size 11 riding boot to the muzzle, that's for sure. Can't be too careful. The most dangerous kind of animal is a half-wild one, bold enough not to be afraid of humans, but wild enough not to like them. I feel bad for the dogs, a little, but I feel worse for the villagers, who have to put up with the results of a short-sighted ordinance.

... of us), not surprising when on the same bus for 2 days! Dinner was great Dal, Potato and rice with plenty of Chai....... An early night to bed and a tad chilly, even with blankets and a duvet, it appeared most people went for the 'sleep in what you're wearing option!' Day 2 Up at 6.00am, an omlette sandwich and chai for breakfast, sling the rucksacks back on top of the bus roof and we were off again ...

... 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 ...

... stories of trekking over the mountains, into exile, fleeing the hungry machine of China, which is, as we speak, cleaning out all that is precious from their homeland. At least here in India, they can live without that kind of fear. The temple at the top of the hill near the square has those cylinder-shaped things that one walks by and sort of spins by brushing the hand (always the right hand, and in a clockwise direction), ostensibly bringing luck and blessing ...