The Manali Inn

... suburbs passing even more desperate looking dwellings. Save for one deeply embarrassing episode, whereby it was agreed unanimously by everyone on the coach that I was a complete lunatic, no thanks to Bill Bryson's best efforts and my innability to stop laughing, the journey passed without incident.
It was many hours later, and dark outside, when the trip took an interesting turn. Its possible that I was dozing, or not paying particular attention, but suddenly it registered ...

... and Indonesia, it came as a shock. Our train came in two hours late, and we staggered around the corner to the bus stop. My habitual queasiness that comes with travel meant that I had hardly noticed that we had now hit 24 hours without food, but Kate's healthier stomach wasn't too happy. We climbed onto a state bus (after, rather excitingly, tying our bags to the roof - if you ever want to test out your arm strength, try hoisting yourself up a steep ...

... my Ladakhi guide, Siddharth tells me, is the "code word" for everything from Hello to Thank You and Welcome to Goodbye. So that means, i can now say 4 things in Ladakhi! Exploring the rest of Ladakh, away from Leh is peachy, thanks to all the taxis and tour operators. The roads are decent although the distances are quite large. Nevertheless, as an introduction to Ladakh, my 5 days where more focused on the culture and lifestyle of the Ladakhi ...

... at 7pm, dumped our bags and trekked down the hill to the main town to get a beer and play cards. The main town is a plethora of shops and restaurants with street sellers and tuc tucs competing for noise levels. Before we knew it, it was 10pm so after one beer and a cocktail under the trees, we tuc tuc-ed it back to Faulty Towers for dinner and a nightcap. The next day, we did a short sharp Manali burst ...

... like you want to escape...scream... run away...hide.... and be safely at home in a 'normal' environment and out of this utter madness that assaults every part of you .............. throughout the day we saw so many unbelievable things, and of course we were tired after the night bus fiasco... but I felt utterly blitzed!! There were people in the main square washing their clothes, their ...

Note to self: don't fall asleep on a Himalayan bus. When you are woken by the desperate honking of the horn, your first thought is, "Oh my God, I'm going to DIE!" That is all.

... worked up. Each countries' crowd tried to outdo the other by making more noise. I found the whole thing weird because the relationship between India and Pakistan is not good at all, and of course there is still fighting going on in Kashmir really near to Palampur where we live. Otherwise, this week has just been about tying up loose ends. We have sent home parcels. This process sounds simple but of course with it being India it is far from simple. First you ...

... restful time in Shimla, reading books, sitting in the local coffee shop (where they have real cappucino) and eating good food. On a less restful note, we managed to get back some of the money from the hotel we checked out of early. It took 90 minutes of arguing, and we were likely only successful because we caught them redhanded renting out our room a second time (we threatened to go to the police) but we felt somewhat vindicated by the result.

... and moved back to India he could be persuaded upon her death to let her body lie in the outer circle of the "towers of silence", the one reserved for prostitutes. Parsi women are extremely liberal and career-minded compared to most of the down-trodden females in India, most don't settle down until their 30. Many see the inherent flaws in the structure of the religion. Chrissy also enlightened us on Hadimba Temple. Built in 1553 out of the local pine and wauddle and daub, it is ...

... a functioning church and I went down one Sunday morning to find a congregation inside singing hymns and listening to an Indian vicar. But for me it was the graveyard that was most fascinating. Walking around the tombstones one could discern everyday British name as you would find today if you looked in a telephone directory. Names like John Smith, Lucy Beale, Elizabeth Childs etc. I sat in a spot of sunlight next to the grave of one Adelade Carmichael (died 1944) and ...