Nature Notes Riverside Resort Manali

It took an 18 hour bus journey from Delhi (in our stop over in Delhi we had time to visit a 25,000 seater temple and the lotus temple- both impressive, especially the lotus temple which remained remarkably elegant amidst the dirt of Delhi's city centre) before we would reach the mountainous Kullu Valley and a perfect, small little village called Manali.<br><br>I call Manali perfect because it was the panacea to our India woes. It was, first and foremost, clean. There was ...

... around and some guy video taped too which i bought the dvd of after! Mark enjoyed himself too, he didn't scream like a girl apparently, although i wasn't there to witness that so i guess i'll just have to take his word for it! <br><br>After the paragliding we head for another temple " Handimba" temple where outside there were the weirdest rabbits i've ever seen along with some yaks!! craziness! you had to pay if you wanted a photo, so ...

Annina and I woke up and went to have breakfast. We went back to Green Hotel restaurant and I had a tomato/cheese omelette and some Tibetan bread. I also had a spiced cafe mocha. Annina had a banana pancake and some Tibetan bread as well as a huge pot of lemon-ginger-honey tea. Breakfast was very delicious and after breakfast we went in search of the Dalai Lama's residence. After getting lost somewhat we managed to find it. We went inside and checked out the monks praying and ...

... is tons of outdoor activities in Manali... more so in the summer, but we still tried to take part in what we could. We went "skiing" which i guess in India means nothing....they are just happy to see snow i guess! It was weird though,being in the Himalayas and all to not see any down hill skiing! We did, however, get to rent some snow outfits straight out of the 80's and strap on our skiis to do a little 'cross ...

I was awakened at 4:30 am, drenched in sweat, by a knock at my door. My friends Tomak and Michal wanted to know if I would accompany them to Kaza in the Spiti Valley, or if I would stay one more day to rest. Our hotel in Keylong was not the type of place I wanted to hang around in, so even though I was still feeling sick, I decided to join them for the 6-7 hour trip to Kaza. After a couple of hours on the bus, it started to snow ...

... houses but with giant slate shingled roofs. We stayed in upper upper Manali in the midst of a small village where cows roamed the streets, kids played marbles on the sidewalk, (separate of course) groups of woman and men sat around kibbutzing, farmers carried their giant baskets of green stuff (we're not sure what) up the stone stairways, and every little house had a tiny garden with flowers and usually an apple tree. The whole feel of the place is quite ...

... a bit sentimental, the long road is calling, my heart beating time with the thump of Rocinante's single piston, longing to put the miles behind us once again. I could stay in Manali for my whole allotment in this country, but there are new places to see, new adventures to experience, new people to step into the heart, that is if you leave the door open. That's it--I'm off to dinner. Hope I don't wake up with stomach problems tomorrow. . .

... us some very important advices. Rahul Ogra, 29, runs a Eco Tourism company in Manali undertaking high-altitude adventure tourism. His company has a lot of interesting packages for travelers interested in exploring Mystique of Himalayas. He happens to be friend to Sarthak's younger brother Atharv, hence was very interested in guiding us to pitfalls of high altitude travel. We met him at around 6:30 PM in Nehru Park Manali. Before coming to this trip, I had ...

... a tendency to be obsessed with what others think. The climb down the next day was much better physically although tough on the old knees. I rewarded myself with a 'free tibet' t-shirt. Since then I've been teaching which is very very tiring but better than last week. Lesson planning takes ages but it's worth it when a lesson goes well. I could do with going to the loo now but the toilet for this internet cafe is a hole on the roof and the locals watch so I might give it a miss.

Relaxation is good for reflection. I have been relaxed here in this shanti town, but I go off to the high mountains tomorrow. It is as my good friend George said,"you find the good places, and stay a while. " This is one of those good places, the days are temperate, the nights cool, the people, both native and tourist tend to be really good, and discussion of some depth takes place everywhere. Rocinante calls, though, and I must ...