Quality Inn River Country Resort Manali

... indeed met a number of Israeli tourists here. They are great travelers. We have met them all over SE Asia, and now here. The local resturants here even feature Israeli food items. A couple of times, local people have asked me it I was an Israeli. We have not met a single American tourist here to date.

We loaded our bags into the car and turned toward Manali, next stop on our journey. As we drove along our driver had his favorite Punjabi dance music in his CD ...

... was drawn to his flailing arms and petulant pose, and just as I began to wonder the purpose of this seemingly hostile conversation, he started complaining about the sleeping conditions aboard the coach. I busied myself further with the Chai, staring at it intently.
"Its a real drag, I'm in the aisle seat. I'd be ok with a window or someone to rest my head on, y'know?"
Now, most of you know me, and in a way I pride myself on being tolerant. Of course I had no problem with ...

... enjoying the effect of that much travel on my stomach, but in my haze, I stuck the flash drive in the wrong bag, so I'll get that up here soon, along with Rishikesh. In the meantime, the weather is cooler, the flowers are in bloom, the food is amazing and I've seen four processions of monks so far, so I'm hardly complaining. There are few places that are worth that much trouble to get to, but this is doubtless one of them.

As many of you know, this Wednesday was my 20th birthday! So last weekend Andrew and I with four other friends headed up to Manali, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas, North of Delhi. There are no trains that take this route, so we had to take a bus (our first bus in India). After hearing horror stories about buses, I was a bit intimidated to take one that was expected to be 12 hours long. We took sleeper class, and it was 500 Rs one way (about ...

... going to fill the Jeep with ether, coke, mescaline, rum, opium and all sorts, recreate fear and loathing, but we couldn't find any of the above so were forced to settle with orange juice, 4 pizzas and one small bottle of coke[-a-cola]. Still, it was a journey of epic proportions, we slept about as much as a all the ladies in Joe's harreem do when everyone's been eating oysters eg. very little. So now we're here, its dark and we've got to go check on J-J-baby-kins, so have a nice day.

... wondering last night and was only too glad to get into a warm bed, with a ginger and honey tea and watch some TV and have a bit of privacy and space!! but guess what no place is sacred, for at the hotel they knock on your door, for you to do this or that, like sign the register/guest book or to bring your tea etc and push past you straight into the room all jolly ho!! and despite me ...

... It was so stark and simple and the village kids would always be playing cricket or helping out in the fields. Then the slap in the face...most had a DishTV satellite dish secured to the shakiest of structures. But this was just such a magnificent hike with monkeys, donkeys, yaks and friendly dogs along the way, mind-blowing beauty and a chance for me to test my angling prowess. I brought along my fly rod as it ...

... on hard wooded benches and waited and eventually about 6 we left. It was pretty cold and one yound guy offered to share his blanket with Bradley, who gratefully accepted. Both Pete and Brad were suffering from pretty heavy colds and sore throats (but are now almost better). By 7am it was light enough to see the beautiful countryside that we were passing through. This is a narrow gague train and winds up through the mountains through Kangra to Palampur and a few stations beyond ...

Friday 14th July '06 (Diary) '...Ok, wake up call from the hotel even through I had set my alarm, packed and left around 5.45am - bit of a rush for the 6.05am train! Stormed through the station and along the bridge connecting the various platforms to platform ten. Was a tad concerned after the Mumbai train blasts - especially now during commuter time! Train was waiting and I stumbled along the platform eventually finding my carriage - it's always reassuring to look on ...

... to get totally ****ed up on drugs and alcohol and run around feeling up women: basically a license to sexual harassment. Chrissy agrees, and she's done it in Bombay and Delhi, absolutely dreadful she reports. So naturally on the day, I awoke with some trepidation to the screams of delight from the children in the field next to us. A knock on the door, me in my pajamas, and one of the sweet boys from the kitchen grins and rubs a bright yellow streak between eyes. "Happy Holi!" We ...