Manali

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  Manali, India
Sunday, September 30, 2007

Hello all! Iain here. We're about to leave Manali after a very pleasant 4 nights here. Its roasting hot during the day but pleasantly cool at night, so at least it lets a pasty scotsman recover unlike Delhi. Its very chilled out here although there is a certain type of longer term resident attracted by the (apparently) wild growing Marajhuana by the roadside, most of whom are walking anti-drug adverts. Bloody hippies. Rather good at the sitar though!
Its good here because without too much effort you can walk out of the town and be in green meadows high up on the hillside or strolling through apple orchards. Not so good for the drinking though, as the only bar in town charges an eye watering 150 rupees (about 2 pounds) a pint, which led an alcohol starved Iain and Helen to some unfortunate experiments with some local plum wine (ouch). Best get used to it, as buddhist country beckons and they're not exactly noted as big drinkers

Breakfast in Manali

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On a lighter note, my insides are now back to their fully functional best (even after a massive peanut binge in the only bar in town trying to recoup my beer costs) and I'm enjoying my curry again. I know you'll all feel better for knowing this.
In Manali there are also many stray dogs who follow you around. This seemed cute until one followed us on a walk up a local hill (we called him timmy). At points he even seemed to be showing us the way, keeping us out of trouble. This was all good until we got to the top and  there was a pack of stray dogs there who rounded on timmy (who tried to use us as a shield - not much use, even with a rabies vaccine!) Timmy was last seen heading downhill at speed pursued by four or five bigger dogs. I'm sure this wasn't how it happened in Enid Blyton.

Anyway, tommorrow we head onwards into the barren but striking Spiti valley (right next to tibet/china border, where we'll apparently have to bribe the officials to get the correct permits!) for a 7 day jeep tour. We don't really know what to expect, but I suppose thats the fun of it. We've packed plenty toilet roll though!
The next blog entry might be a little while as we don't know when next we'll be near civilisation and an internet cafe!

Iain and Helen

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Getting down Manali style	Helen in an orchard halfway up a hill	Hill Iain Helen and Timmy tried to climb	Iain looking very pleased with himself
Iain with some local plum wine

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