Manali - Himalayan Hippie Hangout

No matter where you are in the world, if you want to find a pretty place to rest, relax, and rejouvenate, just follow your nose to the nearest hippie hangout.  For those of you who wonder where all the hippies have gone, we've found one of their secret or not so secret capitals: Manali, India.  Perhaps they grow them here along with the apples and peaches in the orchards that dot the land, or perhaps they just come from Israel.  But between "March 15 and July 31" (according to our favorite internet café manager) Israelis descend upon Manali in droves for the summer, taking a break from their capital, Goa.  As such, we missed them by a week and only encountered the stragglers.  Nonetheless, there were still plenty of stoned, natty haired, baggy clothes wearing youths stumbling around the streets and laying around on pillows.

roof tıles

Given the special place we have in our heart, not to mention our own slight hippie tendencies, we made good use of the infrastructure that accompanies hippie hangounts.  Most notably the food which was absolutely amazing here.  In addition to the scads of "english" and "german" bakeries which all seemed to focus strangely enough on croissants, there were inumerable restaurants serving all kinds of fare.  Your typical travellers restaurant menu consists of pizza, pasta, perhaps some other continental fare, a few japanese and korean dishes to satisfy those from that region, a lot of potato dishes, and of course indian food which we focused on.  The restaurants were so good here we couldn't decide whether River Music (best lemon-galic trout and tandoori chicken), SeshBesh (best service and best drinks including banana-date shakes), or People (best vegetable dish in months) was our favorite.

ıs thıs ındıa or swıtzerland

Other spin-offs of the hippie hangout culture which we did not avail ouselves to included chai drinking, snake charming, drum/didgederoo shopping, checking out reiki/yoga houses, head shops, trance music outlets, and far out clothing tailors.  The inumerable jewelry shops including a very persistent create your own design establishment did attract one of our interests if not our rupees.  A new addition to the gamut of essential services is of course, the internet - which occupied an awful lot of our time as we tried to change our flights and India schedule (unsuccessfully), get caught up on long overdue admin (like tax extensions - yuck), and plan out the rush of countries coming at us on the horizon for which we didn't have a solid plan for.  Manali was an excellent base for us to get caught up with ourselves while enjoying as much of the creature comforts as one can hope to find in this part of the world.

mountaın hıdeaway

So why have they chosen Manali?  We didn't ask so one can't be sure.  It could be because of some chackra vortex, or some astrological alignment, or some sort of energy lines.  Our guess is that it is nothing so esoteric and instead for the same reasons we liked it.  That would be the services available (see above), climate (nice and cool compared to the rest of India), accomodations (tons of guest houses including our most excellent Tiger Eye Guest House), and the natural beauty of the Kullu valley and Old Manali in particular.  This is an outstandingly pretty area and has a deserved reputation as such that attracts not just hippies, but honeymooners, vacationers, and a ton of folks on their way to Leh (our original plan).  The Kullu valley, known in ancient Hindu scriptiures as Kulantapitha or "end of the civilized world", sits at around 4000 ft at the beginning of the Himalayas.  Huge walls of stone rise steeply from the river valleys allowing glimpses of snow capped peaks (when the clouds permit).  While steep and mountainous the soil is rich and the landscape lush with heavy foliage including both pine trees and deciduous trees.  The combination of which creates stunningly green meadows with amazing vistas often filled with the apple orchards that the area is famous for.  There are great hiking trails that traverse the steep hillsides up towards hidden valleys and remote villages.  We only took some short day hikes and unfortunately missed some of the world class trekking that draws hiking enthusiasts from all over the world.

vıllage archıtecture next to our hotel

Last but not least on the list of attractions are the people who inhabit this area.  A hodgepodge of ancient and recent tibetan refugees, Kashmiri traders, and the native Thakurs, high-caste land owning hill people.  The Thakurs are easily identifable as the men usually wear Kullu or topi caps (kind of a fez shape without the tassle but with embroidered sides) and the woman drape themselves in colorful scarves all over their heads and bodies.  The architecture was reminiscent of Nepal with wood sided 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 idyllic and they seem to have achieved a nice balance of traditional farming with tourism which might be one of the reasons why the locals are so refreshingly low-key.  We felt like we had made friends with most of the shop owners and restaurant staff by the time we left.  It's that kind of place.

yep - there are hıppıes about

The guidebook warned that this was a place where travellers found themselves lingering and we could see why.  It was a good place to spend some time just hanging out, like a hippie.

small town fun

famous apples

vıews from our deck

the mule of the hımalayas

yep - manalı passes on fluffy dogs

manalı vıbe