India Part 12: The Himalayas - Manali
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
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17
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Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
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Manali,
Himachal Pradesh,
India
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Welcome to our India Trip part 12: The Himalayas.
Manali
To get to Manali took us approx 7 hours drive. We wouldn't have missed that car journey for the world. From Hotel staff to other tourists, everyone concurred that Manali is stunning and a hive of outdoor adventure sports. They weren't wrong.
Manali is situated along the Beas River providing endless treks, white water rafting, para-gliding, helicopter trips, camping, canooing and horse-riding adventures. The Beas River is long, winding, boulder strewn and set amidst breathtaking views of the Himalayas towering ominously over you. It's just a place of utter natural beauty...beauty being an understatement. We had no idea where to stay but came across a Hotel right up on the extremely steep mountain road beyond the main town, giving spectacular views of the mountains and surrounding villages. It was Fawlty Towers. We loved it. Spike Milligan doing Hitler was on reception and the serious 6-foot tall moustached restaurant manager stood over you as you ate in case you had any questions for him! He had a twitching right eye and spoke in monosyllables: "Try soup - it good. You try soup NOW!" - gulp.
David tried the soup.
It was nice.
We arrived in Manali 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 of sightseeing by visiting the Old Village and the hot sulphur springs which we envisaged to be some natural scene of beauty. The hot sulphur springs were in fact a small section of the old village where locals were half naked and scrubbing their bits in steaming ceramic pools. The smell confirmed it was sulphur though - either that or all the locals had been eating eggy curries. We also went to a 16th century wooden temple, guarded by 2 very fluffy yaks. David said the temple looked like something out of Star Wars - something Ewok-y or some such twaddle. It was incredible actually. And we saw a dog vomiting. Nice.
10:30am and back in the car for our next trip up into the Himalayas to Dharamsala. This was not just a beautiful drive it was a hair-raising, telescopic drive to 'Little Tibet'.
Love Lois & David xx
