Leaving Delhi for the Great Himalayas
We left Delhi last Friday on an overnight bus to Manali in the Himachal Pradesh state in Northern India. We had a nice time on Friday before leaving (it was a bit less hectic than the first few days.) We took the Delhi metro, which is a replica of the London Tube only newer and less crowded. It was a bit like entering a different universe, most of the people we saw were Indians dressed in Western clothes, everything was clean and timely. Already, I can feel that India is a country of unmatchable contrasts, especially between the classes of people.
We visited the India Gate, a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives in the great wars, then we visited several places of historical interest including Humayan’s Tomb, an extremely well preserved site from the Mugal period. But even more interesting, we made a new friend here, Chandan, a University student (studying mathematics, but also a bit everything else you can think of.) So we spent a bit of time discussing politics (ancient and current) and wandering around the tomb. Then we shared a rickshaw back to Pahranj to pick up our bags from the hotel before leaving for the bus.
The bus: a luxury bus liner with double beds, though we chose the reclining seats- we are on a strict budget. The ride: estimated at 12 hours, actually closer to 17 hours. Possibly, even slower than Croatian buses 🙂 Of course there was no bathroom, but this time we weren’t sick, yet…
We arrived in Manali around 12, greeted by lots of taxi drivers offering us rooms, so, exhausted and not wanting to lug our stuff up the hill, we chose a friendly looking one and headed up the road. Our hotel is nice, nicer from the outside than the inside. We have a lovely balcony that looks onto a pine forest with a temple inside. The weather was amazing, the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, the air crisp and clean. We have a view of the Himalayas, some already snow-capped. We are not in the high Himalayas (the town is at 2300 meters, or 7200 feet.) The mountains around us are between 3000-3500 meters, or 9-10000 feet. Pretty impressive. We were quite tired, but we wanted to find out our options for trekking, so we had lunch at the hotel, and then went into town, to talk with some of the operators. Things are very relaxed here, you sit and talk over a cup of tea, no one is trying to pressure you, in fact we spoke to one man for over an hour (who gave us a wealth of information) he doesn’t even organize local treks, he just likes to hang out and talk. In the end we met up with a cohort of the taxi driver who brought us to the hotel, a trekking and cycling guide who made us a good deal on a five day trek and seemed like a pretty cool guy who loves his job. We are planning to leave Tuesday morning.
After getting our trek organized,we were left with a couple of days free to enjoy the village and relax. The spicy food and travel has caught up with us- so relaxing was high on the list. Yesterday we went to visit Old Manali, here you can see a mix of real village life and tourism. Women washing clothes in the river, people drying corn on the roofs, young men with an ax in hand and part of tree trunk strapped to their back. We visited a couple of Hindu temples as well. Fabien and I are still quite shy about this stuff. But we’ve learned that Hindus welcome all religions, and even though some people might find it funny to see us in the temple, everyone is welcoming.
The other thing that happens to us quite often is people want to have their picture taken with us. We must be as interesting for them as they are for us.
From Old Manali, we followed a path up into the hills. We reached a pasture from which we had beautiful mountain views on all sides. We passed a man going to collect his cow who was grazing in the hills.
Today, we visited another small village, Vishisht. They are famous for their hot springs, which run into a public bath. We decided not to join in the bathing (a bit too cold when you got out), but we enjoyed the walk (uphill) and visited another temple. Now we are just relaxing. My stomach has returned to normal, so I’m ready to try the momos, famous at the small cafe across from our hotel. It’s quite cloudy today, we think we will see more snow in the mountains, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for good trekking weather.
Namaste.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2005-2006, In English 2005-2006, India
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