Old Manali
You could stay in McLeod, especially if you suddenly decided to become a yoga or meditation master, but a week here was long enough, so the morning after the most incredible thunder and rain storm (no electricity so I packed my bag by candlelight!), a bus left at the unearthly hour of 4.30am for Manali, further east and a little higher (about 2000m). This was a HPTDC public bus, and as such got very crowded.(The tourist bus starts “next week” whenever that may be).
It was another indirect route- 10 hours- as the road goes south for quite some time before going back north due to the mountains. On this journey, the tyres went, so they were replaced by one with a slash, and one with no tread!!! Aside from vomiting children, and a sadhu (sprititual man) who ripped open tea bags and smoked them, there was the man who had been to a bad dentist and kept leaning over me to spit mouthfuls of blood out of the window (in quite considerable pain I think, by the way he grabbed my knee really hard at one point). The journey up the Kullu Valley is quite spectacular, apple trees are starting to blossom (apples are a major crop here). Manali is quite big and touristy and it was raining when we arrived. Old Manali, over the river, is much nicer. A track along the Manalsu Nala river leads to a place called Rockway cottage
where I have been staying since last Monday. It seems all very English, the cool climate means many of the plants are “British-style” and the apple blossom and cottage garden setting add to the picture.
Since being here we got lost on two mountains (not finding the lakes or the peaks we set out to, and spending much of the time scrambling up rock faces that the trails always led to and disappeared at), having fires on islands in the river under the full moon and have just been generally relaxing, drinking lemon tea and occasional glasses of the local apple juice and cider. We wanted to do some long multi-day treks, but apparently it’s still too snowy. Old Manali is just opening up for the season, but is still very quiet. There has been some kind of festival for the past couple of days, with much beating of drums, and parading of a brightly coloured “thing” collecting offerings.
No one seems to be able to explain what is going on! Now there are just three of us, and we’ll be heading off south to Shimla together at the start of the week. My “plan” now is to go further east into Uttar Pradesh and stop at Haridwar and Rishikesh at the source of the Ganges, before attempting my first train ride to Varanasi, and then finally I might make it to Agra and Rajasthan- where it will now be VERY hot! But if I’m learning one thing about this country, it’ that you can’t plan or control anything, you just have to let it happen. It’s easier that way! Oh and never ask for directions. Or times. You will just be confused!
Until next time…
Tags: Travel
Nick