The First Day in Manali

Finally, the Himalayas!! I'm back in the Himlayas after 3 years, and it seems like a long long time. But the way weather behaved today, it seemed to be a welcome for me :) Reached Manali at 10:30 in the morning from an overnight bus from Chandigarh. The semi-deluxe bus was much more comfortable than I expected, and it took roughly 10 hours from Chandigarh. I had looked up some of the tentative places I wanted to stay at from the Lonely Planet guide, and a place called Vashisht - a village 4km north of Manali - seemed to be perfect. The village was supposed to be in the wilderness, away from the hustle bustle and traffic of the main city. Well, the village does not have the hustle bustle of Manali, but the traffic seems almost that bad. The only saving grace is that if you walk 2 mins you are at some trail that will lead you to the wild.

So the hotel - well it would be an overstatement to call it a hotel, it's more like an old wooden guest house. It's called Sonam Guesthouse, and the rooms are clean but old, and the bathrooms are shared. The major positive is the rent - 120/- per night!! Not to mention the friendly keeper (his name is Joy) who helped me find a cheap internet place, and the friendly Swiss couple who's living in the room next door (and who came on the same bus as me from Chandigarh). The place has a TV room which the keeper insists on calling cinema room, and they have around 35-40 odd movies which you can watch, and write on a board outside as to what time you are going to watch that movie so other people can join you. All in all, a decent place to live - expecially for someone traveling alone and looking for company.

So I tried getting a couple of hours of sleep, and it was lunch time. Had lunch at the roof of World Peace Cafe :) They have wonderful views, and I was surprised at the variety of cuisine they serve! They had Italian, Spanish (YES - Burrito's!), French, Chinese and Indian. I just sampled tofu with rice which was written under the Chinese section, and though it didn't taste quite Chinese, it was pretty decent. Also, the ambience was wonderful - they have seating on the ground with cute bench like tables to have your food on.

After lunch I went for a short hike uphill which was supposed to take me to a waterfall. The hike was very steep, and I was soon regretting all the excercise that I did NOT do the last couple of weeks. But the views made up for all the hard work - it was cloudy and the snowy peaks were covered with a tinge of grey. I walked up as close to the waterfall as the trail allowed me (which was still quite a distance). After a while it started raining, and I had to take shelter under the backyard of a house. The experience was somewhat spiritual - the weather, the mountains, the clouds, the trees, the vegetation - everything played it's part in creating that ambience where all you can do is be thankful for that moment. I tried capturing some of it in pictures, but even pictures don't do justice!

Good night for now - time for dinner, and might go for a party that Joy told me about :)