Another day, another waterfall :)

Another day in Manali, and I don't feel like leaving the place - ever! It's been two laid back days hiking around the remote hills (yes - there are still remote hills in Manali!!), and two days when I really had time to myself. Strange I was worried I would get lonely traveling solo on this trip! In fact, being alone has given me the advantage to seek company when I want to have a conversation, while immersing myself in a book or just the scenery when I'm not.

Went to sleep really late last night - didn't go to any party but there were a few people hanging around the guest house talking about ... well talking about just random things flitting from topic to topic, but it was interesting just because of the diversity of the participants in the conversation - a Pole, a Swede, 3 other Indians all from different parts of the country, and myself. Everbody had interesting travel stories to share, and the Europeans had seen more of the country than all 4 Indians put together :)

Woke up finally at 8 in the morning, had a quick bath in the shared bathroom (I had to wait for 30 minutes, and believe me, it wasn't pleasant!), had a quick breakfast, and I was out for the morning's hike at 11 :) The weather was perfect - nice and sunny. Met a Bengali family with their 2 kids who were traveling with their Punjabi driver - like any typical Indian family on vacation they had gone from one sightseeing point to another, and clicked pictures at all those places, and had therefore exhausted Manali in 2 days flat. Probably I'm generalising here, and probably this is true for ALL families and not only Indian families, but since I've had the most experience with Indian families, I can only talk about them. Probably you'll see me doing the same in another 10 yrs with a wife on the arm and 2 tiny tots following us, but that's the reason I want to avoid that stage for as long as possible :)

Anyways, after the Indian family, I met up with four beautiful damsels from Israel (darn why didn't I take a picture!!!!!!). Had a long and interesting conversation with them about the Israel-Palestine problem, and Judaism in general. All four of them were 21-22 yr's old, and had just completed their compulsory military service, and were traveling for 3-4 months before going back to Israel to join university etc. The interesting thing about the whole discussion was that though they all agreed that all the violence was killing a lot of innocent people, and they were fed up of traveling within Israel and being roughed up by the security people at the entrance of all malls, hospitals, schools, colleges (YES - they had airport type security EVERYWHERE!) etc., but when I asked them why don't you guys stop fighting then, all of them said in almost a chorus that it's not we who are fighting, it's them. And I'm pretty sure that people on the Palestinian side have the same opinion.

Well we couldn't have solved the Palestine problem in one trek, so we said goodbye's and I walked a little more to find a good spot to read. No Barnes and Nobles or Borders could have beaten the ambience - lying under a tree near the top of a mountain with 360 degree views of the snow capped mountains - it cannot get better than that. If I had been a Tagore it was the perfect spot to produce Gitanjali!

After 2-3 hours of reading, I carried on with the trek to the waterfall, and well I'll leave the description to the pictures. I met a British guy and a girl on the way back (they said they weren't a couple - so I have to say they were a guy and a girl :), and we started talking about Indian religions, culture, food etc., and before we knew it we were back to our village (Vashisht). Because the conversation was still not over, we completed it over cups of Chai with Paneer Pakoras. Well the conversation is still now over, and we're supposed to get together after dinner around 9, and watch some movie which we will decide at my guest house. Joy (the keeper of the guesthouse - Sonam Guesthouse), is very friendly and he's always looking to meet new people - so we'll get together and ask him to put on some good foreign language movie in the TV room.

And coz it's already 8:30, I better rush to get some dinner before everybody starts getting together for the movie. Did I tell you this place feels like home? :)