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? :)

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 :)

Traveling solo ...

Just 2 more days to go for the trip I have been looking forward to for so long - Leh!! The biking trip has been converted to a trekking, hiking, and reading/relaxing trip coz of some friends who ditched me at the last moment (Sumeet I'll never forget to remind you this for the rest of your life!!). Neverthless, I'm still excited at the prospect of being in the Himalayas after a long long long time. And I'm excited about traveling alone!

Now my parents, and family, and relatives, and friends etc etc all seem to think that a trip up in the mountains alone is not a good idea, coz it will get boring after a while. But the 2 days I spent in Switzerland exploring the area alone has opened my mind to the idea of traveling without any companions. I actually observed more and took in more of the scenery while traveling alone versus when I was with Ashutosh, where our heated conversations would overpower the scenery!! Not to say that I didn't have fun being with a friend - it is just that probably some conversations are better had when you are in a dimly lit apartment in the middle of the night.

I'm taking 5-7 books with me, and I plan to spend some time relaxing in Manali (2 days), and then in Leh (3 days), apart from the traveling that I'll do around Manali and Leh. I also plan to travel to Pangong Tso lake, and spend another day or two doing small treks in the area. I'm looking forward to meeting other travelers who were ditched by their friend, and are therefore traveling alone :)

And I'm still due with all the pictures and the stories from the Swiss trip - seems like I'll have to wait till I get back to the US to do that - the internet conn in the cyber cafe I use is awefully slow!! I'll try some other place and see if it's fast enough to upload pictures. Till then - bubye!