Up to Manali
What a bus ride, it took more than 24 hours to get to Manali from Delhi. Normally the trip is done in 15 hours, but a landslide caused a traffic jam, holding us up for hours. I also suspect the bus, a "sleeper", was rather slow. It was a grey, cloudy day, as we crossed the mountains and valleys up to Manali. I also saw apple orchads on the way here. This is known as apple country, and they even make apple wine and cider here!
The temperature has dropped somewhat and you can see your breath, but it isn't really wintry.
I've got a nice little room with a balcony overlooking the Mall, the main street of Manali. It's great here after Delhi the people are friendly without trying to milk you dry. I'll probably stay here for two nights here to acclimatise (the altitude is over 2,000 metres) before I head off towards Leh.
I've still got the aftertaste from an unpleasant memory of my last visit here; it remains to be seen how well I cope tonight and get back into the spirit worthy of this trans-Himalayan odyssey.
posted by Al at 7:28 AM
2 Comments:
Howdy Al,
So far so good eh? Just read over a couple of the reports from your journey and everything seems to be going smooth (apart from the rough start, sheesh you really don't pull your punches do you!)
Pardon my asking but what was the liquid you mentioned earlier on - chaya? - some sort of Coffee thing or am I wayyyy off mark?
We are following your journey. Even though it's a bit rainy and cloudy these days, sunsets in Male' are pretty good. A nice pink emerges through the grey clouds. You will see nothing much changed here when you return, and the same feeling of alienation will continue as you walk near Reethi Foto. But believe me, there is a lot of work being done right now to get rid of the alienation. -niOS
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