Manali

From Mcleod Ganj we went to Manali were we arrived at 4:30 in the morning. Obviously we traveled at night which gave us some concern beforehand. Even more so because there had been several accidents near Manali in the last couple of days. In the end we arrived in one piece, mostly because the good driving and the little traffic encountered on the road. I should know because I spend the whole 7 hour journey looking at the road, trying in vain to combat my travel sickness. Curiously this hadn’t bothered me when we came to Dharamshala. But then we traveled in a normal bus, now we used a 9 seater. Suffice to say that our 14 hour trip to Delhi is in a normal bus again.

So we were dropped just outside Manali at 4:30 in the morning. And even though we paid a handsome price for our bus ticket, you can count on the Indian to leach every last penny from your wallet. From nowhere several taxis appeared whose drivers conveniently seemed to know a extremely good hotel which was extremely cheap to boot, all for a very small commission of course. Although most of our companions fell for the Indian trick, we packed our bags and marched into Manali. Convinced that it was a mere 2-3km, even though the Indian claimed it was at least 6-7km. In the end it was a 30 min walk, as we had expected.

At 5:30 we arrived at our hotel, picked on budget and its location among some wonderful orchards. We missed the hotel twice due to bad directions but managed to find it anyway. The rest of the day was mostly spent sleeping and exploring old Manali a bit. This continued the next day and was a big disappointment, mostly because old Manali is overrun by hippies and tourist shops. Only at the very outskirts of town one gets the feeling how it must have been. I quite dislike hippies but persuaded by the possible treks from this location we decided against moving on.

The next day we conducted a little track on which I will elaborate later. First I must say that we encountered disaster again. Weakened by events during the trek Ilse her stomach bacteria started bothering again leaving her weak and in pain. Although she almost fully recovered in 3 days this illness and subsequent inactivity led to the first doubt concerning the success of our journey so far.

Ilse felt that we could have done previously written about activities in far less time and that perhaps we should travel a bit faster. Although I do not feel much in becoming another traveler who spends most of his time in public transport than actually in the country, I had to agree with Ilse. Certainly concerning our decision to stay in Manali, which we both disliked but stayed in anyway. Yet it is only fair to explore the reasons for our slow progress to date. After some deliberation we felt that our progress was mostly hampered by the various illnesses which we acquired during our travel. My heath stroke confined us to Mumbai for 4 extra days, even though the journey to Pune was already arranged. 3 days more were spend in Shimla to fully recover from a minor food poisoning. 3 days extra in Mcleod Ganj and now 3 days again in Manali. In as such, of the 7 weeks we’ve been traveling in India, 2 have been spend sick or recovering. Alternatively. The only place in India were none of us fell ill, Delhi, we traveled to our own satisfaction. Furthermore, there is always the chance that a place will turn no fun at all and sometimes one needs to remain in such a place for logistic reasons. Such is the case in Manali. There is little to do about it but it doesn’t hurt to discus the matter.

Last, I would like to finish with one of the fun things we managed to do in Manali. One morning we decided to trek to Vashisht by the less usual northern route. We traveled on the western bank while Vashisht is located on the eastern bank of a river. At some point during that trek we decided that a bridge is for the faint of heart and that we could do without. After selecting a suitable point I proceeded crossing the river Ray Mears style. After this skillful example of true survival instinct, Ilse crossed the river Ilse style. Apparently this means taking a dive mid crossing, reaching the other side completely soaked. Luckily her possessions were not greatly effected by the water but she lost one of her telephones. More importantly, in an act of self sacrifice she managed to trow me the camera, acquiring several bruises in the process. Seeing that we had to cross several other more rapid streams we decided a bridge wasn’t such a bad idea aterall. It is here that during our search for the bdidge we found the cause of the large hippie precence in Manali. Huge amounts of weed plants were growing along the banks of the river! Finally we found the bridge and backtracked to Vashisht. This is were our incredible adventure ended.

More recently Ilse is almost fully recovered from her ailments. Yet were she got better I fell ill again. Probably due to a minor food poisoning again.

“Incredible India” they say. I would seriously consider adding unhygienic or polluted in the middle of that phrase!

All seems well now though and its all part of such a journey I guess, especially here in India. But I do sincerely hope that Malaysia will be better in this regard.

Johan

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