Mountain dew

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Manali cream and the Dalai Lama

We had some small business to attend to in Delhi; Erik had to get his teeth fixed. A consultation, an X-ray and a cap on his broken tooth for the ridiculously cheap price of 500rs/£6/80kr. After that we planned to leave the city in the evening, but of course our bus was cancelled, so much to our displeasure we ended up staying an extra night.

We finally got to Manali after a 15 hour bus journey and it felt great to be able to breathe the fresh mountain air. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took my first glimpse of the Himalayan range as I woke up on the bus. The views on the way up were truly incredible... I’ve seen pictures before, but it’s nothing compared to the real thing. The feeling was surreal as we ascended up to 2000 metres. Now was a god time to whip out the old long johns and legwarmers.

On the second day we found our friends Tor & Marika who we haven’t seen since our time in Goa. We also hooked up with a couple of laidback Canadians who’s first line to us was “Hey, do you know where we can score some hash?” so we quickly became acquainted. Luckily for them we had some Manali cream, which was by far the best smoke of the trip.

We didn’t plan to stay too long in Manali, but we ended up staying there for 2 weeks as there was just too much to do.
One day we went rafting down the River Beas which began in Lhasa, Tibet. It was freezing cold, rough at times and John (Canadian) ended up in the water but soon climbed back in the raft with a smile on his face and said that ‘it was nothing compared to Winnipeg in February’. It was a great day out and the weather was perfect.

We also attended silver school during our time here where made some jewellery, well, everyone apart from Erik who doesn’t have the patience for those sorts of things.
So whilst I was at silver school Erik found other things to do such as shopping, reading, witnessing a Hindu wedding and taking in the views. On his way to buy shoes one day, he came across a big snake about half a metre from his feet which he almost stepped on (see pic).

Our silver school teacher, Pema (an old speed addict turned spiritual healer) was also a reiki master, he became our guru during our two day course with him. I found it quite enlightening and relaxing and by the end of the course we had achieved a level 1 reiki diploma- certificate included.

A few days later Alex, David, Erik and I went to a village (Kullu) about an hour away to see a lecture being given by the Dalai Lama. Once we got there the place was absolutely packed with Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims. We had to queue for 20 minutes before we could see the Dalai Lama for about 5 seconds, then we had to move on. He wasn’t speaking English so we didn’t get any words of wisdom but it was cool to have seen such a great spiritual leader in the flesh.

By the end of the second week it was time to move on. We had itchy feet for trekking so Anna and Marika recommended us a great trail up to a place called Kheer Ganga.

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Photos

Biggest mosque in India
Delhi

Henna stop
Getting my hands full of henna whilst in Delhi

Heehe
Quick sneaky look back before moving on

Cheese
Group photo after an hour and a half of rafting

Near miss...
Local snake charmer

Finished jewellery
All the jewellery I made at silver school

Outside the gates
Waiting to see the Dalai Lama

Comments

[traveldude]

manali cream
hey ! can u plzz tell me where to get it in manali? I am going there next week... my email id is [e-mail]

[goldlilly]

Scoring in Manali
From the mall in Manali town keep to the left of the Y junction. on your left will be some shops and as you progress further there will be a wooded earea on the right. further along this road you will cross over a small bridge (so small you might miss it) stop here. to your left is a blue painted restaurant. People in this vicinity are very helpful and you will be ok here