Leaving Manali

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This is my last day in Manali before heading to Dharamsala on the overnight bus tonight. Yep, my bum has just about recovered from the last endurance test so its back on the road again!! I've had a fantastic few days here in Manali. Not actually doing an awful lot! I've read 1 and half books, relaxed and chilled out a bit! Having not enjoyed Delhi too much, this has been fantastic!
Talking of Delhi, I have had a couple of messages on here from people living in India, one of which said that I hadn't seen the true Delhi and had experienced the worst part of it. He may well be right and maybe I should go back to try and visit the list of places he suggested. It appears that all busses head back via Delhi so I may stop there and try again. Having said that, another message I had on here from someone in Bombay reckoned I could get a train direct to Agra from here in the North, so maybe I'll try that. Who knows? Choices choices, tough life travelling ;O)
Apart from chilling out, I went on a day trip to Vashist, which is only a few k from here. It's a nice little place though. I had a bath in the hot springs and went for a walk to the waterfall in the mountains over there. I hadn't realised there was a waterfall there when I left the hotel so wasn't really in trekking gear as such - flip flops are not so good for walking up and around mountains! Still I got there in the end n it was well worth the effort! That's about as active as I've been really.
Today, its been raining for the first time since I've been here, so its another good excuse for a lazy day. There's a couple of really nice cafes here in Old Manali where I'm staying. The garden cafe where I spent a good few hours on my first day here - the garden there is really pretty and the food was fab - they have a mixed menu of indian, tibettan & israeli, so loads to choose from and it tastes amazing. Today while wandering around in the rain I found another really nice place overlooking the river. The Manali River view or something like that. Had a fab 'Manali omlette' for brekky which comes with toast n butter, like a spicy potatoes, onions, courgettes in a tomato based sauce and if thats not enough you get some salad too. Also tried the mixed fruit juice which was literally freshly squeezed (bit like innocent smoothie but better!) and I'm afraid I ducked out of the chai this time and had one of my teabags from home! That said, the chai is really quite nice, but its really sweet and if you have it white, they tend to put a ton of milk in it. Its actually quite nice black though. All that for the equivalent of 1 pound!
So what else have I done since I've been here? Not an awful lot really - a bit of retail therapy - there are loads of bargains here, but u do need to bargain. They do try it on! Speaking of which, there were some guys doing snake dancing on the side of the road yesterday. They encourage you over and then while they've got a cobra right up next to your face they tell u their price is 600 ruppees! Nice try batman! Have a 100 and even that's too much! Quite funny, but still really not too keen on snakes!
Apart from that I've visited a few temples and been for a few walks, sampled the local cuisine - some of the roadside food is amazing. Samosas, which I knew from Kuwait, but also allsorts of deep fried spicy snacks which are all about 20 ruppees or less (25p). Yesterday I sat in a cafe with Tina, a girl I met from Germany and we had Tea and samosas and it came to 20 ruppees each, or about 25p! Bit different to Italy! Its so nice actually, because you feel like you can relax and chill out, whereas in Italy you were always in a hurry, not wanting to spend any nights more than you had too in one place as it all cost so much. Here, if you want to spend an extra night, it'll cost you 2pound 50 or less. OK the rooms aren't western standard, but they're fine and for that price you really can't complain. The people who run my hotel or guesthouse, as they call it, are lovely too. They really cant do enought to help you. The guy even came out at 11 last night to switch the phones on in the office so I could call Jack for her birthday - how nice is that!
I've had a real good chance to relax and contemplate - life, love, the universe and anything else that cropped up! Tina was talking about doing a meditation course in Dharamsala together - I'm up for trying (when in rome as they say) but with my mind, it should be pretty funny - Its on the go constantly. Not really sure that it has 'shut down' mode!

Well, the sun has now come out now, so guess that's my cue to go venture out. There's a few more piccies on facebook now too.
Take it easy guys. Missing u all loads. Happy Birthday Jackie n Ian -was great talking to you yesterday Jac! Loadsa love xx

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