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Published: August 5th 2007
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So this weekend we decided to get out of the hub that is Palampur and head north to a place called Manali!! Manali is a really cool hippie/tourist town in the north of the state - there are soooooooooo many indian tourists who come here on holiday/honeymoon aswell as the usual trekkers, backpackers and crusty old stoners!!
So we hired a car and driver to take us the 160km from Palampur to Manali. What a drive... we were in this teeny tiny little car and somehow we managed to avoid the potholes that were often much bigger (and deeper) than the car. Well most of the time... on occaision as we chugged through the water my feet got slightly wet :s It was very bumpy and torrential rain for most of the journey as we wound round and up and down the steep mountain passes and combined with our drivers impatience and inability to use the brakes we often were on 2 wheels as we swung round the tight bends! It was slighty disturbing as the road signs that told you the distances to the next town looked remarkably like gravestones... in fact it wouldn't surprise me if they were
gravestones detailing the number of accidents on that part of the road. I wouldn't say I'm scared easiy but I found myself gritting my teeth and holding on for dear life at times as quite often there were very HUGe steep drops off the side of the road with nothing there to stop you plummeting down...meanwhile our driver had one hand on the wheel and the other hanging out the window like he was cruising along the esplanade!!
There were numerous hairy moments... a few hours into the drive we'd got used to the speed and the close calls with buses and trucks when our driver approached almost a U bend in the road at about 50km/hour and I just looked up to see a bus careering straight towards us... needless to say I was almost sent through the windscreen as the brakes slammed on and luckily we stopped just about half a metre from the bus. Then just 5 minutes later whilst we were all still on edge about the near death incident we spotted some chickens on the road ahead of us and I just thought to myself "Why did the chicken cross the road?" then before
I knew it there was a swift thud and we bumped over the poor little chicken!!!!!!!!!!! I think our driver did it deliberately as he had a cheeky little grin on his face!!!!!!! So I guess now I'll never know why that chicken wanted to cross the road!
Apart from the numerous close shaves it was a nice drive... the scenery was amazing. We saw lots of monkeys and colourful little temples dotted on the hills! There were huge waterfalls cascading into rivers, it really was amazing!!
So we arrived safe and sound in Manali to be checked into probably the most disgusting hotel I've ever seen in my life!!! We had 5 star panoramic views - of the rubbish tip across the street! The sheets were stained with who knows what and probably had never been cleaned, the bathroom had a red light and looked straight out of a horror movie and lets just say the carpet had been around the block!!!!! So we switched to a nicer one... still not great but at 200 rupees (2.50) for 2 nights you can't really complain!
We had a great girly night last night, we went out or
dinner and drinks. It was so nice to actually have some real food for a change instead of the rice, chapati and random coloured selection of veg we get at camp. I had fajitas and they were soooooo good washed down with a nice gin and lime!! So one thing led to the next and we decided to check out the indian club scene - until we found out that the "club" only stayed open until 11pm lol So in our search for a bar we were propositioned by some indian men to drink some wine in their car which was parked down a dark alley!!! With an offer like that how could we refuse?!?!? They really couldn't understand why we were not interested .... and proceded to follow us into our bar of choice for the evening! Eventually they gave up and left and we enjoyed ome girly chat and cocktails!! It was fun... they cranked up the trance music and several powercuts left us with only candlelight which was really cool atmosphere! We had some good chat with this indian guy who was hanging around... we just wound him up something awful!!
Some folk are off paragliding
and rafting today but I've decided not to do either! I've heard lots of nasty reports that the paragliding isn't safe... I've been assured everywhere that they all meet indian national safety regulations but that doesn't really instill confidence!! So we are enjoying a leisurly day doing some shopping - there are loads of places selling pashmina and angora shawls nevermind the street hawkers selling random curios like drums and these cute little chess boards! I'd really like one of the drums actually but they're too big to lug around with me for the next 4 months!!!!
My plans have changed slightly since arriving here - I've decided not to go to Nepal and instead to stay in India with my plan being to heads to Goa to do more voluntary work with Idex for a couple more months as I'm really enjoying it. I feel like I'm getting to know the culture much better than I would as a tourist and it's nice being settled somewhere rather than moving on every few days!!
Think the rest of today we're going to hike up to this cool temple a few km out of town for sunset then chill
out tonight, Manali is a great place to just people watch! I really like the atmosphere and it was definitely worth the 8 hour journey in the toy car!
Hope you are all well,
Acha Ji
Alixxxxxxxxxxx
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Mark
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Kingfisher
Hi Ali, when you're in a bar and if you're drinking Kingfisher try to get it in a Green bottle, if you can't get that then go for the clear one before you end up on the brown. Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself. Evie says "Hello". Bye for now.