The Himilayan mountain range is breathtaking. There's no other word to describe it.
First, I'll bring you up to speed since my last entry a couple of weeks ago. We arrived in Shimla, a hillstation/ monkey terrorist base at the start of the month. It was our first taste of milder weather with temperatures in the low 20's during the day and dropping to 10-ish in the evening. Shimla is a very frequented mountain town so it was quite overpriced and packed with the usual crowds. Notable to the town are it's Simian monkey terrorists. These monkeys are so naughty because they have been fed too much so they now attack passing tourists and break into any open entry in search of snacks. I was very freaked out about being rushed by a pack of monkeys but fortunately was spared. The monkeys did however break into our hotel room. When I entered our hotel room the first night out, I jokingly chuffed about monkeys breaking in. To my surprise, the balcony door was open and the monkey had gone straight for some sweets. We were so lucky that they did not tear through the I-Pod, cameras, and clothes conveniently next to the sweets as we witnessed the next day when a guy was trying to retrieve his wife's purse off a branch about 20 feet above him. Another case of monkey terrorism!
From Shimla, we went to Manali which is where I am writing from. Manali has every convenience a traveller needs including awesome internet connection, western food, etc. It's a primary lauching spot for further touring up north and it also happens to be a major tourist destination. Set against a beautiful mountain backdrop, it is tainted by constant traffic. Ironically, the car emissions seem a lot worse than Delhi! I'll comment more on that later. We are in Old Manali where the backpackers converge. It is the peaceful part of town unlike New Manali which might as well be New Delhi.
Just today, we returned from the most worthwhile motorbiking experience on the road to Leh. Although we did not make it to Leh due to the early season road conditions and a general lack of preparation, we were able to hang out in a little town Keylong which has yet to see massive tourism. On route to Keylong, we were surrounded by mountains soaring to 6000 metres, waterfalls, and valleys dotted with terraces ready to unleash the fruitful bounty of the Himilayas. It reminded us so much of home but at a magnitude I have never experienced until now.
Our trusty ride was our rented Royal Enfield. It could be compared to the Volvo of motorbikes; heavy, sturdy, reliable, and not so agile but more tank like. There were some pretty funny moments on this bike starting with loading it up with far to much weight, precariously teetering and wobbling down the steep path from our guesthouse, and then crashing at slow motion. This all happened at 7am when everyone was just waking up so immediately we were surrounded by a bunch of helpful locals. Aside from bruised egos, we escaped unscathed. The other funny moment was following a zen experience visiting an unfrequented fort in a hill town at around 4500 metres. It was about 20 minutes away from Keylong in possibly one of the most mellow places you could picture yourself being so of all places, it was a pretty ideal one to get a flat tire and we were able to roll ourselves down to the highway. I felt pretty relaxed but Nick on the other hand was delusional from the thin air or something. He was on high stress as he was changing the tire. The final straw was when he thought the mechanic did not give him the right tool. The mechanic Johnny, who had been his buddy two days ago was a yell outloud "COCKSUCKER" at that moment and with that, Nick accidentally thumped a hole in the seat of the Enfield. And the tire? Well, it popped out without the tool he thought he needed. Karma's a bitch when she's rubbed the wrong way!! Afterwards, we had a good laugh about how ridiculous the whole situation was.
Back to my earlier comment about car emissions. I saw some of the most amazing landscape in the past few days. I also inhaled the most emission ever and probably burned a loonie sized whole in my lung at a place called Rohtang (aka HELL!). Rohtang is a glacier that many tourists flock to. It's on the route to Leh and Keylong so it's absolutely unavoidable. For about an hour, we are subjected to following a non-stop lineup of cars to Rohtang. At the destination, there is a ridiculous parking lot of idling cars inching up a 200 metres stretch. Okay, so maybe I am spoiled because I have grown up with snow but really, where is the joy in driving up to this spot where all there is a dirty patch of snow that is black because of pollution? The sad thing is that this glacier will probably not exist in the next 5 years with the amount of car emissions just from the tourists. There is no drama here. On 3 seperate days, there was the same steady stream of cars.
Next stop is Dharamsala, the home of the exhiled Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama. Our time in India is drawing to close so stay tuned as we savor more moments from our wild ride!
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