Month: August 2009

1. On the Bend Go Slow Friend
2. Work in Progress Inconvenience Regretted
3. Don’t Gossip Let Him Drive
4. After Whiskey Driving Risky
5. Beep Beep Don’t Sleep
6. Saftey on the Road is a Safe Tea at Home
7. It’s Not a Rally Enjoy the Valley
8. I am Curvaceous Be Slow
9. Say No to Plastic Let This Planet Alive
10. If You Love Her Divorce Speed

We arrived in Leh last night after a 2 day trip from Manali. We thought the trip to Manali from Shimla was frightening. We had no idea. 2 days to travel approximately 450km. The highest point was at 5500m. We are feeling the effects of the altitude and have decided to take it easy today. Tomorrow we might take in the Ladakh Confluence Music Festival before we start volunteering.

Manali is in the mountains surrounded by beautiful forest, and there is a river separating the old and new part of town. There are some good places to eat, accommodation for every budget, lots of little shops and temples… the flora and fauna consists of large marijuana plants growing wild along the streets. This is a meeting point between the North and South. Soon we will head North. I wish I could stay longer. “Yaks are awesome!!”

There are a lot of things to buy in Manali. Some really cool and others, well… We saw our first snake charmer today but decided not to pay for a picture. Though, we did pay the angora rabbit lady.

We arrived in Manali last night from Shimla. Although the distance is just under 300km the journey took 9 hours. When we weren’t avoiding snakes, reptiles, cows, monkeys, dogs and people, we were dodging dump trucks, other buses, cars, motorcycles and even a bicycle (we saw that guy we met in Delhi who rode his bike from Austria). With the windy road, continuous bumps, near head on collisions and sheer cliff drop offs, we were wondering how we would fare by the end of the day. Surprisingly, the trip didn’t seem all that long. Our driver stopped for breakfast and lunch and we ate the best Indian food as of yet. He also stopped at a beautiful roadside temple as did most other drivers, pulling onto the side of a narrow highway and blocking the traffic, to ring the bell and say a prayer, perhaps the reason we arrived safe. Manali is beautiful and clean and the cheapest place so far. We have a nice room overlooking the river for just under $10 a night.

We predict Shimla will be overtaken by monkeys soon. On our visit to the local temple on Jakhoo hill (2455m), dedicated to Bhagwan Hanuman, we felt confident we could deal with this monkey business (ahhh, they’re so cute). On the way we saw signs “Sticks for Rent, Only 10 Rupees”. We decided to save our money and bypass the sticks, what harm can a cute little monkey do.

Jon didn’t even see her coming as she jumped from behind to snatch his glasses. A mom with her baby, no less. We were forewarned just before  about the monkey thieves so Jon had a firm hold on his glasses and was lucky enough to save them from getting pinched. He did walk away with a nice scratch down the right side of his face. Purchased a stick after that, for the way down and gained a whole new respect for monkeys and the monkey god.

My first elephant. Wanted to reach out and touch him/her but did not want to fall out of the auto rickshaw.

On our last day in Delhi and we still have much to see. Today we visited the Mosque of Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. We also went to the Red Fort. Our rickshaw driver tried to convince us that it was closed, and that we could only take pictures from the outside so we would stay in his rickshaw and pay the fare back to our hotel, we trusted our gut and got out… oh those Rickshaw drivers, little head wiggle. The Red Fort is vast, and beautifully ornate. Walking around, I couldn’t help but think how strange it was that people would build such grand palaces for their emperor’s.

First day of wondering around New Delhi… We visited the beautiful Lotus temple, and learned more about the Bahai Faith, www.bahaindia.org. We also got lost and when we finally got a taxi we discovered the chaotic art of driving in India.

Not sure what day or time it is but we have made it through our first day in Delhi. The Paharganj area is far nothing we could have imagined. Tomorrow we are on a mission to find the Apple store and visit the Lotus Temple. At dinner we met a guy who biked here from Austria, really!

On our way, soon. Leave 8pm tonight from Vancouver, Canada. Arrive 6am August 17th in Delhi, India.