Manali, city of dance music!

Ah, it's nice to be someplace new. As much as I like McLeod Ganj in general, after spending two months there I was ready for a change. It's a nice little town but it's exactly that: a little town. I live in a little town in the US, I don't need to spend my entire time in India in a little town as well.

I know I've only been here a few hours, but my first impression of Manali is a positive one. We are staying in “Old Manali” because apparently it's nicer than “the rest of Manali.” We walk down the street and hear dance music playing in various clubs and cafes, there are all new items in the shops lining the roads, and the overall vibe is fresh and somewhat younger. McLeod Ganj has that sort of traditional Indo-Tibetan/dirty hippie vibe. It's not bad, but like I said... I was ready for a change. I danced my way through Old Manali this evening on our short little excursion and again as we came back from dinner. I made a couple of new friends already, too, so that's cool. I'd only been in town for about 3 hours and someone asked me out to lunch... all I have to say is lol. It's fun.

So anyway, the trip began this morning in Rewalsar, since that's where we wound up at the end of the first leg of the trip. We ate at one of the local cafes where I opted to drink my coffee sans sugar because it looked like this:

Oh look, a friend!

We trekked up to the temple (sort of... we drove most of the way and hiked the last couple of kilometers).

My snow lion impression.

There's a footprint that was supposedly left by Pema-whats-his-name himself. We had to do a bit of hiking to get there. You can always tell when you enter a Tibetan area by the sudden profusion of prayer flags.

This old Tibetan monk was asking for donations to offset his medical costs, because he has diabetes. I gave him a few rupees.

In return he gave me this bracelet and a hearty thank you.

Now THAT's a cave. I did not go in.

Nom nom nom...

There are so many red dahlias here... <3

Yup, I guess the foot print's that way.

Oh, there it is. On the wall.

We checked out the cave he did some meditating in, which now contains a number of statues and altars. It was cool without being too claustrophobic.

Gill trying to decipher the Tibetan sign.

Just for reference, that photo of HH is an 8x10.

Then it was back into the taxi for a few more hours. We stopped at a shawl emporium in Kullu (there are signs for shawl places every fifteen feet for miles on either side of the town... I would have taken more photos but we were moving too fast) where we could watch the weavers work. Obviously I had a good time there.

And then, at last... Manali!

The hotel we decided to stay in reminds me of the Timber Wolf Inn where I once stayed in Wisconsin Dells, which is a fond memory so the association is not unwelcome. The scenery's a little different, though...

No mountains like this in Wisconsin that I'm aware of!

It's colder here. You can tell by the way the doggles are snuggled up.

Oh yeah. We saw a yak.