More Manali

One more way India differs from the US: if you want a cup of coffee in the morning – at least one that isn't the instant powdered kind – you're going to have to wait. You know how most cafes, Starbuckses, etc are open by 5 or 6 in the morning? Yeah, here they chill until 9. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the locals all drink tea.... I suppose it's a really nice thing if you work in one of these cafes, but if you are a visitor looking for that morning caffeine fix, you might want to seek alternatives.

So, dear readers, while I am waiting for 9am to roll around I will be a good little blogger and tell you about the last couple of days, since as you may have noticed I was slacking a little bit on that front.

We've arrived in Manali on Tuesday evening. The first couple of days were spent exploring, sightseeing, and generally wandering around.

Yep, real life snake charmer.

We did fun things like visit one of the old local Hindu temples.

There is some really intricate wood carving on some of the old buildings in Manali, unlike I've seen in other places. Oh, and skulls.

Gill and I sat on a yak. It was very soft, but not quite as big as I expected. Maybe smaller yaks are easier to maintain here at relatively low altitudes (around 2000 meters).

We took some photos..

This is a Tata Nano. I see more cars like this here than any other... doesn't it kinda look like my Yaris at home?

The marigolds (and roses, and everything else) get really tall here, presumably from all the monsoon rain.

It's apple season in Himachal Pradesh.

If you look closely you can see both English and Tibetan writing on this wall under the painting. I found it to be a nice change from English overtaking everything it contacts; here the English has been covered up by Buddhist art.

Oh yeah, the hotels have cool names. Ours is called "The Dragon."

Yesterday for breakfast we decided to check out a little place we'd passed earlier called “Dylan's.” It, like the few other cafes that carry the stuff, advertises that you can get real brewed coffee there.

It was pretty darn good.

Verity finally found a good soy cappuccino!

What's that, you say? Fresh pineapple mint juice? Don't mind if I do...

There was a cast & crew running around Manali all day shooting some film, so we watched that for a while. They did not ask us to be extras (inconsiderate jerks).

After our nice relaxing morning we wandered down toward New Manali to purchase some gifts (and maybe a couple of things for ourselves, too).

Not the greenest city park I've ever seen...

No, I did not try one.

Later, Marie, Verity, and I took a detour through the woods near the river:

and found this cool tree:

and then on the way back into town we wandered down a side street filled with dhabas. They were impressed that I could decipher this sign:

In case you're wondering, it's: Chai - Coffee - Omelet in the red, and the blue reads: Veg momo, Chicken momo, Fried momo... (I'm actually not sure what the first word on the second line of blue says), then Soup, Chowmein, Dal, Chavel (which means rice). Cool, eh?

The three of us decided to try some dessert at the little place across the main road from our hotel, The Bee's Knees. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but in Dharamsala most of the businesses that provide wi-fi to their customers have passwords that reflect the spiritual, heavily Tibetan makeup of the town: “compassion,” “thankyousomuch,” “ilovemandala,” or sometimes more food-oriented ones like “bananacake” or “mochaccino.” It's cute. You get used to expecting a sweet, New-Age-y answer when you ask for the password after ordering your ginger lemon honey tea. That being said, you may be able to imagine our reaction when we asked for the password at The Bee's Knees and was told...

are you ready for this?...

“1nightstand69.”

Bahahahahaha.... well played, Bee's Knees cafe.

As I was telling my sister last night, I'd be alright with coming home any time now. I like it here, and I have actually been feeling a surprisingly low level of homesickness (maybe it's because I know I'll be back soon), but what I have been feeling lately is a sense that I have things to do – and I have to be home to do them. I miss my job and the paycheck it brings. Money certainly isn't everything, not by a long shot, but when you've spent two straight months spending your savings and not making much back, if any, then it gets a little tiring. Life in India is cheap, but it isn't free.

In closing, I leave you with photos of some of the local doggies:

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.