Manali to Dharmshala

Dear Friends and Family,

We settled comfortably in Manali and enjoyed a few days of walking around the busy modern section which we did not like nearly as much as the older part where we stayed in a lovely garden hotel. We befriended a really great family, the father a Bengali documentary film-maker from Calcutta who we both had much in common with, his British wife, an American friend living in Calucutta and five children between them. We shared Kathryn's birthday cake and gin and tonics with them on our last night. You see a view of Old Manali from across the river in the town the Lonely Planet described as "charming" we thought it was more like the spelling of it, VaiSHIT, really Lonely Planet, it was one long filthy busy shopping center of concrete without a a single old building left, but to be fair, our LP was written in 2005 and change happens quickly in India. Day trips took us to many wonderful old wooden temples, from both Manali and Kullu.
While we were exploring the old town of Manali we followed a path down from our hotel, and stumbled upon an opportunity for John to finally take a dip in the river, this a tributary of the Beas River that flows through the entire Kullu Valley. John made sure to NOT drink any of the river water. He was applauded because of his bravery, and also I think his age, by an enthusiastic crowd of Indians. Fortunately the bungee cord supporting him held up well. I was not nearly as brave and stood on the bank snapping many photos. We had Kathryn's birthday dinner a few days early as we found a really great restaurant and bar in Manali and we were warned that there were not to be such amenities in our next stop in Kullu when Kathryn's birthday would really occur. We had John's Father's Day dinner a few days before that in the same resturant.


A day stop in Nagar took us to a very charming village in the hills, this time described accurately in the LP this time, the home of the eccentric Russian painter Nichalous Roursch, whose house museum we toured. We saw, more wonderful temples and John found a great enthusiastic young man who he bought many delectable things made out of Yak and Angora (lucky you who will get theses) and the young man who is getting a degree in Sociology was very very pleased and appreciative of my interest in the old wooden temples and gave me much valuable advise on where to find them as many as we found, might be way off the main road in an Apple orchard, while some we did not expect to see were right on the main road, fortunately all of our drivers have been patient with our need to stop as Kathryn photographs these and indigenous examples of old houses and temples.

Next stop south was Kullu, not the most charming city but livley, we found one good place to eat that we kept returning to, and had a great room with a wrap around balcony, though minus the wall to wall red carpeting in the room and the sleepy staff, it could have been better. It was the best base for exploring the temples and views. Though because of no tourist infrustructure, we were subject to the extortionate feels of the local taxi union. The daily afternoon rain we encountered in Manali and Nagar, (just misty, nothing to stop us from exploring) ended in Kullu and we had a few hot sunny days. Rather than whitewater rafting which we had considered, we instead took an arduous hike 2 lkm up a mountain above the tree line, 800 steps (I counted on the way down, luckily did not know on the way up) and proved at my new age of 50, turned that day, that I was still in reasonable shape, and John is amazing, ten years my senior and a terribly good sport, as I was confused about what temple was what and he was not prepared with his sturdy Shimla bought new waking stick. As we progressed up, we kept waiting for the top to appear, but it never ever seemed to come, but when it finally did, the views from a ridge high above two valleys, was simply magic, as was the charming painted wooden temple that there are photos of Kathryn lighting incense inside of. Our legs were pure rubber after that and a gin and tonic on the wide wrap around balcony of our red carpeted room was well deserved. After a day in India, however, Gin and Tonics at the end of the day are ALWAYS well deserved.

We reached Dharmsaala by way of going south to Mandi first, then north, BUT the roads to our amazement were paved AND had stripes down the middle, suggesting that there could be two lanes of traffic, each going in its own direction! Finally off of a river bed, the lush green terraced fields gave us the impression that if our car did fall off the edge, we would bounce into soft green felt, (probably NOT the case in reality) Our progress was hindered by some of the heaviest rain we had ever encountered, and the cars we rent, though sturdy, do not have any kind of defrost, so the windows must be kept partially open and handkerchiefs used to clear the fog.

So we again have a great room in McCloud Gunge, 10 klm and very high above Dharmsala where its like a New England vacation town in mid July, many people from all over the world crowd the narrow street, barely enough room to have one car let alone trying to walk past them, hopefully when the weekend is over thing will calm down a bit, but it is interesting and there are many walks to take. Its fun to see red robed Buddhist monks walking everywhere as this is the home of the Tibetan exile community, thus the international flavor and we will visit the Dalai Lama's gompa though the DL himself is probably in Rochester or some other far flung globe trotting location continuing to talk about Tibetan independence, Free Tibet signs are everywhere, the movement continues, just to the left on our computer is a Free Tibet sign.

You can expect our next blog from Chandigargh, back on the hot plains of India, toward the end of our trip.

More from the road,
Love, Kathryn and John