So hows it going Nikhil...

Its perfect...

The place is beautiful... Hidden away between mountains on all sides... The Indus flowing besides it... A perfect place to be in...

The people around are lovely...The kids really sweet and eager to learn...
The cows give a lot of milk... And i think the toilet is the worlds best.It is a dry compost toilet but there is no ceiling..It opens up to the bright blue sky during the day and during night to the million of stars that just make the sky look so beautiful..I think this is the second most beautiful sky i have seen the other being at bandavgarh forest late at night with the sounds of wild animals nearby...

I spend a few hours a day teaching and talking in english and the rest just lazying around and reading... Well if i could change anything it would be nothing....

Well thinking about it... may be the food(gives me a squizzy stomach) and the american teenagers at the campus for a while... The rest stays the same...

Death By Sitting

My journey from Manali to Leh was a bitter sweet experience...
I was dumped at the back of a sumo with 3 other guys... I was charged double than anyone of them my only mistake being not confirming where do i sit... Guess i trusted that guy... For 24 hrs i lay there. Within 6 hours I couldnt feel my legs... I puked twice... The driver played bad hindi/ladakhi music all the way... My head was about to explode... Hadnt slept for the last 2 days... But then as always the beauty of the trip... the snow around me the snow clad mountains and the beautiful geeky looking brit girl sitting in the front made up for it...

Manali not for me

So I have been roaming around the streets of Manali market this evening and I don't seem to like what I see...

To begin with there are more tourist than locals.. How can i enjoy a place when the people who inhabit the place are fewer than the visitors may in the ratio of 10:1 There is no majic to such a place.

Dont get me wrong I think Manali is beautiful. The high mountains.. the tall trees the fresh air..

I was imagining it around 20 years ago and man it would have been breathtaking... Now it seems like a market between mountains aargh...

And who do I see around me...

Couple on their honeymoons .. the bride with her mehndi still on and ornaments that say I was married a few days ago... Guys its your first holiday after your wedding make it special...

Drunk group of boys from somewhere in north India who think the own the place with their attitude and beer bottles...

Couples still in college come for a weekend getaway.... Guys you'll can do it somewhere in delhi also... wont make a difference

Families who have come for a holiday but the only place they seems to visit is the restaurants...

And then stupid travellers like me with rugsacks wandering around the place doing nothing...

I know i am sounding like a jerk... But i feel bad for myself and all the other fools around me...

Ta...

Manali and me

Arrived in Manali early in the morning... My ride to Leh is a cab at 2.00 am next morning...
So i just sit and read bill bryson, sip on earl grey tea.. have a masala omlete and write my blog post on the worlds worst keyboard,every time i press a key i could climb up the Petronas towers by foot and come back to see the letter just about flickering on the screen.

But ain't I loving this... :)

The italian next to me...

You wonder whether the seat next to you will be occupied by a italian blond.. But then some indian dude from noth comes and sits next to you.You just sigh and stare at he city you about to leave.

After dinner at a dhaba(Between the best mutter paneer and roti i have eaten and then top it with chai...) we were all seated as the bus attendant comes over and hands each person 5 plastic bags... Just in case you suffer from motion sickness... The northy next to me in 2 hours uses all five of them and also goes and ask for more. Whats funnier is that every time he uses one he has to go right to the front of the bus and give it to the attendant to throw away.. lol...

But for his benefit the driver thought it was some kind of arcade game... Nearly killed us thrice...

Tips to catch a bus from delhi to anywhere

So i booked my delhi to manali bus ticket online. Got the travel agencies name(Raj Himachal tours) and also where do i need to catch the bus. My bus was at 5.00pm so i started calling the number I had at 3.00 pm. No one answers for an hour... Somewhere around 4.00 i am told to stand exactly where i am standing, a bus will come and pick u up(majic) no bus number nothing at all...(Actually i heard 9100 in the background).

So here i am waiting for a bus 9100 and that has raj tours on it...
At around 5.15 there is bus (Mukul travel, 1777)... It cant be mine.. waiting for 10 mins I call the number again.

Me: Manali 5.00 pm
He: 1777
Me:WTF

Once I get in the bus I have a seat 16 but am sent to a seat really behind...
The adventure of catching a bus does not end here... Even if you are sitting on your very own seat that you have paid for waiting for the bus to leave the bus dude can ask you to get down if an odd number of people need to be seated... So I was lucky there was me an another guy from south india travelling alone(From the looks of him i guessed). There a gang of 4 people enter with only 3 seats left... The south Indian guy is moved out... God know why????
Lucky me...
Until next time...

So my journey begins..

I am sitting a the mumbai airport waiting for my flight to delhi reading bill bryson (Neither here not there... or something like that) and sipping on darjeeling tea... take sometime off to wander my mind... I start thinking what are the 3 things that 1 have to achieve in my trip...

1. Stories... I should have stories to tell... Stories of travel... of climbing mountain peaks... Stories of encountering snow leopards... stories...
Actually just stories that the girls like to hear :)

2. Loose my beer belly...

3. Cant think of anything interesting for the third point... lol

So my journey begins...