..:: 663. The One With Manali ::..

ha. forget about waking up at 4am to watch sunrise. left the temple at around 1pm and donated about 150rs. thinking we could catch the bus to dharamsala at 3pm (which was what the ticketing officer told us last night), the bus to dharamsala was actually 12pm. as usual, we were not surprised by the "anything is possible" in india which could well be their tourism tagline.

we could either transit at pathankot then take another bus there to dharamsala. alternatively, we could take a 12-hr ride to manali which was on the way up to leh. since dalai lama would be at dharamsala on sun and it was monday, i thought we could go up manali first then come down later.

230pm bus. i had to climb on top of the bus to secure our huge backpacks and a whole lot of butt abrasion, bumpy ride, ANOTHER puking woman, we finally reached manali at about 6am.

i was totally not prepared for the weather, freaking cold and i was in my singlet and berms lol. my face turned blue immediately, and lucky there was the pipping hot chai to keep my sanity. took an auto (which was rare in sight) to old manali.

found tourist nest guesthouse which had nice room and balcony for 400rs per night. wondered around and found a german bakery with a hot dude. after random conversations by yash, found that he was actually training to be a singapore gurkha but had insufficient money to pay to go to singapore. that explained his buff bod which i thought he got it from carrying sacks of flour since gymming isnt the kind of thing they do there. there were lots of people from nepal working here in summer and during winter, they would all flood to goa.

weather is so cooling, its like aircon 24/7. good thing there was tv in the room so we could catch some bbc news. visited the marketplace which was flooded with the locals. shopping spree as usual, bought shawls as gifts and another empty bag to store all the gifts.

going to book a mini bus to leh which cost 1500rs each. ouch. but considering the 300rs and the savings we got from the interstate-my-ass-in-a-bad-state bus ride to manali, it was alright i guess.

embrace myself for colder weather (thinks of barbarella chantel thomas) and rafting!!!

i miss my pastry...