Manali - Mcleod Ganj

Lizard with ridiculous ratio of tail to body
Enormous slug
Just before the cloud overtook me...




Gay Monkey
View from Mcleod Ganj

After the baths and relaxation of the first day, Matt and I got up early after a bit of a late night (on the way home it rained so hard a river was flowing down the road...) to see if the climbing we had booked was on. Thankfully it wasn't due to the wet weather. We went back to bed and surfaced later that afternoon. The majority of the day was spent eating and chilling in the numerous cafe's. The following morning the weather was clear and we went climbing. We were joined by two girls from Derby and a German called Arun. Matt couldn't climb as they didn't have shoes to accomodate his size 14 feet and Ben suffered from sore knees so they just watched whilst I attempted the routes. The first two were quite easy and I was quietly confident of scaling the 3rd. Arun who climbed semi-regularly was the first to attempt the 3rd route (7b on the french scale...) he struggled with the first part of the route at first but then got up and made the rest look relatively easy. Considering he wasn't a small chap, I thought I wouldn't struggle...I couldn't get up the first two metres, after 20 minutes of trying my arms and legs were knackered and I let Raj the instructor demonstrate how it was done. He made it look very easy. I eventually managed to scale the wall but only after Arun, Matt and Ben had hauled me up the first part that I just couldn't do. Matt, Ben and the girls went Zorbing in the afternoon whilst I went back to the hotel to book a flight to Bangkok. My flight is on the 16th and I get in to Bangkok at 19.00 if anyone is around...

The following day Matt and Ben were heading towards Nepal and I was headed to Mcloed Ganj the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government. I had got the last seat on the night bus named the 'Cabin'; with the driver in his compartment. The driver was a f#$^ing Nazi. The only way to stop myself falling off the tiny seat was to rest my legs on the padded box next to the gear stick (where usually the other driver sits), but everytime i started drifting off he'd start shouting at me for no reason. When I managed to sleep in another position, he seemed to take pleasure out of waking me every time we stopped for a break to encourage me to go spend money...Finally we arrived at 6.00am in Mcleod Ganj. All the hotels were full until checkout so i had to pass out in a cafe whilst I waited for a room to become available. In the afternoon I visited the Tibetan Complex, the home of the Dalai Lama and a museum about the history of the Tibetan people which was fascinating. The following day I had planned to get up early and head up to Triand and then to a glacier. When I woke at 6 the weather was terrible, I could barely see further than 10 yards the rain was so heavy. I spent the day reading, eating and talking to Jen on Skype. The followig morning the weather was superb; blue skies and crystal clear views. I set off later than intended at 8.00 so walked quickly, the scenary on the way up was great but cloud was starting to appear below. I saw lots of monkeys, lizards, goats, cows etc. About 2 km from the top cloud started to rise past me and the views started to dissappear. I pretty much ran the rest of the way up the mountain, but it was to no avail. The cloud was pretty thick by the time i reached the top and all of the scenerary was obscured. I tried to walk to the glacier (Which isn't actually there in the summer, supposedly it melts) but I couldn't find the path and I didnt have a map, so I gave up and decided to walk back down. On the way down the skies opened and the path turned into a river, huge amounts of water just seemed to be streaming down the hill. Everything in my bag was soasked: Money, books, food. Luckily my passport was in a waterproof case and survived unharmed. The descent took about 2 hours and it was pretty cold. I had a bit of a fever that evening, but seem fine today even though I couldnt sleep. My opinion of Mcleod Ganj and Manali is that it isn't really India and Mcleod Ganj isn't really Tibetian either. Both places are just traveler hangouts, but any sense of Indian or Tibetan culture is definitely lost.

I head to Delhi tonight and then to Bangkok the day after. I've been unlucky with this monsoon which is supposedly one of the worst in West India in living memory, and the worst in Pakistan for 80yrs. From BK i'm going to head straight to Chang Mai and then to Laos. I don't have a plan as of yet. I'm hoping to be in China by the 7th/8th of September, spending about 10 days in Sichuan before meeting Jen in Beijing on the 21st. Any ideas on what to do in Laos or northern Thailand are more than welcome. I really want to get off the beaten track and i've heard this is quite easy in Laos so i'm excited!

Love to All