Renuka 22nd - 24th August

We took the toy train from Shimla to Solan, our first indian train experience. It was slow but an excellent adventure thro the many tunnels, bridges and forests. Chai shops littered the way literally, reuseable clay cups are traditionally used by chai wallahs but for obvious reasons plastic cups have risen their ugly head and the locals disposal morals are not to envy.

Again David found someone to walk us to the bus stand at Solan for Nahan, a good 1/2h walk with sweaty packs. The bus was late that was to our advantage, with bags secured we had the ride of our lifes - when buses are late the driver goes furiously to make up the time. We had to stop in Nahan in a grotty hole for the morning bus to Dodadu. Renuka is 2km walk from here, the roads are closed due to the monsoon so walking was the only option. The hottest part of the day was when we made our journey - mad dogs and englishmen eh? - we where very sweaty messes on arrival at the only hotel in Renuka. Unfortunatly it is government run so no haggling, we got ripped off for a mouldy dorm room.

The place itself was a dream! Tropical QUIET paradise. We watched boys climb trees and jump into the lake, it started to rain so we took shelter in a temple. Here we where entertained by a baba and a local girl Renu showed us round the temple.

The rain here is short and heavy, the whole valley glows with life after a shower. We spotted monkeys with babies, insects, birds, frogs, huge fruit bats chattering, turtles and deer. The butterflies where huge, colourful and in their thousands, the place was alive!

Deepram befriended us, a 17yr old lad who is dead keen to come to the bright lights of England. We did our best to put him off and give him reality bites, but he's determined to make his millions.

The place is sanctuary and again we found another dismal zoo with mental bears, fighting asiatic lions (they wonder why they fight - 6 males live in a cage about 10x10m) they stunk and where covered in open sores. The 'warden' came over at the leopard enclosure and stared to bang on the metal doors to vex the animal out, we walked away in disgust and cream de la cream, a bear cub was dragged out of a dark hole on chains for our pleasure - I soon let him knew what I thought of that. It is hard in these situations, these guys just arent aware of what these animals need and almost certainly don't have the funds available to give it to them if they did understand.
The food at this hotel was divine. Next stop Riskehesh to see Ifat.

Shimla 19th - 21st August

Shimla was a short ride on bus from Mandi, David got chatting to a police man from Shimla and he walked us from the bus thro town to the best accomodation area, now not that we weren't not grateful for this little favor but, the guy dropped us right in the ritzy area!

Hotels are all that are available here and they cost 600 up. Accepting the fact we couldnt be tight on bugdet here we made a reservation at a nice place resonable for the cash and stayed the night in over price but clean room.
Shimla is Himachal's capital, built on a ridge, it is India's most famous British hill station (2100m)and is now a rich playground full of people flashing the cash, busy being 'seen' and talking in english to one another. It has british built buildings and the town is totally pedestriansed - a very refreshing change!

All there is to do here is shop (sorry dave) but is fasinating seeing how the wealthy part of indian society live in western clothes and habits. I got strange looks and laughs from these guys in my Salwar, the people in the sticks just love it - I guess thats snobbery for you.
The food was expensive and not upto much so we stuck to the dhabas of the Bazaar. The weather was creepy, cloud just rolled in as and when, real pea soupers at times. One morning we had a real suprise, a tree fell down outside our hotel on to car park and flattened two cars. We have had lots of rain so we recon that was the reason - it took half the road with it too. The electric cables where down but we where assured "the town clerk lives on this road, he won't live without electric - it'll be back within the hour" alright for some eh?

Monkeys rampage the streets looking for people with food to mug and generally making shop keeper lives hell. The dogs have good fun with them and gang up and shout at them - they give good chase until they find a tree.
The post office here was painless! and we managed to get rid of the parcels we have been carrying around with us because of mr. Nark in Jari. I bough some new flipus flopus and had a ceremony for my pink reefs, they shall be missed.

Mandi 16 - 18th August

Mandi was actually a very enjoyable town, I don't know why I say this cos I actually spent the two days in bed ill! It was a managable size for exploring, the Bazaar was a labrynith that backed on to the massive river beas. There was also a sunken garden surrounded with a market - the circular route prevents missing out on any bargin. David and Ifat where in charge of bed hunting and they came back a bit deflaited as the places where either filthy, expensive or both. The place has over 100 temples spread around in various states of health. Due to my illness Ifat had to depart without us, we look foward to seeing her in Rishekesh - Bonvoyage! Here I guess we mainly caught up with our T.V. viewing.

Rewalsar 14th - 15th August

To get to Rewalsar we had a trip back to Bhunter, to Mandi, then final destination yet, it was one of those lovely journeys that ran like clock work. It was up to me and Ifat to look for somewhere to kip while David sat with the bags. Unfortunatly David was left waiting for 2h, the sky was falling in... well it is monsoon after all. Ifat and I sat drinking chai chatting (again as much as you can with no language). At 19.00 we returned to David and Ifat had a room. The food in this place was lip licking as soon as we ordered it seemed that the whole family where put to work in the kitchen.
Rewalsar has three Tibetan monastries and Hindu and Sikh connections by various religious stories. The town is bustling with pilgrims, monks and nuns taking in the atmosphere created by prayer flags, shrines, chapels and holy trees, The lake is the holy epicenter. The place is crawling with monkeys and cows. We visited a cave simular to the buddist one in Hemis it was small, cold, wet, dark and kept by a devout monk that told us "a monk many moons ago hand put his shoulders and hands on the roof to stop it from collapsing, you can fit you own hands here" the story was the same and by jolly as with the one in Hemis there where two hand holes where ours did fit!
This place has an animal sanctuary we decide to check out with dismal results, misleading title sohould of guessed it would be a misery hole. Black bears pacing and deer stood in mud was the attraction, I lost my rag with a guy who was sticking his umbrella through cage bars and poking, funnily enough he listened!

Kasol 'Little Telaviv' 7th - 16th August

The trip to Kasol was easy with it only being down the road. We saw Hen from Leh when we landed and he advised a nice and cheap place for us, a good family guest house. Again this is a place to explore the area on foot with traditional villages easy reached on foot.

The walk to Chalal was particularly exhilerating as it involved a indian jones type suspension bridge or a fast and furious river. The Paravati area is know for its raging waters and beautiful mountains. Chalal was where we lost our ace of earts to a gust of wind, we have a new card now - yes we are too stingy to buy a 20R new pack!
The food here is good, we are getting very familiar with the Isreali cuisine and we are still able to get excellent momo's.

The family we are staying with invited us to their brother and sister cermony. A day were the sister (of course) praises the brother (like they could never praise each other? - sorry some animosity for the male dom system here, it sucks). It was however, lovely to watch if a little long - two brothers to five sisters each with individual cermonies.
We bumped into Michel (Leh) here also and went to take part in the Isreali wedding that day... crazy tere where about 3-400 people tier intisied by te propect of free food! The Rabi guys made sure everyone was drunk fillin up glasses with your rank spirit of choice - neat, they were wrecked. After was a trance party obilgitory to the isreali religion!

Manikaran was an interesting place to visit. On arrival we felt like celebs everyone wanted their photo with us! It is a town revered holy by sikhs and hindus, with mythical storys behind the origins of the boiling hot springs there. Its baba heaven, they sit and smoke chillums allday then pester you for money when they are dry! The town was on the river and the banks where strune with rubbish.

The hot springs bellowed out steam, it is possible to cook rice in the waters here. The temple complex was massive, full of small nooks and crannies. The hot caves where especially amazing as you had to crawl thro small holes in the walls to get to them. David was in for a surprise the place was full of religious tat shops , with 3 girls the trip soon turned to a shopping opportunity!

From Kasol we visted Jari for post (where the most miserable man in the world worked) and waxing oppurtunities. Michel and Ifat were particularly pleased to find a lady waxer - most are male...imagine!
Kasol is well known in the isreali circles for regular trance parties, being in the area we thought it rude not to go, we left at 4a.m. to go and left at 13.00. It was a good experience to see the sun come up at a party, yet the music (or d.j's) weren't really capturing us.