weather

has gone crazy here - it started raining last night, there was a power cut, it rained all night - ive just heard a loud bacg of thunder - looked out and theres the thickest fog ive ever seen!

not what you want with a scary bus journey tonight, hope it clears up

thats it then...

booked on the overnight bus to dehli (in a few hours) , then get a few hours there to shower, and buy some cheap jeans cos my army pants are in the worst possible state a pair of trousers could ever be in - and then its back to blighty on a virgin flight!

hopefully some good films, and i think i fancy some gin and tonics should make the flight very pleasent indeed

and why i wrote everton instead of everyone (below) ive no idea!

just a little insight....

to how nuts things are here

been reading the papers every day, and theres always a story that gets me - i read yesterday a chemical plant where doing a drill to see how they would cope with a leak, so they had people on the floor pretending to be affected, and released smoke in to the air to simulate a leak - and then the Fire Engine storms in and runs over one of the guys on the floor - killing him! how bad is that!

food food food

had one of the best carboanaras ive eved had last night - not what youd expect up here but was delish - loads of fresh garlic in it! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

few more gotfathers last night, so was a bit late getting up today - the label on the beers actually say the strength is 'no less than 5 and no more than 8.5' so you have no idea whether you are just gonna be merry, or totally spannered! russian roulette or what, in a good way though!

so i walked up to triund today, which was quite tough - got befreinded by a tibetan guy who ownde a shop on top of the hill - he wanted me to stay (for money) which would have been cool, but for some reason i decided to come back

almost got to the snowline too, but the path was getting slippy and there was a pure drop on the side, so i went 'sensible' and turned back!

cheeky monkey

monkey came down to breakfast this morning, and this woman near by panicked a little and left her table - which wasn't very wise - within seconds the monkey was on there and grabbed the bowl of sugar, poured some of it in is mount, and then took the rest with him - up a ladder!!! brilliant

also, seems to be the 'thing' to do here, is instead of jackets everton has a blanket wrapped around them - i havent succumbed to this yet, but it kinda makes sense - so this time, im siding with the hippies !

matrimony

i knew that arranged marriages where still very popular here, and very much the norm - but i wasn't really sure how it all worked
so got the sunday times this morning, and there is a massive suppliment with it - and its all looking for bride, or grooms! EVERY bloke describes themselves as 'handsome', its so funny

but some of them are parents looking for a wife for there son, or vice versa, and then there are different sections relating to caste, religion, language, or area!

was quite an eye opener

and on to Dharamsala and McCleod Ganj

a few more buses and i find myself rubbing shoulders with the dalai lama - well, he lives here anyway. Is way up in the himalayan foothills, but aint too cold yet - ive got a nice room in the Kunga guesthouse for 125 ruppees, with a lovely outdoor cafe and a view of the snowy capped mountains - seems to be loads to do here, nice bars, lots of tiny cafes with about 3 seats - and lots of ok looking stuff for sale - ! and plenty of freedom/fisherman trousers on display

this picture is of the indrahar pass which im gonna try and get up tomorrow, its normally a 5 day round trip, but im just gonna do the start of it, maybe get to the pass - and then head back - it looks stunning, hope its a clear day!!

how funny is Will farrell!

got to see a bit of Anchor Man last night, and its classic, aint seen a good comedy for ages! and i saw that Talladega nights on the plane the other week as well (with Sacha Baron cohen in too) and that was well funny too, in a hill-billy kinda way

train to Pathinkot

this was the narrow gauge one that takes 10 hours - i made it up by 6 which was a big shock - even had time to buy he paper and some snacks! and right, for a 10 hour journey through lovely valleys, and with the himalya's in view the whole time - cost - 27 ruppees!!!!, thats about 30p - unbelievable - topped off with a 10 ruppee double helping of pakora and that made for a cheap day indeed

stayed in Pacthinkot which was not what i expected, it was masive and full of mayhem in the street, with a few sleazey stores and the likes - i had a walk, and some food in the worst place ever - it was one of those where i walked into an empty cafe, then it filled up - and i was still served last - so close to walking out, but i was starving!

so after managing to not get knocked over by the bikes, cows, rick shaws etc - i opted for several more 'godfathers' and some prem footie which happened to be on! nice

Jagindernagar

got the bus here and stayed at the hotel Ule i think, i got room service of dopiaza, rice, chapati, pickle and a drink for just over a quid! i had to keep the receipt, how cheap is that!

had two godfather beers and when i stood up ma legs where totally flubbered, and then i found out that they are 8.5 % - too much for my little legs to cope with, so i flumped into bed and watched cape fear - and hopeing i would get out of bed by 6am without an alarm clock!

Manali to Mandi

had my last brekky in manali, and bumped into toronto Nick again - i think his life much have changed 20 years ago cos everything was '20 years ago' - eg, been skiing for 20 years, climbed snowdon 20 years ago, aint been to shimla for about 20 years, etc, etc - and there was loads more - im guessing his wife kicked him out or something, or maybe thats when arrived back on planet earth after some dodgy 70's years

anyways, the journey was fabulous, very scenic all the way - although in th paper today it says a bus fell down a gorge not far from where i was - the roads here are dangerous, apprently 230 people die a day in roa accidents - over 80,000 a year!