Day 24-25 Kochi-Mangalore-Madgaon 02-03/09/2012

I woke early as I needed to go across the water to find a way to Goa and back before checkout at midday, as I did not know if I would be spending another night in fort Cochin. I wondered down to the jetty and got a ferry to the mainland and once there walked to the train station. Only when I arrived at the station did I discover that Kochi has two stations and I was at the wrong one, this meant getting the train was all but out of the equation. This being the case I set off to find the bus stand, on the way I ran afoul of a bog cum building site and arrived into the bus station clad in mud drawing some strange looks. I didn’t have much luck at the bus station either as there was not a single bus that went to Goa, instead I booked a bus to go half way to a city called Mangalore where I would hopefully find a way to Goa. When that was done I made my way back across the water to check out and get some food. On the way I bumped into the rickshaw driver who had helped me out the night before and he offered to take me around the sights around fort Cochin in return for going to some galleries where he got commission, this struck me as a winning scenario. So we set out after I checked out and over the course of the day I saw various; spice markets, temples, palaces, churches and synagogues not to mention a fair few galleries. When I had seen most of the sites my guide dropped me back where I had been staying and from there I went to the sea front for couple of hours to check out the fish market and relax before heading to get the bus. Being off season the fish market was a shadow of what I could be however there was still a lot on offer from gigantic prawn/lobsters to catfish and a lot in-between that I wouldn’t know the names of. I got some popcorn and watched some street performers for a bit and sat in an internet café until the time came to once more head across the water in order to get my bus.

The bus I was to get was not what I had expected, it certainly wasn’t built for comfort and it was obvious from the get go it was not a direct express route, the next 12 hours were bound to be interesting. It seemed I had drawn the short straw with the seats as the pair I was designated too were not reclined and had less leg room than the rest of the bus due to being crammed in behind a door. The bus was crammed to capacity when we eventually set off for Mangalore, as the bus had no windows it was at least comfortably cool if it wasn’t comfortable. I spent most of the journey staring out of the window. After a couple of hours there was a long stop due to an issue with the bus, then the journey continued. After a few more hours, around midnight, I started to get drowsy however whenever I nodded off I would accidentally head-but this poor old lady next to me so after the second time, where I nearly knocked her out, I decided I had to stay awake. The rest of the journey was a blur of opening and closing windows depending on the weather and attempting without success to sleep in various possessions.

The hours dragged on but we eventually pulled into Mangalore just after dawn, I was sorely tempted to kiss the ground after I bundled off the bus thought better of it after seeing the state of the ground. Fed up of buses I decided if I was getting to Goa it was going to be by train so I sought out a taxi driver and headed over to the central train station. Once I got there I had to wait for the booking office to open so I got some breakfast at the station while I waited. When the office opened I enquired into the situation of the trains, they were still pretty fully booked but eventually I managed to book a train to Goa that would depart that afternoon from a train station on the other side of Mangalore. I promptly got a rickshaw there as I was not up to doing much that day and settled in there to wait. I managed to find a plug so I spent the hours watching TV. The train arrived and I sought out my birth and assumed my usual ritual of locking up my bag and getting set up to read the hours away. Due to the hour of my train I would be arriving into Madgaon at around eleven o’Clock in the evening which I was not looking forward to. When I eventually got to Goa I found that I was still a fair way off from the area I was to rendezvous with Naomi Jade and Kerry so I enquired into how I might get there. The people occupying the enquiry office were of no help, all I got was a few Indian head shakes and confused looks. The taxi office wanted and arm and a leg to get there and I was told there was nowhere cheap to stay near by. So by this point I had decided there was no option but to sleep on the station floor along with the other hundred or so people doing the same. By this point I was so sleep deprived it was as easily said as done....

Day 24-25 Kochi-Mangalore-Madgaon 02-03/09/2012

I woke early as I needed to go across the water to find a way to Goa and back before checkout at midday, as I did not know if I would be spending another night in fort Cochin. I wondered down to the jetty and got a ferry to the mainland and once there walked to the train station. Only when I arrived at the station did I discover that Kochi has two stations and I was at the wrong one, this meant getting the train was all but out of the equation. This being the case I set off to find the bus stand, on the way I ran afoul of a bog cum building site and arrived into the bus station clad in mud drawing some strange looks. I didn’t have much luck at the bus station either as there was not a single bus that went to Goa, instead I booked a bus to go half way to a city called Mangalore where I would hopefully find a way to Goa. When that was done I made my way back across the water to check out and get some food. On the way I bumped into the rickshaw driver who had helped me out the night before and he offered to take me around the sights around fort Cochin in return for going to some galleries where he got commission, this struck me as a winning scenario. So we set out after I checked out and over the course of the day I saw various; spice markets, temples, palaces, churches and synagogues not to mention a fair few galleries. When I had seen most of the sites my guide dropped me back where I had been staying and from there I went to the sea front for couple of hours to check out the fish market and relax before heading to get the bus. Being off season the fish market was a shadow of what I could be however there was still a lot on offer from gigantic prawn/lobsters to catfish and a lot in-between that I wouldn’t know the names of. I got some popcorn and watched some street performers for a bit and sat in an internet café until the time came to once more head across the water in order to get my bus.

The bus I was to get was not what I had expected, it certainly wasn’t built for comfort and it was obvious from the get go it was not a direct express route, the next 12 hours were bound to be interesting. It seemed I had drawn the short straw with the seats as the pair I was designated too were not reclined and had less leg room than the rest of the bus due to being crammed in behind a door. The bus was crammed to capacity when we eventually set off for Mangalore, as the bus had no windows it was at least comfortably cool if it wasn’t comfortable. I spent most of the journey staring out of the window. After a couple of hours there was a long stop due to an issue with the bus, then the journey continued. After a few more hours, around midnight, I started to get drowsy however whenever I nodded off I would accidentally head-but this poor old lady next to me so after the second time, where I nearly knocked her out, I decided I had to stay awake. The rest of the journey was a blur of opening and closing windows depending on the weather and attempting without success to sleep in various possessions.

The hours dragged on but we eventually pulled into Mangalore just after dawn, I was sorely tempted to kiss the ground after I bundled off the bus thought better of it after seeing the state of the ground. Fed up of buses I decided if I was getting to Goa it was going to be by train so I sought out a taxi driver and headed over to the central train station. Once I got there I had to wait for the booking office to open so I got some breakfast at the station while I waited. When the office opened I enquired into the situation of the trains, they were still pretty fully booked but eventually I managed to book a train to Goa that would depart that afternoon from a train station on the other side of Mangalore. I promptly got a rickshaw there as I was not up to doing much that day and settled in there to wait. I managed to find a plug so I spent the hours watching TV. The train arrived and I sought out my birth and assumed my usual ritual of locking up my bag and getting set up to read the hours away. Due to the hour of my train I would be arriving into Madgaon at around eleven o’Clock in the evening which I was not looking forward to. When I eventually got to Goa I found that I was still a fair way off from the area I was to rendezvous with Naomi Jade and Kerry so I enquired into how I might get there. The people occupying the enquiry office were of no help, all I got was a few Indian head shakes and confused looks. The taxi office wanted and arm and a leg to get there and I was told there was nowhere cheap to stay near by. So by this point I had decided there was no option but to sleep on the station floor along with the other hundred or so people doing the same. By this point I was so sleep deprived it was as easily said as done....

Day 21-23 Udaipur-Mumbai-Kollam 30/08/2012-01/09/2012

I must say my first experience of long distance train journeys in India was not as bad as I had expected, my uncertainty was based around the fact I was only one class up from the general seating class which is grim. I got on the train at Udaipur and found my birth easily enough and settled in, chaining my bag up and climbing to my bed the top of three. I read for a short time before drifting into a slumber dogged with calls of “chai”,”samosa”,”coffee” and other such chants. I think my previous experience of long journeys put me in good stead for the journeys ahead as I knew exactly how to lye and read for 12 hours at a time. I woke early in the morning with the rest of the trains occupants and set to reading. I took a cup of chai for breakfast and a few hours later had some lunch courtesy of the endless stream of refreshment vendors. The train arrived into Mumbai at one of its northern terminus stations called Bandra after the first fifteen hours at around one o’Clock.

At this point I had two hours to cross the city to the station my next thirty six hours was departing from. This was easier said than done. I quickly found the near by local train station and got a ticket to the station I thought my train was departing from. The local train system is more confusing than the national one, mainly as the trains only list their final destination as well but there are less people who can tell you which train is which. Once on the right train I had my first encounter, with what I now know to be a transvestite beggar, but at the time I just thought them normal,albeit ugly, beggars who clapped loudly and expected money. Once I arrived at the first station my flip flop broke and I was left to waddle a hundred meters with one bare foot to a place I could stop and change my shoes. Once the switch was made I found a police officer to ask where I might find my train. He looked at me in a sympathetic way and told me I would find it across town at the train station I was meant to be at. By this point I was down to 45 minutes so I quickly found a taxi and asked if he knew the station I needed, It turned out he did, and after haggling him down to a reasonable price we set off to what I hoped was the right station. The driver, and his two mates in the back, were nice enough and we talked a bit on the way, “no I’m not married”, “yes I’m only 23” and “yes I’m monogamous” seems to get me through most taxi journeys. I got to the station and managed to find my train with minutes to spare.

This leg of my journey to Kollam was much the same as the trip to Mumbai but longer, two nights an afternoon and a morning. I was on the middle bunk this time however my seat was booked among a group of people and one of them was in a different birth and wanted to swap so he could sit with his friends so I obliged. The top bunk is preferable as you have the option of lying down or sitting as your bunk is always down but when the rest are up you also have a seat below. I spent the 36 hours either; sleeping, reading or eating with the odd doodling in my moleskin. The food on the long distance trains varies in quality however the price is always phenomenal and I didn’t once get a upset stomach from it. Once you have experienced a few trips on the sleeper trains they are the only way to travel around if you have the time, if you were among others it would be even better. Including the food and transfer in Mumbai it cost me the equivalent of under £15 and that’s three nights of accommodation and just under 2,500km, I would recommend it to anyone.

I arrived in Kollam at seven in the morning groggy and filthy. Once out of the station I had decided to go to the tourist office for the area to get some idea of what to do. I finally managed to get a rickshaw driver who knew the place which was only down the road and after getting there it only took a couple of minutes to book myself onto a backwaters tour that I had come for. I had twenty minutes to get some breakfast in before the tour started, which I just managed, and after only being in Kollam for two hours I was heading out on a tour of its backwaters. The tour would take place around one of the islands on the huge lake Kollam boarders, to get there was a 25km taxi ride. We were only in the taxi for five minutes before I witnessed two cars touch for the first time, a bus pulled out in front of our car and in doing so scraped the front left flank of the car. Our driver pursued the offending bus and eventually stopped it in the middle of the road to confront the driver who seemed to be having none of it. This chase continued a couple of blocks before we ended up and a police station of virtue and corruption where the matter seemed to be settled. We were soon on our way again into the countryside. The drive would have been pleasant if not for our drivers addiction to the sound of his own horn, I kid you no for 25km he would use his horn at least 3 blasts normally together every nine seconds. I counted. To get to the islands we got a small ferry over a 100m stretch of water which was built out of two boats lashed together but worked pretty well. Another short drive on the other side saw us to a small village where our guide was waiting with his hefty canoe. The five of us got into the canoe; a Spanish couple, an Estonian woman, an Indian couple and I. Our guide punted the canoe around the backwaters deftly, as he knew them like the back of his hand, and pointed things out along the way such as; fish farms, pepper plants, cashew trees, nutmeg trees, bananas, chillies, snakes, coconuts and a plethora of other little interesting things. The couple of hours we spent on the boat were a peaceful contrast to the trip that took us to them, we even stopped for tea in a little village where next door they were making rope out of coconut fibres. The trip back to Kollam was much the same as the trip out, I took the opportunity to ask the others on the tour if there was much else to do in Kollam. After finding out there wasn’t much else to do I decided to try and get another train back up the coast as I was planning to be back up in Goa in a couple of days.

My next stop was a city called Kochi which apparently is renowned for its fishing and has deep running Portuguese and Dutch influences of its older suburbs. The train I took there was grim, sleeper class turned into second class and for 3 hours I was a sardine, the only reprieves were when I managed to wrestle my way to hang out of the door of the train between stations. The relief of alighting the train was close to the feeling of relieving yourself after having needed for a wee for a similar amount of time. Before heading to the fort Cochin area over the water, which I had decided would be the ideal place to stay, I attempted to book my train out of Kochi to avoid a repeat journey of the one I had just been on. I was out of luck it seemed as all the trains out of Kochi towards Goa were booked for the days ahead, this was a problem to deal with another day so I took a rickshaw to the jetty. By the time I boarded the ferry to fort Cochin the sun was setting, over a far more industrial dockland than I had expected from my briefing by the lonely planet, though if there is a time to look at a dock you cant do much better than dusk. I arrived in fort Cochin after dark and began to wonder in the vague direction of the town centre, I hadn’t got far when a rickshaw driver offered to take me somewhere in my price range and tired as I was I took the easy way out....

Day 19-20 Udaipur 28-29/08/20112

My last morning in Jaipur was a relaxed affair as my train was mid afternoon so I had a leisurely breakfast and checked out in my own time. Being situated close to the train station I went for a wonder and found it on foot. After my few days of staying in one place and sightseeing I had almost forgotten the joys of the Indian railway station. After walking around questioning various innocent bystanders I eventually found the platform my train would be arriving on, what I didn’t anticipate was that it was connected to a second train with a different name. Stations in India like to keep you on your toes like that, I found my train just in time and settled into my seat. Laptop out, Breaking Bad on, set for the next 7 hours. I was a bit disappointed as the train I had booked had seemed to be similar to my first train, express air conditioned chair train, however it was not quite as fancy and lacked all the lashings of food so I was looking to go hungry. However the couple next to me had brought their dinner with them and asked me to join them so not to be rude, and enticed by the amazing smells the food was giving off, I deigned to oblige. The highlight of the rest of the trip was a 2 hour delay which saw me getting into Udaipur much later than I had expected. Not having anything planned this wouldn’t be such an issue if not for the fact that the delay made the difference of finding a place for as cheap as I would hope. However I bumped into an American girl on the way out of the station and we shared a rickshaw into the main town area and in the end I found somewhere to stay, albeit for more than I would have hoped as I expected.

The next morning I woke well before check out to go out looking for some accommodation near by that was more affordable. On my wondering I ended up getting chatting to a local artist who invited me into his gallery, hoping I would buy something, but he showed me how a lot of the art was done all the same. I found a place that suited my needs, had breakfast there and then set about moving my affects over. Once that was done I went for a wonder around the town proper which is filled with shrines and boasts a huge Hindu temple in the middle along with a couple other smaller one scattered through the town. Pretty much all were in the style of the old Raman temples, a huge stone monolith covered with intricate carvings of people and animals with a couple including an interior with a shrine or space for ceremonies. In the largest of the temples as well as a few of the smaller ones there were ceremonies taking place which were interesting to observe despite having no idea what was taking place. After having a look around the temples I carried on up the hill to the main sight of the town that takes the form of a huge palace. The palace was pretty impressive; it was built and expanded over around 300 years and its building was influenced, as you would expect, by the differing styles of the rulers that rose and fell over the encompassing time. I spent a couple of hours wondering around the palace's innards which after a while started looking much the same from room to room. The highlights would be the third story garden that boast a pool and trees and just the sheer size of the building. The palace was impressive but with its size and my attention span for Indian history it was never going to be one of my more thrilling days. After leaving the palace I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the streets of the town looking into shops and just taking in the dynamics of Udaipur. I spent the evening relaxing and taking advantage of the hotels internet to Skype and upload my blogs so far.

On my second day in Udaipur I spent the day getting organised. My first job was to obtain a charger for my camera as by this point my disposable camera had run out of film and my phone had broken so I was in need of a pictorial device. After enquiring at a couple of stores I came across a man who had a brother who owned a shop that sold cameras 'not far down the road'. So I follow him out the shop and start walking ahead down the road getting a short way before he pulls up next to me on a 500cc motor bike and insists we must ride there, I considered briefly and thought why not. His brothers shop was a 10 minute ride away but I found what I needed there and managed to get it for a fairly decent price, once our business was done my friend with the bike drove me back to town. I thanked him and set off to find some breakfast. I took my breakfast at a small restaurant by the river than runs through Udaipur between the two lakes that the town straddles. I took the chance to charge my camera's battery with my new gizmo and prayed that it wasn’t knackered. I managed to get it to work after some technical 'lens pulling' and 'camera tapping'. After breakfast I spent the afternoon looking around the various shops and stalls in the town to get a present for my fathers birthday. This took a fair time which I broke up with stops at some tea shops which also coincided with the flash deluges. I came out of the afternoon with a couple of choice items and set to finding somewhere to base myself to have my dinner and while away the hours before my late night train. I found a likely place and when the time came I collected my affects and made my way to the train station to get the first train of my three day voyage...

Day 15-18 Delhi-Jaipur 24-27/082012

Setting out from our hotel early we walked the stones throw to new Delhi station to book tickets for what we thought was a regular service. Things are never so simple in India, an hour later we exited the tourist ticket office as it was beginning to congeal with tickets on the earliest train possible which left us 5 hours in Delhi encumbered with our bags. I had also taken the precaution to try my hand at planning ahead and booked trains from Jaipur to Kollam in the south via Udaipur but I wont go too far into that, needless to say that didn’t even go to plan. Our train was departing from old Delhi so that’s where we set our sights for and eventually cut our way through the hubbub to the metro system, which is the most advanced thing other than planes that I have witnessed on my trip thus far. The metro took us swiftly to the old Delhi station where we were hoping to store our bags until our train left however this was not possible so we instead struck out into old Delhi bags and all to find some breakfast. After a cheap and cheerful brunch in a chai house we decided to investigate Delhi's red fort that stood dominating the horizon at the end of the street we had found ourselves on. The fort was impressively imposing however it was not safe from the litter. We were forced to flee our perch beneath a tree in its grounds by an oncoming monsoon shower, which we did not all together avoid. We slowly made our way back to the station between fits of cover and were soon seated on our first sleeper class train, the class I will soon becoming very well acquainted with. Our four companions for the trip to Jaipur were two Indian gentlemen heading to stops past Jaipur and a couple who were alighting in Jaipur as well. Of the couple the Naresh was American with Indian heritage and Isabelle was Canadian, Naresh acted as a translator for the inquisitive locals. The trip was over in a blur of reading, in depth conversation about the litter situation in India and a few other conversations (I think one of the guys wanted to meet me in Udaipur but we will never know). We were greeted at the station by the standard rabble of touts trying to drag you apart to different places to stay. We eventually found somewhere cheap to stay and called it a night.

I took breakfast on the rooftop and discussed what to do with the day with my three companions. Naresh had worked in Jaipur a few months before and managed to organise a cab for the day and we went to some of the major attractions Jaipur had to offer which consisted of a couple of forts, a yard full of astronomy equipment built from stone and a place know as the windy palace. The first fort was pretty impressive and you could imagine how grand it would have been back in its day as it was still grander by far than most building in use in India today. The second fort offered a 280 degree view of Jaipur and enlightened me as to the true extent of the city which I had previously thought to be relatively small, the fort itself was more of a fortified mansion in comparison to the first. The windy palace was much more impressive from the outside but the astronomy yard was pretty interesting. Along the way we had a chance encounter with another couple that Naresh and Isabelle knew and after we had finished seeing the sites they went for dinner together at a fancy restaurant which I forwent. Instead Arthur and I had dinner at the rooftop café before saying our goodbyes as he was going on his own way. I decided to stay on the roof and have a couple of beers that night and it proved to be fairly eventful. First I watched a puppet show and attempted to learn the art myself to no avail. I then shared a few drinks with three guys who were apparently out for birthday drinks, however Raj whose birthday it was was not happy as his horse was ill, the conversation moved on to them trying to get me to go to their party which I cautiously but courteously did not go to. They then tried to convince me to go to a farmhouse on the morrow for breakfast and to fly a kite, which I said maybe to and stalled them for an answer until they had to go, being on my own again I had decided I should probably be on the safe side. Not too long after the two couples returned and we finished the night around a table with a sheesha pipe.

On my second day in Jaipur I decided I would join the two couples to the last sight that we had not had time to do the day before. Before doing so though we went to one of the orphanages that Naresh had been volunteering at to volunteer ourselves. The orphanage was only small with about fifteen kids, was located at the back of an apartment block and consisted of a dorm a corridor and a classroom. We spent an hour or so there playing games that I had not played in a long time with timeless classics as; duck duck goose, charades, sleeping lions and also a few that I had not come across before. The kids were really well behaved but as with any group of kids some were more engaging than others and due to their backgrounds they were all at different stages with their educations. After that we headed to Albert hall which was a museum set within an ornate hall that had been constructed at the same time as Jaipur had been painted 'pink' when king Albert had visited. There were a few good exhibits but I grew bored fairly quickly and sat in the grounds while the others finished their rounds. We took lunch in the pink city within the main bazaar in a fairly fancy restaurant and when we left we were greeted with what seems to be the standard 3/4ish downpour. We got collected from the door instead and head off to the second orphanage stopping off en route to see if we could get cinema tickets at 'the most famous cinema in India' but were met with disappointment there to set off again. We arrived at the orphanage just as the sun was setting. This orphanage was its own building that looked to be still under construction, none the less it was much larger than the first we had been to and the age range of the kids was much greater too. They were timid at first however I soon found myself; being prodded doing the macarena along with other dances. After about half an hour some Henna was introduced to the equation and I was soon being tattooed by a young girl called Pooja who after finishing signed her masterpiece. The others also bore the evidence of the combination of the henna mixed with kids, each with their own distinct style. After the henna ran out the kids went off to bed and we headed back to our various hotels too and the rest of my evening was just relaxing and reading....

Day 13-14 Manali – Shimla – Delhi 22-23/082012

It was raining when we set off down the hill towards the main bus station in the middle of town, luckily the sky was clearing and we hardly got wet on our early morning trudge. Once we found the station we needed to find the bus, before we got far an English guy called Alistair made himself known to us asking if we were heading to Shimla. Alistair was of the opinion that the bus we needed to get was not the bus we needed as the driver was 'lying' to him (he did not much trust the natives) in the end we got on the bus and waited to depart. The journey was long and confusing; after thirty minutes we stopped for about half an hour and eventually were told we had to switch buses which I did in a very groggy fashion as I had just managed to get to sleep. I think because the bookings were slim our service turned into a slow one and we stopped a lot along the way. We stopped for breakfast which for me essentially consisted of a potato naan and that was my food for the day until dinner, since arriving in India I’ve not been hungry during the day so I have been forgoing lunch. The change in scenery over the duration of our voyage was not as impressive as previous bus journeys though the vistas were just as stunning. The rest of the trip was a blur of amazing views, stops and 'A dance of dragons' and in no time we had arrived in Shimla.

The afternoon was waxing upon our arrival so, accompanied now with Alistair too, we decided to try and walk into town. We had not got far when a local man offered a lift in his car, we gracefully accepted and promptly piled into his Clio sized car with huge bags on lap. After a short trip along, through and up the ridge that Shimla is located upon he dropped us at the central bus stand with directions on how to reach the town centre. We made the final ascent, laden with heavy bags, through a busy Tibetan market and upon reaching the top of the ridge were all stood agog, we had suddenly stepped into a classic British town from 1900. In the days of British occupation Shimla had served as a summer retreat for the Raj and as a consequence the architecture was bizarrely out of place for an Indian town. After our initial shock had subsided we quickly found a place to stay, an old YMCA, and set out in a hurry to find the toy train station to book tickets for the next day as we had been told we needed to get there before 6. after walking a long way down the ridge we eventually found the station only to find that the ticket booth had closed 15 minutes before at five, balls. We made our way up to the town centre to find some food and after a long search for somewhere good we found a cheap chai house where we had a really good (and cheap) dinner before heading back to the hostel for a read and another early night.

The next morning we had an earlyish breakfasts at the hostel before rushing down to get to the station in order to try and get tickets for the earliest train possible to Kalka, as we had organised to meet Dave in Jaipur the next day. Luckily this turned out to be simple and unbelievably cheap and soon we were sat with a cabin to ourselves trundling at a leisurely pace through the foothills of the Himalayas in a half sized train. For the first hour or two most of the views were obscured by the clouds that descend on the valleys in the nights, however as the sun slowly drew the clouds up with invisible strings the astounding views that we had been told of were clear to see. The distance the train covered around one hundred kilometres but took around six hours as there were extended stops at stations in order to let other trains past. The time was well spent catching up on my blog, reading and gazing out the window watching the green landscape slip past only to be replaced with fresh scenery as the train passed though countless long tunnels bored through the hills. As the terrain slowly flattened out we arrived at Kalka where we braved the throng molesting the ticket booth in order to book travel to Delhi. It took a while but we emerged from the ordeal with tickets, we had a cup of tea and found our seats on the train to await departure. As far as a first encounter with India's train system is concerned we were eased in gently with seats on an air conditioned express service that took only four hours. Our tickets included complementary food the highlights of which were; half a coleslaw sandwich and what can only be described as sweet almond fibre glass. The trip passed by comfortably as our seats had a power point and I had a large library of TV on my laptop to complement it. Once we arrived in Delhi we found a place to stay with the addition of a girl called Alice who tagged along from the station. That night we met up with Dave and roy for a few drinks before turning in for the night...

Day 9-13 18-22/09/2012

The time spent waiting for the bus to Manali was the first night in Leh where I witnessed its transformation that occurs after the town closes down, after hours the dogs rule the city coming out in strength to play and socialise. We watched while we waited for the bus that was supposed to depart at one o’Clock, when most of the other buses had come and gone we were eventually piled onto the last bus and told there had been a mistake. The first few hours of the journey were painful for me due to needing the toilet, a break that was not scheduled until 9am, waiting was not an option so when we had to stop for other reasons I made hast down the road to be close to nature as the sun rose (under cover from the buses however not from the yurt and its occupants higher up the side of the valley). I spent the next few hours dozing and awoke to find that we had made the 9 o’Clock breakfast/passport stop, I took the chance to stretch my legs and buy a safe biscuit based breakfast before the endless voyage continued. The scenery did not change much over the hours that passed between breakfast and lunch and I filled my time with reading my book. Lunch was a hearty bowl of noodles at a mountain pass camp amongst a few other bus passengers, the tent we ate in looked to double up as accommodation for through fair that may need it. The rest of the journey saw the bare mountains grow greener and denser of vegetation as we dropped steadily passed the threshold altitude limit that nature seemed to have set. By the time we descended upon Manali the mountains were clad in pine forests and the valley was capped with cloud. Once we alighted the bus we made our way through the streets of the old town and found a cheap and clean hotel that would suit our needs and settled in for the night.

The next morning was a late start as we caught up on some sleep, we walked down towards the town centre to see what Manali had to offer, stopping on the way for breakfast. It didn’t take long to find a tourist office however the news they bore was naught but disappointment. We had hoped to do some paragliding along with either trekking or some mediation at a Buddhist temple, however the weather was too poor for the paragliding and trekking and meditation courses were all too long for our needs. Despite this we made a plan to go on a walk and a day trip before heading back to our hostel for a lazy afternoon. That evening after dinner we went for a drink at a couple of the tourist bar/restaurants that were near our hostel. In the last restaurant we frequented we met a group of Israelis playing some card games and deigned to join them. They turned out to be travelling around India for 11 months after completing their national service and we spent the last hour or so of service with them playing cards whilst enjoying a couple of beers and a shisha. The short walk home was a jolly one and I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

On day two we got up relatively early and walked to town via a Hindu temple situated in the woods the road circumvented. The temple was simple and large on the outside but surprisingly small on the inside and the rocky ground it was built on rose into the small chamber taking up most of the room. I didn’t know what I was expecting however this was still not what I had imagined a Hindu temple to be like. We continued down to town to find a Buddhist temple which turned out to be relatively small compared top the few we had already seen but much the same in style and complete with a large statue of the Buddha. From town we went on a trip up the valley to a town called Vashisht which boasts a couple of temples and baths that are heated by hot springs. Having a slight hangover we took the lazy option of taking a rickshaw as the village was up a hill. The village had two temples; one an ancient Raman temple and the second which boasted the hot baths, which were full when we visited. After the temples we had lunch atop a restaurant with a view before setting off on a short walk out of the village and along the path of a mountain river. We didn’t find a good view of the valley due to the dense canopy however the walk back trough the outskirts gave a better insight into community as we passed the place where the water from the hot springs was used by the village for washing clothes and the baths the tourists didn’t use. We returned to the hostel the way we came and had another relaxed evening.

On our final day in Manali we rose early in order to meet the guide we had hired to take us up into the mountains above Manali. En route we found a café and had a cinnamon roll for breakfast and met our guide in the town shortly after. He took us up through the back streets of the town which we would not have otherwise seen. We passed a permanent camp still well within the confines of the town which had poor living conditions and continued up and out of the town. We passed the Hindu temple that we had visited the day before and on the outer extremities a group of schools. After we passed the town limits the going got a lot steeper and we started our ascent beneath pine sentinels that seemingly march down the slopes of the lower Himalayas out of the clouds that coalesce at the mountains' shoulders. The climb was arduous due to the constant damp conditions caused by the tail end of the monsoon season however we managed to make good time non the less. Half way up, when the undergrowth had turned from grass to a sea of bracken we chanced upon another group of walkers whose names were; Vicky, Alice and Charmain who where apparently following the same walk as us. The second half of the upwards journey was enjoyable for the new conversation however soon the talk subsided a bit as we had to concentrate on no slipping into the forests of young pine and six foot thistles that lined what could only really be called a game trail. We eventually reached Lam Dum which was a surprise to the whole troop as the location that had seemingly warranted a name was a unassuming section of path, however no-one complained at a chance to stop for lunch. After a lunch consisting of a roll of brown bread we made of Manali again which was easier said than done as it had been raining intermittently all afternoon making the muddy trail treacherous, we quickly came up with a point system for the spectacular pratfalls on the many pitfalls that were scattered along the perilous path. The downwards journey was much the same as the way up along a different path to lead us back to the guest house. After a few hours of putting our feet up we met up with the girls for some food in the evening. After some sheesha for desert we had an early night as our bus to Shimla would be setting off at six the next morning...