Manali Again

Im back in Delhi waiting for a few days for my flight and I realized i havent written in my blog for nearly a month and so much has happened! Where do i start?

I arrived in Manali after the crazy Leh to Manali adventure that basically changed my life and the way I think about things in general. If I didnt get the message across in my earlier post, the ride was like travelling on another planet, probably mercury, though I wouldnt really know. Huge mountains, deep valleys, incandescent sunshine and no people make for surreal surroundings. The whole trip I was cursing myself for not buying a good camera, and now I was missing incredible photo opportunities. Oh well.

Anyways back in Manali I took a room at the Mountain Diew guesthouse and was shocked at my appearance when I glanced in the mirror. I was black, literally, from all the dust and sand on the road, and where my sunglasses used to sit were now two large white holes surrounding my eyes in a sea of ash. I was too weary to take a shower just yet, and walked around in the village, immediately meeting a host of friends from Leh and Kashmir. They had trouble recognizing me as my face was still black, despite some attempts to wash myself at the sink. My pants were covered in mud also and the internet guy thought twice before letting me sit down at the computer to check my mail.

I ran into Asher and Anastia here. Asher left the next day to Rishikish on the bike I had helped him buy and which he was now desperately trying to sell. I spent the next few days with Anastia and a new group of people she met in manali in the two weeks she had already been there. Among them were a flamboyant fashion designer, two young ethiopian israeli girls from netanya, a couple generic hippies, a lonely American named Lloyd from Louisiana whom everyone despised, and an Israeli-russian immigrant like Anastia who I just ran into again here in delhi yesterday. These few days were a recovery period for me from the crazy leh-manali trip that wore me out, and I spent the days relaxing, updating my blog and eating good food.

This group devised a plan to visit Spiti-Kinnaur, two adjacent valleys east of Manali that, like Leh, are closed eight months out of the year. The ride from Manali to Kinnaur and then Spiti leads back to Manali in a practical loop and makes for a perfect circuit trip. I was offered to join the group in a jeep expedition costing a small fortune but decided I would follow on my own bike. I had heard about Spiti Kinnaur but originally had little intention of doing this, as Olik and I had already decided to meet and ride to Nepal together- i was to wait for him in Manali. Olik however failed to arrive by his proposed date and I decided to go to Spiti Kinnaur and postpone Nepal for a few days, until I arrived back to Manali. I thought the trip would only take five days. Anastia and I were together quite a lot in Manali and she asked to join me on the bike, which I decided was an awesome idea since not only would I be splitting gas money, but Id have a pretty russian blonde at my disposal in case we got stuck in the mountains at night and needed to hitch a ride (two things that ended up happening).

I informed Olik that Id be meeting him later than intended which was fine because he notified me that he'd gotten sick and was staying in Leh for a few more days, and we left on Sunday morning, hungover after a long night of drinking. I had replaced a broken accelerator cable on the bike but did little more before leaving for Spiti as I had already serviced the bike in Leh and figured it was good for the journey. I was wrong. ten kilometers into the trip to Spiti via the Rhotang pass which I had just come down from on the way from Leh, the bike stalled. I checked everything I could think of, and a few indians on enfields also stopped to offer advice. They concluded the problem was electrical and I had no other choice but to turn the bike around and head back down the hill in neutral hoping to find a mechanic.