Melas Travels: Rishikesh to Manali

Can I have your photo?

Crossing bridge to leave Rishikesh

I liked Rishikesh, we had a nice group of people, amazing food and nice views staying on the Ganges river but I knew this wasn't what I was looking for. I was looking for something more peaceful where I could hear nature and listen to my inner thoughts. My last day in Rishikesh I went by myself for a walk on the other side of town to find an ATM and see the Beatles ashram. I had not really taken much time to do things alone so it felt strange on my own for a change. I went walking too far and ended up in another village near a temple. There were lots of old babas walking and sitting everywhere and many poor people but they were not begging, just staring. Apparently usually around temples, this is where indian people come from all over, many come from small villages where they have never seen a white person before. I had a little boy come up and ask me for a photo and before I knew it, there were swarms of people pulling out their phones and all asking for photos. This wasn't the first time it had happened to me but it was the biggest group of people all at once. This was not only an experience for them but it was also one for me so I also asked for a photo! They are very curious people and always ask questions. The three most popular questions I've been asked so far is 'which country you from?' 'How long you here? How India make you feel, you feel good? I started to feel really hot after this incident and sat on this wall to rest. Of course people followed me there and sat next to me to continue taking photos. It all felt so strange, as if I was some sort of celebrity. A very tame monkey was sitting next to me and while I wasnt looking he climbed over me and jumped off from my head!! I'm not quite sure what happened but it felt like the monkey slapped me!

Saying bye to Himanshu & Abhisek

We spent time with the friends we made on the beach Abhisek and Himanshu who were really got on well with. Their english was excellent and they seemed to have similar interests to us. I wasn't too sad to leave this place as I knew we were onto somewhere even better. A group of six of us left the next day to head to Manali. Natalie (Spain), Ben (Israel), Karen (South Africa), Chris (Germany), Hannah (England) and myself (Trinidad). So you could imagine the group dynamics! Its been very interesting to see how 6 people from totally different places with different accents and personalities interact. There is alot of language barriers we cross but we make it work. I feel sometimes as if I am on a reality TV show. Being a large group, we took alot longer than expected and ended up missing our train and the bus we had booked so we lost out on some money but not too much. We then were forced to take a local bus to Manali which was a complete nightmare, at least for me. We spent a total of 19 hours on 3 local buses. One was an overnight bus, cramped, uncomfortable seats (non sleeper), extremely bumpy, fast and frustrating for me because it was night and I couldn't sleep. Plus time of the month for me = miserable! For me India is a country you develop a love-hate relationship with. There are moments that are so breath-taking and beautiful and there are moments that you question what am I doing here? This bus ride was definitely one of those hate moments. There are vendors who hop on the bus every now and then to sell drinks and snacks. One man was selling peeled cucumbers sliced in half and he sprinkled salt and black pepper on it. Cucumber is my favorite vegetable and I wanted one so badly but had to resist temptation after seeing him handle the money and cucumbers with same hands. The cucumbers are also passed down a few hands before reaching to you.

Karen enjoying local bus ride
Men eating cucumbers in back

TUK TUK - Hear, see, speak no evil

I somehow managed to sleep for maybe an hour around 5am and when I woke up it was almost daylight and I could see that we were somewhere totally different. I was surrounded by the Himalayas mountains, some with ice on top and the sounds of gushing clear river streams. Driving up north there was a big drop in temperature. We went from 35-40 degrees Celsius to now 15 degrees or colder. It was cold and we were all exhausted but it looked like it was worth it. I really don't know what we would do without Ben here with us leading the squad. He really is an angel sent down to look after us. He knows how to handle the people here, how to make sure we don't get ripped off and keeps everyone organised and on their toes. You always need someone like this when in a group, but only one. We were recommended by Lokesh from Pushkar to go to a particular guest house of his friend in Old Manali. From the bus stop we took a tuk tuk to the place and walked up higher into the mountains.

View from rooftop of M,anali guesthouse

We had breakfast in a cafe and walked up the mountain with our heavy backpacks and exhausted from no sleep. Despite being tired, I was already loving the vibes of this place . I was seeing the cutest oldest wooden houses engulfed in the mountains, women washing clothes on the concrete, children running and playing, temples with people praying, cows, birds, old men playing cards, lots of little parlor shops, vendors trying to sell, and just a really nice relaxed chilled out village with lots of smiling faces. The guest house was perfect, high up the mountain, only £1.50 a night for a room with a balcony overlooking the snow capped mountains (so with Karen and I sharing it is only 75pence). Waking up to that view always sets your mood beautifully for the day. You could also feel the difference in the air how clean and fresh it was to your lungs, compared to the other polluted cities we had been before. As soon as we arrived in Manali, I knew I was going to like it. That evening I went on our guest house roof top by myself and wrote in my journal and prayed. I had not prayed in a while so needed to catch up with the old man up there.

Pine trees park

Hadimba Tempe

In Manali, there is so much beauty all around to see. You could just spend hours walking and you would never get bored. Natalie, Hannah and I ventured to the Hadimba Temple which was a nice walk up the mountains. There were many indian tourists so it was not very quiet as we were being asked for photos alot. We then took a walk through a beautiful pine trees park to New Manali a more busy city with lots of action. The people in Manali look a little different because being closer to Nepal and China, you can see the mix of chinese and indian, really nice mix. The end of this evening we had a really nice dinner at a restaurant called People. They give you crayons and paper to draw and color while you wait on your food and the walls are filled with really cool art work that guests had drawn.

When we got back to the guest house, we saw burnt mattresses laying outside my door and then found out the room next to ours had started to catch on fire. There was an Israeli couple staying in there and had left a speaker charging on the bed for the day while out- it blew the fuse and caught the bed on fire and all their belongings were burnt. Luckily Karen, Ben and Chris were there when it happened so they worked together quickly to out the fire. They managed to save the room and the building from going ablaze. It wasn't a happy scene when they got back to their room around 11pm to find all their stuff burnt. I felt so sorry for them but it's just stuff which can be replaced with money. No one was hurt and that's what mattered the most as it could have turned out much worse.

Liming with the shepherd on mountain

My favorite day in Manali we decided to go trekking to the hot springs that we heard all about. We ended up going the completely wrong way on a different mountain - trekking for hours up rocks and climbing as far as we could go. We came across an old crazy and very funny shepherd on a big grassland area on the mountains with lots of cows grazing. So we took this opportunity for a resting spot and chatted for 45 minutes with this man who made absolutely no sense, probably because he had no teeth. But definitely the happiest man I have ever seen, grinning from head to toe and telling us 'God is love' and what happiness is. After realising we had no clue where we were, we came across a house and asked for help and ate our packed sandwiches. We headed back to Old Manali and then once we found out the correct way we continued on. We came across lots of marijuana plants growing on the side of the road. Normal. We got lost again but getting lost is always part of the fun, you always bump into other random different things you wouldn't have seen had you not got lost. We then went through very tiny villages and came across a large group of children. The happiest children I had ever seen. They run up to you smiling and giggling at absolutely nothing! They followed us for a while and anything I said to them, they all repeated. I love children so I was in my glee being surrounded by them. After crossing a few bridges and walked further up we came to a town called Vashisht. A very cool shanti town village, with lots of weed smokers and reggae music. After trekking from 10am- 6pm, we finally found the springs which were not even open in nature but instead it was inside a temple in a bath form. The water was boiling hot and coming straight out of the mountains. The baths were separated by male and female and the female one had naked women bathing in it. Completely not what I had expected for hot springs, but India is always full of surprises.

I LOVE all the animals in Manali. They all have these extra layers of fur for warmth and are all so cute, cuter than the average animals. There is the Yak which is found only in Central Asia and Himalayan region, related to cattle but very strange looking. We came across the most adorable lamb that looked like it just come out of a curling salon! The stray dogs are all fury, cute and friendly. The cows are cuter and oh the rabbits - massive fury rabbits like I've never seen before. But the locals use the yak, rabbits and lambs to get money from tourists by asking for 5-10 rupees for a photo with them.

Animals of Manali:

In Manali, there are lots of activities you can do - paragliding, zorbing, helicopter rides, trekking, white water rafting. I didn't end up doing any except for trekking. The others seemed too expensive and I'm a big chicken to do things like paragliding - especially in India where I don't know what the safety measures are like.Would rather not take my chances. My last day in Manali I spent hours doing admin, dealing with my bank in UK who cancelled my card and trying to get a new SIM card here because I had problems In India, everything takes LONG. It could be the simplest task or errand, it will take forever! I think this is good preparation for moving back to Trinidad. So far I notice I have been developing a big tolerance for poor customer service and much higher levels of patience. Tomorrow we are off to Tush which is supposed to be really quiet and peaceful, even more than Manali. This time it won't be the big group of 6 people, it will be only 3 of us so looking forward to it.