Someone’s idea of a joke? But as those that have faced a speeding Tata truck approaching on your side of the road will appreciate it’s not actually that funny!
Wrong type of station, we were looking for fuel!
So we found fuel and a truck driver who wanted to get as close a possible to look at the bike. Note the green sticker on the lower side window, not sure his spatial awareness would be very accurate.
This is Mandi at the entrance to the Kullu valley, the valley is very pretty and we thought Mandi looked ok as we drove passed, a few days later we travelled back through the town and sheltered from a hail storm for a while. It’s such a shame when you get up close to so many places in India they are pretty filthy! The drains overflow after a few minutes of rain so it must be foul in the monsoon season and there is so much rubbish strewn all over the place.
It’s not that India doesn’t recycle, they do on a pretty large scale but it doesn’t seem to be the responsibility of the general public to dispose of their litter in bins. There are many desperately poor people (often kids) who pick through the piles of rubbish for items they can sell or eat and animals that then feed of what’s left! In some towns that we have been to plastic carriers are banned so that’s positive, unfortunately there are billions of pre ban bags and other non-biodegradable stuff still lying around.
We were heading for Manali a well known mountain town on the Beas river with views of the Dhauladar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges (part of the Himalayas). It was a slow day, lovely scenery but with the twisty, hilly, narrow roads you would expect in the mountains it had taken us 8 hours to cover 240km.
We decided to stop just short of Manali in a place called Naggar and were very glad we did. It was a small village with enough to keep us occupied (that included eating a lot of cake at the very good bakery) for a couple of relaxing days. This is the view from our hotel’s roof top restaurant.
This is the courtyard of Naggar Castle, very modest by your average castle standards but interesting. Parts of the building date back to the 15th century. It was privately owned by the local Sikh Rajas of Kullu until the late 1800’s and then it was sold to a British Governor for the princely sum of 1 rifle, not a bad deal. Now it’s a hotel, we’re sure who owns it now but as we will mention further on there are quite a few Russian visitors to this area so perhaps the new hotel owner has interests in football clubs as well!
Tripura Sundari Devi Temple, a lovely peaceful mountain temple where locals came and went while we watched, while trying not to appear to be gawping at them!
Naggar was the home of a Russian painter Nikolai Roerich and his family, the family home is now a gallery that shows his work (mainly scenes of the mountains) and also paintings by his son Svetoslav. Personally we had never heard of either although we did like their work, however it would seem they were pretty famous and definitely revered in Russia hence there are quite a few Russian visitors to this small Indian village.
It was a bit rickety but luckily a quiet day!
This is Ravi who runs a guesthouse and mountain treks in the area, we had dinner at his place and he told us how Ted Simon had stayed with him on his second round the world trip. We made the mistake of answering “yes” to the question “Do you know Ted Simon?” Obviously we meant we had read his books not that we lifelong friends but it was hard to get this across, our mistake. Anyway, know him or not I have promised to e-mail this picture to Ted and send him Ravi’s regards!
We enjoyed chatting over dinner that night with Peter a Scot on a 1 month trip to India, he is made of hardier stuff than us and was heading south to Varanasi the next day, no other words for it, that’ll be bloody hot!
We trundled a few Km’s down the road to Vashist a village on the other side of the river from Manali. Yet another great view from our new hotel.
The village had some lovely little alleyways and traditional houses.
Now we know all of you back home in the UK had a public holiday on the 29th April and although we were far away we also shared this special day with Will and Kate……...
The happy couple. Their outfits were designed by the Outdoor Clothing department of Alexander McQueen and selected not to show stains and creases (very important when travelling). In this photo they are joined by Archbishop John and Flopsy the Maid of Honour (watch your hand John I think she’s done a poo).
Archbishop John, Flopsy and celebrity guest Victoria Beckham. Victoria wears garments from her Spring 2011 collection entitled North Indian Hill Tribes.
Chateau La Kingfisher was carefully chosen to compliment the menu (not the piss water stuff eh Will?)
The famous kiss, witnessed by …….well 4 of us if you include the waiters.
The party feasted on local trout, potatoes and veg although ordering was a little like a Fawlty Towers sketch as John fancied Aloo Gobi instead of potato and was not told a definite no (although potato is one of the main ingredients!) He got it in the end but with a portion of potatoes as well (always one difficult guest at a Wedding).
The above is reproduced courtesy of HELLO magazine.
Now the real Will and Kate (the one’s with us) are Brits who are currently travelling overland back to the Uk after living in Oz for 10 years. We originally met them in Bangkok and were honoured to be part of their special day (what do you mean there was no one else you knew in the vicinity!)
The next day the four of us took a ride higher into the mountains along the Rohtang Pass, up to the snow line. The chance to see snow is a popular trip for Indian tourists from further south and is quite a spectacle to see! In true Indian fashion the mountain road becomes a gridlocked mess of cars, donkeys and tourists trudging around in hired ski suits, fake fur coats and wellies (yes, that’s right). It was 28c up there, we were in t-shirts!
The riders and their machines
The two of us courtesy of Will
Bye for now
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Love the wedding photos! Thanks for being part of our special day. xxx
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