Relaxing in Manali

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007--Manali

My hotel is up a mountainside 3 km (almost 2 miles) from the downtown area. Actually, I am in Old Manali and the downtown area is in Manali. I walked up the mountainside with my backpack and suitcase when I arrived yesterday. It was a difficult hike and a good test of the condition of my heart. I didn't realize it was going to be so steep, or I would have taken an auto-rickshaw. By the time I realized it, it would have been silly to take one for the rest of the way. My heart passed the test with flying colors (and with two short pauses to rest).

There are many tourists here. The last 3 weeks, I have been in places where there are far more people than I normally am among when I visit places in India. Like Leh, many of the tourists here are from Israel. I've been surprised to run into them, since I don't normally encounter Israelis anywhere I go. My hotel owner says that he has banned them from his hotel for causing problems--drinking, smoking pot, and then making too many disturbances for the other guests. The main reasons for being here are hiking in the mountains, the cool weather, and the drugs. Apparently smoking pot is a big pasttime for many tourists--not just the Israelis. Main street in Manali is a pedestrian mall. That's VERY unusual in a town in India. I went down the mountainside to there today to do a little shopping and to look around.

I had a masala omelette for lunch with hashbrowns, roll with butter and Jam, and milk tea. Then I returned to my room and rested. I've been reading and watching quite a bit of TV. When the sun isn't too hot, I go out on the patio outside my room to read.

In the evening, I went to a nearby restaurant and had spaghetti with a spicy sauce and a beer. It was the first alcohol I have had in over a month.

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007--Manali

Again, I rested. I spent all morning in the room. I read after watching all the news. I finished reading Memed, My Hawk by Yashar Kemal. It takes place in Kurdish Turkey and is an older book written in the 1950s. I gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

I'm starting to be a little tired of India this year. I still have one week before I depart the country, but the things that annoy me hear (lack of respect for pedestrians, the constant honking of horns, the unreasonable speeds that cars go on narrow streets, etc.) are taking their toll. I may not return to India next year. I don't really know of any place I would really want to visit here anyway.

I ate lunch at a local restaurant with the "cobra men." They are the Indians who wear turbans and move around the country carrying baskets with cobra snakes in them. They make money by letting people take photos of them, letting them handle the snakes, etc. One of the men likes me. They were in Leh last week and were at all the bus stops (traveling on a normal bus vs. my tourist bus) when we came here a few days ago. He tried to give me a necklace I admired, but I told him I thought it looked good on him and that it wouldn't look good on me. For lunch, I had Thupka, a spicy Tibetan noodle soup.

I rested more in the afternoon. I started a new book. Then I went to a nearby place for dinner where I had crispy chicken in honey sauce with rice. It was really a Chinese dish, but China is very near to here (at least the part that they claim called Tibet).

Friday, Aug. 24, 2007--Manali

My stomach was back to normal yesterday and today. So it only bothered me about 2 1/2 days. I guess it was something minor that made the loose bowel movements. It's good to know I don't have to worry about starting medications.

I'm still not doing much. I was just so tired from that long bus trip through the mountains that I haven't been motivated to do anything but rest. But I did go back down the mountain to Manali this morning. I ate breakfast down there--a Spanish omelette with hashbrowns, a big toasted loaf of bread, butter, jam, and milk tea. I did a little bit of shopping, then I started back up the mountain.

On the way to Old Manali, I ran into the Irish couple from my bus trip. It was starting to rain slightly, so we went into a coffee house and had a drink and visited. I had a coffee shake. They had a lemon ginger hot tea each. I found out more about their lives. We talked about books we have enjoyed reading, and each recommended books to the other. Then they walked to my room with me to get the book I finished yesterday. Unfortunately, they are leaving for Delhi today and will return home over the weekend. But I hope to see them again. I invited them to come to San Antonio some day.

In the afternoon, I talked a long time to my neighbor who was on his patio, too. He was also on the bus. In fact, he's the one who was so sick on the bus and then was miraculously well when I saw him in the hotel a day later. We talked about around-the-world tickets, about Estonia and Latvia where I will visit in a couple of weeks, etc. He's a nice guy. He and his wife want me to visit them in Tel Aviv someday. (Yes, they are in my hotel even though the manager said he didn't rent to Israelis. Maybe he rents to married couples but not to singles.)

Tonight, I finished watching the 3-part series on CNN about Religious Warriors. I enjoyed the series, although I found it frightening. I hope I don't find myself living in the Christian Republic of America someday. It would be as bad as living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, I think, with laws passed controlling how everyone dresses, acts, etc. But that is what fundamentalists would love to do--to control the lives of everyone and make them live the way THEY think everyone should live. It's like my fuss regarding the Imams and their speakers on their mosques. If they have to FORCE the religion on everyone rather than trust people to WANT to follow it, how good can it be?

I ate at an Israli restaurant tonight. I had a HUGE plate of good food--two skewers of chicken kebab, yellow rice, salad (cucumber, tomato, carrots), hummus, and a piece of pita bread. Ummmm! And the portions here are as big as those in America, so I was stuffed. Most Indian restaurants serve smaller portions so that one goes away satisfied and barely full. I think I prefer that. I don't want to start gaining weight again now that I have lost so much on this trip.