Old Manali, New Manali, Solang Valley and Vaschist - The Kullu Valley

After a 10 hour bus journey from Dharamsala, I finally made it to Manali - we got there about 6.30am and the views were amazing all the way, watching the sunrise on the coach going through the mountains.

A taxi driver recommended a place to stay called Manu Guesthouse, situated in Old Manali - I fully recommend it, it's only 150 rupees a night, with on suite bathroom and lovely people working there! That day I visited an old temple called The Dunghri Temple. I met a girl called Tatiana, and we agreed to go trekking the following day up a mountain to get some good photos. That evening we went to meet some people in the 3rd Eye Cafe.

At 6.30am on Tues, we set off. Not too well prepared I will admit. It was an amazing experience though, we scaled rock faces, climbed down waterfalls, up steep slopes and along mountain passes.

When he had ggone 6 hours, we decided to head back to avoid being caught out in the dark. The most amazing thing was this dog followed us from the beginning, right through to 7pm when we got back into Old Manali - like our little guardian angel. I will admit, we ran out of water at 1pm, had to drink from streams, and ran out of food as we had only taken a paket of crackers, and also didn't take sunblock. Ended up with minor sunstroke, severe blisters, dehydration that felt like the mother of all hangovers!! Lesson learnt!

On Wednesday went to Vashisht to the hot springs (not as romantic as I thought) basically a bath tub in a temple shared with everyone else, and they only change the water once a day! Spent a few days sight seeing, and booked my ticket for Simla - leaving Friday with Shirley.