Local Foliage

I'm not going to name any names or anything but I think I know a few friends who might really enjoy where we're staying. This stuff grows naturally all over the hills. I mean EVERYWHERE. And if you don't know what this stuff is, we'll just leave it at that.

Manali is incredible. It's about 75 degrees and reminds us of a cross between Tahoe and New Hampshire on steroids. The mountains are just humungous and ring the whole place. Manali seems like a big destination for the backpacker scene but also for Indian tourists. They come in droves. We lucked into this incredible little guest house with a great garden and a porch for us to sit out on with our books and chais all morning. The pics in the slides were taken right off our back deck. The kids in the one photo live in a little house behind the guesthouse. I'll be checking Jessica's bags when we leave for kidnapped children... it was a problem in Delhi. The only hitch is the shared bathroom with the family who runs the guest house, but we're adjusting. Figuring out the flushing was interesting (it takes just the right amount of water from the bucket).



We're "working" on setting up a trek, but I'm not gonna lie, the motivation to do much of anything beyond lift my finger to turn a page is not exactly high, and I might be "working" on this trek for a few days. I think we're going to be here a while. We're getting good at Gin Rummy and Jessica "beat" me in chess for the first time today (I'm not saying I gave her back her queen six times or anything). We've also befriended an elderly Indian couple at our guesthouse who have become great companions. I was going to post a photo, but Kuldeep asked me to take her picture tomorrow when she wasn't feeling so tired. This may mean I'm never getting a picture though. Indian people really don't seem to like being photographed (although they love taking pictures of us) so she may have just been politely declining.

Oh and since I didn't have a photo up about the metal detectors in the last post, I thought I would leave you with this little gem. Enjoy!