leh --> manali --> delhi. + ean

even after the mind-expanding rides from jammu to srinigar to leh, the leh-manali highway was stunning. the last couple hours we kept snaking up and up and up and up and up and up and up until we were way way way way above the clouds and the snow/ice chunks got huge, like winter whales strewn about. i'm not sure why these chunks were so randomly scattered, but the melting process carved them in beautiful ways. after cresting the top and beginning the long descent down into manali, we looked far below to small villages which were at an altitude quite a bit higher than most of the clouds liked to float.

manali itself was rather carnivalesque.. wide streets packed tight with people, mostly dressed to the nines. we heard raucus music and went to investigate and it seemed to be a coin-operated mess of machinery that made lots of crashing smashing sounds. it was night, and the whole scene reminded me a lot of the part in the old pinnochio cartoon where our hero ends up banished to the carnival and i think maybe he starts to turn into a donkey (knaamsayin?).

we were way lucky and got the last 2 tickets for the bus to delhi. well, the last 2 seats anyway. the room in the aisle was not wasted. some people sat on the floor and others stood for big chunks of the 16 hour ride.

we stayed in the tibetan section of delhi and when we arrived ean was already there. the hotel was a little remote so the three of us relocated to Camran Lodge, a hotel in pahar ganj (the neighborhood that 99% of us backpackers stay in) which was also (or was formerly) a mosque. the rooftop was amaaaaaaazing.

while in delhi we checked out jama masjid, the biggest mosque in india. we also chilled out in lodhi gardens (which has a sweet bonsai park and provided a needed oasis from the hustle 'n bustle), met some fun parisians and some wild scandinavians driving a technicolor hippybus across this earth (oncearoundtheworld.com) at GEM bar, ate some way fancy thali in connaught place, and saw a somewhat lackluster bollywood film, "thoda pyar, thoda magic."

next up: 1st train trip & ashraming in rishikesh