Pictures And Words

Stop the bus I want a wee wee,
Stop the bus I want a wee wee,
Stop the bus I want a wee wee,
And the driver wants a poo.

I spent one night in Keylong, I had an amazing sleep after the long bus journey, it was such a comfy bed and it was cold outside yet there was two duvets in the room! So I used both. I awoke at 4am and went to the bus station to catch a bus to Manali. Different bus this time, one with reclining chairs and a tv! They played Hindi music videos with the volume on full, until that is, a Brazilian traveler couldn’t take it any more and turned it down.

6:13am And we’re off! First pictures a bit blury due to the low light. To my disapointment straight away we crossed to the other side of the valley we were in, which meant I lost the view for a while.

6:18am See, not much of a view. It improved quite quickly though, as you will see!

6:34am The sun takes a peek over the hills.

6:37am Here we are just about to speed off the edge and land safely on the road just below.

6:58am Moo

7:21am This is quite a common occurance on these roads, a river or stream spilling across the road, turning it to rubble over time. The road workers, over time are improving all these sections, where they can diverting the water under the road with pipes. You can see some of them though where its really eating into the road, notch up another nerve wracking moment on these roads.

7:32am Here the going is great, nice smooth and wide road, beautiful blue sky and lush grassland.

7:32am Nice bit of lens flare to accompany the valliant..no actually, heroic! workers repairing the road in the distant.

7:37am I just noticed a dried spattering of vomit on my window frame. If you look at the sides of all the busses you can always spot vomit down the sides, a lot of the local people don’t travel well. I’ve seen them vomit a lot on busses, i’ve seen it blow back along the bus and into an open window flecking someone else with vomit…..sorry to dwell on vomit. There was no vomit down the side of the bus, just on the edge, so they cleaned the side but not the top.

8:02am A very beautiful bit, its funny how its easier to waffle on about vomit than it is to waffle on about this beautiful bit. There’s a field, and some rocks. It looks a bit like the shire. And thats all I can say really, it is beautiful though.

8:06am Lovely……I’ve only now just noticed there’s a truck there thats fallen off. I didn’t see that when I was there, sheesh, lucky they fell off in a relativly safe place.

8:13am More water, and you can see what its doing to the road, dissolving it over time.

8:16am It was such a nice valley, easy to live in unlike the valleys I was in yesterday. Here the soil looks very good, ideal for growing things.

8:24am Such a quaint place with its simple telephone poles and its horses. You wouldn’t think its India if you didn’t know would you.

8:47am There was a relaxed competition in the sky, between blue sky and overcast. The winner was me as it made such interesting photographs.

9:13am Into the clouds we go! There’s a very distinct line between in the clouds, and out of them. I would have liked to have gone and put my head in the clouds, but the driver wouldn’t have any of it im sure.

9:14am These are all Indian tourists, who come to Manali for a holiday and for a experience of snow come all the way to the top of this pass and ski on these small patches. There are also people to push you around on sled for a price, and also I saw skidoo’s! You can navigate from patch to patch on a skidoo! They all really get prepared for it, hiring out big snow suits for the afternoon.

9:17am This bit is just after the snow patches, lots of cafe’s and places to buy new rolls of film and video tape. This area is called the Rohtang Pass, or Rohtang La which translates to “pile of bodies” since many people have died trying to cross this area in a less favorable season. I think its around 4000-4500 meters.

9:46am After the brief spell of level ground its back to life on the edge. For the last time though, since this is the start of the Kullu valley, where my destination lies, Manali.

9:47am A small traffic jam builds up as the the large vehicles cautiously pass.

10:08am Here we attempted to pass a truck and got caught under this overhang.

10:10am The driver took some time to decide what to do so I took another picture of that vomit. It preturbed me that I was sat so close to vomit, I was sure I was getting wiffs of it at times as well.

10:10am Eventually we conceeded and reversed, waiting for many cars to pass that had built up on the other side, then going for it when the road was clear.

10:43am I mentioned this place last time I came here, how the Indian tourist sat at tables that were in the water, as water lapped over their feet, I guess its a kind of special theme restaurant.

11:13am And here’s the start of the Kullu valley, the road is looping back on itself to get down to the bottom. Once we were at the bottom it was a straight run to Manali, no worries, not cliff edges, nice and warm. Journey all completed!

So all thats left for me now is to take a bus tonite to Delhi. Then its one night in Delhi, a train to Varanasi the next day, then a couple of nights in Varanasi, and a train to the Nepali border. All done!

Thankyouverymuch!