Greetings from India
Location: Manali
Country: India
Recovering from 3 nights with no sleep, but I will start from the begining.
I was surprised to discover the Uzbekistan Airways is not as terrible as one would expect, it was quite decent actually, even the food was edible. The only thing I could really complain about was that the film was in Russian, so I gave that a miss.
I met the couple (Ran and Meital) that were "shiducht" to me at the airport and sat with them on the plane, they were very nice.We started of with a 4 and a half hour flight to Tashkent (Uzbekistan), there we had a 5 hour wait in what could be described as an airport I guess, but didn't look much like one, looked more like an old mansion. (I wanted to upload a picture, but it's a crummy dial-up connection here and that would take forever, not as good as the dial-up connection via my LIGs). We somehow managed to pass the time in Tashkent with Taki.
Then we had a 2 and a half hour flight from Delhi. The plane was almost empty, so I actually managed to dose of for a bit.
What you have in mind when I say Delhi airport is what it actually is....As you walk out the airport, you see people sleeping on the pavement. India welcome for you.I took a cab with Ran, Meital and another Israeli guy to the Main Bazar. All the Israeli's from the flight arrive there, so wasn't easy finding a place to sleep, not fun at 04:00 am with a heavy bag on your back. We eventually found a place which was a bit more expensive, but decent. There too there were a lack of rooms, so I ended up spending a night with some strange Israeli guy that I didn't know (separate beds!!).
Luckily many people prepared me for how horrid Delhi is, so I wasn't in too much of a shock when morning came and I saw where I was.
Me, Ran and Meital decided it would be best to get out of Delhi ASAP.The only plan I had about India was that I was gonna go to Daramsala first, which goes to prove that there is no point in making any plans. Ran and Meital convinced me to start with Manali.
There is a 13 (theoretically 13, usually more) hour bus you can take to here, but we arranged for a jeep with 4 more people. It cost about 4 times the price, but it is still cheap, and just so much nicer than going on the bus. I decided that it would be ok to treat myself to this.
That isn't to say that the ride was actually nice, it was not easy. It took us 15 hours (which isn't too bad). But the second half of the trip is all these small winding roads going uphill. We were lucky to have a nice driver who didn't go to fast, but I have to say some bits were really scary. Needless to say, I did not sleep on the way. Add that with the night of the flight and the night before that my nerves refused to let me sleep, we have reached 3 almost sleepless nights. How I didn't get a migrane is beyond me, but I thank my body for being strong for a change.
Arrived in Manali at 06:30 am and fell asleep as I hit the bed.At the moment staying at a guesthouse in Old Manali which is nice but a bit noisy, so will either change guesthouse, or go to a village near here alled Vashish I believe, which is supposed to be nice.
The view here is spectacular, green mountains all around. It is not very warm, but still possible to be in Tshirt, so that is fine. And it's preferable to Delhi which was like being inside a furnace.
Yul, Michal - Just met 2 girls here who said it is raining most the time in Daramsala. Is it worth going there anyway, or should I skip it?
Yul - Just got a mail from Limi, apparently she is also in old Manali at the moment, so I'll go look for her, should be fun seeing her.
Shahar - Pls change the time zone for me to India.
Well, that pretty much brings you up to date, so I'll sign off for now and go see what this place has to offer.
5 Comments:
Instructions, instructions, instructions...
change this, do that...
Pfffft.
I'm actually happy to see you are putting this blog thingy to good use although you will have to keep this up now.
This post is long, interesting and detailed enough but lacks in photos.
Also you may consider adding a link from time to time. like so:
http://www.worldroom.com/pages/cg_manali/manali_main.phtml
Overall, you show a good potential, but I am sure you can achieve so much more if you will just make an effort.
In other news, I met Alon yesterday, he is still going to India but you know that could change.. although it looks like you were able to find some nice people you could hang around with instead of wondering around the streets of Delhi as a homeless puppy for the coming two weeks... so who knows? Maybe you wont even care whether he arrives...
So tell us about the food, the drinks, were you able to eat in those 3 days or was it a combined effort of sleep loss and food depravation?
Can they make hot water ina cup in India?
Aight, enough of that for now :) keep up those updates (who knows ,maybe we will release them as a book) and have a lot of fun.
P.S.
I changed your time zone. You are now GMT+5.5.
glad you arrived safetly and weathered the journey north. your diary is getting very interesting. a little rain never hurt anyone. missing you already. everyone here fine rushing around like mad as usual, Yael especially. Just you take care and enjoy I am actually a bit envious!!! love mummy cole daddy cole also sends his love xxx
Hi Norm, Good system this - we keep up-to-date and know exactly what's happening assuming that you have the time and inclination to write. Seems like you got off to a good start. Keep up the good work and continue with the "open-mind" strategy. Contrary to your mother, I can't say I'm missing you yet as things have been very hectic here these last few days. Mum's going off on Friday so things will calm down a bit after that. Popped into David & Galit's place earlier on this week and spent some time with Amit - very nice. Invited to the Vards for Friday night so that solves a problem. That's all for now. Love from Dad. xxxxxxxx
Sorry you seemed to have forgotten to mention the exact time you had a pony.I never liked India but now you've arrived i'm starting to feel sorry for the country.
Have a good time,missing you already.Congrats on becoming an aunt again.Should keep the name going.Love Rickyxx
Hey Nom,
Everyone wrote you messages so i feel that i have to as well, I mean even uncle bloody Ricky wrote you something..
Good to hear your not on your own during the first stages of your trip, and even better that your not on a plane on the way back.
Here all is well, Amit is growing up (hes now 3.5 kg, gone up by half a kilo in a week) he smiles a lot, and hes much more awake.
Dont forget the personal e-mail
Duv
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