Manali & Bir

My second day in Manali I headed up to Rohtang Pass. I didn't know too much about it, except that the views are supposed to be amazing and it's only 50k out of town so it'd be a nice couple hour day trip, right? Wrong. It took 3 1/2 hours each way to drive that 50k, because the roads are so poor and the traffic is so congested. Apparently, it's the place where Indians go to see their first snow. So, along the drive are dozens of shops renting "snow dresses" or one piece 80's ski suits and super skinny old school skis. So funny. If I had known exactly what it was then I probably wouldn't have spent 7 hours in a car, but it was fun to see people's reactions to snow. And I loved seeing the Sikhs in their turbans and one pieces. It just seems so incongruous.        

   The parking lot at Rohtang.

It started raining and didn't stop for about 36 hours...and I'm talking serious, monsoon rain. I started to worry about mudslides, being in a canyon and all. I got soaked going to see the Hadimba Temple. It's a little bit grisly - every May they have a three day festival where animals are sacrified. And the outside of the temple is adorned with animal skulls and antlers. Inside there is a stone bowl for collecting the blood. This place kind of gave me the creeps.

Hadimba Temple

The next day I left Manali and headed to Bir for the night. Bir is tiny....it's basically just a stop on the way to Dharmasala. It has a big Tibetan population, like Manali, and a nice Buddhist temple. My guesthouse was set in a tea plantation or "tea garden" as they say here. It was a peaceful place to spend an evening. The next day I headed up to Billings to see the world famous paragliding spot. Along the 10k drive, we got stuck behind a herd of goats. There were two tiny, baby goats that I was oooing over and the owner asked if we would drive them up to Billings because they were tired and were walking so slowly. So, we took the goat babies and the owner's kid to the top of the mountain. Is it horrible to say that even after the beautiful Hindu and Buddhist temples I had seen in the past few days, that driving the baby goats was the highlight of my day? :) They were like little puppies and so cuddy. The kid was totally amused at how excited I was about them. It was funny.

If only they could stay small forever....

Billings has world famous paragliding so I stopped and watched a few take off the side of the mountain. I thought about trying it...because the price was cheap, but decided it probably wasn't the best activity to cut corners on :)