The Highest Mountains in the World - 01/16/2013

Early morning drive from the bus station to Gojra

GABBY - I woke up early from the winding and climbing of the road in the bumbling bus.  It was still pitch black outside, but it was obvious that we were really getting up there.  I attempted sleep, but it was very light and unsubstantial.  The sun eventually started to come up, illuminating the snow covered peaks and river that we were driving along next to.  Both Ben and I started to get giddy at the site of the sheer mountain faces and the prospect of staying there for the next couple days.  We eventually reached the bus station and were immediately berated by tuk tuk and taxi drivers.  We got into a cab without negotiating a price and were easily ripped off by a couple hundred rupees.  We had booked a hotel for our first night online when we were in Delhi.  The cab ride took about 30 minutes because we were still climbing up the mountains.  

View from the balcony outside our room

We were pretty far outside of Manali in a small town called Gojra, which seemed to be a small, village-like, place away from the “touristy” parts.  We found out that we were missing the tourist season as it starts in June.  Manali gets really touristy with people wanting to do treks into the Himalayas and shop in the local markets.  We eventually made it to our hotel called Sarthak Resorts, which was costing us $20 a night to stay there.  It is more than what we should be paying in India, but we decided to go a little nicer for our first night and move to something cheaper if we wanted to after we got a feel for the area.  We checked in at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM and were shown to our room on the 3^rd floor.  The room was nothing special until we opened the curtain and saw the view of the Himalayas and our balcony overlooking it.  It was a breathtaking view of the valley surrounded by snow capped mountains and scattered with small villages.  We took a much needed nap to try and catch up on some sleep before heading down to the hotel restaurant for lunch.  It was a typical Indian lunch accompanied by lots of roti (substitute Indian bread for naan).  We only get roti during the days because naan is made in a tandoor, which isn’t usually used until later in the day.  

After lunch we went for a walk to explore the area a bit.  We walked through small mountain villages attracting curious onlookers and packs of dogs.  This was definitely the coldest place we had been during our whole trip.  It was probably in the low 50’s, but was a pleasant temperature for walking, especially when the sun is beating down.  We walked for over an hour, winding through forested patches and villages before reaching a large town called Naggar.  Before entering the town, we decided to catch a bus back to the hotel since we were getting a little tired.  We effortlessly flagged down a local bus and rode it back to our hotel, costing us 20 rupees total for the both of us (about 40 cents).  We hopped off at Sarthak and ordered room service for dinner.  There were some wild dogs outside that had started barking, so I told Ben an experience my family had with a barking dog in Italy.  My family was staying in a small bed and breakfast in Lucca, a small Tuscan town for a couple nights.  Amy and I were staying in one room, while my parents were in the room next door.  The owner had a dog (actually named India) who barked for the entire night.  I couldn’t fall asleep.  I tried everything, putting the pillow over my head, listening to music, etc.  All of a sudden out of the darkness and silence (except for the barking) I hear someone screaming, “SHUUUT UUUPPP!”  It was my dad, but all of my hair stood on end!  The dog stopped barking, at least for a couple minutes, but I was terrified and knew for a fact I wouldn’t be catching a wink of sleep for the rest of the night.  The next morning each of us were crying because we were laughing so hard at the previous night’s nightmare.  Basically I relived this nightmare with the wild dogs barking outside our resort.  I listened to my music for awhile, which helped, but I still had a really hard time getting any sleep.