Manali

If you go to the Swiss alps then you could easily walk into the landscape of Manali. Famous for Indian honeymooners (Switzerland is also famous for upper class honeymooners) and international travelers this base for trekking offers all kind of adventures. Even though we arrived in mid June the snowline was pretty low (3500m). That's why most of the passes are closed. So we did a trek along the valley through some still very much authentic villages. People are nice and fore coming. We walked through grassland, along creeks, through villages, met shepherds and saw the disneyeske park built at the end of the valley for the Indian tourists.

In the evening we usually watched some football since Juan Pablo from Argentina joined are group. Juan is an ostrich farmer in the pampas of Argentina and doesn't like Maradona. Manali is very touristy and because of that not so attractive. We had the liberty to choose continental food for the last week and felt like we wanted to do something more adventurous. That's why the Spitti valley came up. There are no trees in this valley and the terrain is very much rugged. Tibetan exile monasteries are scattered all over. But the thing is that you have to cross two passes to get there. And the second one is only possible by jeep. A Spanish friend told us that people here in Manali don't know if the second pass is open. So we should just go over the first one and check in Koksar for the transport.
Everybody told us that the second pass is closed but since the Spanish guy told us that this is going to happen we didn't bother to much. We stepped into a government bus and took off to conquer the Roathan Pass. Which turned out to be a nightmare. Because Indian tourist with there private car were also heading to the top to touch snow or "ski". At the same time Indian tourist were coming down. The road was chronically not wide enough and this naturally led to one colossal traffic jam. And we were in this long, old bus blowing the horn all the time. The views were stunning during the ride and the spectacle of drivers yelling at each other during there vacation priceless.