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.

Rishikesh

In Uttarakhand province I got closer to the Himalayas than ever before in the holy city of Rishikesh. It got a little bit international attention when the Beatles came here during the 70s to talk with the local guru. I was still sick from Delhi and spent 3 days in bed and with a small radius eating little.
I got to know Betty from Mexico who was great fun. She is married to a Slovak. She came to India to find answers from meditation. Marieke and her boyfriend Hendrik also arrived and joined us. I joined them for one session of Yoga, which proved to be very exhausting with a lot of muscle ache for a couple days to come.
We celebrated Hendriks birthday with some white water rafting on the Ganges. Wow, this is different then the river Aare I am used to in Switzerland. There were some serious waves on the way, that almost threw us out of the boat. We were accompanied by a Muslim from Kashmir and to Tibetan girls from Delhi. All of them work in a call center. The Muslim guy and one of the Buddhist girl are in love with each other, but there families don't agree. So they are confronted with the choice of running away or separating and live with the prearranged marriages their parents propose. You can read on any given day in the newspaper about parents or brothers killing their loved one to secure cast order. Terrible.
In the evening we found some illegal Alcohol and illegal meat and celebrated (Rishikesh is a holy place). On my birthday we walked to a waterfall and built a dam. I think its a healthy thing to do on your 28th birthday. Next day we were off to Manali. Which eventually took 22 hours on a government bus.