First impressions of the Himalaya

And finally Himalaya. Already a week I am lingering around in the lower Himalaya area. The trip from LONAVALA was quite exhausting and very long: With the public bus to Mumbai; horrible suburban train ride to the airport; in the airplane I met Dutch Jorrit who spontaneously decided to join me travelling to the North; in Delhi we took the night train to Kalka meeting my Russian friend Anna Libkhen with her Russian friend Ellen and 3 Austrian guys; arriving in Kalka at 5.00 am and changing to a bus to go up to Shimla (capital of the State of Himachal Pradesh); arriving there at 8.30 am.; Breakfast ; then spontaneous decision to continue our trip on the same day to Naggar in the Kullu Valley with a hired jeep; finally arrived in this nice little village after 36h ouf travelling. In Naggar we stayed 3 nights recovering from this very exhausting trip and getting used to the altitude of 2000 meters above sea level. The scenery is beautiful here and reminds me a lot on some areas in the Swiss mountains. Even though we are on 2000 meters, we are still in the lower areas of the Himalaya but we can see the snow covered peaks of some higher mountains already. Poeple are nicer here than in the south and it is slightly more organized and cleaner (though only slightly!!). Tibet and Nepal are close which is visible in the a lot of the customs here. Though still mainly hinduistic, buddhism is sensible much more than in the south; the culture is 'quiter' and less chaotic; the traditional clothes look more Tibetan; the architecture is 'wooden-mountain-rural'! The physical appereances of the local population is on avarage already quite 'Asian-looking'. I must say, I appreciate poeple here more than in the South of India and I am eager and curious to go still further up.
However, after three nights we moved further up to VASHISHT which is just 2 km away from the very touristic place MANALI. Anna Libhken and her gang rushed further already, up to Leh, whereas Jorrit and myself decided to move on in a lower pace and enjoy this lovely littel valley a bit longer. We are here 3 nights already, doing some hiking, breathing in the atmosphere of this mountaineous-rural-indian scenery, being cheered by the Hippie-israeli-scene here (you are definitely an outsider when you don't wear either dread-locks, Batik-clothes or red-dyed hair; being stoned from dusk till dawn is standard of course!!!) . Anyway, the groove here is 'shanti', the official language Hebrew and Humus and Fallafel are standard-meals in every restaurant. I must say, I have arrived in another world here. Traveller's groove and feeling; suddenly India can be also nice at once. But it's definitely not India, that's the point. This is a traveller's bubble of fake Indian spirituality and real hedonism. Anyway, I must say, why not??? for a certain time it can be certainly relaxing. But in the long run, definitely not my thing. So we are in Vashist right now, Jorrit and me, and we met some nice young Israeli girls whom we intend to travel with, more concretely, to go to the SPITI valley for a few days which ethically belongs to Tibet and which is on an altitude over 3000 meters above sealevel. Sounds exciting.
Vashisht itself is a mixture between Hippie-resort and rural Himachalian mountain-farmer village with a hot well. This well is really nice since there is public bath in the center of the village fed with hot water by this well (or better; a small basin) where all the local Indians take their dayly (or rather weekly) bath in public; women haver their own bath which is seperated and protected by walls against lecherous male looks. Every night at 11.30 pm the water is changed so also westerners dare to enjoy the pleasures of this relieving public Indian spa. Yes, finally travelling and - as I said - another world which I so eagerly waited for.
Cheers.
Misho.