Kullu Valley High

Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India

 

So I should say a bit about Manali.  It's a former colonial hill station in the Himalayan hills at the head of the Kullu Valley, home of the Kullu peoples (as always, its easiest to distinguish them from the various Nepalis, Jo's, and Tibetans by their headwear) and is the first actually Indian place I've been, although it also has more Israeli backpackers than you would think existed, as old Manali has more Hebrew signs than Hindi, no kidding.  Otherwise its a popular Indian resort town set on the banks of a bunch of raging rivers in deodar, pine & evergreen forests and is fairly low key for India. And I'm staying in a renovated wooden cottage dating back to the Raj days so it's kind of cool.

 

There's not exactly a lot of sights as its a resort area, and its the rainy season, so that's how I found myself hanging out with a bunch of Mumbai guys drinking beer and watching wrestling yesterday (which is incredibly popular here as of late).  Of course, the whole afternoon was a pretext for a scam (actually the first attempted scam on me in India in two weeks, which is pretty good, in Beijing they started the second I got off the plane).  This one involved giving me free beer and then asking me smuggle diamonds back to the US to avoid import duties. I'm sorry to say this - but what a bunch of total amateur hucksters.  I'm not Joe Idiot Australia guy.   It takes a lot more than two beers to get me to commit to something that stupid, more like 10.  Thanks for the beer though guys.