Manali - green lush mountains

After 16,5 h on a bus, I arrived in Manali. I checked in the Rock Top Inn and had a soup for lunch - my room with a balcony was high above the stream. The river rushing let me easily fall asleep at night.

Thukpa

Rock Top Inn

But before that, I went exploring Old Manali and the Manu Temple.

Manu Temple

Lord Ganesha

I continued out of the village and had a great view of the surrounding lush green mountains. I met local men and women coming back from day's work of cutting the grass and bringing it home to store it as food for the animals in winter.

stone stairs

In the evening, I had a trout from the local river, went to bed early and slept for 10 hours.

Manaslu River

The next morning, I had a simple breakfast at the hotel and then looked for a paragliding experience . I was with a group of AIESECers and others and we climbed up the hill for 2 hours (they told us it's just 15-30 minutes) - Indian Standard Time:-).

No fear of heights:-)

When all seven jumpers were there, they strapped us and I was the first to run & jump. It was amazing - less than 3 steps and I felt the air below my feet.

Manila from above

The only pity was that the flight only took 10 minutes before we landed on a more or less straight meadow 15 minutes foot walk from the village. As the first I had to wait for the others.

Back in Manali, I explored the Hadimba Temple and a shrine in tree before walking down to the Mall - a pedestrian area with another temple, lots of people and shops.

Durga Temple

I headed to the bookshop to get a new book as I had finished the last the night before.

Then I walked the 3 km back to Old Manali while it got dark. There I met the AIESECers and we had a delicious dinner at the Rendezvous restaurant.