He speaks!!! Yeah, I’m actually writing again! You see, sadly, Nat left 2 days ago for Delhi, where she flies out from, so now it’s up to me!
Ok, let’s take it back to the days of the "Nat and Sean" period! Having enough of the desert heat, we ran for the hills with our tails between our sweaty legs! One train, two rickshaws, and four buses, and we were in McLeod Ganj, a tasty little town in the mountains! After being in the desert, every shiver we felt, in the cool mountain air, was like the feeling you get when you finish your first body-contorting yoga session: a euphoric relief sprinkled with wonder at why you would’ve done that to yourself in the first place! It was glorious!!! We met a Tibetan guy there who escaped from China 2 years ago by making a 30-day trek through Nepal, with about 25 other people, travelling mostly at night to stay hidden from the police! Crazy eh?
Anyway, Nat headed out for Delhi, after our utterly stupendous Indian experience together! Truly, it was awesome! Nat has been an amazing travel buddy! But now she has left us to explore the "just Sean" period!
Literally, just as Nat’s bus pulled away, the full wrath of the monsoon, which we’d been narrowly escaping for the last 2 and a half months, descended upon me with terrific fury! It was like a movie director had just barked “...and... cue the rain!” Then the sappy music played as I sat at the bus station, mourning the loss of Nat’s company! From that moment until now, the rain has been attacking! From small ambushes to full-on assaults, it rains! And oh it rains!
So I picked myself up like a good soldier, and headed up to Manali, where I found our english pal Olly, shooting pool with a couple of Aussies! Although our conversation was navigated from opposite sides of inebriation, it was so good to see him! I was given the last room, the cheap room, at the same guesthouse as Olly! It was the kind of room that, when I asked for a room, the dude told me they were full, and when I asked “Really?”, he said “Well… we do have one room, very small, 75 rupees!” (half the price of the regular rooms), and when he said this, everyone who knew about the room laughed! Seriously! He took me to the room and, after clearing a pile of dirty laundry off the bed, and straightening the existing bedding, presented it to me with satisfaction! It was their storage room with a bed, and it was tiny! Basically, wall to wall bed in one direction, and there’s a small walkway between the storage shelves and the bed in the other direction. Not the smallest we’ve seen here, but definitely tiny! It’s a little musty, but sorta sporting its dinginess with class… you know, quaint! Anyway, the next day the dude asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a nicer room, and I couldn’t do it! I had made my nest, the room and I had bonded, and it was dirt-cheap! We’re getting along great, that room and I! I think a good trick to life is to experience a great deal of terribly sketchy accommodation, as early as possible, completely rebuilding your frame of reference! After that, everything is rosy! Anyway, Manali is a lot like Goa, in that it will suck you in and not let you leave if you’re not careful! It’s such a great place to chill with loads of great travellers to hang out with!
Anyway, I’d better go! In a few hours, at 2am, I will squeeze into the backseat of a jeep, with 3 other people, and head north to Leh in the Himalayas! Apparently it’s a 20 hour trip over the 2nd highest motorable mountain pass in the world! This is gonna be a doozy! Ok, I’m out! Cheers!
-S
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