manali, manali, lafa, walks in the forest, visits to bookshops, tim buying drugs from smiling women in log cabins, walks to viewpoints, silent temples, lots of screaming tourists, sitting by the river contemplating, eating amazing mushroom and spinach lasagne down by the river, walking up to a strange temple a few kms away, meeting the english couple with their 5 girls and the husband who kissed them goodnight and then sat and drank opium tea with tim and smoked joint after joint, the decision to head south once again, once again to retrace steps and head to shimla to begin the last part of the journey.
the bus left in the evening. we walked down with backpacks, sat behind the bus smoking, boarded and found the bastards had put us at the back (as usual) though we insisted on the front seats (one of the things that i fucking hate about india..cause it happens again and again)..sat down in cramped seats with two police next to us (tim panicking cause he was transporting 8 grams of hash) and the night passed, uncomfortably and irritatingly. the first stop was just an excuse to drink and have as many cigarettes as possible.. anything to try take the edge off the awful bus.. we finally arrived in shimla at 5 in the morning, the bus dropping us off at the very bottom... a looooong way up to where i stayed the last time, up above the mall near the monkey temple.
with hearts almost exploding we reached the mall only to find out it was some holiday or something which meant every guest house was packed out...except the one i stayed in, but at exorbitant rates. we crashed for one night and decided to head east to sarankot.
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