on the beach in arica – thank you very much

This time, the winds took us all the way up to the north of Chile to Arica, which is on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.  Do you know how cold the water in the Pacific is?? VERY COLD!!  Well, Ian did try to get in and body-board, but…

 

cambodia

It looks like this post on Cambodia slipped through the cracks.  We were actually there around the beginning of June.  Nevermind though….

The trip from Saigon to Phnom Phen did not surprise us at all. As expected…there was a problem. But there always seems to be with Cambodians.

 

varanasi

Varanasi is one of the holiest places in India. Hindu pilgrims come to the ghats lining the river Ganges to wash away their sins, bath in the holy water, wash their clothes, even drink the water (however, the level of pollution is unbelievable as the sewage from lots of towns on the Ganges is not treated and goes directly in the river.)  and to cremate their loved ones. Ghats are steps leading all the way down to the Ganges.

 

vashisht and it’s baths

typical Indian road users, ignoring the rules

Our trip from Delhi went up north. We took a overnight sleeper train to Shimla, where we spent a not-very-interesting day and continued on an overnight bus the next evening to Manali. It was a seriously windy road, which caused some trouble for Lenkas motionly-challenged stomach. We got to see her dinner twice 😦 It goes without saying, we were relieved when we arrived 2 hours ahead of schedule.

Manali – poplulation 4481 – is a small town at the foothills of the Himalayas. The smaller village of Vashisht lies 4km uphill from Manali, and thats where we spent a few very relaxing, nearly-nothing-at-all-doing days. We lazily tried a variety of little rooftop restaurants overlooking the valley that Manali lies in, browsed through a buddhist monastery and – most strenuously – walked the half hour to the nearby waterfalls; very pictureque there, btw. The mountains with their peaks covered in snow guaranteed some nice cool weather – an extremely welcome gift after the heat and humidty of Delhi; we even had to put on jumpers in the evenings.

Thanks to hot springs coming from the mountains, there are some public baths in Vashisht and these are for everyone to use. One bath is close to the main road (which isn’t really a road, just a normal sized European pavement) which is mostly used by the women locals for washing dishes and clothes; and men locals for washing themselves (lucky men). Fortuitously, there is another set of baths just around the corner which has got seperate baths for men and women, and is very popular with the locals. I think, through evolution or some other mechanism, these locals have developed some kind of imperviousness to extreme temperature; because I tried it once and managed to last about 5 seconds in the bath, all of which where spent wondering weather it was going to 1st or 2nd degree burns. However, if you are a fan of seriously hot baths – and if you are a woman don’t mind local ladies staring at you – it could be quite pleasant.

For us, we just made sure our guesthouse had it’s own bathroom.

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