The drive to Dehli.

I got up early and went for a walk up the road from the hotel. There were lots of little birds about but very difficult to see as the light was quite murky and they were flitting about in the leaves.
In the grounds there was a Greater Barbet pulling stuff off a tree and several Green-backed Tits moved about the bushes. The resident Black Bulbul defended his bush, calling and seeing off any birds that came near. The Blue Whistling Thrush lived up to its name by whistling loudly but getting pictures was a nightmare as the light was so bad.
Further up the hill there was a flock of small warblers and which I think needs some sorting out, with what I think was one of the streaked tits (book packed will check when I can) as well as several very yellow warblers. There was a very noisy flock of parakeets, (see above) as well as a pack of macaques which were running about on the rooves and crashing through the tree tops.

I returned to the hotel for breakfast and then we walked down into town to look for more presents and souvenirs. The others went to the Post Office while I did some bartering. They found a bookshop so I went down there and bought a concise copy of the flora of the Himalayas. I also got a t-shirt embroidered but as I had to wait for about half an hour we went for a walk round. The others went off and I went back for the t-shirt before returning to the hotel by Tuktuk.
We had a late lunch around 3.30 of more trout and chips before loading everything up in the cars, saying our goodbyes, taking pictures and then setting off for the coach station. This was the usual organised chaos, with coaches driving out, backing in and tooting. One of the families from Manali came to see us off. Our coach was the luxury Volvo for Dehli, we checked our luggage, found our seats and settled in for the long drive.



I manage to sleep some of the way, apparently through some heavy rain and thunderstorms, which, we heard later, had caused landslides and 2 people dead the next day. We had to negotiate several lots of road works which are, apparently, for firbre-optic cabling going to Manali.

There were several stops, including one roadside stop for a wee and two for drinks and food. We arrived in Delhi at around 7.10, the coach was waiting so we loaded up and returned back to the Shangri-la's Hotel. As it was so early we had to wait about an hour for our rooms so some of us went off and had a breakfast, which was really comprehensive and international before going to our rooms and getting a much needed shower and change of clothes.



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Back to Manali

We were up at 5.30 for breakfast, packed and ready to go for the long drive back to Manali. It was just as difficult a drive with a stop for drinks near a bridge where there was a flock of Yellow-billed Choughs flying around, a couple of Hill Pigeons and I walked back over the bridge to photograph a couple of flowers.

We made a few more stops for 'rock breaks' and lunch with a longer stop at the Kunzum Pass where we found Edelweiss. As I hadn't got out on the way up I did have a look round this time. There is a stupa surrounded by a fence and lots of prayer flags, which were difficult to photograph as there were odd wires in the way and getting angles was difficult.

Once over the pass we hit the difficult bit of road where there are lots of streams coming down the hillside. As the road is just a level cut from the rocks, these streams just flow across the road or even down it for a while, making it very difficult to negotiate with boulders, rocks and even a large metal pipe at one place. The worst one took about an hour to get through as it causes a bottleneck with cars, lorries and busses all vying for passage through. The four-wheel drives made it easiest, and often pushed through ahead of others. The drivers were very good at helping each other and others by moving rocks and building ramps, but with three cars to get through, it took a while. There were some interesting flowers to look at and the antics were very entertaining even if they got a bit close at times as they surged through the water. One of the busses just charged through, moving a large rock with its front bumper and carrying on regardless.
There were a few other difficult places but we managed to get through due to the careful driving of our drivers and we slowly wound our way through the mountains until we went over the Rohtang pass and began the descent into Manali. We stopped a couple of times for flowers and once Desh, the driver of the car in front, found blue poppies, which two of our cars stopped for. Alongside was an arum and lower down we stopped to quiz a lorry load of wood where there was a pair of Rock Buntings.

We arrived at the Mayflower around 7.00 where Anna and I had the most palatial room, with two triple sized beds in two separate rooms and a bathroom each. Unfortunately, Anna found some small maggots in her bedding and had to get them to change it.
We had a lovely trout and chips dinner before turning in after a long day.
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A Spiti Wedding

Following another lovely dinner of paneer and peas, lentil dall and rice, some of us decided to go to the wedding of a local girl with a man from Kinnaur Valley, the next valley over. We met up at around 10 pm and waited to be told that they were ready. At about 10.30 we set off up the hill to the wedding tent. Passing various other revellers we entered the tent, walked up the end and sat down on 2inch mats, cross-legged again.

At the end next to us was about 4 Spiti men in red hats and 4 Kinnaud men in traditional green trimmed hats with a white handkerchief folded in a triangle and a bunch of fluffy seed pods, pinned on. We were offered Chang, barley beer, or Arrac, a white liquor with a fiery taste. There was a lot of activity going on in the middle of the room and lots of white prayer scarves were handed out, our third one of the trip. This was followed by a lot of shouting and checking in a book. A young lady came and sat beside me and her English was good enough to help me explain some of what was going on. Apparently, in Kinnaur it is the tradition that everyone who has been invited gets a scarf, so they were checking who was here or not and giving the spare ones to a member of the missing family to be taken back and this is very important to them, so the proceedings got more and more delayed. Quite a few families were missing as there had been 3 young men killed in motoring accidents in the last week and they were in mourning. The men with hats had removed them and some were lying on their backs, snoozing.

Some activity took place as new black and white mats were put down and a swastika, with blobs was created in barley, the bride sits in this to help promote fertility. Eventually, well after midnight, there was a stir and the men from Kinnaur put on their hats, got up and went off into the dark. A few minutes later a band came back in followed by the men in hats and the bridegroom, a man in a red hat who was leading the bride and a bridesmaid.

They settled themselves on the mat, the bride had an amazing headdress of silver and aquamarine and never raised her head. Then one of the bride's side started intoning prayers, stopping every now and then to take a sip of something, at the same time people were coming up and giving money. Some of them had made a fan of the money with names of donators pinned to them, some of them had huge wodges of money with names of givers, wrapped up in a prayer scarf and a few had wrapped up presents in bright paper.

We took this opportunity to hand in our small donations and leave as it was getting on for 2.00. We struggled back down the hill and fell into bed, where I had the best night's sleep for a week.



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Back to Kaza

This morning we could take our time as we weren't leaving until after an early lunch. Some of the others went for a walk with Joan to see another part of the village but I decided to do my own thing and potter about the hillside. There was a stupa just up the hill with a wall around it and terraces so I walked up beside the wall where there were some blue butterflies which I photographed and then a Clouded Yellow type eventually settled on a flower head, allowing some photos. A walk up the hill and the flora was very different with some pinks, house leeks, senecio and white labiates dotted about. An oriental Turtle Dove flew off the ground and settled briefly on a wall before going off up the hill.

I returned just as the walking party did and we all sat down to another lovely rice risotto lunch cooked by Rinco.

After packing up and making our way up to the parking area we found that the wedding party were in the process of leaving. The bride was in the car with her bridesmaid and was taking a tearful farewell of her mother. It is customary for the bride to cry and she sobbed quietly, still under her heavy silver and turquoise headdress. There was a band playing in bursts and one of the men from last night was saying prayers while dipping his feathers into some milky substance. There was also a collection of bottles with prayer scarves tied round them and money tucked in, which were retrieved after the prayers.

The drivers had loaded up the cars while waiting for the wedding party to leave and we climbed into our cars before setting off back to Kaza. We were in the middle of the wedding procession with the band playing at the front and about 25-30 cars in convoy. They stopped twice to perform a puja at the entrance to the village and at the bridge before they went right towards Tabo and we went left towards Kaza. At one of the stops 3 of the Kinnaur men came along and stood chatting with us. One of them kept inviting us to visit him in his village.

The drive back took about 4 hours and, at one point, we had to take a diversion across the river bed as the road was blocked. We were, by now, pretty used to the rocking and rolling of the cars and the dust could be a bit of a pain but some of the scenery really was lovely.
We stopped in Kaza for a couple of hours to do any last minute shopping and use the wifi facilities before heading back to the Spiti Serai Hotel. We settled into the hotel again and after a quick wash and brush up we went to dinner.

Tabo monastery

As there are 12+ of us sharing one eco drop toilet and one washroom we didn't have breakfast until 9.00 aiming to leave at 10.15 for Tabo Monastery.
As we trekked to the car a swallowtail butterfly flitted onto the pool but there was no time for a pic. After Jeet had to go back for something we set off for Tabo monastery. We drove back to the river bridge and then turned right towards Tabo along the Spiti river valley.


The road is cut out from the side of the valley and in places the shale and mud slides over the road and the track is compressed by cars until it's passable. It's also cut out of the rock in places so it overhangs. There was a warning of falling rocks so we didn't stop until we got to the other side.



We went through a busy little village called Poh, where the water is brought down from the hills and so just crosses the road in a water splash, before bubbling away down the hill.

There were a couple of interesting plants along the way, one was possibly buckthorn, spiky branches covered in red berries and the other was a sprawling vine with white flowers, green pods which ripens and splits into 4 with a red fruit? It tasted quite sweet with a Papaya flavour.

We entered into Tabo through a fresh looking archway and parked up, then walked up the street past a small shopping group and a restaurant before entering the monastery, first walking clockwise round a stupa and then ringing the bell.

There are three temples at Tabo and we went into all three with the monk in the first having very good English and the other two explaining to Rinco who translated, as well as giving his own explanations of the statues and paintings. It was very interesting and some of the paintings are still in very good condition, considering their age. The colours were made from natural pigments and are still bright and vibrant although quite a few have deteriorated or been spoiled by rain leaks. Work is being done but some of it is not very professional.
The drive back along the river valley was just as interesting as the drive up. The scenery is very spectacular, with side valleys, waterfalls and high rocks and cliffs. In places there are footbridges across the river, but otherwise there are long stretches from one crossing point to another.

After a late lunch we rested for a bit and caught up on the blog and pictures before going out for a short walk around the fields.

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A Day in Mane

Looking out of the window this morning, the day looked fine and the white butterflies were flitting around the radish flowers. A Rosefinch was foraging in the field for a while and then flew off to the other side of the village.

A leisurely breakfast, which was a lovely traditional Spiti breakfast of chickpeas and dall, curds and puris, which we westernised by adding jam all topped off with tea, delicious. We then went for a gentle walk down to the hillside to the school that Joan, with the Spiti valley trust, had built several years ago. On the way we saw the present spring, which was the village water supply before a pump was installed  and we saw the lowere spring where all the water for the villagers of Upper Mane, plus their animals has to come from in the winter.

The charity is in the process of providing a pump that will lift the water into a supply that is much closer for them. The school was built for 120 pupils, primary and secondary, but now only has about 90. As the parents in the villages prosper, they look for private education for their children so quite a few go to the fee paying school in Kaza. It was a shame the children were on holiday as this is THE major pea-picking season and that is their main cash crop. The peas are picked by gangs of migrant workers from other villages or the ones by our homestay were from Bihar. They pick from around 8.00 in the morning until evening, getting around 300 Rs a day. They get breakfast and lunch as well as water and Chai provided. The peas are picked into a can, bucket or basket and then they are tipped into a sack which is around 40kgs before being sewn up, loaded onto their backs and taken up the hill to the waiting lorry to be sent to Delhi.

We walked back up from the school and then went for a stroll around the pea-fields greeting the pickers and I spent a bit of time looking at some of the flowers and trying to see a Rosefinch that was singing in a tree.

Returning to Jeet's place we rested up before a lovely Pasta lunch cooked up by Rinco with a little help from one or two of the ladies.
As it was raining we stayed in and I caught up on pictures and the blog.

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Drive to Mane Homestay

We packed and left around 9.30, heading towards our first stop of Laloong. The road along the Spiti valley was spectacular but there was a road block along the way so we had to take a diversion up the Lingte river valley into Laloong. We stopped at the monastery and one of the monks from yesterday let us in eventually. These monasteries were begun by Rinchen Zangeo - a Tibetan translater who went through the valley around the 10 century choosing places for 108 monasteries. At Laloong he asked for guidance and stuck his staff into the ground saying, 'if this grows build a monastery here' when he returned the staff had grown so they built the monastery here. The tree outside the monastery is that tree.


The guardian monk, who was one of the musicians yesterday, was eventually persuaded to open up for us and we went in. The walls are covered in tapestries and paintings, some hundreds of years old. There are also statues of gods and guardians, prayer flags and wall hangings. Photos aren't permitted inside unfortunately.
Outside there was a Goldfinch pecking around the remains of part of the monastery and sparrows chirped all round us.

We drove round to Laloong village where were expected for lunch by Tashi, one of the Spiti valley project team. The cars were parked in a parking area and we walked don and across the stream before walking up into the village.We sat around the room on mats on the floor with low wooden tables in front of us and had sweet biscuit strips with chai. The food was brought in with rice, dall and various vegetable dishes. Curd and salad was also served.

After lunch we walked back down into the village, stopping at the water pipe to wash the hair of the village children with anti nit shampoo. They then had their hair towel dried and combed through before receiving one of the knitted jumpers, pencil and balloon. The older children wash and dry themselves. While waiting I saw a butterfly that looked like one of the tortoiseshells, a Rosefinch in the valley and 2 Tibetan snow finches flew in to the stream for a drink.


We then drove on again to Mane village, another high mountain village where you have to park up and walk in. We collected our hand luggage and followed Joan through the maze of pathways to Jeet's homestay. This is his very new house built with the mud brick machine and designed to cut down the use of wood. It is sill a work in progress but will be beautiful when finished. You enter up steps on the first floor and there are bedrooms along the right hand side. These will all be en-suite eventually, but presumably, still eco-drop, manure filled holes in the ground and bucket washrooms. On the left is an eco-drop toilet, which is the only one working at the moment. Further along there are steps down to the cooking area, washroom and present dining room, with satellite TV. There is another bedroom on the left and various storage rooms. There is a flight upstairs to the next level with more bedrooms and access to the roof garden.
The cooking is done on bottled gas and they have a selection of woks, pots and pressure cookers.





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