An Indian, a Pole and me, sitting on the roof of a bus....

Tsu Morirri Lake was 12 not 8 hours bus ride..eventually I realised roof sitting was possible, where the view of Himalayian mountians was undistured by vomiting passangers and dirty windows....I climbed out into the bright sunshine to find an array of dusty rag wearing locals and equally happy/hippy foreigners smoking a joint. We missed the only bus out of the area for 10 days, spent 12 days walking (sometimes a lot, often a little) back to Leh. Managed a couple of rides with truck drivers, even on an army bus at the very end. Found some locals when trying to cross a hot pass in the middle of the day, and organized horses for the following day.

Amith's (Indian) horse was an ex polo so his pranced around like a show pony whilst Tomic (Poland)and I, yelled ourselves horse (geddit?) trying to get our pack animals to act like Prancer and Lancer. We stayed with Nomads of various nationalities; Tibetan, Ladakhy of varying degrees of friendliness, actually quite nice as one host totally ignored us and went about their daily tasks eg, scraping pashmina off screaming goats, etc etc we were able to get a more REAL idea of how their lives are without all the "one photo" stuff, still it would have been nice if they had shared SOME of their food...got very tired of Maggi noodles... Refreshing to say the least, dirty, cold and uncomfortable would be other words...

We were fed some fantastic foods, steamed breads, greasy vegetables, local beer Chang, beans, fresh cheese, and for some odd reason a week didn't go by that I didn't manage a mango or 2 kg. Sometimes a family in a small village would take us in and provide as if for kings. We took much advantage of the hospitality (sometimes giving money) and continuously gained weight....ok so there was one night where the village was deserted and we had to sleep in a broken room and eat cold dal by candle light....ahhh but the view was worth ever moment.
My last day with these 2 fine fellows ended with a couple of lunch time drunk Manali Police (donkeys) who took from us handsomely and ruined an otherwise beautiful day.
Ah well, Amith and I top-of-bus-in-the-sun made our way to Kasol and tripped 3 hours up to Keerganga...land of hot water springs and close mountain views...I stayed 2 weeks some spent camping in the forest nearby...nice
Wandered off to Bombully 4 hours up hill into semi domesticated wildness and muslim farming family..with a couple of Isralie brothers, slept in a goat shed but with fire and fantastic butter themed dinner, so beautiful I slept little.
This is Omri, a friend I'd spent time on an Andaman Island with years ago surprised me for 5 days. Took my hand and escorted me out of "Little Israel" (Kasol town, Pavarty Valley) to Jibhi, don't bother looking on a map I have NO IDEA where it is. Waterfalls and butterflies...