Alive and Well on the Banana Pancake Trail

Alicia and I have made it into the middle of Himachael Predesh to a cute, hippy-dippie village outside of Manali called Vashisht. We've had a number of not-good travel experiences which Alicia will further explore in posts-to-come. Here is the quick version:

1. Our hotel in Delhi (Hotel Vivek) ended up being a creepy, cockroach-filled mess, even though our room on appearance, was nice. The neighborhood where we stayed (Pahar Ganj) drove us mad and we had countless terrible interactions with people out to scam us. Ick.

2. Hotels in Chandigarh (where we stayed for one night) are horrifically overpriced. The town itself seems cute enough besides the strip-mall like layout of the place.

3. Our hotel in Shimla (The Woodland Hotel) was, well, really crappy. All the rooms were covered in mold (from a long rainy season, as the story goes) and there was a backhoe outside our room working up until 1-4am each of the three nights we were there. Because of the mold, we had to have the windows open.

4. Well why didn't we move? That was a problem as I was brutally ill with travellers digestive badness with an absurd fever on top. I'm basically better after amazing care from my amazing Alicia, a round of Cipro, and lots of rest.

5. Our 10 hour bus ride from Shimla to Manali was operated by an utter madman on the worst roads on the worst 'semi-deluxe' bus known. Alicia has many more 'appealing' details about this ride. I also got only a few hours of sleep the night before due to the backhoe and blaring Hindi music all night and still could not eat much. Alicia was about to pass out from the unexpected heat (or fall out of her chair).

6. Well, no six, now things are great. We are back in a spot where I can order a banana pancake for breakfast (the title term lifted from our Lonley Planet Thailand book talking about the strip of tourist beaches that line the Thai coast).

On a non-sarcastic note: there was a recent domestic-to-India terrorist attack in Delhi about five days after we left. We are fine and our little sister Carolyn (in-law of course to me) is fine as well. A scary topic without a doubt.

On a brighter note, here is a picture of Vashisht from the porch of the great laundry lady we met who has a washing machine in her home and does laundry for tourists. A great example of what a wee bit of investment can do to kick start a good lively hood for people in places like this.