Snow in the Solang Valley!!!

I arrived in Manali and the beautiful snow covered mountains of North West India freezing cold but so very excited at the scenery around me. I promptly sorted out my freezing situation with the purchase of some wonderfully warm snowboard trousers and jacket, along with a scarf and some ski gloves, and then I headed into the snow...

I traveled up to the Solang Valley where I'd heard it was possible to do some skiing and boarding. This has to be the craziest place I ever have and probably ever will ski and board. It was also a place where there there is no end of fun, yet at the same time there are also seemingly hundreds of different ways you can die.

The slopes aren't flattened at all and hardly anyone skis. So the snow, which when I arrived was perhaps at least three or four foot deep, captures you when you fall and does not let you escape without quite some struggle - each time you try to push yourself up, you just sink further down. At least though it is not at all painful when you go down. My problem with this basically completely off piste type skiing/boarding is this - I can ski fine but I cannot ski off piste, I can board off piste but I'm not very confident or all that good and so falls were frequent, especially in the steep areas that you could not avoid. I did however improve by the end of the week, perhaps partly due to me having flattened the snow a little which made things easier, and instead of falling over a million times and regularly loosing my skis, I could now make it all the way down the mountain without a fall.... if I was very lucky.

Now, ways to die:
Well, there are the obvious possibilities of doing so simply by falling over or falling off the mountain whilst on your way down. Then there are other perhaps less obvious possibilities which I shall try and explain.
At the bottom of the slopes are hundreds if not thousands of Indian tourists all dressed up in 80's full body ski suites and fury boots. They do not ski or board and if they go to the top of the mountain then it's just for the view and they then return to the bottom in the gondola again. So, one obstacle is avoiding them when you get to the bottom.
Then there is the possibility of being hit by one of the many quad bikes racing around and looking not fully in control on the snow. They also zoom across the ski lift whilst it's in use, as do very fast ski sled things and if you don't move then it's likely you will get hit. I tried not moving and they came so close that we touched.
Next there are the inner tubes of tractor tires that people slide at top speed in down the slopes hitting anyone in their way. The same goes for zorbs - huge inflatable balls you can go inside and roll down the slopes in.
There are also dogs, horses, yaks, and rabbits all running around which you have to do your best to avoid.
There are the power cuts, which if lasted long enough whilst your stuck in the gondola would I'm sure mean you froze to death.
In between sunshine and snow there were also amazing thunder and lightning storms, which could also lead to your doom.
And then there is the very real risk of being killed by paragliders even if you are not a passenger. They take off from the ski slope and then land amongst all the people at the bottom. When they come down, all beneath them have to run and scatter to get out of their way. They land on the ski slopes whether you are where they need to land or not and then spread out their parachutes right across the slope, which proves quite some obstacle to avoid. I also witnessed one smash into the lift right behind me and another smash into the lift building. Fortunately no one was hurt. I did question the amount of control they had, but apparently they were in full control at all times.

Despite all these dangers myself and everyone else there appeared to be having such fun. The atmosphere was so lively and joyful and I didn't see one miserable face. Whilst I was there it was Holi - the Hindu festival celebrating the start of Spring. People celebrate with powder paints and water and they helped us to do the same.

An unplanned visit to Shimla

A trip to Shimla was not something I had planned or was expecting to do. Leaving Agra I got the bus to Delhi from where I hoped to be able to get an overnight bus straightaway up to a different mountain town called Manali. When I arrived in Delhi though I discovered the buses to Manali had already left that night, so I booked a ticket for the following day and set out to find somewhere nearby to sleep. This proved practically impossible and almost drove me to insanity. It was late, I was exhausted, and everywhere I went myself or was directed to, told me no foreign tourists were allowed. In the end I gave up and traveled to a different area where my kind friends from Agra were staying who let me share their room. Apparently they hadn't been able to find anywhere in that part of town with a free room without a lot of searching, so I was especially glad they were there.

So the following day I set off for my bus to Manali. However, I miss judged the amount of time it would take me to reach where the bus left from and so I missed it! There was no way that I wanted to go through the whole performance of trying to find a room again and so a bus to Shimla - on the way to Manali - seemed my best option.

Although particularly cold at night, Shimla was beautiful and I'm very glad I came. It's a little town set high up on a ridge in the middle of mountains. No vehicles are allowed in the town center and it was full of small shops and cafes that reminded me of Europe.

Agra - The Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Domino's Pizza

Two particularly nice things happened on my journey to Agra. The first was that I found a couple of new friends with whom to share my journeys and my time with. The second was that I saw the first of what would turn out to be many sightings of mass amounts of wild marijuana, which on this occasion was growing along the side of the railway tracks.

We visited the Taj Mahal at sunrise the day after we arrived in Agra. Just a little tip for anyone planning to do the same - the ticket office and the gates don't open until after sun rise so actually you can spend longer in bed and not miss out on anything! Another tip if you're in that part of India is to not miss out on going. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen, along with it's gorgeous gardens. Something interesting was that as we lined up to get in, we found that the ladies queue was far longer than the men's. In India there are often separate queues for ladies and men but normally this has been to my advantage, as this was the first time the ladies queue was longer.

We found that we were too early for the museum, which was in the grounds, to be open. So after our early start we took a nap in the garden until we were able to look around what turned out to be a rather small and unexciting museum. Then that was it, we were finished and it had taken us all of an hour and a half, nap time included! Our next stop was a near by cafe where we found delicious chocolate cake for breakfast.

We felt we'd had a particularly active start to the day and so returned to our hotel and discovered something very exciting. Here, in India, you can order and receive Domino's pizzas right to your hotel room. What a find!

The following day we set off to check out the Agra Fort. The fort itself was pretty huge and impressive and had lovely views across to the Taj Mahal in the distance. Getting around or doing anything else outside that day was a bit tricky though. It turned out that it was election day and so almost everything everywhere was closed and the streets almost completely empty. This was very strange, especially in contrast to the normally hectic, full, and noisy streets that you can expect to face anywhere in towns in this country.

Temple Carvings in Khajuraho

Khajuraho is a little town with a large selection of amazingly intricately carved temples. As you can probably see, a lot of the temples have carvings of people in all sorts of interesting positions. I was told that these carvings were education for children.

Surrounding the main temple group were beautiful gardens full of pretty flowers, all sorts of birds, mongoose (who were very shy) and tiny squirrels (who looked to be having the best fun climbing and jumping over the temples and their carvings).

I spent a day exploring some of the local villages and finding some near by mountains. The view from the top went on for miles, but the climb up could have been easier had we been following a path and had I perhaps been waring more appropriate shoes than my flip flops.

I found a huge river full of boulders where a man was fishing. He was floating through the water, setting out his net, whilst sitting in what looked like the inner tube of a tractor tire. This could have been quite enjoyable for him and indeed he did seem happy, but he informed me gleefully that there were crocodiles in the river - something that had I been him I would have been more than a little anxious about.

Tigers in Bandhavgarh!

After an exciting time of a night in a posh hotel suite, a very overly persistent phone number stealer and caller, the most vomit inducing smelling/looking railway station, and a train journey with interesting people to talk to, I found myself again in search of tigers. Had I been alone, I think after Kanha I would have given up on the tiger hunt in the hope that perhaps another day I would be able to go in search of them again. However, thanks to a very enthusiastic new tiger searching friend I decided to try my luck in another National Park - Bandhavgarh.

Here our luck changed.

In Kanha we'd discovered that guides were automatically assigned to each vehicle and so it was complete luck as to whether you got a good one or one of the seemingly many not so good ones. So as we set off on our first safari at 5.30am in Bandhavgarh, we weren't at all sure what to expect from our guide. Our hopes of a particularly good safari lessened as our driver turned out to be a lover of speed, or so we thought, and raced so fast along the little tracks that had there been a tiger to see we wouldn't have stood a chance of spotting it.

But then in the distance appeared lots of other jeeps and we knew something good was ahead. As we stopped we squinted through the bamboo and could just make out a big tiger walking past. Bonnie (my spotting partner) and I both thought that this would be it and the tiger would shortly turn and disappear into the vegetation. The tiger had other plans though. He decided that today was one of those days where he liked to be seen, and so out into the open he came. He had a bit of a lie down and then got up and walked closer to us before lying down again. After feeling rested he jumped up, leaped down a bank and crossed the road in front of us. On the other side he'd left a kill and so after retrieving this he finally disappeared into the bushes on the other side. He certainly was a top tiger!

Apart from our wonderful tiger sighting, we also spotted a couple of jackals (yes that's right Naomi Mountain Sickness Goat - Jackals!!!) sitting next to the road on our way out of the park and some very pretty birds, along with plenty of deer. The park itself was beautiful with mountains, and autumn coloured trees. Now with my mission complete I decided not to do any more safariing and carried on with the next part of my journey.

Kanah National Park... where tigers were hard to spot

I went to Kanah National Park in search of tigers. But it turned out that the tigers there weren't really up for being viewed at that time.
We did see lots of different types of deer though and many, many peacocks. We also saw some rather sweet little owls in a hole in a tree, and a bison who liked to climb almost vertical banks.
In terms of cats, we did get a very good viewing of a jungle cat. He was perhaps a little bit bigger than a domestic cat at home, with spiky tufts of hair at the end of his pointy ears. We also got to sort of see a family of tigers. They were in the bamboo though and were very hard to spot. At first one of the cubs moved and you could see from the shape of it's head that it was a cat, but as to what at it was, well, it could have been anything - it was too dark in the bamboo to tell. Then another cub got up and walked through the bamboo. This time for a few seconds you could see that it was indeed a real life tiger. However, as it quickly blended in with the bamboo and went out of sight, you could also see how well they camouflage.
Although clear tiger sightings escaped us, we did see lots of tiger footprints and the huge scratch marks from their claws on some of the trees.
I also had my first experience of climbing on top of a bus in India.

Mountains in Pachmarhi

Pachmarhi along with Hampi has been one of my favourite places so far in India. It's a little town in a beautiful setting, up in the mountains in the middle of India. The people there are really friendly and nice to be around, and it's the perfect place for cycling and rock climbing.

If like me you have been informed that cows have the ability to walk up stairs but once there are unable to then come back down, then your informer was incorrect. This cow not only made it up the temple steps, but also made it back down without the need for any help at all.

At first on my journey to Pachmarhi we past through a dry, dusty, and flat landscape, all a grayish browny green colour. Amidst this were lots of ladies working in the fields who wore incredibly bright and colourful saris. All over the place were cowpats that had been molded into a thick pancake shape. Not something you'd want to eat, but something that here is an extremely useful source of fuel. They were laying out drying on the ground, stacked up in piles, or stuck to the side of houses.

Whilst I was in Pachmarhi people were preparing for Mahashivratri - the Hindu celebration of the day that Lord Shiva got married. This meant the town was full of visitors from all over India, due to it having many important Hindu temples. There was a festival atmosphere with markets and colourful stalls and generally everyone having fun.

There are stunning gorges all around the outskirts of the town and the rocks seem to have been formed especially to climb. I made full use of them, climbing right up as high as I could go, to be greeted by beautiful views and yet more rocks to climb. I was also greeted by lots of prickly plants, which at the time I didn't notice but for quite a while afterwards ensured my legs looked like they had been attacked by a number of particularly savage cats with very sharp claws.

I spent a day cycling through the mountains, managing not to get off my bike other than at one very long steep hill. This I feel was a particularly good achievement seeing as my bike had no gears. Everywhere was so beautiful, with each corner bringing something new and enticing to explore. I even found a good tree to climb, from which I could sit in it's highest branches and look out across the valleys and the mountains.