motorbike day trip

Today, my Dutch friend, Caroline, and I hired motorbikes to take us to a three Buddhist monastaries for the day. Our drivers were two Ladakhi guys in their early twenties. I was a little scared for my life at times due to the high speed and curvaceous roads, but it was fine. We wore helmets. Nevermind the potential free-fall downward to rocks and rushing rivers. I took a bunch of videos along the way with my handy Flip video camera. All the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries we went to were so peaceful and scenic. I can't remember the names. One was in a place called Alchi. I only saw a handful of monks. Maybe Monday is their day off. We are about 10,500 feet above sea level and it's extremely hard to breathe when hiking uphill. It makes me feel so out of shape, but really it's mainly from the thin air. I must say, I did feel like a badass riding on a motorcycle across the Himalayas and the Indus Valley.

Because the air fare is ridiculously expensive back to Delhi ($220 for a one-way, one-hour trip), I am going to brave the road back to Manali once again. But, NOT in a jeep. In a "deluxe tempo traveler," which is a van for ten people. It *should* only take 16 hours. But that's what they told us the first time. Anyway, we leave Wednesday morning at 2 a.m. I had a nightmare last night that we got to the station and it was a jeep, and they were like, "No problem, jeep is good, no worries, it goes 2 kilometers per hour." Noooooooo!!! But Caroline is very good at bargaining and getting things done, and she speaks a little Hindi, so if any problem arises, I trust her to raise hell.

I am planning to spend the rest of my time in India between Vasthisht, a small Buddhist village, and back in Rishikesh, where all this craziness began. I may also take a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal before hopping on the plane in Delhi on August 2. I wish I could upload some photos and videos but that will have to wait until I get home. The sights are so fabulous though! They really make up for the smells.