We have emerged from the down sleeping bags and feel the strength returning each day! Starting slowly, we've been walking to nearby villages and even got on our skis yesterday (pictures from the Manali-Solang tour).

Two days ago, we jaunted over the Beas River to Vashisht. The village sits on a steep hillside rising east from the river providing great views. With less sales push than the tourism-centric Manali, we found lots of welcoming smiles and a couple young girls even convinced Emily to slide down the hill on their sled (a piece of plastic). In additon to viewing the temples, we also were on a reconnaisance trip to find the start of ski tour. Wandering through the village we found women weaving (common in winter) and people tending to their cattle.

For heating purposes, old homes have a basement or lower level that is the "animal floor." Here the animals eat, sleep, etc and create a central heating source. With 6-8 inches of clay used for floors, supposedly the smells from the animal floor do not rise, only the heat. Sounds great and most likely much better than the contemporary homes that not only lack any sort of insulation but like our upscale cottage, lack mortar between the small stones that make up the (otherwise solid) walls.

In addition to finding what we believe to be the start of the ski tour, the walk was equally satisfying for Em as she was able to check a couple more birds off her list. The bird viewing here is fantastic, whether it is a laughing thrush, blue magpie, Himalayan griffin, or swinging monkey (OK, not a bird, but still fun to see as you're looking up), there are birds everywhere.

Yesterday, we got the skis out of the bag and headed north towards Solang. An absolutely beautiful day with bright blue skies and almost no haze. The track/trail we were on led us high above a village before ending in an eroded hillside. So we navigated our way down the hill, over local woodpiles, and through some homes until we got close to the river. Fortunately, the attitude towards private land here is far less territorial than back home, and seems to be that all people have a "right" to be on the land. This is good, as the difference between a major path and someone's front walk is slim here - beyond our powers of discernment. We expect that we may eventually be shooed out of someone's vegetable garden, but so far nothing but funny looks for a pair of exploring ski tourers!

While our gear deserved a few odd looks from locals, and even a group photo with some domestic tourists most likely seeing snow for the first time, skis here are far from foreign. Everywhere we've been, the kids have been sliding! Whether they're on ski gear being handed down from the tour operators, traditional woods sticks about 2' long with metal curving up for the ski tip, or just rubber boots, the valley residents love to glissade. Very cool.

Speaking of skiing, we are heading north to Solang tomorrow. Solang sits a few hundred meters higher than Manali at ~2500m and boasts a rope tow. This is one of the big 3 ski centers of India and just last night we met a former national ski race champion who grew up training at Solang. Training here involved stomping out a groomed path (with new snow depths often topping a meter) above the rope tow, placing bamboo poles into the snow for gates, then hiking laps to practice slalom turns. I think TAS (Team Alpental Snoqualmie) has it just fine at home.

The crew at Himalayan Journeys continues to treat us great. We are keeping most of our gear at the cottage while we head up to Solang the next few days. It is very comforting to have a base, and much easier getting around town for basics with their network of friends. We look forward to somehow paying them back. Unfortunately Himanshu has not arrived back in town yet so any of our help towards the ski village remains to unfold.

We continue to have little luck with posting pictures so bear with us...our patience has grown tremendously but still 2 photos an hour challenges even strong Buddha minds. We have a few more potential tricks to try when we get back from Solang.

Glad the Cascades have been getting dumped on and looking forward to figuring out some satellite magic for the Hawks game come February 5th!!!

Labels: India, Kullu Valley, ski touring

Good news snow fans - we're looking at piles of white stuff here in Manali, even if it is pretty wet here in town. We arrived here Monday in the midst of a big storm, which made travel pretty interesting.

Backing up... we finally managed to see some of the sights of Delhi on Saturday (pictures: http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/larsonek/Delhi%20January%202006/). We walked around town a bit more, then made our way to Humayun's tomb. The surrounding gardens, fountains, etc. have had significant restoration work done since I saw them in 1998, and the building itself is pretty amazing. Even the surrounding "minor" monuments were impressive. I hope we can post more pictures later, but we need to find a better internet place. This one is slow, and it won't let me add pictures or links for some reason. .

We met up with Beau at his cushy digs (his neighborhood had considerably less "local color" than ours - read: fewer cows and less garbage) and went out to dinner with he and his colleagues who are in town putting on a workshop brining Indian and Pakistani teachers together. Pretty nifty program. He's off to Pakistan this week for the second half, and eventually plans to make his way up here to meet us.

Sunday saw us making our way out of the market to the "Deluxe Tourist Bus" - quite the spectacle with us trailing after the bicycle rickshaw, who was walking his rig with all of our gear piled in the passenger seat. Most of the bus passengers were young Indian men - probably students, and probably on their way to Manali to see snow for the first time. We got on at 4pm, and the bus was scheduled to arrive at 7am in Manali. As we were settling in to sleep, we thought it was funny that all the Indian guys were bundling up in ski masks, gloves, warm coats... until we realized the bus had no heat and no insulation. Luckily we had enough stuff stashed in our carry-ons to be relatively comfy, but the down coats would have been nice. Morning dawned with snow at fairly low elevation, and with no chains and bald tires, we weren't too surprised when the bus stopped 20k short of Manali. The Indian snow fans were ecstatic to get outside; Trevor and I were less enthusiastic. The slush-fall looked like classic 34-degree Snoqualmie Pass. By the time we'd negotiated a jeep ride from one of the 4x4 taxis that descended on the herd of stopped buses like vultures, you could see the enthusiasm waning in the newbies - pretty cold and wet.

Arriving (finally!) in Manali, we made our way through 2 feet of heavy new snow (we've heard at least 5 feet of new at Solang, a bit higher up) to our arranged contact with John's friends at Himalayan Journeys (and the next-door German Bakery, which is owned by the same family), and they've been incredibly kind to us. After fortifying us with hot chai, we set off in their jeep to the very nice house up on the hill where they're letting us stay. The jeep didn't make it very far, but the driver and Annand (HJ guide and all-round go-to guy) helped us carry our things up the hill. The place is chilly but beautiful, and hot water in the bathroom! It also comes with a caretaker/cook... not exactly something we're used to, or something we've had any luck taking advantage of. Ajay doesn't speak any English, and according to Annand, not much Hindi either. I guess he's from somewhere in West Bengal. Anyway, he mostly hides from us, and other than keeping a fire going downstairs (which doesn't help much in our room) the most we've gotten out of him is toast. After a nap, we went back into town, and Annand took us around to the grocers and introduced us so we'd get "Indian prices".

By the time we got back up the hill, I wasn't feeling so hot, and ended up spending most of a very cold night in the bathroom sick. Tuesday I mostly slept and let Trevor nurse me, and he went into town for groceries and checked out the temple that's 5 minutes' walk further up the hill from our house. He wore his ski touring boots (huge piles of snow and slush all over) and didn't want to take them off to go in, but said what he could see of the inside looked very interesting. In town he manged to round up the necessary supplies, and after stopping by Himalayan Journeys, managed to come home with a space heater! Iqbal (HJ owner) said they needed them for that house anyway, and wouldn't let Trev pay him for it. We think the house is a long-term rental that HJ keeps for their guests... but we're not really sure. Trevor assured me I wasn't missing much outside - it pretty much poured all day, on top of another good snow dump from the night before. Very messy.

Yesterday I was feeling much better, and the weather cleared as well. Suddenly the orchard below our window had all kinds of birds coming and going, so I spent a lot of the day with the birdbook (thanks, Jenny!) and binocs trying to figure out what I was seeing and hearing. I managed to identify several positively - from the less-than-thrilling house sparrow to the jaunty Himalayan Bulbul (http://www.kashmirnetwork.com/birds/bulbul.html) - and saw a good number more that I can only guess at so far. The variety of song-birds is amazing. Unfortunately, as I was recovering, Trevor started feeling worse, and slept the day away. Not bad timing, though - I recovered in time to take over water-boiling and supply-fetching duties.

Today I'm in town picking up a few things, and Trev is home resting. Hopefully he'll be doing better by tomorrow, and we can go out walking a bit. Annand was talking about going out on a little ski tour with us - just from our house up through the woods and maybe to Solang, which would be nice.

Labels: India, Kullu Valley

We landed a couple nights ago and went straight to bed. Waking at 6:00 a.m. to the hustle bustle on the main bazaar: pigeons mating on our window sill, spiritual chants marketing the nearby mosque, honks from bicycles, rickshaws, taxis, and the periodic wild cow, we glanced at each other, smiled that our earplugs were functioning to our content, and went back to sleep. Finally getting going, we figurd we'd ad-lib our first day in India. Sure enough, within a minute of walking on the bizaar, a friendly local Titu, sparked up a conversation and ended up guiding us around for a little bit. First, his favorite restaurant for Thali (smorgasboard of Indian delicacies to dip your naan into) then to the government travel agents and finally a clothing store.

After he left us, we continued to wander and wander enough where I had to resort to the direction of the sun to get us home. Not what you want to do your first day in Delhi as the town is constructed with no geographical rational but rather a plethora of hub and spoke like centers.

We then met up with John Sims (Managing Director of Himalayan Ski Village) for a drink at the Taj Majal Hotel (5 star quality even by Western standard). Pretty classic as Em & I walk into this place with our best garb (middle to high quality) for a backpacker while John and his colleague Bill are sporting elite scarves and blazers. We had a great discussion, mainly about the progress of their proposal and the idiosynchracies of making it happen in India. They were very generous to meet and also gave us a couple great connections for when we get to Manali. We were even offered to stay in one of their cabins and help with mapping and snow data for the proposal. I don't think that could work any better for my short term desires. Much more to come on this as it evolves.

Only a couple pictures of the crowded main bazaar in the Pahar Ganj neighborhood we're staying but this internet place is not reading my card reader. Picture this: many peds with bicycles, motorbikes, pedal rickshaws, autorickshaws, taxis and the occasional cow fighting for ~15 feet of travel space between stalls/shops. Looking up at various minarets; sounds and smells in abundance.

Well, we plan to meet up with a couple more acquaintances today, one our Kyrgyzstan-bound friend, Beau Gordinier. Looking forward to heading up to Manali either tomorrow afternoon or early Monday morning.

Labels: Delhi, India, Pahar Ganj

Our going away party on Friday night exceeded all of our expectations. So many people came out (and stayed until 2:30 in the morning - much to the neighborhood's dismay), and everyone was really fantastic. We can't thank Travis and Kelley enough for having all of us over, and everyone else for coming out and wishing us well.

Sooo... It looks like we're finally out of here. We've been talking about this for so long, it seems strange to actually be going. Right now we're at Trevor's folks' place in LaConner, gathering up the last few loose ends before heading for the airport. I suggested one last hot-tub soak for the road, but it seems we have little details like making all our bags the right weight, and making sure our tax stuff gets taken care of.

Our flight is after midnight, then we have a couple of stops before Delhi, where we'll be greeted with a sign saying "Emily Larson - Hotel Namaskar". $10 airport pickup seemed like a pretty reasonable luxury, when we'll be disembarking with all our ski gear in tow. I've always wanted to be one of those folks with their name on the little sign.

We definitely owe a lot of thanks to everyone who's helped us out the last couple months getting all of our ducks in a row to leave - our friends and family have been extremely generous in offering us rides, places to stay, and help with whatever we've needed. Thanks, guys!

Next post - India!

It seems like there's never enough time to see everyone and do everything while I'm home. My post-Christmas time in ND flew by. Aside from helping Mom out at the store, I managed to keep a pretty busy social calendar. I got to meet my cousin's two adorable kids - Larissa and Raymond. Larissa helped me take some pictures. I had a few good visits with Katie and her son Jacob. He's a busy little guy, and seems to keep his Mom's hands full (and her shelves emptied onto the floor). Ken and LeAnn Kihle were nice enough to show me some of their pictures from Thailand and pass on some valuable Thai etiquette tips. Thanks to them, we will hopefully not disgrace ourselves should we be lucky enough to be invited into a Thai home. I spent New Year's Eve with my cousin Robyn in Minot. We had a good time and managed not to get arrested, so we considered it a roaring success for bringing in the New Year. I got a chance to visit with Joel (my high school choir director), who is in Minneapolis now. I hadn't had a chance to catch up with him since just after I graduated from HS, so it was good to compare notes on our respective metropolitan transistions. I had a chat (on the record) with Scott Wagar, who wrote a nice piece for Courant on our upcoming trip. He even managed to take a halfway decent picture (difficult with this subject before noon). Mom's going to scan the article so I can post it. And of course I got in some quality time at Granny and Grandpa's. Many servings of coffee, popcorn, and Christmas goodies later, I'm happy to report that I came darn close to my goal of gaining 10 lbs. while home in ND. It might not be the muscle mass I was hoping for... but one can't be too picky.

We love you, ND!

Ps - for anyone who's ever read the part of the Bottineau paper that reports the social comings and goings of the even smaller towns around Bottineau, did this whole post sound familiar? ("...and afternoon visitors of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Gust included Ms. Emily Larson and Mr. Trevor Kostanich, of Snoqualmie Pass, WA...") Maybe I have a future in society page reporting.

Labels: North Dakota