Rohtang-Taglangla-Leh

After having climbed the first of the three high passes (Rohtang) on our journey from Manali to Leh and taken the classic pictures, our bus was rolling down nice muddy slopes.

We were now in Keylong valley. This side of the first heights of the Himalayas receives less rain than the side near Delhi plain. The landscapes became much rockier, with less green vegetation. The end of our first day of journey brought us all the way to Keylong, were we slept. By passing Rohtang we left behind most of the Indians on their honey moon and entered the cultural sphere of Himalayan culture.

After a short night of sleep under our tents, we were back on the road. The night helped me recuperate from the ankle I sprained when getting off the bus slight accident caused by the influence of altitude, the flue, the long trip or a little of everything?
We were now on very dusty roads, almost no vegetation.
Our bus and bus driver kept pushing on our ever winding road.


The only slight negative point was the quality of the nice little sandwiches we had for our breakfast...
Far from being alone in the middle of the Himalaya, we were with the very numerous trucks that have only 2 months to deliver all the years necessities in the different Himalayan valleys.



We saw the many workers, who fight against the winter snows and natures will to wear down the second highest road in the world, with theirs shovels and muscles.

The sun and clouds offered us some magnificent views and panoramas of the valleys and heights we were climbing.




We particularly appreciated these little messages on the road
Which became necessary when the road kept on turning indefinitely
After a long drive we were at the second height of our trip: Lachulungla
A nice French rillette as lunch in the middle of the Himalaya.....

Along the road we saw the military presence of India, recalling the political difficulties in the Himalayas.
Up up up we went and discovered this magnificent sand plain lost in the heights of the Himalaya. At this point in time the altitude and the length of the trip started wearing us down.
And finally we were at 5 300m, Taglangla, making the road from Manali to Leh the second highest road in the world.
The rest of the road was not very difficult, but the length of the trip had worn us down a little.
We started discovering the nice Ladhaki valleys with their very green bottoms and their rocky and dusty slops.

We arrived in Leh by night, and were surprised to discover so many people who wanted to bring us in their hotel, aggressively... This first impression disappointed us because we had been told that in Leh the regular solicitations tourists find in the rest of India do not exist. Happily this was just a first impression and the rest of our stay in Leh was calm.

Delhi-Manali-Rohtang

After New Delhi as a nice introduction to India, off we went towards Ladhak and its capital Leh, which as nothing to do with the rest of India (different climate different people etc etc). The trip to go there however was typically Indian: long.


After a night in a freezing bus under the broken yet too efficient air-conditioning, I was sick. Apart from making me sick, this bus did allow us to go from Delhi to Manali. On arriving in Manali, we had to negotiate like crazy to get a rickshaw for a decent yet too expensive price. We did not sleep at Manali but in Vaschicht: nice small village a few hundred of meters above Manali. We saw many Europeans who where here for the cooler atmosphere, like in the colonial days. Except that her majesties civil servants now serve the plant industry...

After a good night of sleep (started off by a good day of resting) off we were again.

We left behind Manali and its nice Alp style (Swiss Alps) atmosphere and green valleys to climb towards Rohtang, the first of several high passes on our trip to Leh.

Up up up we went......through nice little green mountains...
...thanks to our bus...

The buddhist prayer flags started popping up un the scenery. We understood that we were headed towards a different cultural region.

Always up and up

1 km to Rohtang...
And there we are, almost as high as the highest mountain in France....
At Rohtang we discovered the other tourists of Manali valley: the Indians on their honey moon. for those who are lucky enough to be able to go on vacation for their honeymoon, Manali seams to be a very popular destination. And nothing is more important than climbing (driving) up to Rohtang for a souvenir picture or a little ski.

Moderne and clean New Delhi

Before our journey towards Ladhak and leaving for Manali, we had to visit New Delhi, as in the modern governmental monuments of Delhi. There was no better way of going there than by using the metro. Scared of being cramped into a too small wagon like in most of the world's capital, the sky was the limit of our delight when we entered and almost empty and air-conditioned wagon.





New Delhi has nothing to do with India, apart from the children playing in the artificial lakes. Apart from their joyful playing and games, New Delhi and its governmental buildings are almost empty: large clean roads with (almost) no one, large green lawns with (almost) no one.

The large avenue descending towards the Indian gate and the Indian Gate itself have a small flavour of Paris and its Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. The only difference here is that you must go down the avenue to get to the Indian Gate instead of going up as in Paris.

Being in the South of Delhi we decided to walk to the mini Taj Mahal, I mean Humayun’s tomb. It is such a pity to wait for a person’s death to honour him... Apart from this "philosophical gist", it was quite a nice visit.



Before concluding these few posts on New Delhi, I wanted to add a few words on tourist life (in India and in general).

The first joy of being far away from home is wanting to keep in touch with home. I have never given my family as much news as when I was in India. The quantity of information in family relationships seams inversely proportional to distance.... And all this was done thanks to nice little computers at the back of shops of all sorts,... my favourite being this little computer at the end of a shoe shop.



Another joy of being a tourist is reading all the security and sanitary measures you must take. I read them and did take them into account. I met some people completely paranoid and would like to say that is possible to visit India without being too sick and without any problem. But please, people, don’t be too confident…..do not get your ears cleaned in the middle of New Delhi.... I hope they still hear...