Managed to sleep in a little fortunately & woke up at 6 am. Yes, it's a bit concerning when 6 am is a sleep-in!

Unfortunately, there are too many clouds around for any more photos of the valley.

Had a "shower", which consists of running some warm water into a bucket then pouring this over myself. Indian shower! It's not as warm but very water efficient!

The internet was back working again this morning so I did a few more things & edited some more photos.

Had breakfast of an omelette & some toast. Very tasty with chilli in it too (of course!).

My driver came to pick me up at the right time. He's a very nice guy so I gave him a little extra, even though he tried to give me a discount. It's funny though: my 45min taxi ride cost me twice as much as my 6.5 hour bus trip!

Indian bus stations are very interesting places! They look like complete chaos ... because they are! People yelling all the time (it seems no one can just read a sign to tell you which bus is which, you need someone repeatedly yelling where each bus is going), blowing whistles when the buses are reversing, Greensleeves instead of reversing beeps (I guess that's more friendly!), and of course constant horn blowing because people just wander all over the road!

The bus I had to catch left from the first floor of the bus station. There is a lift up there but of course, you can't take your luggage in there! No, you need to either take it up the stairs yourself or pay a porter Rs50 ($1) to take it up for you. I paid $1 & I think he regretted only charging me Rs50 when he felt how heavy it was!

Found where I needed to go easily enough, paid another Rs20 ($0.40) for them to load my bag onto the roof of the bus (hope it's still there when we reach Manali) and hopped on the bus. No one has checked anything so I'm assuming someone will check my ticket at some point during the next 6.5 hours!

And we're off! Only 5 min late which is basically spot on time for India!

They eventually got around to checking tickets after about 10min. Not sure what they'd do if you were on the wrong bus or didn't have a ticket.

Shortly after leaving the bus station the guy behind me popped his phone around & asked me to say hello as he was videoing me! Hahaha ... I'm an Indian celebrity (again)!

Driving in India is a completely different experience to Australia at any time but here in the Himalayas, the narrow roads mean that the adventure starts as soon as you get onto the road! Overtaking on blind corners is pretty standard, overtaking when there's another vehicle coming towards you is also normal (they can just slow down or move over anyway) and it's no big deal if someone has to brake for you or even stop because you're doing something crazy on the road.

Beeping horns usually just mean: move over, look out, or hurry up. Only a really long beep means I'm pissed off at you. And cows! It's an offence to hit & kill a cow so they just wander aimlessly around the roads, adding to the adventure!

Seems like there's only one brand of bus & one brand of truck up here as they're all the same, just with different decorations - lots of decorations! Each truck has the words "Blow horn" written in the back but I'm pretty sure you don't need to remind Indians to blow their horns!

Winding our way through the foothills, passing endless tiny villages full of Dhabas (food stalls), hotels (why anyone would want to stay out here, I have no idea), and random roadside stalls, often in the middle of nowhere, selling things like cane chairs, cushion covers and stuffed toys!

Amazingly, even the tiniest village has all its signs in both English & Hindi! Someone knows English!

Some things make you realise how lucky you are: a guy with a metal pole for a prosthetic leg, some other guys washing themselves in the water from a drainpipe, ladies carrying huge loads of grass on their heads, other ladies sitting by the side of the road smashing rocks with a hammer. It's hard to think what it would be like if that was your life!

Made a 10 minute stop at some dusty shops for lunch. I didn't want to eat chips or any of the other cheap, manufactured "food" so I went to the fruit stall & got some bananas & a beautiful mango for $1. Hopefully, the guy serving me has clean hands!

Stopped a little while later for 20min for a late lunch. I had Aloo Ghobi with a plain naan. Total cost: $2. Hope I don't regret it later but I took my probiotic tablet this morning so will hopefully be ok!

If you want to stop somewhere in India, you can just park your car on the road. Not off to the side - on the actual road. It will cause a traffic jam but that's ok.

Finally arrived in Manali, only 2.5 hours late! No one seemed to mind however and there's not much that could be done to arrive earlier anyway due to the state of the roads, road work, traffic etc.

The Manali bus station was just as chaotic as the Shimla one but central Manali seems to be more chaotic with thousands of cars, bicycles, motorbikes, & tuk-tuks ("rickshaws" here) crammed into every possible space of road, all of them making some kind of noise. Man, I'm really looking forward to getting away from Indian cities & getting out into the wilderness.

I was originally going to take a taxi to my hotel but since it's only 1km down the road & I was getting pissed off by all the taxi touts, I decided to walk.

There was a nice footpath for about the first 300-400m but that ended abruptly and then I was back to walking on the road. Most of it was bitumen but there were a few sections under construction, adding to the fun of dragging my suitcase. Fortunately, it was all downhill so relatively easy to drag my bag.

I checked into the hotel, got the WiFi details & started to pack my bag ready for trekking the next day, hoping I hadn't forgotten anything!

Went downstairs for a nice Indian buffet dinner ($14!) then went back & finished packing.