The sun streaming into my room woke me up again at 5 am... way too early ... and try as I might, I couldn't go back to sleep again.

So I pulled out my laptop & started researching, booking things, and doing some banking before June 30.

After a while, Hasneet messaged to say she'd just woken up. Apparently, they continued drinking at their hotel until about 5 am! Crazy young people!

I got up, had some breakfast then headed over to see them.

They weren't in a fit state to go anywhere so we just stayed at their hotel, chatted about the trip, looked at their photos, & played a few games of Uno.

They all headed off, back to Chandigarh at about 1.30pm so I decided to head up to Wildflower Hall, the best hotel in Shimla, that Zillah had told me about. She's bringing some of her Indian staff here & will be staying there in about 2 weeks' time. What a shame that I'll miss her!

It was about 4km away, but all uphill. Not particularly taxing but still managed to work up a good sweat by the time I got to the top.

Part way up the hill, I walked past a lookout point where there were quite a few people taking photos etc. One group of guys called me over & asked me to pose with them for photos. It's so funny when that happens - get photos of yourself with a random white guy!

A short while later, I passed an Indian guy who was walking up too but a bit slower than I was. He asked where I was going so I mentioned I was going to Wildflower. That probably wasn't the smartest thing to say because then he asked me for money because he was hungry. Having just told him I was going to Wildflower, I couldn't really say no so of course, I gave him a small amount of money. He seemed happy with that & I continued on up the hill towards the hotel and reached the main gate shortly thereafter.

Luckily, I'm a white guy as I just walked straight up to the gate and the security guard opened it without asking me anything. I continued on up the even steeper driveway and on into the hotel for lunch. It's amazing what you can get away with when you're white!

Lunch was only slightly more expensive than a good quality restaurant meal in Perth ($70 for 3 courses including a glass of Indian wine). Fine dining is so much cheaper here!

I then went out & walked around their beautiful gardens for a while, enjoying the peace & solitude of getting away from all the noise & clatter of the streets, before walking down a small path in the forest that led back down to the main gate.

Caught a taxi back from there to my BnB & then organised a few things for Manali.

For some reason, the Internet is ridiculously slow this afternoon. Maybe I've used up all their data & it's being throttled back to low-quality dial-up! Since there's only one other couple staying here, and they told me they couldn't get the mobile WiFi device to work, I've just been taking this with me each day when I go out so I have data all day (I got it to work in about 5 seconds!). It's been working well until this afternoon! Good thing I'm leaving tomorrow.

Walked outside onto my balcony & there was a monkey right there in the railing. It started hissing at me & then a bigger one came over & I quickly decided I didn't need a break on the balcony after all!

It feels like so many things here are a struggle & they're a lot harder than they need to be: walking into the airport, getting a taxi, booking a taxi (you have to have an Indian mobile & an Indian credit card), organising bus transport (same requirements), finding information, booking tours, getting responses from tour operators, getting a mobile phone & more.

I don't know whether it's a lack of education or just a difference in culture but I posted details of what I wanted to do in Manali on a website that links you to tour operators. I received three responses and not one of them had actually read what I'd posted. They just saw "5 days" and "Manali" so they sent me details of their 5-day tours ... that start in Delhi & pass through Manali at some point! Then they want to have big conversations on WhatsApp about what I'm looking for and whether their proposal suits. No! Just read what I've already posted and send me something that fits that! We don't need to have a big conversation about it! They're just wasting their own time as well as mine because it's totally irrelevant. How they ever get customers is beyond me.