DAY 32 - MCLEOD GANJ/AMRITSAR Our 32nd day travelling was to be a pretty intense one - a one day stop off in Amritsar, designed to allow us to see what we wanted to see in the city whilst also saving us precious time in moving straight on to our next location via an overnight train the same day. It all started off pretty badly for a couple of reasons. Firstly, upon gathering our things at 4 in the morning in order to meet our taxi driver who was scheduled to mee...

DAY 29 - MCLEOD GANJ, DHARAMSALA We arose at our now habitually later time (a result of the more relaxed atmosphere, we have decided) and had a hearty full English style breakfast at a chilled out backpacker cafe called 'Carpe Diem', boasting a popular roof terrace with floor cushions and interesting paintings on the walls (including, bizarrely, one depicting a scene from 'Alice in Wonderland' and another showing a couple of hindu gods in coital union), along wi...

DAY 28 - MANALI/DHARAMSALA Unfortunately, James wasn't feeling 100% on our last day in Manali and decided to get some rest, so I resolved to spend my last few hours in the area visiting the nearby hill town of Vishasht, a popular backpacker hangout during the peak season. After catching a rickshaw up, I made my way straight to the town's two main temples located in its centre. Although small, they were both nicely designed and cast great views over the surroundi...

DAY 27 - MANALI We decided to spend the morning visiting Manali's most famous site, the Hadimba Temple, so made our way to an opening in the forest where it was situated. One of the first things we noticed were the number of local women charging money for a picture with one of the many huge, dopey white rabbits that they carried round with them (a bizarre but very common practice in Manali). The temple itself was in keeping with the traditional feel of the town,...

DAY 26 - MANALI In keeping with the slower pace of life up in the Himalayas, our day took a while to get going and we enjoyed a pleasant breakfast with one of the managers of the guest house as the sun slowly rose, chatting about the many contrasts we had noticed between the mountain towns and other areas of northern India. The weather couldn't have been more different to the day before's drizzly affair, so we decided to walk up to the main part of Old Manali an...