Right, so we watched the last incredible sunset in Shimla, and headed to our hotel to collect our bags. The manager arranged a taxi to take us to the bus station which was nice. However it was a nail bitting journey! We didn't realise the station was pretty far down the mountain. The driver decided to take a short cut and drove down this very steep narrow lane (again with a shear drop down one side) and floored it all the way, Kate couldn't look and buried her head and held on tight until we arrived at our destination.

The only way to get to Manali is by road, so we decided to book a government bus (these being a lot cheaper than private busses we have used previously), and thought how bad can it be, as the ticket did state "super delux". Well, when we eventually found our bus - what a sight! It was a very very run down coach. We laughed in nervousness at the journey ahead, put our bags in the hold underneath and hopped on to find our seats. Most of the curtains were missing, the windows were slide open ones so they rattled and gave a massive draft, and it was an unbelievably bumpy ride. That bumpy that both of us had to concentrate on not being sick. But luckily we got use to it and within an hour we were feeling better. This journey may have been our worse journey yet, as we got even further north the temperature dropped even more and with the draft coming through the window it was absolutely freezing!!! We arrived at Manali at around 5.30am (a lot earlier than was expected) only having managed about an hours sleep each. Luckily there was an option for a heater at the hotel we found (albeit not a very good one) so we huddled in front of this and caught up on some sleep.

We eventually woke up and got ready to go out, we weren't expecting to see what we saw when we opened the door as we arrived in pitch black, but blimey the views were incredible. Manali is a valley set 7000 ft above sea level and is surrounded by snowy peaks. The weather is bloody cold, temperature below freezing even during the day! We took the short walk into town and had a look round - it's not very big. We then took a stroll through the forest down to the Beas river. The scenery was amazing.

The next day we took a short taxi ride to Solang Nullah which is where you can ski in the winter, unfortunately we were too early in the season for this but we have decide that we will book a skiing holiday when we get back to sunny England! There were other things that you could do here like zorbing, horse riding and paragliding. Kate was keen to do the paragliding when she heard it was available however once we saw it, it didn't seem worth the money. 600 rupees just to go from 150 meters up a shallow slope. So we gave this a miss and decided to get the lift up the mountain as we heard it was worth it just for the views, and they weren't wrong!

Friday we booked on a mini bus to go up to Rohtang Pass, this was 13000 ft above sea level, so we new the chances of seeing some snow were high. We met the bus in town and started to make our way up to Rohtang Pass which we were told would take about 2 hours. After about an hour our bus stopped at the one of many snow dress stalls where you could hire fur coats or ski wear. We didn't think this was really necessary but once we saw the ski wear options we couldn't resist! We managed to find the most 80's looking ski suits! We were in hysterics trying these on. Not sure if the Indians quite understood what we were doing. Indians being all about appearance were hiring the fur jackets and buying sunglasses thinking they looked the bomb! But one indian guy (the only one that spoke English) joined in with us and hired a ski suit, it was all very amusing! So we got back on the bus and continued our way up. The roads were very narrow and surprise surprise they had a shear drop one side, this don't stop the drivers from sticking there foot down. We came across a barrier across the road, we were told that some road works were being carried out and the road wouldn't open until 2pm, this meant hanging around for two hours, we weren't impressed. Finally the road opened again and we continued to wind our way up until we hit a queue. We weren't sure what was going on as the the driver didn't speak English, so we got out to see what all the fuss was about. We found out that there had been a landslide up ahead that they were trying to clear. We went to have a look and the road was covered in rumble an boulders. They were using diggers to try and move the rest of the loose boulders. At one point a massive boulder fell and we watched it fall down to the road and continue over the edge as it raced down this mountain towards another part of the road. We all held our breathe hoping that a car wouldn't drive by. Luckily it didn't, but it smashed to bits creating another obstacle in the road. Anyway we didn't think we were going to make it to Rohtang Pass but suddenly the road was clear and we could carry on. We were even more nervous now in the bus due to the unstable ground. The roads suddenly became icy and the vehicles were unable to make it up any further so we made the rest of the journey by foot. It was freezing, snow everywhere and it was continuing to snow. It was funny watching the Indians as it seemed like the first time they had seen snow. They were useless, choosing to walk on the icy road and falling over all the time! They soon cottoned on and copied us walking on the fresh snow. The view was amazing and we wish we could of gone higher but the cars were no way suitable to the road conditions. Even the 4WD were sliding down the road. After an hour or so we headed back down the mountain, it was nice to be back in the bus to defrost. Swear it is the coldest place either of us have been! A couple of hours later we made it back safe and sound.

We've got to the point where the thought of another curry made us feel slightly sick, so we went to a restaurant called Johnsons Cafe. We had read that they do good continental food, and they weren't wrong! Kate fell in love with the mash potato - the best mash we have ever tasted and yummy apple crumble with custard. It was so nice to have some good comfort food!

Anyway we were glad to be heading back to Delhi (didn't think we would be saying that) the following night by bus. Luckily this bus was a proper coach and we managed to get some sleep.