Probably should update this huh?

Well due to a few reasons, I have not been able to update my blog for some time. What are those reasons?

1. I got "kidnapped" at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. As soon as I walked inside the gates, I became mr. popular and memories of Bangladesh came back. By the time I left the Golden Temple, I received two house invites. I was rude and accepted the second (if I was polite I would have gone with the first). Why was I rude? The first person who invited me was quite annoying and his English was not very good. The 2nd invite was from two good English speakers who said they lived in Amritsar. Who are they? 2 18 yr old twins killing some time before they go to Australia for college.

Well turned out they lived about 20 KM (30 min) outside the city in a small village. The upside was his family was the wealthiest in the village. Their house was quite nice and I certainly didn't feel like I was roughing it. Since it was a spontaneous thing, I did not have any change of clothes, but my host was happy to provide a couple shirts and shorts.

Due to a really big rainstorm, I spent two days in the village. It actually was quite pleasant and peaceful. On the other hand, I was not able to connect to the internet, big surprise.

2. The twins helped me figure out how to get to Manali, a popular resort town in the Himalayas. I was on a bus for a good 15 hours. Well two buses actually. The first one went to the capital of Punjab called Chandigarh (I think). There, I had to find a bus to Manali. I went up to a ticket table, asked the man sitting. He said, "Manali? The bus leaves from there [pointing to a nearby bus slot]. It should leave around 5:50 PM. Stick around and I'll help you."

And he certainly did help me. The bus arrived and there was a mad rush to another ticket table. The man (a big ass sikh dude) went to the desk, said who knows what to that ticket man, told me to sit down next to the ticket man, who then got me a ticket and gave me a seat number. Turned out the seat was in the front row, which gave me a bit more leg room. Turned out to be very helpful. Why?

Well this bus became PACKED. Imagine a MUNI bus at rush hour. That kind of packed. Imagine being on that packed of a bus on a curvy mountain road with many switchbacks- for 3 or 4 hours. Sounds fun doesn't it?

3. got to manali a little before 4 am. Obviously I didn't have many hotel options at that hour since most were all closed up for the night. Found one, and then the next day I had a nice surprise: the broadband connection here is down due to some glitch back in Chandigarh, so they say. The first day it was down, all internet places said, "Eh sorry, can't help you." A couple days later they've resorted to dial-up. Woo hoo!

So there you have it. Just kicking it here in Manali for a couple days. Reserved a ticket to Singapore today via Jet Airways. Leaving on the 9th, so I'll have 2 1/2 days in Singapore before I go back to the USA. Now all I have to do is get a bus to Delhi, and arrive there before 6 pm Friday to get my plane ticket. Fun times.