Manali

 Here is 4 days squeezed into 1 post.  I am coming to an end on India and I think I have 1 or 2 more left? I am sad because I loved everything about India and I really loved reliving my time there through these posts!

So this is the beautiful city of Manali, a much colder climate and a nice change from the rest of India, I think we got there just in time before we melted away.  The 10 hour bus drive was beautiful, like right out of a dream fairyland, beautiful.  The culture was different from the rest of India which changed our plans to staying there longer.  The people were more asian influenced, wore wool and fun looking hats, and were very friendly. Manali offered lots of exploring and discovery, and was probably the city that we explored and hiked the most. It was beautiful with the Himalayas setting the background for each new experience.  And maybe my favorite thing about Manali were their delicious Himalayan oranges, I literally had 4+ a day and just thinking about them makes my mouth water.

On our favorite day there we splurged and rented a Royal Enfield (a motorcycle for us girls who don't know the language).  Landon has a passion for riding and bikes so we splurged a day for him to be able to drive his lady on the windy roads up to the Himalayas. I still remember holding on to him so tightly thinking that this really was a once in a lifetime experience.  On that day we hiked up to a waterfall, rode some yaks, ate yak cheese, bought yak shawls (the most expensive thing we bought in our travels) drove up every road possible, and found ourselves on a hidden hill where they sacrificed sheep and worshipped their gods.

Manali was so special because it gave us quality, quiet time to really reflect on our entire trip and spend special time together.  I loved that every night we were freezing and had to return to our hostel early, that will probably be the only time that I was grateful for cold weather.