Shimla crazy taxi and the Manali roller coaster!

Well no I have missed two forms of transportation on this trip.  The second was our bus from shimla to manali. Our bus was to leave at 8:30 am and we were told that the station was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel (told a 2 minute walk the night before >< ) and we discovered the hard way that it was quite more then that!  By the time we got to the wrong bus station it was already 8:30!!  So we jumped into the nearest taxi with all haste and speed off to the other bus staion!  The taxi driver seemed to think that our bus was gone, so he speed off along the path to catch it!! After about 15 minutes of zipping through winding curves and narrow passes we finally caught up with a manali bus!!!  Not ours of course!  What had actually happened is we had some where passes our bus, very good driving...much like that game crazy taxi :p. After about a 15 minute watt our "bus" more like a passenger van pulls around the corner and we flag it down and hop in :). 
This is where the manali roller coaster began, because soon after the road went to hell and we were bumping and bouncing all over!  Mind you this was a 10 hour bus ride (well 9:30 for us once we were actually on the bus!). But man have I never imagined gaining so much air time while in a van!  A few times I was close to hitting my head on the roof and it was a quite tall roof at that!  None the less the scenery around was beautiful and the bumping was something that I was able to handle after a while...sort of rode them out like on a horse...or a camel as my dad would say from time to time "we could be riding camels now!" which was the other option besides coming up to manali!  After the long ride we finally arrived in manali, and what a sight to see!! In fact it looks much like Oregon if you only look at the trees, breath taking!  
Not much besides dinner was had our first night because we were a bit tired and it was already later on in the evening when we arrived.  The next day we slept inca bit (whoohoo, got my own room again with big bed and comfy soft blanket!!) and hit up a coffee shop for bfast!  After that we gathered our gear and walked up towards a temple in the forest that was made in the 1500's. The walk was night through the woods, all be it up hill. And the temple was small but serene, standing in the middle of large trees and completely made of wood besides a metal umbrella at the top!  Not to mention that it was close to 500 years old...and wood!  W also walked around in a nice forest preserve near the temple for a while the reminded me a lot of walking around at Hendrix park in Eugene :). After that we stopped at a nice italian restaurant for some really good pizza and a good slave of tiara misu (well good for India at least :p). After that we walked out to old manali, this walk was a bit farther...up hill mostly too, but still not too bad because the temperature here isn't that bad.  On our way up we stopped at a place to get information of a canyoning trip we hope to do in the next few days, and then explored old manali a bit.  They have one area where a natural hot springs comes in and they have bath houses and the like in the area...seems cool (or hot I guess!).  We also stopped at a cafe where my hunt for a mango lasi finally ended!  Nom nom nom, but maybe still not as good as mango milkshakes from Bali :p. After a bit of walking around there we made the trek back to our part of town, checking out beautiful waterfalls along the way and stopping by the river too!  It's been a grand first day in manali and tomorrow we will probably go up to rohtang pass about 50km from here which is at a elevation of about 14,000 ft!  Enjoy the pics and more to come :) 


Kalka to shimla toy train...


500 year old forest temple!


Come on...don't destroy your mother!


Kinda looks like hendrix park yeah?


River!