Nutters turn Yak Cow Girls!!!

Hi Everyone!

Firstly Happy Christmas! We both hope that you celebrate the festivities with way too much food and drink as normal, then sit back and say "oh I'm so not going to eat as much next year", by next year you have by then forgotten that promise!

So we left you last as we were heading to Jodphur, Indias Blue city. Yes it is very blue, it also has a lovely HUGE fort that we went around using an audio tour which made it pretty interesting-tell you more when home.

From Jodphur we went onto Bikaner, a desert town in which we stayed in very cold mud hut type thing. On the way we stopped at the strangest temple of all! It was a temple that worships RATS! Yes we did say rats and yes it was full of them! We had to leave our shoes at the entrance and then hop around trying to miss the rats as they ran at our feet! Emily turned out to be a girly girl squealing, Dawn stayed in the rat courtyard and let Emily get the closer photo's in the surrounding buildings. It was weird, pigeons also swarmed the place as there was a constant flow of food, grain and milk-wait to see the photos. Didn't do much in the town, headed into town for a meal, wasn't overly impressed by dinner or town.

Then Hurrah, we went back to Delhi and left our driver! We stayed in a families house in Delhi for the evening and had lots of lovely home cooked food and a comfy bed with soft pillows!

Next day we left for Manali (Emily's Paradise). We took a cute sleeper bus which had a really snug little curtained off area for us to sleep in, 16 hours later we arrived. Dawn was amazed by the sheer beauty of the snow capped mountains. The stony rivers cutting through the valley, running along the roadside, Alpine trees clinging to the hills and sun shining through. Just to make you all jealous, this is our view from our balcony! We sit here in the sun between 10-3pm as sun is so strong in our vest tops. When it cools down we go for various local walks.

Within two minutes of us stepping off of the bus, Emily bumped into a man she met here 9 years ago! We are now staying at his hotel-for those of you who were in India with me last, it is the man who tricked us off of the bus into staying at the Hotel Kalpna.

After settling in we went for a walk up through forest and found an absolute tourist hub, in this hub were a couple of Yaks!!!! We couldn't resist riding on the hairy big horned beasts! So off we went, Dawn has been wondering that if she brought one back, would it be allowed on Public Bridleways in Herts?!

Yesterday we went for a lovely walk, 5 hours in the mountains and climbing up very steep sides by a huge waterfall. It was fun slipping and sliding in the snow! Emily decided it was easier to get down the mountain side by sliding down on her bum where as Dawn maintained a slow clamber but her bum remained dry and warm, unlike Emily's! To warm up we visited local natural sulphur baths, used for sacred bathing, they were boiling-too hot to actually get into! The locals found us very amusing! There's one for ladies and one for men which is good because anything goes when it comes down to what to wear.

Today was amazing, our hotelier managed to find Ramesh! He was Emily's Guide in the Himalayas in 1998. We are going to his house tomorrow to meet his son Sanjeep, also a guide and then Budhram the cook is also around. It is so lovely to see him again as he was like my Himalayan Father, we used to just walk and talk each day, he hasn't changed much either and he remembered me and the trek we all did!

Now we are planning Christmas Day and will let you know what we have up our sleeve next time!