Yesterday +1 and I explored Manali,which is full of Kullu shawls and other lovely handwoven goods.... I'm all shopped out at the moment.When we first got to town a small boy approached me and put his hands to his lips - a common gesture used to ask for money, presumably because the person is hungry. In the larger cities, beggars are everywhere and it's easy to lose a bit of your humanity as you turn everyone away out of fear that if you give one person money hundreds of others will ask you for some as well. This happened to me on my last trip to India when I handed a child a hair tie or a pen (I don't remember which), and within a minute I was literally surrounded by a small mob of children, wanting the same thing (luckily I had enough for everyone). Another concern is that if you give someone money, someone else will notice and steal it from them. Once while on one of my very rare trips off post in Afghanistan we handed a couple of kids water bottles and moments later they were attacked by other kids who did not have water and a fight broke out.
But Manali is a small place and when the boy approached me I looked around and didn't see any other children near us, so I gave him the only small bill I had (5 rupees = 9 cents). He immediately took it over to the fruit vendor, haggled for the best piece of fruit he could get for 9 cents, and scarfed it down like he was starving... which, you know, he was. I ran back and gave him a little more money, but of course it's not enough and there are millions more like him in India.
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On a lighter note, we found an impeccably clean restaurant that plays good jazz music. The owner is a Korean woman (fluent in Korean, Hindi, and English), and her Indian spouse. Chris had a handmade tofu pasta dish and I had veggie sushi, to die for. Very good and very unexpected up here in the mountains.
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Today we went paragliding with a professional paraglider - Chris found him on the internet (I'll refer to him as AJ for now as I don't know how to spell his name). AJ's splits him time between Manali, India and Nepal, has been paragliding for 18 years, and competes professionally in international competitions. I was really nervous, but after meeting and talking with him all of my anxiety lifted and I had zero qualms about literally running off the edge of a cliff. It was the.best.thing.I.have.ever.done. AJ gives 10 day flying classes in Nepal between September-March and I have every intention of going - probably not this year as I won't have enough leave built up, but next. I'm already dreaming of soaring through the snow capped mountains.
That's all for now. Love from the East,
Erin
But Manali is a small place and when the boy approached me I looked around and didn't see any other children near us, so I gave him the only small bill I had (5 rupees = 9 cents). He immediately took it over to the fruit vendor, haggled for the best piece of fruit he could get for 9 cents, and scarfed it down like he was starving... which, you know, he was. I ran back and gave him a little more money, but of course it's not enough and there are millions more like him in India.
---------------------------
On a lighter note, we found an impeccably clean restaurant that plays good jazz music. The owner is a Korean woman (fluent in Korean, Hindi, and English), and her Indian spouse. Chris had a handmade tofu pasta dish and I had veggie sushi, to die for. Very good and very unexpected up here in the mountains.
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Today we went paragliding with a professional paraglider - Chris found him on the internet (I'll refer to him as AJ for now as I don't know how to spell his name). AJ's splits him time between Manali, India and Nepal, has been paragliding for 18 years, and competes professionally in international competitions. I was really nervous, but after meeting and talking with him all of my anxiety lifted and I had zero qualms about literally running off the edge of a cliff. It was the.best.thing.I.have.ever.done. AJ gives 10 day flying classes in Nepal between September-March and I have every intention of going - probably not this year as I won't have enough leave built up, but next. I'm already dreaming of soaring through the snow capped mountains.
That's all for now. Love from the East,
Erin
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