This past weekend was amazing! Living in a small village means that on the weekend i get to venture out to the closest touristy town Manali, which is roughly about 40 minutes away. My host parents own a large hotel/restaurant there that their daughter Piya runs. She has three kids all of which are studying elsewhere. Her oldest son Dhruv (22) however, is home for a few months after finishing college and he has become one of our good friends! he is super outgoing and friendly so its great for us to have our own personal tour guide. Piya has been running the hotel for the last 14 years now and has converted the top level into a home, it is so cool getting to chill there on weekends. This past weekend eight of Dhruv's college friends came upto Manali for a holiday so Winta (my volunteer partner) and i went and spent the weekend there as well. On Saturday Dhruv took us all snowboarding in the Solang Valley about half an our out of Manali. We borrowed my host mums mini van and all went up the mountain together. The road we drove up to get there was by far the deadliest road i have ever seen! Pot holes galore! no railings on the edge and attempting to pass buses and falling rocks/snow was not comforting! Luckily Dhruv is a very good driver.
Arriving at the slopes was amazingly overwhelming, it was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Basically there was one large slope with a million things happening at once! People skiing, snowboarding, hang-gliding, zorbing (a giant plastic ball a person goes inside and is literally pushed down the mountain), people randomly dressed in fur coats chanting with massive sticks, men with snow bunnies and women paying $2 to wear traditional dress for a photograph. My snowboarding experience here in India was unlike any past snow holiday! There are no chair lifts so you spend about 30 minutes walking up the mountain and five minutes coming back down (depending on how steep a slope you want), so it is seriously tiring exercise but such good fun. The other difference is the organisation of the businesses on the mountain. We thought we'd hired all the right gear in advance however upon arrival we were greeted with about half the gear we thought we had hired. No goggles no gloves no waterproof pants and no helmet (sorry Mum). I literally just had a snow-board. You should have seen my attire! I wore jeans, a jacket, i shared one glove off Dhruv as he sprained his wrist and only needed one so yes i looked rather underdressed for the snow!
I can't explain how chilled it is! During snow breaks locals would just sit around tables drink chai and smoke Charis (local hash) then hit the slopes again it's crazy!. We finished around 4pm then all sat and had a hot curry and coffee on the slope. At night we made a bonfire in the outside bar area at the hotel twas nice.
Dhruv and his friends are all studying/studied really interesting courses, animation, design or film. They are so talented at what they do it's crazy! The standard of their work here is so much better than most things I've seen in Australia. For example Dhruv is incredible at animation and art! Yet here he would earn way less for his awesome work in comparison with someone in Australia who would earn a lot more for a lower standard of work! They are all seriously talented and working on really cool projects. I've never met a group of people that are all equally creative and studying such interesting courses.
Life here is so relaxed! Everyone is so welcoming and the people I've made friends with so far i feel like i have known them forever! Everyone shares everything and unlike back home age really doesn't matter everyone is friends with everyone, I'm 17 hanging out with a bunch of 23 year olds and you wouldn't know the difference because everyone is so inclusive and friendly. It is going to be so hard coming home after getting a taste of this amazingly chilled and simple life style or the hill-billy lifestyle as Dhruv would call it. Driving up the mountain in a van going for a snowboard, living in a hotel, having friends over whenever you want, buying a good coffee for 20 cents, having 100 family members, wearing cool local woollen beanies, socks and textiles that one buys for next to nothing in the village. I really can't explain it my photographs don't do this place justice! Most people when they picture India see the stereotypical hot, over-crowded cities, curry and markets etc etc However where I'm living currently is the complete opposite! Big beautiful valleys, snowy mountains and streams, it's unreal!
Back to school today with a terrible cold! Note to self don't wear jeans snowboarding...
Solang Valley - Manali
Dhruvy
It's all happening..
Dhruv and moi
Neha
Paying money to get manually pushed down a mountain in a confined plastic ball...
Chai break
Sleepovers at the hotel
Bonfire time
Checking out Manali
Arriving at the slopes was amazingly overwhelming, it was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Basically there was one large slope with a million things happening at once! People skiing, snowboarding, hang-gliding, zorbing (a giant plastic ball a person goes inside and is literally pushed down the mountain), people randomly dressed in fur coats chanting with massive sticks, men with snow bunnies and women paying $2 to wear traditional dress for a photograph. My snowboarding experience here in India was unlike any past snow holiday! There are no chair lifts so you spend about 30 minutes walking up the mountain and five minutes coming back down (depending on how steep a slope you want), so it is seriously tiring exercise but such good fun. The other difference is the organisation of the businesses on the mountain. We thought we'd hired all the right gear in advance however upon arrival we were greeted with about half the gear we thought we had hired. No goggles no gloves no waterproof pants and no helmet (sorry Mum). I literally just had a snow-board. You should have seen my attire! I wore jeans, a jacket, i shared one glove off Dhruv as he sprained his wrist and only needed one so yes i looked rather underdressed for the snow!
I can't explain how chilled it is! During snow breaks locals would just sit around tables drink chai and smoke Charis (local hash) then hit the slopes again it's crazy!. We finished around 4pm then all sat and had a hot curry and coffee on the slope. At night we made a bonfire in the outside bar area at the hotel twas nice.
Dhruv and his friends are all studying/studied really interesting courses, animation, design or film. They are so talented at what they do it's crazy! The standard of their work here is so much better than most things I've seen in Australia. For example Dhruv is incredible at animation and art! Yet here he would earn way less for his awesome work in comparison with someone in Australia who would earn a lot more for a lower standard of work! They are all seriously talented and working on really cool projects. I've never met a group of people that are all equally creative and studying such interesting courses.
Life here is so relaxed! Everyone is so welcoming and the people I've made friends with so far i feel like i have known them forever! Everyone shares everything and unlike back home age really doesn't matter everyone is friends with everyone, I'm 17 hanging out with a bunch of 23 year olds and you wouldn't know the difference because everyone is so inclusive and friendly. It is going to be so hard coming home after getting a taste of this amazingly chilled and simple life style or the hill-billy lifestyle as Dhruv would call it. Driving up the mountain in a van going for a snowboard, living in a hotel, having friends over whenever you want, buying a good coffee for 20 cents, having 100 family members, wearing cool local woollen beanies, socks and textiles that one buys for next to nothing in the village. I really can't explain it my photographs don't do this place justice! Most people when they picture India see the stereotypical hot, over-crowded cities, curry and markets etc etc However where I'm living currently is the complete opposite! Big beautiful valleys, snowy mountains and streams, it's unreal!
Back to school today with a terrible cold! Note to self don't wear jeans snowboarding...
Solang Valley - Manali
Dhruvy
It's all happening..
Dhruv and moi
Neha
Sleepovers at the hotel
Bonfire time
Checking out Manali
Buying ice-cream despite the cold
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