1. Get up early in your Old Manali guesthouse (Laxmi is nice and cheap). Have breakfast at Shiva Garden cafe.
2. Walk up the hill to the Manu Rishi temple. It's not great but I it liked the little statues there for their text book lack of originality. Krishna playes a flute. Kali is pissed off. Durga sits on a lion. Temple architecture in its bareness and squareness is quite original though.
3. Follow the path past the temple until you reached a big rock onto which steps have been carved. Half way up take a right.
4. Enter the pine tree forest and hike up the hill. It's about 2 kilometers to the picture perfect village of Gushal where the villagers go about their business. You'll see the village from the top of the hill so you'll know where to go. And on your right you'll see the river.
5. Make your through the village and head to the river. There are small bridges that will take you over the several streams.
6. You've reached the village of Bhang on the Rohtang pass highway. (It's a far cry from a highway if I may add.) Take a right.
7. Walk on the road until you reach Rock Garden Cafe. (A far cry from a cafe, but there's a sign.) On the other side of the road you'll see a path which leads to a flight of steps. Climb
them.
8. You've reached the village of Vaishist where you can have lunch. Eat what you wish but do try the local apple juice. It's best when served truly chilled.
9. After lunch find your way to the Vaishist temple, known for its hot springs. It's bath time! English girls bring their bikinis. Indians and us Finns don't. A word of warning: the water is hot and reeks of sulphur. But I loved bathing there. I had fun chatting with an Indian woman who wanted me to start spitting on my toes in order to soften the hard bits caused by years of wearing to small shoes.
10. After the bath visit the babas. They have a rest rouse in the small temple's premises. If you are lucky, you might meet Baba Vias, a blogging baba in the the business of selling herbs. He has a splenid way of using the word "fuck". What a character! If you are in India in the winter, you can find him in Gokarna. The summers he spends in Himachal Pradesh.
11. Bid farewell to the babas and walk across the town until you find a sign pointing at the waterfall. It takes about 30 minutes to get there from Vaishist. If you are worried that you reek of sulphur you can take a plunge in the little natural pool. This time the water is cold. Very cold.
12. Walk back to Vaishist and then on to New Manali. If you've got the time check out the monastery. If you don't, then have dinner at one of the many restaurants in New Manali. They offer a refreshing change from the scene in the Wessie oriented Old Manali. In New Manali the restaurants cater mainly for Indian tourists so you can find any type of Indian food there. I had a Punjabi thali in Aasham Family Restaurant.
13. Tired? Take a ricksha back to Old Manali.
Costs
75 rs breakfast at Shiva Garden Cafe
65 rs samosa lunch, a bottle of apple juice and water
1 rupee fee for leaving your shoes at the cloak room at the Vaishit temple
75 rs for Punjabi thali in Aasham
40 rs ricksha back to Old Manali
In total
256 rupees, which is about 4 euros.
Night at Laxmi guesthouse 200 rs, hot water included. Not bad at all.
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