I spent about a week in Manali.  This is quite a great place to get caught up.  I stayed in the Dharma Guesthouse in a room with a private balcony and the views in the morning and evening over the valley were breathtaking.

I was completely lazy here.  My one major event was the day I went paragliding and zorbing.  This all took place at Solang Nalla, a winter ski area where they are currently building a ski lift.  Students were learning to paraglide on the beginner slope, which was also the launch point for very short paragliding experiences.

I went for a longer jump.  We climbed for about an hour up the mountainside.  Other more fit people than me carried the parachute and gear.  Once we got to an open area overlooking a valley, they started prepping the parachutes.  There was a short dirt path that served as the runway.

About ten Indian tourists took off before me.  It was fun to watch them strap in and take off.  Some seemed nervous, others were not.  I took photos of them on their way down.  Just as the guy before me tried to take off the wind failed, and they canceled his jump to wait.  We sat for about thirty minutes waiting for the wind to pick up and change direction.

When I finally jumped, it really wasn’t scary at all.  It was quite relaxing.  I had done skydiving before, which was scary as hell, but this was like the very end of skydiving, where you just float over the countryside.  It was so relaxing that I was able to use my camera and take a lot of photos from the air.

I should point out that I wasn’t doing anything.  I was strapped to a pilot who was guiding the parachute.  If I had to do it on my own, it probably would have been nerve wracking.  The pilot was great though.  He used the wind to extend the length of the glide and even did some stunts and turns at the very end.

As we were landing, I shot some pictures of the zorbing balls at the bottom of the slope.  Zorbing is a “sport” where you basically get strapped inside a giant plastic ball which then gets launched down a hillside.  Honestly, it sounds more exciting than it actually is.  But at the cost of 5 dollars, it was fun to try.  I basically just rolled over and over feet over head about 20 times as I rolled down the bunny slope.  I hear that you can do it much more extensively in England and New Zealand.  I may have to try it again if I ever make it to New Zealand.  My general impression was that it’s worth doing for five dollars, but not quite as exciting as you might expect it to be.

Other than that, I spent most of my time in Manali hanging out, drinking tea and talking to people.  I spent Rosh Hashanah with a bunch of Israelis having a great dinner.  It was a lot of fun to celebrate this Jewish holiday in India.  We had the apples, honey, pomegranate, etc. plus naan and biryani and all sorts of Indian food.

Manali is a great place to relax.  If you ever get the chance to go there, be sure to stay in Vashisht which is a village just outside the main town.  I highly recommend the Dharma Guesthouse as well.  I could have stayed there for weeks. Almost everyone I spoke to had stayed there 2-3 times as long as they’d expected already.  The best places are always the places where fun people have gotten stuck and this certainly was Manali for me.  Finally, I moved on to McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama because I just can’t let myself get so still so early in my trip.  I hope I find a lot more Manalis on my way though because temples, forts and sights are great, but good people and good scenery are really what I travel for.