We are back at our “favorite” hotel just down the street from the New Delhi airport. It’s a dump but it’s home for a short time.
As noted, Melanie & I got tired of the hippie scene in Manali. The roads to Leh didn’t seem to be getting fixed so we took an overnight bus south to Delhi and then we will fly back to Leh tomorrow morning. After our rides over muddy mountainous tracks to Manali, we were a little leery about getting into an overcrowded bus to do the same thing heading south in the dark but that seemed to be the only option.
On the bus, in a weird coincidence, we met a jewelry seller from Leh who recognized Melanie. Isn’t that a scary thought? We weren’t really in Leh for that long but a jeweler remembered Melanie? What did she buy?!?! The guy told us that he was heading south as the season in Leh is over because of the floods. It was getting near the end anyway but with all the travelers having left, there was no point staying there now. He described some of the mess with large sections of the lower town buried under mud and the lack of electricity, phone lines, ATMs, food, etc. He wished us luck but seemed to wonder why we would be going back there now.
Melanie & Michael Go Walking 