I waited 35 minutes in line for that kind of treatment? Sure the juggs were nice, but I don't plan on going back there for a while. I thought the place was very overrated. For the record, I'm only 21, not some old fart.

The game was great of course. Question though, it appeared in the 1st inning that Gardenhire was having a conversation with the umpire. Did the tv/radio guys mention what the deal was? Something wrong with the ball?

Yetijuice
C
3
Yes
Yetijuice

Roger Repoz
C
3
Yes
Roger Repoz

Disclaimer:  Roger is not here in India.  He is with his Mother in Nepal.  Roger told me before I left for India to make the same OPD picks for him as I did for myself.  Without this disclaimer I suspect the Rev would demand to see our passports with visa stamps behind the Toshiba sign in rightcenter field!  I will be returning to Kathmandu on Friday 17 August.  My India internet usage is sporadic, hence this irregular post.

Here is a brief summary of our trek:

Our trek lasted 23 days.  We crossed 15400 foot Khaliheni Pass on Day 4 (21 July)
and crossed 16200 foot Thomsar Pass on Day 21 (7 August).  The morning of 6 August
we had non-stop rain for seven hours (from 0200 to 0900).  That delayed our pass
crossing by one day.  We did use that delay to get about 3 kilometers closer to
Thomsar Pass, so the day was not a waste.

Climbing on Days 3 and 4 towards Khaliheni Pass I kept telling myself "I cannot
believe I did this with a 7 year old!"  Rickey was with me when I did the same
trek in Sept/Oct 2000.  The weather was clear then.  We intended to cross Khaliheni
Pass on Day 5.  The cloudy/foggy weather on the Kulu Valley side encouraged us to
speed it up a day.

The first day of the trek from Manali to Lama Dug saw us gain a mile of elevation
(from 6,000 to 11,200 feet).  After crossing the first pass our lowest elevation
was 8,400 feet at Barabhanghal.  Nights 11, 12, and 13 were spent in Shah Nullah.
That was the main purpose of the trek.  It was a new area for us.  In 2000 we only
reached the fork of Shah Nullah and the Ravi River on a day hike from Barabhanghal.
We saw NO other trekkers the entire time that we were between the passes.  Sheepherders
told us another group had passed two days before us.  We did see one European trekking
down to Manali on Day 2.  However, he had not gone over any pass.

The morning of Day 14 We awoke at our lower Shah Nullah campsite (we used it for
Nights 11 and 13) to discover that our eight horses had been horsenapped.  Lakpa,
Jit Bahadur, and our horseman Tekchand walked up valley to a sheepherders camp to
reclaim the horses.  I was ameniable to paying grazing fees of say 200 to 300 rupees
per night.  I wrote out two receipts (one for the sheepherder and one for me) with
the amount of payment blank.  I instructed Jit Bahadur to fill in the amount paid
in numbers and words before making payment.  Lakpa took along an old film camera.
Lakpa took five photos of the sheepherders.  They did not want to incriminate themselves
by signing a receipt.  No money was paid and we got the horses back.  This delayed
our downhill departure by 1 hour and 45 minutes.

There were four active sheepherder camps in Shah Nullah.  We purchased a sheep for
1850 rupees from the first camp on the right.  The horsenappers were at the third
camp on the right.  We camped out below them on Night 12.  I hiked west (left if
looking south to north) above our camp late that afternoon to take photos.  Camp
3 on the right was deserted then.  At the first camp on the left (and the last or
furthest up in the valley) there was a pow-wow between four sheepherders.  That
is probably where the horsenapping plot hatched.

On previous treks we have had the horses wander as far as 6 miles off (delaying
us by three hours).  I expected a delay of some sort, but not by horsenapping.  
As we did not pay anything I have no complaint.

On the last day I hiked 32 kilometers (20 miles).  That was 4 kilometers longer
than Rickey, Lakpa and the horses took.  I mistakenly thought the west bank trail
through longer would actually be faster.  Jangbu and I had to backtrack two kilometers
to cross a bridge to get to the east bank.  We finished the trek at Barot on Thursday.
In 2000 we crossed a ridge further west to camp at Billing and finish at Bir.

There was a single lane bridge collapse across the Chikka (?) River in western Kangra
Valley Wednesday morning.  The bridge was 118 years old.  The collapse occurred
about 0500 in the morning only minutes after two busses had crossed it.  We drove
from Barot through eastern Kngra Valley to Mandi and did not go near the collapsed bridge.
The collapsed bridge was closer to Pathankot, a place that I have never been.

Imagine my surprise upon our return to Manali yesterday (Friday) to read in the
Indian newspapers that a bridge in Minneapolis had collapsed on August 1st killing
eight people.

We will depart from Manali on Wednesday afternoon August 15th.  That is India's
Independence Day.  We will spend that night at the Chitterkoot Hotel in Bilaspur.  They serve a good chicken tikka.  Thursday afternoon we will tour the Rock Garden in Chandigarh.  Thursday night will be spent at a hotel near the Delhi airport.  Our flight departs Delhi at 1130 on
Friday morning (17 August) to Kathmandu.  We are flying with Jet Airways.