Riding day #9, Sept 1, 2019:  Jispa to Sissu (then bus to Manali):  947M up, 78km, 4,918 ( 16,135ft.) max, 3,397m (11,145ft) end.

A reasonable day cycling, only one 350M climb.  The new thing for today is that we are low in elevation enough that therein vegetation, things are now quite lush.

We found out last night that this whole valley (and Leh Manali road) are cut off in the winter (9 months of), so many have a 2nd home in Manali, but some do rough out the winter - tough people!

Some pics from the day:

At the end of our ride in Sissu, we were then bussed over a hill to Manali - only about 8 km as the crow flies, but a horrendous 5 hour bus ride over the hill.  They are building a tunnel that was supposed to be finished in 2016, but they discovered very serious water issues that still haven’t been solved, so up and over one goes.  This was the scariest 5 hour bus ride I have ever seen.  If the drivers attention lapsed you would be off a cliff and dead.  One had to have strong beliefs in Karma - it is not my day to die.  How rough and treacherous was it:  the Dr riding with us started talking about needing Valium. One couldn’t sleep because you needed to hang on else be tossed from your seat.

Not convenient for taking pictures, but a couple:

Not sure if this video will work or not

We are now in Manali, recovering from the bus ride, in a very nice hotel, complete with monkey just outside my window.

This is very much an Indian version of Banff, but with much higher mountains.

Two experiences yesterday, one fantastic, one awful.  

The awful was that it took me 5 hours to get a SIM card (my previous version would only work in Ladakh).  I needed both my passport and my India Visa - no problem with passport and E-visa in hand off to the shop.  But my E-visa didn’t have my picture on it - OK we try anyway - rejected.  We try a 2nd time (each try takes an hour) - rejected again.  So back to hotel, check into the Indian Visa site, find a version with my picture, email it to the hotel desk, they print for me and back I go to the SIM card vendor.  No, I’m sorry sir, must be cooler picture.  So back to hotel - no colour printer.  So back to my room, download the colour .pdf both onto my phone and a memory stick.  Back to the SIM card dealer - no, I’m sorry sir, can’t be electronic, must be colour printed copy.  Off the the print shop, now with a colour printed copy back to SIM card dealer.  Yes, sir, all happy and 1/2 hour later I have a working SIM card.  Finally have lunch at 3:30.

The wonderful experience:  I needed to have my beard trimmed, so our local guy guided me to the right barber, advising to get full face and head massage with the cut.  The trimming of my beard took about 2 minutes, then a full hour of face, head, neck, arms, shoulders hands massage and facial.  The massage was very very vigorous, hammering my head, neck etc., he attempted to pull out each of my fingers twice!  Also literally cracked my neck in both directions.  And then the facial - 5 times I was painted with concoctions, seriously massaged, wiped clean, next painting.  One of which was with a cucumber.  Then a steam facial.  Also he used a serious vibrator over full head, face and neck.  The barber seemed very happy when I suggested he had made me into the most handsome man in Manali. 

Tomorrow we bus back over the hill the way we came - it is going to be another long 5 hour trip.

We head off into the Spiti valley heading for Shimla 6 days of riding - I expect to be electronically out of touch the whole period.