Monkey Attacks and jumping off mountains

So when we were in Shimla we went up a mountain (... a large hill, but by the time I'd gotten us lost and we'd found the right path, and gone up that, it felt like a mountain) to Lakhu temple which had been over run by MONKEYS! How much fun would this be? We were anticipating it with excitement. However, when we heard you needed to buy a stick because the monkeys could get frisky, I felt the enthusiasm waning. And as we climbed the massively steep hill towards the temple, and people coming down were gesturing at Troy and Adele's glasses, and telling them to remove them, or the monkeys would, we figured out that maybe the monkeys were not only cheeky, but also actively aggressive. The final straw came as three local kids who were above us on the climb to the temple, came charging down screaming (and laughing a bit) as three monkeys came chasing after them. Behind the monkeys chasing them, I could see a hoard of more monkeys charging down the hill. We sat down to take stock. Adam's rage from earlier had now turned to terror, and he developed his own mantra of "I don't like this, I don't like this". The three monkeys arrived at our seat, and the Daddy ambled over to opposite us, and just sat opposite us, staring! It. was. terrifying. Can a monkey duff you up and then claw your face off with his bare hands? In my head it can when it's sat opposite you staring intently at you. But then the Mummy and baby passed, and he went on, he was obviously just protecting his family, but Jesus wept it shook us up. Then some French tourists came up behind us, and one of them was a reassuringly confident-looking man, I couldn't figure out why I liked this man and felt safe in his presence, but upon examining him, his confidence clearly emanated from the massive stick he was holding and banging the ground in front of himself with. We shamefacedly tagged on to the back of the group of The Man With The Stick and carried on up the hill, after Adele had craftily tied her glasses to her head with the toggle from a rain mac. Reaching the top we find a man selling lots of sturdy looking sticks for five rupees. Said man is also strategically throwing food at tourists' feet as they reached the top, causing a group of monkey's to surge forward towards them, making them feel vulnerable and in need of some sort of protection. Astute. Turns out we didn't need the sticks, I think it would have been different if we'd have foodstuffs in our bags, but the hundreds of monkeys left well alone, and we enjoyed the panoramic views of the mountains the highest hill in Shimla afforded. Later on as me and Adam had gotten lost and were trying to return to the town centre to meet Adele and Troy, one of them dry humped Adele's leg, and we missed it! Apart from that no crazy monkey action really.

We're now in Manali. We've hired a jeep type vehicle and a driver, I know this is completely decadent, but it's low season and it was only 500 rupees more than public transport, and with two ten hour stretches before us, we thought 'feck it'! Our driver, Goodu, is lovely and not completely insane or in any heinous life-or-death-hurry to get everywhere, which makes for a very very unusual driving experience; I don't feel like death is on the other side of every lorry we over-take. He's very relaxed. Personally I think he's so relaxed for a special reason, more of which later on. So we set off from Shimla at 8am and arrived in Manali at 9pm. The drive to Manali was beautiful, the road is on the side of a mountain, the river Beas, which Goodu told us comes from China and goes all the way to Pakistan, runs alongside the road, and there are massive waterfalls drifting down from the cloud covered mountain tops above us. It's obviously hairy at times, with such small roads, but as the rule of the road dictates, we are in a larger vehicle than most, so are given nuff respec and more room than most.

As we arrived in Manali, the windows open, cool mountain air rushing through the windows, we all noticed a certain extremely distinct scent rolling in from the dark mountains. On waking this morning and looking out of the window, the second thing which struck me is the reason I think Goodu is so relaxed and good at driving over here. We are surround by Marijuana plants. They're everywhere! I mean EVERYwhere. It's mental. The first thing which struck me was the view, it's just amazing. I don't understand why mountains have such an awesome effect, but they do and they are sublime. And we jumped off one this morning! We went paragliding, which was exquisite, and shall be described in much more detail later...