Leh to Delhi via Manali - DAY 2

0430: Wake up after a not too bad sleep in the Dhaba.
0500: Everyone on the bus ready for departure except for the annoying French snake of a man having his coffee, smoking, and chatting.
0515: Depart.
0600: Dawn gives us enough light to see the beautiful valleys in Lahaul, Hamachal Pradesh. Cedar trees are flanking the valley walls.
0630: Drive through Keylong and see what we could have stayed in! It appeared to be luxurious in comparison.
0800: Arrive in Khosar. Bridge over the fast flowing, rapids of the Chandra River is not crossable. Driver does not say anything just laughs at us. Bridge will be fixed in 6 to 10 days! There is a cable cart crossing for passengers and their luggage and two cables for truck cargo. The locals are busy piling up rocks and wrapping steel mesh around the abutments on each side of the river to get a fourth cable car working.
0815: Bridge is still in place but it is warped. After trying to convince the military that Steph and I are diplomats and we have to cross the bridge right away I move on to the river rafts (ironically the same company that we had previously rafted with 10 days before). They won't help even if they could make some extra coin. The waters are too fast for them to cross the river safely with passengers and they've already been there for 3 days late for an expedition. I then try to talk to the police captain to see if he can let all the tourists go first. That didn't fair well.
0830: "Line up" in the mob of people. I time the cable cart crossing. It takes at least 5 minutes for each crossing. At this rate, I knew it was going to be a long difficult day waiting.
0900: The captain decides to split the men from the women.
0930: We soon find out that local women are allowed to cut infront of the women's line. There's a verbal fighting match with the tourist girls and me against the incompetent captain. He thinks he's being fair by allowing the local women to cut infront of the tourist women to ensure a 50/50 spread! It's starting to get hot. Especially in the sardine packed mob of guys. I get Wolfgang and Jurgen to hold my spot and I try and find water knowing quite well we will be there for a long time! The two food shacks have absolutely no water or beverage at all. Only jam! All the water is of course on the other side of the river. I then try and convince the cargo cable guys to bring across a box of water. I try and coax them that they can make a profit. This just seems way too complicated for the local group of men. I head back for the line.
1230: Steph makes it across finally!
1400: The sun is scorching. We are still being crushed and have moved a total of 10 feet. I'm trying to raly up the tourists to stick together as the locals do. An english guy behinds me faints from dehydration but doesn't fall to the ground as the mob is too dense (the pictures don't do its justice). The Nepalese guy on our bus doesn't take off his suit jacket and I'm sure that is why he had to vomit into the river. The dust is aweful, the heat intense, the pace slower than anything you can imagine.
1500: We are still in line and haven't moved an inch. Army guys are allowed to cross, more and more local women arrive and are let on. We are fet up and ready to do some serious damage to anyone else cutting infront of us. Close to the cart, the slope is steep into the bubbling, freezing river. One has to hold onto the steel mesh of the abutment so as not to fall into the river. I have one hand holding onto the mesh, one hand holding a local Indian guy from his shirt so as not to let him go and I have a friendly Tibet monk hanging off of my camera bag. He is thanking me that we are so kind and mentions how the Indians are so unkind and that they never seem to ever do good deeds for other than themselves. At this point in time I couldn't agree more! Steph is kind enough to send us bottles of water with tourists traversing to our side.
1530: After 7+ hours, moving a total of 15 feet, in the scorching sun, dehydrated, physically wiped out from the pushing, shoving, fighting, I make it across with Jurgen and Sam (a way too calm Budhist englishman) and our rucksacks.
1600: A total of 9 of us share a Tata Sumo 4x4. R150 each for the remaining 2.5 hour trip to Manali. Steph shares the middle bench seat with an Austrian, a Frenchman, and an Irishman. I'm in the far back with Jurgan and Wolfgang. Strangely enough we are by far the tallest people in our vehicle!
1830: We are greeted with hotel wallahs trying to convince us that their hotel has it all. I'm ready to grab one and explain him what we've been through. I couldn't even get out of the jeep before they were ontop of me. I decide to completely ignore them.
1900: We settle for the luxurious Hotel Tashila (just kidding), with wall to wall carpetting, TV, and a really strange step on toilet!
2030: We pass out with exhaustion. No breakfast, lunch, or dinner that day!