No Choice

Waking up early isn't really an option as by 8pm it is freezing. After 8 hours sleep it is still very early!

We woke up, hid the key for the owner and went to the central market to catch the bus. A bus arrived and we climbed on. Not a vacant seat in sight just loads and loads of people cramming the aisles. We stood sandwiched amongst them on our journey to Jibhi. When the conductor battled his way through the crowd to us, he seemed concerned that we had to stand for so far and wanted to drop us off to catch another bus. We said it was ok for us to stand like everyone else and we would stay. Chances are the next bus will be rammed too! Eventually, the conductor returned, booted a couple of people out of their seats and gave them to us.

Christine had the front seat. This was the worst seat in the bus as from here you could see everything. The sheer drops we were hurtling towards, the crazy drivers hurtling towards us! On this journey we only lost the wing mirror on Christine's side to a jeep driver. Mr Moustache, the bus driver was not very happy! The journey was pretty terrifying but stunningly beautiful. The hills and valleys awe inspiring. Rivers, cliffs and even snow were stunning! We passed through the Jalori pass where a small temple sat amongst the snow. 
The journey was long and hard, the driver slow, very skilled and patient with the less experienced traffic. This was mountain travel!
We passed landslide after landslide. Some villages seemed to have lost some of their houses to these frequent monsoon occurrences.

Jibhi finally arrived and we were glad.This was a tiring journey. We searched for a hotel for the night but it appears Jibhi is quite a fashionable spot, probably with honeymoon couples. The prices were way above the norm! We searched and searched for a rock bottom price ...

We spoke to many hotels, cottages, friendly people but the prices were sky high. Eventually quite a large hotel, though a little older, offered us a small room for a great price. Less than half price of all the others. Deal!
Christine recovered from the days travel whilst Darryl explored the village. He drank tea from a local, who had lived in Italy, spoke to a young couple staying in a tree house and checked out restaurants for dinner.

Dinner could be pricey, tea also pricey however, the small reconnaissance mission revealed a few little jems. Darryl ate a delicious veg thali for a reasonable price whilst Christine opted for something smaller - aloo paratha. We were going to wash it all down with chai but all of the restaurants still open were extortionate (compared to the usual price it was 4 to 5 times more). No chai ... We went to bed nice and early as it was c.c.c.old!

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