Michele Payne

Happy as Guests at an Indian Wedding Some tips on what to do if you ever want to attend an Indian wedding: set off to do a day in the hills; see that your hair needs washing but decide you're too tired to bother; wear your shabbiest bush walking gear; make sure you're totally makeup and glamour free ... and then say ok to a random invitation from a handsome young boy who's walking down the street dressed in wedding finery. That should do it. At least it did for us today. It truly was...

We took a long time arriving in The Valley of the Gods . The drive from Palampur to Mandi was stunning ... steep valleys plunging to glacier colored rivers, strewn with huge boulders; terraced emerald hillsides dotted with painted mud-brick houses resembling daubings from a Roy de Maistre palette; winding ribbons of road which offered unending surprises around each bend. The rambunctious township of Mandi was the halfway point and from there the road became almost impassable. Unseasonably...

The View from the Valley One of the many contradictions of India is that while its traffic scene is incredibly frantic, day to day life actually moves at a very leisurely pace. And so it is for us. We've mastered the ability to drift ... to forget about planning for the day and to allow it to unfold in all of its unexpected and intriguing ways. Not once have we been bored; not once have we been disappointed; not once have we wished we were anywhere but where we are. Living in the moment is...