River Beas

Mandi, 02-04-1994. Surrounded by mountains and built on the shores of two rivers, one of them the Beas, is Mandi, between Dharamsala, Shimla and Manali. Nothing of interest in Mandi, really, apart maybe from some old temples on the shores of the river Beas. These temples just offered me a nice opportunity to strech my legs and use my eyes before nightfall, i arrived late afternoon i did not feel like spending the few remaing hours of daylight in my crappy hotel room. all the hotels in Mandi look the same, grubby and very basic not to metion extremely dirty. The hotel where i took a room for the night does not even have a name, it does have an unwashed toiled and a broken sink. The owner a desintrested sihk shop owner taking me up to the room above his shop. At least i have a room, just a 100 meters down the road some homeless locals camp in dirty tents made out of black plastic, on the shores of the Beas. However the women of these homeless campers wear fine and expensive looking silverey jewellry that somehow gives them a dignified look.