Kinnaur part 2

A few scattered thoughts/images from the second half of Kinnaur! Sorry it's not complete but we're just too busy being where we are at!

-Reckong Peo:
A permit is required to enter this last stretch of Kinnaur due to its proximity to the Tibetan border. And who knew getting a permit could be so fun and official business could be taken care of so quickly in India! Within 30 minutes we had our permit, were full of smiles, and down 800 rupees.
Check out the photos below for one of the best rainbow we've ever seen!

-Spillow:
Cooking outside hotel, hanging out with all the shopkeepers, local men chatting in Hindi cooking up kitcheri, given a gift of satu (barley flour) that one man had brought from his village
Just a simple perfect evening
-We met two other cycle tourists the next morning! Joan and Alice we had cycled into Kinnaur from Kathmandu. We were surprised by a couple of cycles across the street as we went to leave and enjoyed getting to have some extra company on and off over the next few days.

-Pooh:
Camping at the monestary
Special puja ceremony with free 2nd lunch with sweet ladies,
Old old ladies with small braids and big smiles
Wild excited sassy kids 

-Colleen's Birthday ride!
Pooh to Nakho, huge mountain views
Climbing and feeling strong
Cooking special kitcheri in a cave
La de DAH
Getting high on altitude
Amazing thali
Birthday Prasad Cake
Rooftop camping

-half day
Feeling like aimless donkeys
Sweet giving sisters: cheers!
Staying with Nepali workers
Papa: chai, and 'give her a kiss!' 'Puppi'

-On the road we often encounter cows walking slowly along as they graze on the roadside grass or get their share of the garbage that has been left. Whenever they feel they want to stop walking they just lay where ever they please which often times means in the middle of the road. While rounding a high mountain bend our sight fixed on a herd of goats with a couple shepherds guiding their way. Seeing this scene where cars, bikes and busses are backed up on either side and the shepherds guiding the mass of goats to one side had me imagine the time before these highway roads were here in the mountains. Maybe a generation or two back this remained a forested mountain jungle with small dirt paths where the cows, goats and shepherds more peacefully foreged around moving place to place.

-ride out of Kinnaur the next morning with lots of friends on the roads as we pass the workers we had stayed the night with. The valley begins to widen as we reach Sonnam check post to enter Spiti