The ease with which they reached Manali—the last settlement on the Beas before you climbed up into high mountains—forced Ravi’s hand. He had been waffling the whole way, claiming that he was only tagging along on the first leg of the journey so that he could see the mountains, and that he’d peel off and go home at some point in the not too distant future. But just like that they were in Manali, where you couldn’t look in any direction without seeing a genuine Himalaya erupting straight up just a few miles distant. Far from running low on supplies, they had stocked up as they went. No one could claim that they had suffered any hardship. Even the most coddled traveler would think twice before whining in earshot of Ilham, who had endured shit you wouldn’t believe. No obvious opportunity had, in other words, presented itself to Ravi to justify his falling away from the quest.