Travelogue - Manali

I would not be exactly doing justice to my blog and its readers if i do not write about my very recent vacation trip to Manali. To begin with it was nothing less than Awesome.
We were a total of 7 people. So myself and my colleagues left for Manali on thursday evening. After the initial hiccups of arranging a vehicle for the trip and the driver not coming in time, we did somehow manage to leave by about 1930 hrs from Delhi. We passed along Sonipat, panipat, Karnal, Ambala and then Chandigarh(i think the order is correct). And we had our dinner somewhere after that. Just when all of us started to doze(except the driver, ofcourse), we were stopped by some sardar cops. They were a real menace. Initially, they managed to get 100 bucks as the driver was not in his uniform, as it was commercial vehicle. And then 2 more cops cam just then and demanded 100 more bucks, if not were ready to devour all our bags to checkfor illegal stuff that did not exist. As it was already late and the chilly wind wastaking its toll, we had to give the cops another 100 bucks to let us go in time. Great start, ain't it?
The night journey was really really tiresome. And once the hill roads had begun it was a real pain. The state of Himachal Pradesh has been aptly named so. In Hindi it translates into "Land of Snow clad mountains". They literaly mean it. The hills are the first sign of entering the state of HP. And the worse part are the hill-roads which twist and turn in every possible way. All the curled up roads made two of the inmates of the car sick and they started to puke. So there was another reason for us to break our journey in between. This continued until we actually reached Manali.
Just as the time passed by, the number in the milestone also kept decreasing. Early morning, when the sun had not yet risen, we stopped for yet another break cos we were very sure the sleepy driver rather than taking us on the hills, will take us to the place beyond the tall mountains. It fortunately turned out to be a much awaited bio-break for me too. After tea we started again. This time the fog took its toll. It was a really scary thought to drive through this fog with a sleepy driver. Our speed was reduced to a meagre 15 kmph. Then as the sun rose the fog got cleared. The first thing that striked me hard was the river that was adjacent to the road. Cannot ignore it as a stream but not a ravaging river either, it was just a humble flow of water with a preset destination. We were actually driving upstream. the sun had rose high enough to begin its games of hide and seek with the hills. It was view that kept me spellbound. It was a really scenic spot where we stopped next. Steep creeks, a gentle river and a thin road just along the river. It was beautiful. If u gave enough attention, the change in the vegetation is really notable. The pine trees and the other trees( that can be found only in the hilly region) really adorned the hills well. now this is the first time when i missed something. A digital Camera. Man..., i should have got it with me. anyway that regret will be with me for a long time to come. We continued our journey. The next notable thing after the change in Flora was the Fauna. The animals had well adjusted themselves to the temperature, with their think and long fur. We had reached Kullu by now. Kullu is kind of a twin city or town with that of Manali, just about 30 km ahead. As it morning i saw lot of people with their traditional Kullu dress, And the young crowd too who had adopted to the western way of dressing. The local girls were really beautiful, with their little chinki eyes but a typical north-indian face-cut, they looked really cute. So did the kids. Most of the kids had the pink spot on their cheeks, that made one think if they were wearing any makeup. Now it was time for me to actually see snow. I could see far away along the tall mountains the white sprinkled snow. I was yearning to go touch it. It still looked very pristine and pure from many kms away.
Finally after the long journey(almost 13-14 hours) we reached out TCS holiday home at Manali. Took some rest got fresh, and visited a local temple of Goddess Hidimba(Wife of Bhima). Dont ask me how or when she became a goddess, that even i dont know. The temple was taken care of by ASI and was built in 1550s by some king. It had a really interesting architecture. Then spent some time in one of the clubs, played some indoor and outdoor games. After all the hard-work, we all went to the market trying to shop for something, could not find anything that was typical of this hill station. The whole town was like made for Honeymoon couples. Lots and lots of couples hugging and playing with each other all around you. The night just passed by and yet another day rose up.

The first spot we decided to go was called Rohtang Pass. Its a spot about 52 km from Manali. The place is supposed to be full of snow. Yippee!!! Finally... Snow. We started early so that the road does not get blocked. The journey to the spot itself is something worth undergoing. The awesome views is one of tis kind. The 52 km distance, every inch of it was a journey upward, towards the hilltops. As i was travelling, i just could not miss the mammoth rocks that accompanied on this journey. These were huge huge hills. I doubt if i have ever seen or if i will ever see any hills of this size down south. They looked so arrogant and rough 'cos of their size and beauty. The vegetation again changed. It started to become all the more drier as we went up but really cold. The trees were all dried up with all their branches shooting up towards the sky. We hired some snow clothing on our way up, this included a pair of snow shoes, a pair of gloves and a big fake-fur coat. Even in such conditions i could see many hilltop houses, which appear to be totally inaccessible. Am sure even if some inmate of that house died, the outside world would never ever come to know. After about two and half hours of travel we reached Rohtang Pass. The road that we were travelling on was supposed to be a national highway, that goes till Leh, which was about 500 kms away. Must be a really tough ride to there.
Rohtang Pass had snow, lots of it. I got down of the vehicle and finally was able to touch snow. It was as soft as cotton. just like talcum powder it just flowed in that temperature. The localites mentioned that the temperature over there was between -6 to -10 degree centigrade. My first experience of sub-zero temperature. It was Kewl... no it was actually Cold. really freezing cold. out of the 7 of us, 4 halted at the common place, were most of the tourists stopped. the rest 3 of us, ventured into the unknown domains of snow clad mountain. we went further inwards. after about 300m we reached a point where there was no one else. All we could see was just snow all four directions. Just snow and nothing else. Nothing else, other than a small group of military vehicles that had no time to enjoy the climate, but had to hurry towards Leh. Here i tried a daring stunt that could surely win me a $25000 in the TV show "Who Dares Wins". I removed my fur coat, gloves and my jacket. I was standing just with my sweater, for about a minute. This froze my mind off. It was really sickening. Since then i have not stopped hating sub-zero temperatures. My Woodland shoes made good use of themselves while climbing along the snow. They gave me an amazing grip and confidence that am not gonna slip of the snow from the creek. I was in total wearing 5 layers of clothing over myself. Innerwear + a crew neck t-Shirt + a Polo T-shirt + sweater + Jacket + the fake fur coat. If someone had forced me to wear the same when i was in Chennai, am sure i could register a complaint with the human rights commission for torture under some section of the law. In this part of India, things seem to work differently. we returned back to our vehicles. It was kind of funny kooking at the people who were pretending as if they were skiing just for the photograph. And you cannot miss the honeymoon couples who were hugging each other posing for the photo. One guy had literally lifted his wife of the ground and carried her like a baby for the photo. I felt really sick on my way back. Kind of feverish. My body was not able to adjust to the temperature. Just then came across a guy who was charging 500 bucks for paragliding that would not last more than 2 minutes. After showing him the middle finger, we left downward towards our cozy rooms.
After reaching to the hotel the only thing that i could do best was to rest and relax. Lying in the bed, i did what i can do best. I watched a movie. The Tom Cruise Flick - "The Firm". Took some rest.
the next day on our way back to Delhi, we went to this place called Manikaran. this is considered a holy spot according to the Sikhs as Guru Gobind Singh had done penance here for few months. The place is also famous for its hot springs. The naturally heated water which is at about 97-103 degree centigrade manages to satisfy all the heating needs of this Gurudwara. Spent about an hour there. I also did Langar there. So we were on our way back to Delhi. The plan to go to Bhakra Nangal Dam had to be dropped due to shortage of time. So the sickening journey again begun. And finally i reached my room at about 0515 hrs on Monday morning after about a total of 1400kms of travel(up & down). Going to Office was obviously out of question. Took a well-deserved leave.
One regret that i would always have is, that i never sat along the shore lines of the river on its rocky bed to pose for a snap.
And thats how the Cookie crumbles. :)