Manali Trip - Day 2

Trip Date : 29/09/2014

Day 2 is fully contributed to Rotang Pass. Rotang pass is such a lovely place in Manali. Our Manali trip was Off-season. We like it that way. No crowd, No Queues, No traffic. That means a lot in Rotang pass. Did you had miss reading  Day 1 ?

It is just 50 km from Manali, for that during season time you may have to start from your hotel by 3 am to avoid traffic. But then you cannot avoid the traffic while returning back. But it is worth it. In off season, not much problems like us, except the main attraction of the place will be missing. Yes, there will not be much snow during off season. Only there will be big patch of snow where you can play for a while.

·         Rotang Pass is closed on all Tuesdays for maintenance.

·         It is Open only from May to November (Source : Google)

We started around 9.30 from hotel after finishing a nice heavy breakfast. Last post I mentioned about the dinner buffet in the hotel. Break spread is not as big as dinner, but yet healthy and filling. It has Toasted Bread with butter and Jam, A Good Sandwich, Idli / Dosa with Sambar, chutney, Paranta with curd and pickle, Eggs, Juice / Coffee / Tea. We thoroughly enjoyed the food. My daughter just sticks with S/W and juice. She won’t touch the other items. I chose a table right near the window, i badly wanted the sun rays to hit on me since the morning was so chill. I wonder how i hid myself from the same sun in chennai.

It takes 2 hours to reach Rotang. From Manali to rotang, everywhere you can see shops renting the Snow suite. Don’t ever stop there, its costly out there. You can rent them in rotang itself. Don’t pay more than Rs. 300 for a suite. Bargain!!!

During the journey, the views are breathtaking. The climate was so crisp, we dint miss a single scene. Just by climbing the mountain bend by bend, you can very well notice the temperature dropping. There is a pit stop few kilometers before Rotang, where there are plenty of dhabas. Also there is no restroom facility is rotang pass, so you have to use while they stop here. It is not very clean though, but manageable.

Then we drove to Rotang Pass where I and Lakshmi rented out a Fur coat, Hang Gloves, Shoes. Till that time I wear those shoes, I thought of climbing till the snow by walk. But after I wear those shoes, it was tough. It was made of rubber, so it hurts. If your own shoes, then well and good, you can easily walk. So me and my daughter hired a horse. Initially they said 1000 Rs for a horse, we bargained to 350. Horse ride was unforgettable. All these years we had experienced horse ride in normal roads and beach. But this is different lots of climb up and down. Little scary but fun. It is 100% safe. When you get down just get the name of the horse guy, while you return you have to shout and find him.

 Even after the horse ride you have to trek a while, but the shoe helped. It had a good grip. Instead of walking most times I was crawling. In-between my daughter will pull me her side.. Need a lot of balancing though. Even in that case we never fail to take pictures. I even changed the lens. Crazy enough ?. Selfies are difficult though. Once you reach the snow, it’s very slippery. There are few games out there. Try out. Bargain is the word. Walking crawling people below.

Here is the major difference between season time and off-season. You will have snow everywhere in season, whereas in off-season there will be single patch of snow where whole crowd will hit there only. But my feeling was at least I could see this. Even for the small patch of snow, my daughter was typing her teeth. After playing for a while, we climbed down carefully. Climbing down is more difficult than up. Even you cannot crawl in this case. Another way is sit down and jiggle between the rocks. I even did that for a while. I have a shaky leg you know?

 We came where the horse dropped us and shouting the horse guy name. He came after a while. Riding back was fun, as we had gained some experience. There is a shop there right when you get down from the horse which sells hot Maggi. Loved it. Rs. 50 a plate.

While you walk down a little, there is a Vyas temple, doom shaped built of rocks. Heard from the driver that, Vyas made thapas here after writing Mahabarath. Inside the temple you can see there is square. They say the river Beas/ Vyas originates from there. Outside the temple, few people stack the stones like below for their wishes to come true. We did that too.

While going back from Rotang Pass, I did paragliding. He charged 1500 per person. My husband left me there and went down to take pictures. I hardly speak hindi so I was thinking how would I understand the instructions given by them. To my surprise there is “No instruction”. They just hang a school baglike thing behind you, the pilot gets himself connected to the bag. Two men just starts running beside you till the cliff and then they just push you and the pilot off the cliff. You fly. I shouted loud of joy, i spotted our car reached only half way, so I asked pilot if I can fly for 5 mins around till they reach down. He said ‘No’. 1 minute ? ‘Hey No yaar’.

Then came the landing fear. Flying was fun, but how would I land?. It was little rough landing by just keeping the legs straight and just dropping in a lawn. But I felt I missed to get the pictures of these. Luckily there are few men with camera who takes the video and pictures and they charge 300 bucks to copy them to cd. I bought it. L .

Down the Rotang, sholang valley is there. Skiing option is there too. But it is lesser in height compared to the one near rotang. Also sholang has a winch service. But we dint explore sollang valley, since we were too tired.

While returning the climate changed totally. It was more windy and misty. Good that we got nice scenic pictures while going up.

We reached hotel by evening after having the lunch out. My daughter actively started playing games. Had a peaceful dinner and was sitting in the hotel lawn for while and then came music from somewhere. When we enquired, there was a discotheque. There were few couples dancing. You know I have a shaky leg, so I couldn’t resist. Danced for so long and lot of people started to come. DJ guy did a great job too. Only thing is all were hindi numbers. L

On a whole, it was a fabulous day.