Manali Trip - Final Episode

Trip Date : 30/09/2014

Previous days link ->  Day1, Day2 

Early in the morning - 4am, you can even call it mid night, very deep pain in my right knee, I couldn’t move a bit. I waked up my husband and literally cried. Then we made a call by 6 am in the morning to hotel reception and asked for any pain relief sprays. Thank god they immediately responded and gave me a sample pack of volini. This is what you call a good service. Why did I explain this stuff to you ? One thing, it is good to carry pain relief sprays or pain killers when you travel, another is don’t strain yourselves while you are in a trip. The previous day dancing had caused this much pain in me.

As per the Volvo package, third day is for Nagar Castle visit. But I seriously advice, if you are not fond of artistic places, or not interested much in architecture; you please skip Nagar Castle visit and think of Plan B. May be you can do a flying visit here and plan for river rafting in kullu. This might cost extra apart from the package, but worth every penny.

I was not strong enough for river rafting, so the plan is to stick with our package.

It was my birthday, when we started the trip, the driver Shoba Ram, surprised me with a bunch of flowers plucked from the next garden. How kind of him. J. As it is birthday, we wanted to start the day with a temple visit. So we headed to a shiva temple and Gayathri temple. It lies on the left bank of the Beas and the road from Naggar to Manali runs through the village. It is considered to be built 500 years ago and maintained by the locals of the place. Unlike south india, pooja is done by ladies in north india, and we were allowed to touch the sculptures of god and do pooja by ourselves. Most of the temples are somehow connected to Mahabaratha stories.

  

I would definitely recommend these temples visit when u visit Manali you would definitely like the intricate wood works in this temple.

Next we went to the art gallery of a Russian Artist, Nicholas Roerich. This man born is Russia got settled in Manali. He build a house in Manali with a great view of mountains. The house as well as the paintings is exhibited. He is a man with a great taste. If you love arts, this place is must visit. Google about this Man, very interesting.

 

Next is the Nagar Castle. This is very old castle built by Raja of Kullu. It is built with stones and wood.

 

 

  

 

Now this castle is made as a hotel for the tourist. It has a great view to the

valley. It is good choice for the ‘View lovers’. Not sure about the cost for the stay. These are places which you can google about a lot. So I am not explaining further.

 

Temple run is not over yet, we went to another marvelous temple Manu Temple. The Manu temple is a quite famous place of worship as well which is devoted to Manu, the legendary sage, who stayed in this area. The town of Manali derived its name from Manu. This temple is lovely with the mix of ancient and modern architecture.

 

 

 There is a weaving factory near this temple. You will visualize how difficult is to make those designs in the woolen shawls. You will not understand what they do. But simply watching their work is such a pleasure. This is the good place to by Shawls. Costs are nominal.

 

We finished off the day 3 trip with this place and headed back to the hotel. We had
ordered the food from our room. Delicious Lunch. We made sure we ordered something which we dint see in the dinner buffet there.

Took rest for a while, my leg was far better, I felt I missed the river rafting so much. I could have tried it. Evening we planned to go for a small walk around the place. The roads are so steep, it was so easy to go down. Just after few minutes, it started raining. We halted in a small shop which sold unique t shirts. Lakshmi, my daughter photographed every t-shirt there.After a while we walked towards the club house Manali. I was taking pictures of the road side shops, they were beautifully lit.

 We came across a river side café called 1947. I saw they served Tiramisu and went inside. When I went inside it was more like a bar with hookah setup and all. They have live band performing on evenings. Not recommended for couples with kids. So we skipped. After the lengthy walk, climbing back was too difficult, but I enjoyed it every bit.

When I returned hotel, Venk had arranged for a surprise cake. Butter scotch.. Yummy. Thanks Venk and Lakshmi for making it a beautiful evening.

Trip Date: 01/10/2014

Last and final day in Manali, so I wanted to roam as much as I could. Our bus was at evening 4.30. Reporting time at hotel was 3.30. So we had only half a day. I had planned to visit the village for buying apples, then some shopping and another one is hot springs temple.

Actually I told the driver that I wanna visit an apple farm and hand pluck the apples myself. He dint understand my hindi at all. I even showed that in action. But instead he took to place to pick apples instead of pluck. We dint have much time, so I had no choice. We picked up the apples from the big lot there. He borrowed a card board box from a nearby shop and neatly packed them for us.  Without him the trip is incomplete.

Then we headed towards the hot spring vashist temple. I strongly recommend this place. There is a natural hot water spring in this place. They have channeled the water through pipes to a tank. I would suggest taking extra clothing with you and having a nice hot water bath there. It is much secured. They have a separate bath rooms for men and women. But beware while entering the rooms. People will be bathing naked.. so check before taking kids inside. We spend

Finally we returned to the room after some shopping in mall road and lunch.

We were dropped to Volvo bus stand, where we the bus was already waiting. They are very particular in timings. So don’t delay in reaching the bus stand. The bus was quite comfortable with good seating. Immediately we were provided polythene bags, in case if we puke. It happened for most of them.

There were 2 to 3 stoppings once we started from Manali and they picked up few people in middle. After sometime, the bus again stopped. I thought some more people might board, but shockingly few police constables got into the bus. Usually this happens in some of the long route buses. So I was not reacting much. But they checked each and everyone’s bag and things. Suddenly they took a cigarette packet from the man’s pocket who was sitting behind me. They cut that cigarette into 2 pieces and smelled it. Now the police dog came. First time ever I am seeing police dog other than movies. In no time dog directly went to those people at back seat. Then came Inspector.Very smart looking, I should say. He looked more like actor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. he was standing right next to my seat with a big gun popping from his back pocket. I showed the gun to my daughter. We both were so scared. What if the guy in back seat, take the gun and shoot someone? 3 people from my back seat were caught for carrying some illegal drugs. All speaking in hindi, I dint understand what was going on. I asked the inspector what was happening. He said, those 3 men behind were carrying illegal drugs with them. Not much quantity, but consumable quantity only. Still they wanted to investigate the source. So police men took those guys down and were doing investigation. 2 men returned. They took one guy to police station, along with our bus driver. They dropped back the driver only after 2-3 hours. All that time were waiting in the bus in a remote place with no access to anything.

What I observed from the incident was, himachal police were not at all rude to those men. They were so polite. Even when I asked the inspector about the incident, he was so patiently explaining me. It is nice police men are friendly to the public.

• Important thing to note down here is, keep your bags always safe. There are chances with these kinds of drug people to drop any of their drugs in to your bags to escape from police. So keep your belongings under your control
• Because of this incident, our bus delayed by 3 hours. Our Delhi to Chennai flight was only in the evening, so we managed.  So make sure you have some cushion time for your next plan.

With all this huzzle buzzle we reached Delhi safe and sound. And came back to routine Chennai heat.

Loved the trip overall. Will I go again to same place ? Why not ? May be in a good season I would plan. I wanna see Manali once more in season.

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.
 

Manali Trip - Day 1

Recently went to a short trip to Manali. Its a great place.. no doubt about it. Its a must visit place for nature lovers. The river beas adds the beauty to the whole place. The beauty of the light green water will not let you move away your eyes from it. 

When I posted trip pictures in FB, some of friends started enquiring about the trip. So I thought I would briefly write about the trip so that those who are interested can get benefited.

We planned a month and half ahead when lakshmi’s school announced her vacation.

-          From Chennai  to Delhi Flight

-          From Delhi Manali – Volvo package booked thru Make my trip.

Chennai – Delhi we booked 10.30 am flight Air India, so we could get ready without having to get up so early. Breakfast provided in flight.

 

We reached there by 1.00 pm. From airport we took a taxi to connaught place (CP) to have our lunch. Taxi from airport to this place was very costly to my opinion .. some 500 bucks. As recommended by my relative, we had food in Kadke Ke Dhaba. Super food. (Review here).

 From there we took an auto to the Volvo bus point. Our bus was only by 5. We reached there by 3 and waited there for 2 hours in the travel agency office. The bus starts sharp by 5, So don’t ever go late.

We had booked the Volvo package thru Make my trip. I feel they are the cheap and best. Mrs. Shayeree was my Agent, she helped me with all my doubts then and there. They book the Volvo tickets and hotel rooms for us based on our budget.  Our package costed 20 K including Volvo tickets for 3, stay for 3 nights in a nice hotel with break fast and dinner free along with that individual cab for sight seeing while you stay in the hotel.

Our Volvo bus was swagatham travels. Semi sleeper. Bus was convenient, neatly maintained, good push back, individual TV for each passenger. They stop twice for dinner and morning chai. Dinner they stopped in a hotel, where we had to wait a long time for food that too at 10 pm. Food was very expensive too. So place the order carefully. If you could pack some simple food from delhi, it is wise idea from. Journey was peaceful. Morning they had stopped in kullu for chai. Chai was not so great. But the place is very good. If you just walk 2 minutes from the hotel you will find a beautiful place with a marvelous view. I missed it since I noticed it only when the bus passed through that place. They reach Manali bus stand by 9 in the morning. Package includes a free pickup from bus stand to hotel. You will get the driver number the previous day. Next morning, he will be waiting in the bus stop.        

Our stay was in Snow valley resort. Check in time is 12, but we arrived 2 hours early. But they provided the room immediately. This will happen subject to availability. It’s a wonderful place to stay. Service is excellent. Very prompt. We had actually booked for presidential suite. But then it was upgraded to maharaja suite with no extra cost. First day, we had actually half day sight seeing which starts by 2 pm as per the package. But then we couldn’t wait to explore the place. So we refreshed and started by 12.30. Our Driver / Guide was Mr. Shoba ram, such a nice man, very friendly, kind. He made our trip more happy I would say.

 

We had our food in Manali mall road in a restaurant called chopsticks. (Bar attached) Its more chinese Japanese food. Soup was excellent. Then we had momos and fried rice. This is a good choice I felt.

Then we passed some time in the road side shopping centres in the mall road. Need to bargain a lot, otherwise you will be cheated. Also when you buy dress materials, just check the whole piece for any damages. In few shops they even stitch the materials within 3 hrs and deliver. Cost is less compared to cities. Not sure the output. On sundays most shops are closed. Also Mall road has more attraction for street food. Pani pooris, Gulab jamoons, Momos, Jalebis..keep counting.

After a while we went to a local temple – Hathimba temple. Before you enter the temple, there is a lawn where this rabbit lady and traditional dress ladies will influence you to take pictures with that. I was waiting for it. Picture with rabbit is 30 bucks and costume is 100 for each person. Temple has a very old structure, build of wood. After visiting the temple, you can just visit the pine forest near that. We skipped the forest part though. Not sure how it is. Heard from a friend it is worth visiting.

Next was a Buddha temple, that was good too. Meanwhile some ppl so many ppl will be selling kesar in all places in Manali. Don’t ever try. Its fake.

Then we went to Manali club house. They have indoor games. You can pay and play a while there. We dint opt it since our hotel had these indoor game facilities. Outdoor there is boating.. never even go for it. Its some boring stuff. There is another super outdoor paid acticity, which I don’t know how to explain. See the picture.

 

I was wearing skirt, so I couldn’t try that one. So when you go to club house, don’t wear skirt. Otherwise you can sit and relax a while in the river side. The sound of the water, the chilling air, the greenaries will be mesmerizing. 

But take care of your children in the riverside as the force  of water is too much, so never try to get inside. Stay in the banks only. It was raining for a while, so waited inside club house for a while. There are clean wash rooms inside clubhouse too. You have no clue when it will start rain there. Better carry an umbrella if you can manage. After rain stopped, We took few pics in river bank and returned hotel.

Lakshmi is never tired and she started the indoor games in the hotel room. TT, Snooker, computer games, chess, carom so on. Well maintained.

Dinner buffet was quite a spread. Soup, salad, Starter, Roti, Naan, one Paneer side dish, another veg one, non veg too, Pulav, Curd, pickle, Desert. I dint take picture of these.

Even after so much travel the previous night, we never got tired. Thats the beauty of the climate there.

Here is the Day 2 experiance

Note : I am no good at writing. Having exposure only to technical documentation being a techie, writing travelogue is a different experience for me. Please bear with me friends.