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HOW? It all started with someone chirping in the name of “Ladhakh” at some evening gathering at RP+MF’s house. Research started immediately on the routes and possibilities. Enthusiasm was on top that evening. By the morning of next day all was forgotten. All energies doomed into some meaningful past.
Months passed by. MSN (who was also a member in that fruitful evening) constantly asked RP about the plans to visit Leh. Though most of the times he disowned the plan and sub consciously made effort to portray that he was not part of the failed plan by asking: “What about your plans to go on a trip to Leh?”
Anyways. It was MSN’s constant poke that made others seriously think about the plan. An informal and not so serious meeting was called. Agenda was simple this time: To plan a trip to Leh/Ladhakh and execute it.
Since this meeting and ones after this were of the “not so serious” types, few members abstained from the brainstorming session. This resulted in few people having complete knowhow of the plans (whatever little was planned) and others having the least idea about the details.
WHERE? Plan was: From Rajasthan to Delhi. Delhi to Manali. Manali to Leh. Leh to Delhi and back to Rajasthan.
Catch in the above plan was certain stringent options put forward by some members. RP liked to called it the “Objectives”. So the objectives were:
1. Manali to Leh would be a road trip in a taxi
2. Leh to Delhi would be an air route
3. All other routes could either be travelled by taxi or bus. (Finally bus route was chosen)
Options 2 and 3 were pieces of cake. MF was particularly apprehensive about option 1. He said the total leave days would be much more. Like some 2 days were gonna make a hell lot of difference. But the problem was from his side. He had been to some week long trips in the past two months and was not sure whether he would be granted leave by his boss. Anyways he was brought into the mutual agreement on the grounds that: “Its not the destination that matters but the road that you take”. Little did others know what awaited them in the mountain roads.
WHEN? The trip was to be a ten day trip.
Day 1:
Reach Delhi early in the morning and take bus to Manali in the evening
Day 2: Reach Manali
Day 3: Sight-seeing in and around Manali
Day 4: Leave for Leh
Day 5: Reach Leh in the evening
Day 6: Complete rest
Day 7-9: Visit places in and around Leh
Day 10: Take flight to Delhi and take bus to Rajasthan immediately after
Day 11: Take rest (optional)
The estimated budget, after some research, was kept at Rs. 25k per person. 😊
THE TRIP Day 0 – 25.07.2010: Bags were packed in hurry as RP & ASO were busy with their drinks till the last moment. Finally left the home at around 2330 hrs with packed dinners which were took at the highway while waiting for our pre-booked air-conditioned sleeper bus.
😞Tragedy-1: Just after covering few kms, our bus met an accident luckily with no injuries but left with a complete front open of the bus.
Day 1 – 26.07.2010: Our driver was brave enough that he took us safely to the National Capital before time. We took a hotel room in Delhi and after some rest and breakfast moved to market to buy medicines, Polaroid Sunglasses
& Sunscreen lotion etc. As we were having full day, RPS suggested to watch a movie too.
Evening: We took two autos and luckily no one knew the exact location from where we will board our pre-booked Volvo for Manali. Somehow we finally reached the stand late by 30 minutes. As we board the bus, passengers were looking as if they were going to eat five roasted homo-sapiens.
Day 2 – 27.07.2010: We wake-up in the morning at around 0600 hrs, the view outside was amazing. River Beas was in full flow and it was drizzling continuously. As we all were predicting, nauseated LC was about to vomit and he did it. Yuk...
Log-hut our accommodation was booked by MF and RPS was a 1965 built wooden lodge with two bed-rooms, let-bath, hall, dinning space kitchen with full cutlery & gas. The only expression was a big “WOW”. Another friend of ours MA joined us from Shimla. The day was spent enjoying Log-hut, roaming around the streets of Manali & arranging for Leh Taxi.
The surrounding mountain scenery lures tourists to Manali year-round. Domestic tourists come here for honeymoons and mountain views, while foreigners come for
adventure sports or, more commonly, to hang out in the hippie villages around the main town. Until the 1960s there was nothing here but a few old stone houses and temples, but modern Manali is crammed with concrete hotels and the town is in severe need of some town planning.
😞Tragedy-2: While coming back to the Log-hut, MSN was hit by a car from back, unfortunately ASO was the only one with him. He was taken to the Hospital immediately and our experience says that Medical facilities in Manali are very poor and the attitude of doctors is worst. Somehow we managed with the crisis and came back to the hotel. We were lucky enough that there was no fracture.
Lately, we cooked chicken, rice and ordered some veg in dinner. The idea was of MA’s and the efforts too were put in by him, others had just enjoyed the dish.
Day 3 – 28.07.2010: We were not sure that after the accident whether we were able to complete our trip as planned. After lots of discussions and MSN’s bravery finally we hired a taxi to visit Sollang Nullah and Manikaran. The best of the modest ski
Manikaran, Manali
Manikaran is located in the Parvati Valley between the rivers Beas and Parvati, northeast of Bhuntar in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. It is at an altitude of 1760 m and is located about 45 km from Kullu resorts in Himachal Pradesh, Solang Nullah sits at the bottom of a long, green meadow about 13km north of Manali. In summer there was no snow and the meadow was used for paragliding, walking and zorbing. And off-course MF and MA went for Paragliding while rest others were busy in clicking pics. It was amazing flying in the sky without boundaries.
After spending around 2 hours at Sollang we moved to manikaran to see Hot water springs and a Guru-Dwara. Manikaran is located in the Parvati Valley between the rivers Beas and Parvati, northeast of Bhuntar in the Kullu District. It is at an altitude of 1760 m and is located about 45 km from Kullu.
Late in the evening we came back to Manali, excited about the next morning when we were going to start our journey on the most dangerous and highest motorable roads and passes – to be continued in next blog.
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