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Kullu-Manali – My Personal Experience

A Trip to Manali: Adventure and fun

It is my first trip to Manali after hearing a lot about the place and with a longing desire to visit it once. We were four people, me, my husband and two relatives. The object of the trip was to get away from the daily muddles, workloads, and monotony of life cycle. It was 23^rd January 2009 we had booked our trip from Delhi to Manali by a Volvo bus (with shock-absorbers and sturdy in the ghat roads, where no other travel can be imagined). Departure time was scheduled 6pm from Janpath, Delhi and the bus left Delhi around 7pm.

Our first stop was somewhere near to Ambala at 11 pm, where we had our dinner. It was scheduled to hault only half an hour but due to some unknown reason bus took 2 hrs to depart from Dhaba. (such delays are the regular features of long bus travels).

Our second stoppage was in Sundarnagar, Mandi distt. at 6:30 am for getting fresh and for some tea.  The roadside dhaba was awful but we had no choice. The pleasant location of the area was very pleasing to compensate and we fully enjoyed the sight.

After one hour travel from Sundarnagar, we had the first glance of River Vyas (also known as Beas). From there the river is flowing alongside the road till we reached Manali. Some time on the left and some time on the right, some time near and sometime far and it was really very beautiful feeling. The stress of bus travel whole night got washed away with those sight scenes.

It was 24^th January morning, 11:30 am when we reached Manali.  The bus took around 16 and half hours to finish the journey from Delhi to Manali, with stop overs included.

We arranged to stay in a riverside hotel, Chichoga Hotel. That was approx half km away from Mall road. The Hotel is placed at very nice location slightly elevated. From the hotel balcony the whole view of the surroundings was simply breathtaking.

Vyas River was flowing just in front of the hotel. And mountains covered with snow were giving a beautiful view from the longshot. Climate was not so freezing but bearable (ofcourse with woolen attire). Contrary to our expectations, we missed snow in Manali, and people said it was only in Solang valley that we could see more snow.

We just got fresh in hotel and hired a taxi for three days. We decided to take a tour to local visits in Manali town on first day. We had lunched in Chopstick Restaurant on Mall Road. It was very famous for Chinese, Japanese and Thai foods. It was fine to have good lunch there.

We visited local sites and very famous temples. First the Hadimba temple about 3 KMs from Manali. Goddess Hadimba is worshipped here (you can not but adore the mother first – the root cause of all creations). The temple is of Pagoda style and the doorway is adorned with ancient and beautiful carvings depicting legendry figures and symbols.

Our next visit was to Vashist Hot Water Springs and Temple. It is amazing that in a location surrounded by snow and chilling weather, Mother Nature has provided unabated flow of hot water for free to the mankind.

After visiting some Tibetan Monasteries, we went next to Manu Temple.

Then we visited the Raghunathji Temple, the famous one of Lord Mahavishnu and an idol of the Lord’s incarnation as Rama is worshipped there.  It is said that the idol was brought from the birth place of the epic hero Ayodhya – Lord taking an avtar as human to kill Ravana, the monster Rakshasa. It is worshipped piously by the people of entire Kullu volley. Completely wooden structured and beautiful temple, maintained very neatly (as against the status of many temples elsewhere and possibly being a Mountain temple no pollutions at all!) For the festival of Dassara the entire Kulu volley people will wear colorful attires and converge at Raghunathji temple. At that time nearly 600 local daities from the surroundings are brought to this temple to pay their respects to Lord Rama.

Then we went to visit a Club House which has an auditorium, a billiards room, outdoor and indoor games etc.  Here one has to cross the river by hanging flatly on the rope. See Photo for the action ….

There were Dinosaurs at another place (hey..only toys and not real) and our man was clinging to it happily with excitement..

Folks are enjoying real life rabbits of the snow-region and they are very cute with their silky furs

We returned to our place of stay and had an awful dinner at Aashiyana Vegetarian Restaurant (recommended for those to have the taste of how good things can be cooked badly.)

Our second day started, 25^th January and we woke up early in the morning to leave Manali for Solang Valley. This is a place tourists visit for mountain-sports including skiing.  Unfortunately when we went there, people said compared to earlier years there is not much of a snowfall this year 2009. At time the road leading to Rohtang will be closed from November to February due to heavy snowfall, heaping some 25 to 30 feet of snow.  However there was enough snow for skiing and we enjoyed it a lot.

We had fun with Tube Skating also

We ate masala chhole (an Indian snack item hot in taste) and had tea in snow, very amicable and much desired in such a chilly area at that moment.

Then we hired mountain pony for climbing our way to the Shiva Temple – known Our intricate up-climbing on the back of a pony  …

That is 3 km up from Solang valley and we found lots of snow on the way, and we had snow-covered mountains around us. We had lots of fun out there – enjoying the snow-covered tracks, risky bony ride, chilly breeze striking at our face and so on. Some people were enjoying skiing too, but I could not risk the adventure as I wanted both my legs and shoulders in tact!

After that we returned from there and had evening snacks in Saba Restaurant, Mall Road (Manali) as usual lousy. But the location was fantastic and we could not take our eyes out. Suddenly climate changed and it was drizzling snow and I just had a glance of few snow drops.

We returned to hotel and came back to Mall road for some shopping and dinner. Dinner in Adarsh Restaurant was unbearable. No matter what with sambhar-dosa and pizza, everything was disgusting. Yet another horrible eatery experience in this trip.

3^rd day, 26^th January, we started our day with National Anthem – because it was the Indian Republic Day. We checked out from Hotel and said goodbye to Manali.

We had breakfast near to Kullu at roadside restaurant. Everything was perfect to our startling surprise. There is Oasis too in the deserts.

We went to a hand woolen factory and did some shopping.

Then my ever remembering moment came – we did river rafting up to 7km in Vyas River. It was really amazing.

We visited Kullu, on a very sunny day out there. We departed for Manikaran Temple. Parvati River was flowing along with road on our way and was enchanting. Manikaran Temple is devoted to Lord Shiva and is located at an altitude of 1700 meters.

This place is filled with temples, Ram Mandir, Radha-Krishna Mandir, Naina Devi temple, a Sikh Gurudwra.  The most astonishing thing here is a hot water springs, giving immense relief from the chill of the climate. The spring water is enough hot so as to boil rice, dhal and vegetable if put on them. Thousands of devotees and visitors from around the world are taking a holy dip (ofcourse at a safe distance from the origination of the springs!)

Due to time constraint we missed Bijili Mahadev Temple in Temple – dedicated to worship Lord Shiva.  We heard a lot about this, people told us  that The Temple’s sacred staff (a wooden or mostly stone pillar in front of Hindu temples) is of 60 feet height and is popular in Kullu volley – people believing the staff attracts lightening from the sky and shatters them beneath the Shivalingam.

We returned to Bhunter to take our bus. Once reaching Delhi again thoughts of stark reality of our lifestyle struck us, but the sweet memories of the trip to Manali will be always lingering at the back of the mind.

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