Mahesh wanted to take time off from his work for a week or so. We were thinking which place to visit in the month of June (beginning of Monsoon). We like ‘soft’ adventure activities so we searched on the internet and found Paragliding and Rafting in Manali and best time to visit for such activities was between May – June. So we started planning our vacation at Himachal Pradesh. We found Chandigarh to be the nearest connecting city to Manali. Since Shimla is a crowded city we decided to visit Kasauli instead which is 65kms from Chandigarh. It took 3hrs from Chandigarh to Kasauli by road. Kasauli is a quite hill town, with not much tourist and tourist spots. There is this “Manki Point” (that’s how locals call it) which is in a Air force Base,( High security, no cameras or Bags allowed) There is this Hanuman Temple on top. From the Air force Gate to the temple should be 1km walk …last 500mts there is a steep climb to the top, with the mist and the sounds of temple bells on the way were a motivating factor to reach on top. Legend has it Lord Hanuman’s feet brushed on this hill on his way to get Sanjeevani Herb for Lord Laxman. Apart from this there is nothing much to see… we went exploring this town by foot … It was getting foggy and sunny every 2mins so it was fun walking, gazing at some of the colonial houses. We stayed here for 2 days. 3rd day we had a long 7hrs journey by road to Manali. We took a less used route till Gagash, (not a short cut) to reach Manali.
We took SH9 instead of NH21 from Dharampur > Kunihal > Arki > Bilaspur (before entering the town take right) > Gagash on NH88 > Mandi Dist on NH 21 (we had our lunch at Hotel Raja) > Sundarnagar (bypass) > Pandho Dam > 3kms tunnel > Autt > Kullu > Manali. We reached Manali in the evening and we were tired after a long journey.
Day 1 We started early for sightseeing tour of Manali at around 8.30am which is early in this part of the world, which gave us a good head start or else it gets crowded by around 10AM on words. We 1st went to Hidimba Temple. The temple is surrounded by a cedar forest. Temple has intricately carved wooden doors. It has three square roofs covered with timber tiles and a fourth brass cone-shaped roof at the top. In the same premise there is Ghatothkach Temple. Ghatothkach is the son of Hidimba and Bhima (one of the Pandavas). Then we went to Vashist Kund, which has Hot springs just 10 steps from the Temple. Then we went to Tibetan Gompa and Van Vihar, which is a mini forest of deodar trees, River Beas flows through it. River Beas flows through the center of Manali – Kullu. It starts from Rohtang Pass. Since it was lunch hour Van Vihar was not that crowded. We had our lunch at Original Sher-e-punjab dhaba on Mall road, which was recommended by someone else in the World Wide Web. It was good recommendation we enjoyed our lunch. There are 2-3 Sher-e-punjab dhaba’s on mall road, we did not try the rest. After lunch we proceeded to Manu Rishi Temple. This is 3kms from Manali. This temple is dedicated to Rishi Manu from whom human race is said to have started. This land was known as 'Land of Manu' and was later renamed Manali after him. Legend has it that when Manu Rishi came to this village he requested for a glass of milk, the lady of the house could not provide him milk as her cow had gone out to graze. Therefore Manu Rishi told her to milk the calf. To her surprise the calf was able to provide milk then he told the villagers to dig the cow shed and to their surprise they found idols of God… these idols are kept in Manu Rishi Temple to this day. There is a co-operative house where they sell shawls beside Manu Rishi Temple where we got a shawl for factory price.
Day 2 we had kept for Rohtang Pass which is 51kms from Manali. Our driver had advised us to start as early as 4am as roads leading to Rohtang pass is narrow and most of the time there are trucks stuck. As per his advice we left at 4.30am our hotel had given us packed breakfast. We were asked to hire jump suite as it will be very cold on top. It took us 4hrs to reach Rohtang pass as the road was blocked for some time coz of trucks. On our way we could see snow capped Himalaya. It is majestic. 'Rohtang' in Tibetan language means a house of corpses. Perhaps this name has been given to the pass due to the chain of accidental deaths that occurred here from time to time. The weather is unpredictable and fast wind blows in the afternoon. The pass remains open from June – December. This time Boarder Road Organization had cleared the road in the month of April itself. Even in the month of June there were portion of mountains covered in snow. We enjoyed sliding and falling on snow as it was our first time seeing snow. We were at Zero Point at altitude of 13050 feet above sea level. The same road leads to Leh which is in Ladhak, which has the highest motor-able road in the world. On our way back we saw Rahala Falls and we did para-gliding at Rohtang… They charge much more than Salong valley but scenery is beautiful at Rohtang than at Salong valley. They charge around 600/- but can reduce if bargained harder. Rohtang Pass takes almost entire day and it’s a hectic journey to the top and return.
Day 3 We wanted to do white water rafting today as weather was not permissible we decided to visit Naggar Castle and Art Gallery. The house and art work of Nicholas Roerish is in a pictures location, we enjoyed this trip. Castle too is beautifully carved in wood in typical Himachal architecture. Castle is now restored and converted into Hotel and Restaurant by Himachal Tourism Department. We had our lunch in the same castle which has amazing view of the hills.
Day 4 We left Manali and returned to Chandigarh (9hrs by road). Back to Mumbai.
My Recomendation:
Place to stay: Kasauli - Hotel Kasauli Regency, Kasauli Castle, Kasauli Resort.
Manali - Snow Valley Resort.
Place to Eat : Kasauli - Gyani Da Dhaba (Dharampur), Hotel Hemkunt Kasauli
Mandi - Highway Hotel: Hotel Raja.
Manali - Mall road Original Sher-e-punjabi. Snow Valley Resort
Log Hut area.
