We took an awesome and memorable 10 day road trip (17th May 2019 - 27th May 2019) from Chandigarh to Amritsar via Himachal Pradesh. These are the notes taken every night from that vacation. I will publish them one day at a time for the next 10 days.
20th May 2019 Day 4 :
We woke up to a cold morning 10 kms before Manali, at least cold by Indian standards in May. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then started our drive towards Manali. The jam which we avoided yesterday was still there , however we were well rested so didn't mind it as much. As we waited in a long queue of vehicles, it was frustrating to see private cars and sometimes even cabs running past us on the right lane, which has to be used by vehicles from the other side. It is frustrating to see how everyone across India has 2 qualities which are same. First is that we are in a hurry on the road and second, we are always late for any appointment :). The wait was made bearable by the river flowing along the highway on the right and some waterfalls on the left.
After negotiating the jam which was caused by a landslide(Nature trumps engineering after all), we reached Manali. The weather got a bit bad and it started drizzling. Manali is a small town which has grown because of tourists however walking on the congested roads, one is inhaling more kerosene and diesel fumes and less of the fresh air one wants to inhale, while visiting mountains.
There is hardly any landmark worth visiting. We visited Hadimba (She was Bheema's wife from Mahabharata) temple but it was really a temple which is a tourist spot because there is no other spots.
We wanted to visit Rohtang pass but it is open only till Marhi and that too couldn't be visited today as we were late to arrive. Tomorrow is Tuesday and Rohtang is closed for maintenance. We are told that we may be able to go till Gulaba tomorrow. People believe we can drive till Gulaba in the XUV we have rented and there is no need to take a local cab. We will try that tomorrow.
We checked in to hotel Sringeri Regency early evening and after a quick tea walked towards Mall road. The drizzle was gone and it was a good 10 degrees ... Perfect weather for a stroll. Richa did some shopping from Mall road. Reyansh enjoyed strawberry and cherries which are abundantly available. He missed mangos so we asked a juice shop to cut a couple of mangos for him. He may have enjoyed that more than the berries . At 8.30 pm we decided to return to the hotel. The auto Walas in Manali are no better as compared to Bangalore auto wallas and they wanted 100 Rs. For 1.5 kms. After walking a while we found one who agreed for 70 Rs.
We came back and took a glass of milk before hitting the bed.
Tomorrow if all goes well , we plan to visit Gulaba and Solang and sleep in Bhuntar. Before heading to Bir ...
Signing off Day 4
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