Exploring Himachal - A Trip to Manali

Travel re-establishes the original harmony, which once existed between man and the universe. 

                                                       - Anatole France

Friends! After a long hiatus, i am back with my new post on my trip to Kullu, Manali and then onward sojourn to Shimla. Hope this will receive the same love and affection, which was showered upon my previous posts. In my previous post, i had written on the most beautiful city of the North India and the gateway to the Mighty Himalayas, i.e. Chandigarh, where i halted during my trip to Manali and Shimla. The city is a perfect place to start your vacation if you want to explore the serene hill stations of Himachal, for it sets the tone and gets you in the perfect mindset to enjoy what it's superior and divine vicinity has to offer.

After exploring natural and man-made marvels of Chandigarh, we proceeded for Manali by taxi, which we had hired for Chandigarh - Manali - Shimla - Chandigarh trip for a period of 06 days. 

       

From Chandigarh, three alternative routes are there to reach Manali, however, we went Manali via Rupnagar - Sundarnagar - Mandi - Kullu, which was the shortest route taking around eight hours to cover a distance of 308 km. The eight hour long journey in hills and numerous patchy stretches of road may give you jitters but at the same time, the scenery, which keeps unfolding before your eyes every now and then keeps you in good spirit. We had started our journey by 8:30 in the morning and by 01:30 or so, we had crossed Mandi, a prominent place in the tourism map of Himachal Pradesh. One can explore some off-beat tourists attractions of Mandi, such as Parashar Lake & Rewalsar Lake which are famous for several myths and legends attached to them as well as panoramic view of clear blue water body surrounded by lush green land and verdant hills. 

A well-deserved break was needed after travelling halfway through and we stopped at a restaurant, which was already over-crowded with the tourists, mostly honeymoon couples. Manali has always been a favourite honeymoon destination among it's indian counterparts due to it's eye-soothing and picture-perfect locations. 

After energizing ourselves, we resumed our journey with renewed zeal and by another one hour, we were near famous Pandoh Dam, which is an embankment dam built over Beas river. The river water flowing ferociously with thunderous noise amid lush green surroundings makes a magnificent spectacle. However the spot was in the news for a disastrous miss-happening few years back, as a group of engineering students  from Hyderabad drawn in the flash flood while enjoying in their college picnic. After that incident, going near the dam has been prohibited. We clicked some photographs and proceeded ahead, as our driver was insisting not to stay at the site.

Pandoh Dam

As we moved ahead, we noticed that we were in the company of beas river flowing  along the road till we reached Manali. As we were going upstream of the river, the calm and composed beas was turning more aggressive and fiery. In the process, it was offering us many breathtaking views to capture. We stopped at a view-point which was really offering good views of the evergreen landscape of river flowing amid mountains.

Beas river meandering through the mountains

The wires which can be seen in the above photograph are not for electricity or telecom, but a mode of goods transport from one village to other or from hill-top village to highway. Afterall, we are famous for finding indigenous solutions (Desi Jugaad☺) for our day to day problems.

Cables carrying goods for villagers

Tiny village atop hill

Our next stop in the route was Hanogi Mata Temple, which is loacted just on the highway  (N.H. - 03) and  is a must-visit place for travellers on this route. The temple is around 40 km from Kullu. The temple is dedicated to Hindu Goddess Hango Mata. Not only religios belief allures tourists to the temple, but it's location on top of a small peak and green mountain in the backdrop also catches the attention of the visitors. We also paid visit to the deity and took her blessings and then started the last leg of our travel to the hill station.

Hanogi Mata Temple, Kullu

As we were approaching Kullu, the sunshine was giving way to the chilly evening and while entering kullu, we were greeted by the brief drizzle, which also contributed in dipping temperature of the mountain. Kullu is known for it's handlooms, winterwears specially shawls, temples and water sports such as river rafting, surfing, kayaking etc. There is so much in kullu to explore, so we decided to spend a day in kullu, while returning from Manali. 

As it was drizzling in kullu, we thought we wold be confined in our vehicle for the remaining part of our journey, but the rain stopped abruptly, as we travelled further.

View of Kullu Town

Manali was still around 40 km away from us and now we wanted to reach Manali as soon as possible, as the day long journey had squeezed energy out of us. After one hour of journey, we had reached Manali. Incidentally, our pre-booked hotel was on the way and just 01 km behind the city, so out of a sudden, we realized that we have reached our destination for the day. The location of our hotel, Chandramukhi made us happy for our decision to stay in the hotel, as river Beas was flowing in the front and then a dense forest of pine trees on the other side and on top of that snow-laden Himalayan peaks peeking through numerous lush-green mountain ranges. Our excitement grew a notch higher, when we came to know that our room's window was also like a small view point.

View from our Hotel

The window-side view had given an indication of what was in store for us in next 2 -3 days in Manali. Our itinerary for next two days was local sight-seeing on the first day and Solang Valley & Rohtang Pass on 2nd day. I will share my travel story of Manali in my next post. Till then adios..