This tour began with a visit to Chandigarh with Sandy my branch no. 3. After work we met up with Sandy's friend Priyesh and had good fun at this dhaba near Sukhna lake. Their stories about their schooltime antics was great fun. We really had a blast and ended up sleepin very late. Next morning we headed back to Hoshiarpur and I travelled via Chintpurni to Kangra where I finally got to see the results of some work I’ve been putting in. felt great. Marketing involves real work with real people which means loads of uncertainities.
I was joined on this trip with my boss Andy. After a weekend of work n more work, we took the Sunday off to visit Dharamshala and Baksunar water falls. This time we walked to the source.and took loads of fab pics. We were back at no name café and also visited namjyal café which has all these posters of China having kidnapped the next Lama. The place doesn’t seem like its part of India in anyway.
From there we had another week full of activity which involved a stay at Mandi from where I was back at Kullu. This time we stayed at Mountain view in Manali which has this beautiful terrace (check my snaps yaar). Manali was also the base for our weekend visit to Rohtang.
So all of us set out to Rohtang in a Bolero from Mahindra (had to mention that :)). We took this 50 km journey which takes you from a height of 2000 metres to 4000 metres in just 50 kms. which means a climb of 40 metres per km of road travel which can take a toll on your body. Most people don’t realize that the Rohtang pass is higher than most mountains in the world. For a fact it is higher than most of the Swiss Alps. All this gyaan courtesy Andy.
The trip was really breathtaking, with points where you can see a sheer drop on one side of the road. Driving on such roads is quite tricky. The Rohtang pass nowadays serves as an alternate route for the army to deliver supplies to Leh, which means it is a very important road, which also means that it is really busy. Infact sightseers like us are more of a nuisance but that wouldn’t deter us. I have never ever seen or touched snow in my life and Rohtang in most pictures is this hilly dry place (at least in September) so I was most excited when I saw oncoming vehicles caked in snow. Really the experience of actually seeing snow on a vehicle was amazing.
As we moved higher it suddenly began to rain (or so I thought). What was happening was my first experience of a snowfall. My window being open for photography, I soon had snow on my Pullover. The worst part was when a bit of snow made its way to my back and believe me I literally felt a chill go down my spine :). We immediately stopped to enjoy the snow and I finally got a chance to use my snow mode and also the first chance to enjoy the snowfall one of the more delicious feelings of my life way up there with having chocolate sundae with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. Naa way better.
With great reluctance we made our way back to the Bolero and towards Rohtang.
Rohtang pass 3980 metres above sea level is like one huge football field of snow. After the fear of altitude sickness and god knows what had passed I got down to having fun. Being extra brave (to be frank extra foolhardy) we didn’t have any special winter clothing. So there I was playing with snow with my bare hands which made my hand go all chilly. I’ve read enuff books about frostbite but actually losing most of my sensation in my hand was weird. Thankfully there was a pile of hot coals kept outside by some kind soul specifically for people like us. Rohtang is a very popular tourist destination which means there are a lot of eateries up there. As per instructions we had taken precautions to carry chocolates, orange juice and water. The chocolates were polished off by Modi and me long before we had reached 10 kms from Manali :), and frankly water and orange juice is really not something you’d want in cold weather, so we headed into one of the tents to have some very hot and salty maggi along with hot tea. Tea in Himachal is this concoction of lots of milk, lots of sugar and very little tea which is really not tea. But at that height even this seemed most heavenly.
Rohtang that day was at its coldest in about 3 months, which was really cool, actually verrrrrrry cold. We were warned not to exert ourselves due to the lower oxygen something we are not used to but then I (quite foolishly) ran around played football with snow and had the most fun till suddenly I got this bad headache. The headache lasted all the way till Manali and took a whole night to recover from. But that really didn’t matter.
What felt extra cool was messing close friends from Rohtang where Airtel had complete coverage. I made it a point to tell my bro in law that his company does do some things well :)
The next morning had us travelling to Kullu for work and then to Mandi. At Mandi we stayed the nite at the Rajmahal Palace which is a trifle expensive (even for us), but my new found expertise in getting hotel discounts meant we all got a good deal. And what a place it was, antique furniture, coats of arms, guns all part of the décor. The super classy rooms were complemented with this amazingly well furnished passage where we could have our meals. Since we were the only people there we had the whole floor to ourselves and were treated like proper royalty. Amaaaaaazing place. I know I’m really over using my qualifiers but frankly that is how the place was.
It was also the place where the three of us split up, me coming back to Kullu, where Prasanna joined me after a few days. And finally here I’ve found a cyber café accessible enough to publish my blog. BTW I now know the diff betn varieties of wool and apples. A himachali in the making :)
Still in paradise,
Enjoying every moment
Luv,
Pranay
