It’s time again to refresh some Nostalgic memories of travel and this time in the series I present you my maiden Manali Trip. I had never been to such heights nor I had seen snow ever before, so this one for sure was very exciting for me. Although I have been to Manali twice after this trip as well but this trip for sure had some quite nice memories to cherish. I hope you didn’t miss any of the first two previous parts of this series. If yes, you can check them here….
Well as I said it was my maiden trip to Manali and I never have a slight idea how it could look and feel. I was very anxious to know about the same. It never would have happened without 8 of my friends who made the plan to visit this beautiful valley in Himachal Pradesh and took me along with them. The funniest part was the start itself when we kept one of our friend waiting for more than an hour and on phone giving him the status "JUST 5 MINUTES JATIN" :lol:…Well but when we reached the place to pick him near Ashok Vihar, he also had a surprise for us. He was waiting there with a big heavy suitcase and we were already 9+1 along with driver without any carrier on Tavera :shock:…The biggest problem was how do we fit in this…somehow we managed to fit it although uncomfortably 😉 and off we went…Since it was long time back in January, 2007 I don’t exactly remember everything so I would be happy to share the photo with you…
Splendors of Snow…
It was a three day tour and we started at night to reach Manali early morning. We managed to reach Manali by 10 AM and checked-in at hotel Piccadily Resort just start at the Mall road. The hotel was nice and rooms were very cozy. We could easily feel the chill in the air in January there and nice warms rooms were just as good as a thing one can expect in such cold. It was in fact first trip for me in such cold conditions and I had never saw snow even. Being the off-season we also got heavy discounts as well on the rooms.
Trying to line up…
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The Gang on the way…
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The Beas River…
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Well the entire trip was planned as Day-1 reach Manali in morning, and rest. In the evening do some local sight-seeing followed by a bonfire at night. Day-2 was supposed to visit Rohtang Pass or as near as possible. Day-3 was planned for the return journey to home so as to join office on the next morning. It went the way we expected, we reached and rested for couple of hours. Then we shoot out for lunch to satisfy the empty stomachs at Grozy Restaurant. I believe that is in fact the second or third from the start of Mall road 200 odd Meter after local monastery. The food was just as good as any other Punjabi dhabha. After a nice and heavy meal we started towards Hadimba Temple. Someone just told us that you can find snow if you continue trek towards uphill towards old Manali in the woods. We did obliged as many of us were first timers when it comes to snow. Hence, we were pretty excited as well to search the snow. Some pulled out of trek and some of us followed to level the eye with the top of the snow clad peaks in front of us.
The Gang at Manali…
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Trekking in the woods…
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Snow Clad Peaks…
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We reached the point where we found few patches of some fresh snow and everyone was thrilled to touch and feel it. We played there for some time and started to trek down. Meanwhile while we were having walk in the woods we lost one of our friend, Jatin and to the tragedy he was the same guy whom we kept waiting last night for so long just by excusing 5 minutes :)… As we moved down we found our other friends who luckily got much snow towards the back of the hill very near from where we separated :lol:… After spending some time near Hadimba Temple, it was time for heading back towards hotel and make arrangements for booze and bonfire…
It’s famous in Hills…
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It was night, it was fire, it was booze, it was dancing chair, it was acts — push-ups, seducing, swimming in empty pool, frog race, Hindi translation of favorite quotes, drama etc (some sensual :), some vulgar :lol:)…it was full of extreme fun….three cheers to all my friends…we also did cut a cake in the name of friendship and it was time of very good night sleep…
The Bonfire…
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As we were three friends in each room but when we woke up next morning we found that two more were sleeping on the mattress below :D…After they woke up we came to know that one of our friend was badly hit by the booze and puked it all over 😆 and tragically they need to come to our room to sleep. A trip can never be complete unless booze hits one of the members in such a way…But in the morning he woke up absolutely fine…
We had the breakfast and the day was scheduled to see ever popular tourist destination "Rohtang Pass". We rented the winter kit en-route and went ahead further. At one point we stopped for some photo session seeing the rock and cliff down. In excitement everyone got out and hurried to take poses :)…To our disbelief driver missed to check the hand brake and while parking uphill. Moreover, he did not park it using the first gear as well which you shall always while parking you car uphill. Since the inclination was too much to overcome the loose hand brake, the car started to fell back but thankfully towards the rocks not gorge. :shock:…Everyone put the effort to stop it from falling and had struggle controlling it on the slope…One of our friends who puked all night 😉 was jogging came sprinting back to rescue the situation by pulling the brakes from the driver’s side door. He just feel on the brakes and car stopped in the middle on the road and we thanked god that no mishaps occurred.
Well as the drama ended there were locales with fool of foul words shouting on the driver, seeing the outside number plate. Even when we asked them apologetically to calm down they started shouting on us and it was only after some interruptions of wise people and our attitude of let it go, proved to be the solution. :D…We head towards Rohtaang again….As we moved closer we found that road has been blocked at Gulaba due to snow all around. No further approach was allowed and our driver was feeling afraid of tiers skidding.
Signs of Snow…
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It’s Snow all over…
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There it was snow all over the place and we had some great time there. Seeing snow for the first time in life was more than a feeling. We did some snow sports at the start. First one was sliding on rubber tube from the slope…wow 😯 it felt really great. Then the snow-bike, speed it had was thrilling but the one in sea is much better than its snow brother. After playing and eating so many maggi we began the trek…We thoroughly enjoyed that day and returned to hotel in the evening. We went to see local monastery as well that very day.
The Mighty Rohtang Pass…
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Shooting snow bombs :)…
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Here we slide down…
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Walking in snow is not easy…
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Getting Raped with Snow…It’s me :lol:…
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Next morning at early hours we left for Delhi from Manali to reach home in the evening. Overall a great maiden travel experience in the hills of Himachal Pradesh.
The Gang on Return to Delhi…
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As if they never slept for ages :D…
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Anantpur Sahib Gurudwara…
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