Exploring Chandratal | Rohtang Pass to Manali and back to Delhi

The Journey so far-

Day 4 – June 06, 2009 | Battal to Manali

We reached Rohtang Pass around after enjoying the nature throughout the journey and the bumps were adding the ever wanted joy to the ride… :D… a bumpy ride of around 4 hours :)…meanwhile the cousin’s fever was on increasing its tempo and his condition was not looking good. Now we are welcomed by the Jam at Rohtang, it was a big one again. This gave a chance to step out of the car and get a Crocin out of the bag packed at the top of the car. This would surely help him for next 5-6 hours and may be reaching manali we could find some doctor for him. Also, we got a chance to shoot some photos as well…

Night 4 + Day 5 – June 06 + 07, 2009 | Manali to Delhi

This was not the end of the day for us…although it did end the photo shoot of the trip. Reaching manali was a big relief. We got to office of the person who arranged the entire trip from there on and with whom I left my car. It was the first time I had given keys of my car to some stranger but the instincts told he was an honest man with well established tour and travel business. Deep inside I had this as well in my mind as well :).. He did really well to securely park the car at his place, thanks to him but getting from there was difficult as the tyres were slipping [I think they need a change] and locales drivers are ready to fight anytime you are on their way :snipe:, so I asked my driver to get us to the cottage in old manali, which again was arranged by Jagdish [tour organizer].

Getting to old manali took ages [I think] due to such hectic traffic with so much frustrated people and oh god! when we reached there was no parking. First day where we parked the car was filled with water/ditches and since we had the plan to leave early in the morning, 🙁 I thought we could get stuck into that with no one out to rescue. Moreover I wanted to leave the place and feel a bit closer to home :-). Don’t know what happened and I got too much frustrated that I decided that we will leave from here right then…we will get down to mandi or kullu or even few kilometers of this place and stay overnight but not here anymore. Suddenly love for my car and its tension seeped deep into me and I was like f***** a*******, if I talk in terms of my friend and cousins :lol:… a devil in the making…but they all know me….i am such an “A-TYPE’…… We had a little fight but throwing some helping verbs at me they decided to move finally. Apologies and thanks to all them for the inconvenience caused. I hope they understand :D….. it was 6.30 PM

We called jagdish and told him about the situation and he asked us to have dinner with him at least before leaving. So, we went to his office again and just adjacent to his office there was a place where you can have homemade food cooked for you. Two aunties run it… the entire group was there…we had some tea and then we thanked all of them for their exemplary help and support. They all left and finally we had dinner and thanked jagdish as well and we did left from there on towards Delhi…it was 7.45 PM

Dheeraj Sharma

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With our tummies filled up and four frustrated and angry faces :lol:…DRESSING-DOWN ME BEING THE DEVIL OF THE NIGHT I drove back towards some peaceful place to rest ourselves with entire day almost spend TRAVELING. We move and moved…many peaceful places came by and it was comfortable yet again driving at night… seeing some cooled down faces I kept driving…kullu came by and gone…then it was the turn of the mandi. BTW in between we got an open medical store to get the medicine for my cousin…everyone is happy now 😀 😀 😀 ….”i prefer you ask them ;)”…. Since driving in the night was cool [temperature wise]yet it demanded more caution and concentration and due to reflection you find yourself in no man’s land. Mandi came by and I finally stopped the car.

None of them step outside to get the room checked apart from that fever down saint’s soul :D…but there were some sparking words from behind…”ab itna aa gaye hain to chalte hain ghar hi”…. 😆 [since we have come so far, why drive straight to reach home now]…. Words were enough to put the ignition on and shift the gear-up… we moved 😡 Seems everyone was enjoying night cool breeze coming from the window…or each one of us had reached the height of some shock or madnees..it had been more than 15 hours we were traveling + driving on and on…sitting in the car..and we are aiming to do so for the next 10 hour or so I felt… there was a complete “NO” for driving if I get a little slip of eyes even, bcz of sleep and we planned to sleep in the car in that case.

We did some circling as we missed the turn just before the bridge at mandi, thrice, towards Chandigarh….hmm it was confusing….or we made it so ;)…We reached bilaspur and about to enter the hills en-route shimla-chandigarh, as shown by the board…we had some tea at a dhabha and then started again. It was 3.00 A.M., if I am not wrong…this stretch was very busy with lots of trucks…running all over the highway and it required a lot of concentration to pull it off….as some drive like crazy nuts and are ready to come onto you and run over in the madness of over taking their counter parts….and just as I say I did happen almost to us..one of the trucks was overtaking the other one on the blind curve, coming from opposite side, we did use so much dipper, horn everything to wake him up and fall back…but I am sure guy was very stubborn like us :lol:…since nothing was visible due to its light directly into our eyes..i decided to move towards the end of the mountain and let him pass somehow..And it finally did pass…and everyone was awake now … 🙂 …

we even saw a Volvo stuck with its left rear wheels into the ditch aside the road..the base was touching the road, this deep the hole was…we reached roop nagar I think and from there on road was again with lots of diversion making you concentrate all the time….this reminded me of the haridwar highway troubles…but thankfully this time there was no fog… We reached Chandigarh around 6.00 AM approx, and it was a long nite…finally we changed the driver and my cousin took the steering control as there would be no hills to negotiate ;)…we had breakfast at Neelkanth dhabha before finally reaching delhi around 10 AM [almost 14 hr after we left manali and 25 hours we had left battal.. and by the time I dropped my friend his home, all four brother finally reached home around 11.30 AM. This was the end to the far most the best of the best outing I had in my life…..

I hope there are more to come but better be the safer ones 😉 :)… An end to the Remarkable Journey of my life…

Dheeraj Sharma

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Hope you all enjoyed reading the travelogue, about the remarkable journey which means so much to me. Before I post my listing of learning’s of the trip I would like to share these 3, best [IMHO]of the pictures for me at least…as there is a saying…”beauty lies in the eyes which sees it”..so other might find some other picture to be best…

On a special note and request from my friend and cousins I would like to quote the exact words I was murmuring just after when that “MOMENT OF EXCAPE” happened, “Saale, maaut dikh rahi thi mujhe…”[I was able to see death] 😀 ……

Now here are the best three pictures starting from third…

This trip is something I would never forget 😀 … Thanks all of you for following, appreciating, concerning and blessing and most importantly letting me share with you. God keeps the grace and blessings with all you guyz.