10 days of planning finally culminated into one of the best and most hectic 48 hours I have had so far. I had a long weekend coming up, Saturday and Sunday. It seemed a good opportunity to make a short trip to manali, kullu, see the sights and come back.... That was the plan. But as usual, Life, the universe and everything else played their usual roles by making the plan unsure upto the very last moment. At first there was this chance that I would be out in the field on friday, requiring my brother to travel by bus to join me at some point. then came the weird demand from my boss that we move into the field on saturday, a holiday.
Thankfully, the storm did not come to pass, and I got my weekend off. So off we went with a backpack of clothes, armed with a Olympus camera and looking forward to some quality time together.
Being the tourist season, we had had the foresight to book 2 seats on a semi-deluxe overnight bus to manali about 1 week in advance. The govt. bus it turned out was an old refurbished ac bus, minus the AC. the first thing worth noting about the bus was the distinct aroma of fabric seats that had accumulated the grime of ages from all possible sources. I am sure if I had spilt water on the seats, it would have simply run off instead of being absorbed.
But wait, I am getting ahead of myself, the bus was supposed to leave at 9:45 and we were at the closest bus stop from my place at exactly 9 pm. now a bus was leaving for the ISBT just as we were getting there, but acting out of laziness we decided to go for the next one rather than make a dash for it. The frequency of local buses is quite high, usually. Or so I thought. As luck would have it, we stood there till 9:25 and there still was no bus. In the end, had to hire a taxi and dish out a 100 bucks when 10 would have done. talk about fate.
But wait, I am getting ahead of myself, the bus was supposed to leave at 9:45 and we were at the closest bus stop from my place at exactly 9 pm. now a bus was leaving for the ISBT just as we were getting there, but acting out of laziness we decided to go for the next one rather than make a dash for it. The frequency of local buses is quite high, usually. Or so I thought. As luck would have it, we stood there till 9:25 and there still was no bus. In the end, had to hire a taxi and dish out a 100 bucks when 10 would have done. talk about fate.
Coming back to the semi-luxury bus, the second notable thing about the bus was that the seats had over time become self aware and developed their own will as to changing positions from upright to reclining and vice versa. With the locking mechanism long gone, my seat would suddenly recline as the bus would surge forward with a jolt, and to my great chagrin bolt upright whenever the driver as much as touched the brake or if i let up a little pressure on the seat.
The bus started off initially from ISBT shimla as a local bus taking people home to nearby places, as a result it was packed to the full with people going home after a day of hard work (hopefully). But by the time the bus had gone 15 kms, there were no standing people, only the ones going to Manali, Bilaspur and other far off distances remained sleeping in their positions.
the passenger somewhere around us, i think it was the guy in the front was adding a unique aroma to the aroma of a bus full of stuffed people after a hard days work. Obviously the guy had had one too many chole bhature. As we opened the windows to flush out the aromas being vented thus, a lady in another seat in front of us decided we had had enough fresh air and that we needed to stop taking in the cold air so that we dont fall sick. To achieve this she promptly got motion sickness and decided it was most prudent to throw up out the window forcing us to close ours.
Other than these the journey was without event. The driver made a dozen unscheduled stops, scheduled exactly at the moment when one would be just falling asleep. He stopped at some lousy roadside dhaba, expecting people to have dinner at midnight. I wonder why these bus drivers stop at points that are either to lousy to even contemplate entering or so expensive that its not even worth thinking about it. I guess the drivers and conductors of buses get free dinner or lunch as commission for bringing a busload of customers to these guys. So the next time your bus driver stops at a dhaba/hotel which charges 50 bucks for an omlette, be advised that you are also paying for the driver's dinner.
All in all it was an uneventful ride. Aniruddha was dozing off like he was riding in a bentley or a limo. I think thats his special super power. I have already been to Bilaspur, and Mandi which are en route to Manali and I recognised them as we passed them in the dead of the night. I recall waking up to see the Pandoh dam 20 kms out of Mandi. It was 4.30 am when the bus reached kullu and it was already daybreak at 4.45 am. i watched the Beas river roar to the right of the bus as we traveled further north along the river. We were just coming within visual range of the snow capped Himalayas when the sun decided to rise and it was a fantastic moment. The snow caps were all shining like they were made of solid gold. Truly the abode of the gods, if there ever was one. It was barely 6 am when we finally gt out at Manali. we had prepared well. Although we had started out in t-shirts and jeans, I had packed my down jacket and a sweater an denim jacket for Hans. It came in handy after we had crossed Kullu as the temperatures plummeted.
Initially the plan was to reach Manali by 7 am, immediately hire a taxi, go to rohtang and by-pass the ado of hunting and booking a hotel, but the overnight journey and the early hour made us change out plans last minute. We let a local taxi guy show us to a hotel and despite warnings from friends that hotels in Manali are pathetic in general and despite having some good hotel sites suggested, we went and checked into the first hotel we came by. it was some hotel I don't even recall the name today, it wasn't the cleanest of the lot, but was passable as accommodation. The great thing however, was that despite the usual custom of all hotels to maintain check in and check out times as 12 noon, this guy was ready to charge us on a 24 hr basis. So we checked in at 6:30 am and would be charged for one day till 6:30 am the next day. way cool when it comes to limited budgets.
Whatever, it was 7.30 am by the time we freshened up and had a bite to eat. Ah, that was also an interesting event. the place we ate was a road side stall. the guy was selling tea and snacks such as eggs and bread etc. Now the guy was blatantly cracking eggs and dumping the shells into the flowing drain nearby. Not to mention the wrappers and paper plates from his stall. this guy was obviously making money, but guys like this don' want to pay taxes to the municipality to clean up the mess they are making on the street. It is to be done for free. Why? and why does this man have no consideration for maintaining cleanliness in the very town where he lives and earns, why does he have no consideration for the environment? But thats besides th point on this blog here. It is the general attitude that we are brought up with.
Coming back to the 48 hrs. We moved immediately to Rohtang. Had to hire a taxi approved by the union. Competition is so fierce in the tourist season that no one but a taxi registered with the union can take tourists to Rohtang, there is actually an informal checkpost to ascertain this. this means that one has to pay the union rates, whatever they may be, no matter how exorbitant they may be. The taxi we hired charged us 1500 to take us to Rohtang and back and a few more sites along the way. The taxi driver was good enough to stop at a local shop to allow us to hire a couple of snow shoes and other warm clothing since Rohtang had had snow fall in the previous days while we were enjoying rains in Shimla. The attire cost us another 500 buck in rent and we were all set. The road to Rohtang was nearly 60 Kms long and climbing almost a 1000 mts. The mountains were already visible from Manali. It was a matter of time till we came face to face with the Snow clad guardians of our nation.
So far this post has gone long enough. Instead of writing it all in one post, I think I will add more in the next post.
All in all it was an uneventful ride. Aniruddha was dozing off like he was riding in a bentley or a limo. I think thats his special super power. I have already been to Bilaspur, and Mandi which are en route to Manali and I recognised them as we passed them in the dead of the night. I recall waking up to see the Pandoh dam 20 kms out of Mandi. It was 4.30 am when the bus reached kullu and it was already daybreak at 4.45 am. i watched the Beas river roar to the right of the bus as we traveled further north along the river. We were just coming within visual range of the snow capped Himalayas when the sun decided to rise and it was a fantastic moment. The snow caps were all shining like they were made of solid gold. Truly the abode of the gods, if there ever was one. It was barely 6 am when we finally gt out at Manali. we had prepared well. Although we had started out in t-shirts and jeans, I had packed my down jacket and a sweater an denim jacket for Hans. It came in handy after we had crossed Kullu as the temperatures plummeted.
Initially the plan was to reach Manali by 7 am, immediately hire a taxi, go to rohtang and by-pass the ado of hunting and booking a hotel, but the overnight journey and the early hour made us change out plans last minute. We let a local taxi guy show us to a hotel and despite warnings from friends that hotels in Manali are pathetic in general and despite having some good hotel sites suggested, we went and checked into the first hotel we came by. it was some hotel I don't even recall the name today, it wasn't the cleanest of the lot, but was passable as accommodation. The great thing however, was that despite the usual custom of all hotels to maintain check in and check out times as 12 noon, this guy was ready to charge us on a 24 hr basis. So we checked in at 6:30 am and would be charged for one day till 6:30 am the next day. way cool when it comes to limited budgets.
Whatever, it was 7.30 am by the time we freshened up and had a bite to eat. Ah, that was also an interesting event. the place we ate was a road side stall. the guy was selling tea and snacks such as eggs and bread etc. Now the guy was blatantly cracking eggs and dumping the shells into the flowing drain nearby. Not to mention the wrappers and paper plates from his stall. this guy was obviously making money, but guys like this don' want to pay taxes to the municipality to clean up the mess they are making on the street. It is to be done for free. Why? and why does this man have no consideration for maintaining cleanliness in the very town where he lives and earns, why does he have no consideration for the environment? But thats besides th point on this blog here. It is the general attitude that we are brought up with.
Coming back to the 48 hrs. We moved immediately to Rohtang. Had to hire a taxi approved by the union. Competition is so fierce in the tourist season that no one but a taxi registered with the union can take tourists to Rohtang, there is actually an informal checkpost to ascertain this. this means that one has to pay the union rates, whatever they may be, no matter how exorbitant they may be. The taxi we hired charged us 1500 to take us to Rohtang and back and a few more sites along the way. The taxi driver was good enough to stop at a local shop to allow us to hire a couple of snow shoes and other warm clothing since Rohtang had had snow fall in the previous days while we were enjoying rains in Shimla. The attire cost us another 500 buck in rent and we were all set. The road to Rohtang was nearly 60 Kms long and climbing almost a 1000 mts. The mountains were already visible from Manali. It was a matter of time till we came face to face with the Snow clad guardians of our nation.
So far this post has gone long enough. Instead of writing it all in one post, I think I will add more in the next post.
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