I guess its time for completing the story of our journey which began in Delhi Airport :P
Day 1:
Yippieeee!!! For the first time in several days, we have a destination other than Delhi Airport. I don't think the traffic situation in Delhi is any better than the much hyped Bangalore one. It took close to three hours to wade through the traffic and get out of the capital of our country. Finally called up home to inform that we are heading towards Manali.
Day 1:
Yippieeee!!! For the first time in several days, we have a destination other than Delhi Airport. I don't think the traffic situation in Delhi is any better than the much hyped Bangalore one. It took close to three hours to wade through the traffic and get out of the capital of our country. Finally called up home to inform that we are heading towards Manali.
As usual, we were the noisiest crowd in the bus and we did invite frowns from few fellow sleepy passengers, who after the dinner got used to it and got back to what best they could do - sleep. Most of us did manage to get some sleep. Pauline was singing for most part of the journey. Lawrence was on phone for a long time.. with you know whom :) . Giri managed to break the leg support of the seat (he claims to have fixed it :P ) and yet managed to sleep well. Mr.Kumbakaran of the trip title goes to Prashant.
The journey seemed never ending. All thanks to the landslide near Mandi which delayed us by almost six hours. In the morning, we again turned out to be the most noisy crowd in the bus. This time though, the co passengers - an Englishman, a French lady and two others from Israel, too joined us in our chats. We had long discussions about Indian culture, religious views, Ayurveda, Israel and lots more. We were quite surprised to know the amount of knowledge they had about India and the culture here.
Day 2:
Sixteen hours in the bus on ghat roads with no breakfast, was a little too much to handle. But the scenery around which was serene with tall mountains and a river flowing in the valley all along the route definitely had the calming effect on all of us. We reached Manali bus stop by half past noon.
Day 2:
Sixteen hours in the bus on ghat roads with no breakfast, was a little too much to handle. But the scenery around which was serene with tall mountains and a river flowing in the valley all along the route definitely had the calming effect on all of us. We reached Manali bus stop by half past noon.
Vijay , the driver was waiting for us at the bus stop. He is somebody to be remembered for his brilliant driving skills...Will talk about him more soon.. He relieved us of the tiring bus journey and dropped us off at a fairly decent hotel - Hotel Shangrila.
We, the hungriest souls on the planet, ordered our fill and relaxed for a while.
Larry and Prashant after a small nap went into the town and spoke to some people to figure out the next part of our plan ( was there a plan??) , We spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking a stroll on the streets of the town, shopping and clicking some pictures.
Actual trip began finally..
Day 3:
We decided to spend the day in Manali and do a bit of sight seeing there.We paid a visit to couple of temples. Starting with Hadimba temple which is located in a nice place surrounded by trees (Few scenes of Maniratinam's Roja movie was shot here) and is more of a tourist spot where one gets to try out typical Himachal Pradesh costumes.
Later we continued our small pilgrimage tour in Manali by visiting Manu temple, Vashisth - Hot water spring (funny one though) etc.
How can i not mention about our lunch experience? We spotted this restaurant called "Delhi Mughali" (Definitely not recommended to visit) on the Main road of Manali and thought it was where we should have our lunch. The guy there who was trying hard to imitate Bobby Deol did have a surprised look when we entered his restaurant and he did give us considerable amount of time for us walk out voluntarily. Unable to comprehend his reactions, we didn't walk out (oh I wish, we did) but instead placed our order. He reluctantly took our order. Our order included "PEAS PULAO" (courtesy: Sangita) which our Bobby Deol look alike had not ever heard of . Pretty much every one on the table gave their own explanations but failed to make him understand what peas pulao meant. Pauline finally succeeded with "Pulao with mutter and no other vegetables" Kudos to Pauline's explaining skills, we got exactly that. He ensured that all vegetables except peas were removed from the veg pulao and of course he charged us Rs.10 extra for effort he put in to removing these vegetables. Also, for the other orders, he got parcel from other neighboring hotel! What a restaurant it was!
Rest of the afternoon went playing cards, clicking some pictures at the hotel, trying to convince Giri that he badly needed a hair cut and discussing about what could possible the plan from then.
The sun set was quite early when compared to the part of the country I come from. We finally convinced Giri to have a hair cut and took him to a barber and made him get a hair cut with spikes (Giri might have different name for the hair cut :P). The evening concluded with a nice dinner and not to forget the ice cream followed by walk around the town.
We spent the night at Manali and at 4:30 AM the next morning we braced ourselves for the next part of our plan.. Yes, finally we had a plan beyond Manali :)
Larry and Prashant after a small nap went into the town and spoke to some people to figure out the next part of our plan ( was there a plan??) , We spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking a stroll on the streets of the town, shopping and clicking some pictures.
Some assorted pics from Manali
Day 3:
We decided to spend the day in Manali and do a bit of sight seeing there.We paid a visit to couple of temples. Starting with Hadimba temple which is located in a nice place surrounded by trees (Few scenes of Maniratinam's Roja movie was shot here) and is more of a tourist spot where one gets to try out typical Himachal Pradesh costumes.
Later we continued our small pilgrimage tour in Manali by visiting Manu temple, Vashisth - Hot water spring (funny one though) etc.
How can i not mention about our lunch experience? We spotted this restaurant called "Delhi Mughali" (Definitely not recommended to visit) on the Main road of Manali and thought it was where we should have our lunch. The guy there who was trying hard to imitate Bobby Deol did have a surprised look when we entered his restaurant and he did give us considerable amount of time for us walk out voluntarily. Unable to comprehend his reactions, we didn't walk out (oh I wish, we did) but instead placed our order. He reluctantly took our order. Our order included "PEAS PULAO" (courtesy: Sangita) which our Bobby Deol look alike had not ever heard of . Pretty much every one on the table gave their own explanations but failed to make him understand what peas pulao meant. Pauline finally succeeded with "Pulao with mutter and no other vegetables" Kudos to Pauline's explaining skills, we got exactly that. He ensured that all vegetables except peas were removed from the veg pulao and of course he charged us Rs.10 extra for effort he put in to removing these vegetables. Also, for the other orders, he got parcel from other neighboring hotel! What a restaurant it was!
Rest of the afternoon went playing cards, clicking some pictures at the hotel, trying to convince Giri that he badly needed a hair cut and discussing about what could possible the plan from then.
The sun set was quite early when compared to the part of the country I come from. We finally convinced Giri to have a hair cut and took him to a barber and made him get a hair cut with spikes (Giri might have different name for the hair cut :P). The evening concluded with a nice dinner and not to forget the ice cream followed by walk around the town.
We spent the night at Manali and at 4:30 AM the next morning we braced ourselves for the next part of our plan.. Yes, finally we had a plan beyond Manali :)
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