Travelling in Himachal in June – 2007
Shimla >> Manali >> Rohtang >> Chandratal >> Ki/Kibber/Tabo >> Kalpa >> Shimla
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The first light of the day came at Kullu on my way from Shimla to Manali. My bus made its way along the banks of Beas that flowed in the opposite direction in a great hurry. From my bus, I could here the gurgle of slightly turquoise and transparent water rushing down the valley. The river bed was littered with boulders of all sizes. It is such an inviting flow that you would feel like stopping the bus and getting right down there.
Names like Kullu and Manali sound remote and dreamy when you hear about them from the plains below, but it is hardly so. The road is a highway and is put to good use by hoards of buses, trucks, private cars and yellow-board cabs. Resorts and camps are lined up all along the road, packed so densely that if you were to drive from Kullu to Manali stopping at each one of them for 15 minutes, it would take many weeks to reach the destination. But the journey gives many hints of what is in store further deep in the mountains. River runs cold and its color leaves the evidence of glacial origins. Temperature dips slowly and the road climbs up giving a sneak preview of white washed summits and tall trees. The anticipation of tomorrow rushes into the mind and overwhelms the moment.
Manali is a typical tourist town with hotels and resorts filling up every street, making room for tourists arriving in bus loads from the plains below. Trekking and adventure companies, cab hires, tour agents and restaurants are all that you see on the main roads. Oddly, I wasn’t harassed by touts on my arrival even though a few people gently asked me if I need a room. I offloaded my bag in the cloakroom and went in search of a place to stay.
A short walk put me in love with Manali despite its tourist crowds. Nehru park is quiet and charming with its alpine trees. You look up and you see snowy peaks in every direction with rocky slopes and coniferous forests below it. Picturesque is an overused word, but it perfectly fits what Manali is. I walked away from the bustle of the town and found a quiet hotel in old Manali right next to Manalsu stream coming down from the adjacent mountains.
Later in the day, I met a friend who arrived from Delhi by bus and we charted plans for rest of our journey and made preparations for it.
About Manali
Manali town itself doesn’t offer much in terms of sightseeing. There are a few temples – like the Hadimba temple and Manu Maharshi temple. Vashist, a village just outside Manali has hot springs and many budget guest houses. Solang Nala, which is a 30 minute drive from Manali on the way to Rohtang Pass is a place much visited by tourists. Solang has a ski slope operating in winter and turns into a place for paragliding and a few amusement-sports in summer. In summer, people visit the cave temple which is a short walk from Solang.
Most travellers use Manali as a base for a day-trip to Rohtang Pass. Rohtang Pass is one place which has an easy to access motorable road that can take you above the snow line for most of the year. Besides this, Manali is home to many travel agents and adventure companies that can organize treks, river rafting and jeep safaris in the Himalayas.
Accommodation is in plenty, and nearly every other road is full of hotels and resorts. Considering the number of tourists coming in from the plains in the peaks season, it would still be wise to book ahead if you are looking for mid-range accommodation.
Manali can be reached by buses from Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla. Many people drive from these cities. Kullu has an airport which is 2 hours away from Manali.
Continued at Solang Nala
Travelling in Himachal in June – 2007
Shimla >> Manali >> Rohtang >> Chandratal >> Ki/Kibber/Tabo >> Kalpa >> Shimla
+ Previous: Driving to Shimla via Chail and Kufri
+ Next: Discovering Manali
+ Go to beginning of the story or index page
Finding a budget hotel in Shimla in the peak of the season is an ordeal you would not want to endure. Not that they don’t exist, but they come with their compromises. A few that I checked reeked of cigarettes, toilets stank and was not fit for normal people. Some more had no windows and no ventilation of any kind and had carpets releasing a dank smell, where the shameless hosts graciously offered to get rid of the odour by spraying antidotes which was nothing more than an equally unbearable perfume. A few clean budget hotels were far from where the action is but I wanted to be in the middle of it since it was my first, but a very short visit. Someone had told me that they do exist close to the mall but I never managed to find any. And our driver would tell me later with a mischievous grin that he knew a few good places but would not bother to tell me where. ‘Forget about finding a budget hotel near the mall,’ my friends who dropped me in Shimla had told me, and I think they said it right.
‘Splurge,’ I finally told myself myself after an unsuccessful search, and splurge I did. The hotel room I took in Shimla cost me exactly 22 times more than the cheapest accommodation I enjoyed in Himachal. But then, the cheapest acco was real cheap, a dhaba in a remote village – Batal – where we were one of the first tourists to arrive this summer. And then if I may add, we probably had 22 times more fun in Batal than in Shimla.
Sit back, relax and watch the world go by. That’s the best thing to do while in Shimla
That doesn’t mean Shimla is a bad place. On the contrary it is a place with a feel-good to it. And if you have come there from super heated Delhi of summers, you will jump with joy and love its pleasant air to no end. A 25 degree weather is not the only attraction of Shimla. It has an easy going and charming atmosphere where no one is in a hurry to go anywhere. Unless of course, you are travel agent or a tout with a target to hassle at least a few dozen tourists in a day. The mall road–the center of all attractions in Shimla–is (fortunately) closed for vehicles, which means people walk there merrily munching ice creams and candy floss, eating in one of its numerous restaurants or occasionally even singing and dancing right on the road. And the ridge, just above the mall often turns festive with tiny groups gathered watching a play, listening to a singer, watching Himachali women dance or indulge in the greatest ‘time pass’ of the entire country: munching something nice and warm sold by a street vendor. And when people have had enough of all that there are always benches laid along the road to sit and watch other people lost in indulgence.
Staying at one end of the mall road, I spent no more than a day in Shimla doing little more than walk to the other end of the mall and back, and then repeating the same walks a few times over. I would squat in a coffee shop or an ice cream parlour when I wanted a break and move on further looking for… well, looking for nothing in particular. The morning breakfast happened at the India Coffee House sitting next to a window overlooking the valleys of Shimla. The Coffee House’s dosas, idlis and coffees tasted precisely as they did in India Coffee House back in Bangalore. I was left wondering if they had it air-delivered from there. Further, I walked around the scandal point and up the ridge and found many more people walking aimlessly just like me. Gaiety Theater on the ridge, which William Dalrymple described as ‘unaltered since the last British sailed home’ is finally under renovation. A few buildings here and there do remain from the colonial era but the evidences of this being the summer capital of the British are not many.
The India Coffee House in Shimla. Yes, I was eating dosa with a fork and knife, because I was writing my journal through the breakfast
Further on the mall road, a few people are selling litchis, peach and a few other English fruits of which I would have probably heard of, but can’t associate the name with shapes. Many of them grow locally and I have a go at a few of them. A tall deodar forest appears bang next to the road beyond the secretariat, where, if you are brought blindfolded, you will definitely presume being in a forest and not a city.
It is evening before I know and it is time for me to move on. As I pack my bags and head out, I go with good feelings of Shimla but nothing to carry with me as memories. It is not one of those places where I feel sad to leave, even when it does have its charm. It is the deodars of Chail and Mashorba that are refusing to go away from memory and remain etched forever.
About Shimla
Shimla’s vicinity to Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab makes it a popular summer retreat to beat the heat for people from these places. Shimla again sees tourists coming in large numbers in winter whenever it snows. There isn’t much in terms of sightseeing within Shimla, even when travel websites and brochures make a desperate push for a church or a temple here and there, the mall and the scandal point as places of interest. It is a place where the best thing to do is to hang around and kill time.
How-ever, there are many places around Shimla that have excellent vistas of lower Himalayas. Go to Chail, Kufri or Mashobra to enjoy dense deodar forests and some good views. There are more such places, like Naldehra, Narkanda and Kasauli, all within 2 hours drive from Shimla.
There are many hotels and resorts within Shimla and all around it, but finding an accommodation that is value for money at any range is difficult in peak season. So planning ahead is advisable.
Continued at Discovering Manali
Travelling in Himachal in June – 2007
Shimla >> Manali >> Rohtang >> Chandratal >> Ki/Kibber/Tabo >> Kalpa >> Shimla
+ Previous: First day in Himachal
+ Next: Driving to Shimla via Chail and Kufri
+ Go to beginning of the story or index page
It has been nearly a year since I made a trip to Himachal. Several attempts to write about it were never successful. First I kept procrastinating, and then I had found other things to write about. Later I suffered for many months with writers block, or blogger’s block if you wish to call it, and so on. Excuses are many, but finally it meant that a report was never completed. Here is one more attempt, I have no idea if I can finish it at least this time, but thats the goal.
To set the context first, it started as a series of posts like I normally do. Here is the story so far.
* Arriving in Delhi
* Loosing things
* First day in the mountain country
The story so far: And here is a quick summary if you are not to keen to click through all the posts. It was in mid June that I started off on a trip to Himachal. After spending a day in Delhi, I took a night bus and got down at Solan town an hour before Shimla. I was to meet a friend at a river-side camp owned by him on the bank of Giri river, nearly 30km from Solan. I reached the road head to Giri Camp where I was dropped off and walked towards the camp.
Continuation. It was a pleasant walk to the camp along the river. A few houses dotted the landscape to my right and to the left flowed the river silent. Steep hills rose up on both sides of the valley with trees hugging the slopes precariously. The camp was located along a wide curve of the river in a small plateau in the valley, where mountains blocked out views of everything beyond the curve and gave a sense of isolation. River ran deep and wide at sections near the camp, and then its channel narrowed and the flow gained speed after the curve. A few tents were pitched sparsely on the plateau. After exchanging pleasantries and meeting with a few other guests who were there, I checked into one of the tents to make up for the sleep lost in the night long journey.
At the camp
I have a never ending fascination for the rivers and Giri River provided an ideal indulgence. Its clear water flowed gently down the mountain with a pleasant gurgle. I walked along its bank for a long distance, occasionally crossing it and feeling the current pushing my legs. Pebbles in the shallows gave way to fine sand in deeper parts which was visible far deep under the water. The same river that is in a hurry to run away in a shallow stretch turned calm and inviting where it is deep. Thick vegetation of ferns drooped from vertical walls on the bank and pearls of water condensed from them into the river.
…pearls of water condensed from the ferns into the river
My fears that the river would be too cold were alleviated quickly. There was a bit of chill and it was not inviting enough in the morning but things changed later in the day as the sun moved up. When I saw few villagers going for a swim, it wasn’t easy to resist. With initial hesitation to jump in gone, I was soon wading in the water, resisting giggles as the fish bit my legs and tickled the senses. I found a deeper section of the river going down to 10 feet and spent nearly an hour in the river swimming or sitting on the rocks. Refreshed, but tired and hungry after the swim, had a session of refueling soon after.
I took my camera and went for another walk in the later hours when the sun started moving downwards. Temperature dipped slowly in the sunset hours and a gentle breeze blew across the river. Sun went beyond the hills early in the valley while he was still shining brightly, and the golden hues of the evening were mild, with it being the the summer. The river continued to flow gently regardless of the time, playing melodious notes as it bumped off the rocks jutting out in the shallows. We sat by the river and watched the darkness slowly capture the mountains as the last lights of the day faded slowly.
That night was spent huddled around a campfire, listening to stories of the highlands of Himachal from my friends amidst crackles of the burning wood as we ate our dinner. The night came early and quickly and we retired soon listening to the sounds of nature in the silence.
At the hour of sunset
Next morning, it was already time to leave. The feeling that I was leaving too early lingered with me for a long time as we drove towards Shimla.
Continued at Driving to Shimla via Chail and Kufri