12th August 2005, I was in a frenzy to complete my work before I could leave at 2:00 p.m. that day. We were four of us from the office and had decided to hire a cab from office to Mumbai Central station where we were supposed to catch the Rajdhani Express to Delhi.
As we were sitting in the cab I said to a friend ''Here starts 10 days of non-stop PJ's'' And so it was.
I had completed most of my preparation for the trip before hand, but the most important thing I got only as we reached Mumbai Central station, a 512mb memory chip for my digital camera!. Now I had the power
We all boarded the Rajdhani Express and located our seats. The train duly started on its scheduled time of 4:55 p.m. The travel from Mumbai to Delhi was marked by non-stop PJ's, Dumb charade sessions, Antakshari sessions and continuous snacking. I mean, in this train you are constantly fed. First came tea or coffee with some snacks, then soup, then dinner, then ice-cream. And as soon as u wake up you again get tea or coffee and breakfast. By the time we finished assessing the things we consumed, we had reached Delhi i.e. on 13th August 2005 at about 10:00 a.m.
We settled our belongings in the Rail Yatri Niwas nearby and freshened up there. Shopping in Delhi was next on card so off we went. The most popular place for shopping in Delhi is C.P and Palika Bazar. We all headed in that direction. After some basic shopping (didn't want to tug along a lot of luggage for 10 days) met an old friend for lunch.
We left from Delhi for Manali at around 7:00 p.m. It was a semi sleeper luxury Volvo and the travel was very comfortable. We had some extra seats left due to some cancellation and it worked out best for me. I got the whole of back seat for myself. My sleep was interrupted only by occasional dancing on the movie songs (Kajrare for one) and for dinner at a dhaba.
14th August 2005, 11:30 a.m. saw us in Manali. The weather was pleasant there but not as cold as expected. The comfortable travel in the train and bus had not made us as travel weary and we had a lot of excitement and energy left. Top of that we had a sumptuous breakfast of parathas and dahi at 12:30 and again a heavy lunch at 3:00 at our hotel, Hotel Samiru. We were now well rested and could think of only one way to release all the pent-up energy. Shopping!!
But first we went to the beautiful Hidimba Temple in Manali. This old temple hidden amongst tall Pine tree serves as a wonderful setting for a quite evening. Like that was possible when you are a group of 18 people! After an evening of site-seeing and shopping and general running around in Manali, there is nothing better to do then to go to Hotel Chopsticks and have Thukpa soup and Momos, so that's what we did. I suggest to anyone who goes to Manali to do visit Chopsticks and have Momos. I also strongly believe is good food is an integral part of a complete travel experience.
Having had enough ''integral'' parts of momos, we decided to call it a day. We had a long long journey ahead.
''At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake
to life and freedom.'' And at the stoke of 6:00 a.m., on our Independence Day, 15th August 2005, we woke up to travel and adventure. After a light breakfast at the Madras Cafe, we all got seated in our mini bus at around 7:30 a.m., our first stop was Rohtang pass. Rohtang pass is around 52 Kms from Manali and at an altitude of 13050 ft as against Manali which is at 6724 ft.
The drive is very pleasant but the road is winding and mountainous (obviously!). The 5 hour drive took us through some beautiful valleys and small settlements. En route we passed through Palchan, Khala falls and Marhi (where we again had some momos). The scenery was breathtaking and our cameras were working overtime to capture the mist filled green valleys and the snow clad mountains. The river Chandrabhaga kept us company all through the route, its flow in full force with the constant melting of snow feeding it. As we ascended Rohtang, at was 12:45 p.m., we decided to push on further without waiting.
We halted after an hour at a place called Koksar (Alt.10301ft.). Koksar is a one street small settlement with a police station, a military station and few dhabas. It also has some shops for basic bike repair. We did see a lot of bikers on the road and also a few cyclists. But the interesting fact was nearly all were foreigners. We packed up some parathas and got back on the road again.
From this point on we started noticing a gradual change in our surroundings. The mountains started to turn a shade of brown, the greenery started to grow thinner, the air started to get chillier and thinner and the sky started to get bluer.
Our next stop was at Tandi where we had our lunch on the Tandi bridge at around 4:00 p.m. Main reason for us to take a stop at Tandi was to fill fuel. The next fuel stop was 365Kms away, in Leh! Tandi also has some bike repair shops.
After having filled our stomach and filled a little of our camera memory, we started again. We were supposed to reach Sarchu by end of day but we were running behind schedule. So we decided to go only up to Patsio, around 62 Kms before Sarchu.
The road from Tandi to Patsio was dotted with small settlements and beautiful little villages. We did encounter some big townships like Keylong and Stigri (and some traffic jam too, due to Independence day). All these places are roughly at an altitude of 10000ft. We intended to carry on non-stop till our campsite, but had to stop at Darcha which is a military check post. It is mandatory for all tourists to register themselves at Darcha post. Only then can they cross the twin bridges. We signed ourselves in at the post at around 6:30 in the evening.
By this time the sun was almost setting and there was an amazing display of colours in the sky. I had never imagined such colours could be seen in nature too. It was like a sky straight out of Monet's paintings. Colours were everywhere. The sky was purple, blue, red at the same time. The sunflowers were yellow as in Van Gogh's paintings. Small pink and lilac flowers were spread over the brown stony mountains giving it a completely different look. It was simply beautiful.
Tired and a bit shaken by the 167Kms travel, we all reached Patsio at 7:30p.m. We chose a spot to camp and started setting up tents. This too was a first time experience for many of us and everybody tried their hand at erecting tents. Despite of freezing cold air biting into us, we somehow managed to put up 4 tents. We had some kitchen staff traveling with us too. While dinner was being prepared, we all settled down for a fun session of singing songs and laughing. (Actually it was more of howling at the wonderful moon and passing pathetic PJ's, but, same difference).
Contented with howling and eating, we decided to call it a day (or night). We had another long journey ahead of us. We were about 2 hrs or 62 Kms behind schedule and we planned to get up at 3:00 a.m. in order to cover the difference. With such thoughts in mind, I tucked myself in my sleeping bag and succumbed to its comforts.
Here I conclude the first part of my travelogue about my trip from Manali to Leh!
Do lookout for future parts.
