Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

It has been almost a decade that I had rode down to Lansdowne, a tiny sleepy town just on the ridge of the Corbett national park, home of the Garhwal Rifles, away from the hustle and bustle of typical hill stations and yet with promising views of the Rudraprayag valley and the Shivalik mountain ranges. So this weekend we decide to pay Lansdowne a short visit. There are three challenges though - one is that the route goes through the densely populated sugar belt of U.P. and the road surfaces near the sugar mills are especially tiresome. A quick call to a regular roadie confirms that the road has been better now for most parts and it is a good ride. The second issue is that one has to cross the horrors of Meerut and Najibabad. Apparently there is a long route from Khatouli, but I am unable to get more  info on this, and decide to live with this hazard. Bad decision, as you will see later. The third problem is more pressing. The town of Lansdowne has nothing - as it has the army ...

Day 3: Manali local and Rohtang (Gulaba) --------------------------------------------------------- The next morning at Manali came early. The day looked bright and sunny, and there was none of the gloomy, cloudy feeling of yesterday. We decided to try our luck on the Rohtang road after a hearty breakfast of omlette and bread from a local roadside chap. For Rohtang, one has to cross the river and go to the other side. Taking left, you first reach a petrol pump - one of the last few on the road to Leh - this is the base of a place called Vashisht - famous of its hot medicinal water springs. The road is dotted with shops selling and renting snowgear - jackets, boots, the works. But most of it is reused often and usually quite dirty and smelly. Stairway to Heaven? Anyway, some 20km ahead, a road leads to Solan valley. Do not go there - especially when you know that Manali is swarming with tourists. All Indian tourists go to Solan to play in the snow, and make an absolute lousy...

Day 2: Bilaspur - Aut - Mandi - Kullu - Manali (170km, 4 hours) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The morning came swiftly on the second day, but before we started off, it was already about 10am - perils of a family traveling together that one has to learn to endure over time. The road further ahead is now narrower and winding, and the going starts getting slower. The surface gets a little rough once again near Barmana - where ACC has a cement factory, but it is better than the last night. There is a large lake near Bilaspur - I believe it is called Gobind Sagar. We could see the glimpse of the water body from far, and the setting looked nice. The road climbed further to Sundernagar - which is actually quite pretty (Sunder - literally 'beautiful') - with a canal flowing along the edge of the road, and has a small-town feel. It is pity they have not developed this one into a nice a tourist place. There are no restauran...

Day 1: Gurgaon - Karnal - Ambala - Chandigarh - Ropad - Swarghat - Bilaspur (350km, 8 hours) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manali is perhaps the most discussed and described destination in North India, as it caters to all sorts of tourists - families enjoying their school vacations in May-June; bike riders trying to scale Ladakh and the valley of Lahaul-Spiti during July-August; adventure junkies trying their hands and feet on various things that drive adrenalin - like mountain biking, snow trekking, paragliding etc. esp in Nov-Dec; and foreign tourists - mainly Russians and Israelis all round the year trying to find a home away from home in the limited dollars they have managed to put together . Manali also offers different things to different people. For some, it is an alternative which is safer than Kashmir - although not as serene - with the snow-clad mountain peaks all around. It is also an alternative easier...

This was written some time in June 2012, when I visited Seoul. This is the pre-Gangnam era, and no one knew - or cared, for that matter - about the weird monkey-dancer-singer fellow from South Korea. Neither was the world full of nuclear war-cries from the northern neighbor of the country at that time, so you need to take the write-up uncolored with these recent 'developments' - if that word can be used at all. Anyway, the reason I never got down to publishing this earlier is among the usual suspects - not enough time to complete the post, not having enough breathing space to upload it .. blah blah! ... I was going through my heap of unfinished tales for some other reason recently, and chanced upon this rather abrupt version. The other reason I got reminded was an unplanned occasional lunch arranged at a local Korean joint in Delhi ... So here it is, for what it is worth ... S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...