46: In the foothills of Himalayas - Manali in March - Part 3 of 3
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? |
Instead, here is what you should do. Go ahead on the road to Rohtang. The pass is closed at this time of the year, so you cannot cross Rohtang La, although I was hopeful we could attempt that. The road is snowed under, and with the fresh rainfall of last night, there is no chance of the pass being motorable anyway. So if you have plans for Leh, or Spiti, or even Keylong - keep them to yourself till July.
But that's the bad part. Here is the really really good part. As we crossed Koshi we started seeing dollops of snow alongside the road. Fresh rainfall in the night meant fresh snow on the mountain peaks and on the way. The valleys and moutains and the roads and the meadows were all filled with a blanket of fresh, pure, white - snow. Snow as radiant as I have not seen before. Snow as pure that you can pick off the road and eat!
We attempted to take the car as far as possible on the slippery road into the snow-clad mountains and managed to go just ahead of Gulaba. Apparently one of the kings of Jammu and Kashimr, Raja Gulab Singh attempted to cross the Himalayas through the same treacherous road in response to defend an attack from the Chinese Qing empire - sometime before the 1857 uprising against the British. The road is marginally better now, but under the thick blanket of snow, it may as well be 1857. Anyway, that is why this place is called Gulaba. Rohtang is another 15-20km from here.
 |
| Gulaba - On the Rohtang Road |
But as we crossed Gulaba, we saw an army bulldozer ahead of us removing the snow from the surface of the road. And by that time the tires of the car had started to wobble a bit on the black patches. So we decided to stop the car right in the middle of the road - in the middle of the while snow. We roamed around a bit, breathed in the fresh chilly mountain air - which, authors typically describe as 'exhilarating' - and returned to the first chai and Maggie stall on the way back.
 |
| Slippery Road near Koshi |
The scenery around the place was absolutely worth the effort. It is places like these and visuals that accompany them make one wonder about some of the basic questions - like how to be bound and yet remain free. Bound to family, duty, destiny, society, culture - and yet free as a bird to roam the plains and mountains and seas. Ah, herein lies the quandary. Herein lies the dilemma. And herein, perhaps, also lies a tiny flicker of the answer too!
 |
| This is as far as you can go - just after Gulaba |
The ruminations are fueled further by the exceedingly sweet, yet marvelously hot tea. The veggies in the Maggie are fresh, and the air is pure and unadultrated. We return refreshed - ready to face another day of the maddening crowd of tourists in Manali. We attempt a detour towards Solan, but in vain. Finally, the road leads us back to the trout haven of Johnson Cafe, which we call our home for the trip. In March, none of the other restaurants are open. And why try something else when what you have is as good? A fish in hand is worth two in the river.
The rest of the day is rather uneventful and wonderfully lazy. We walk past the mall roads, into the small, winding narrow lanes of Manali, discovering boutique shops for clothes, books, trinkets, and of course the tiny gulab jamuns. Thus ends the main day of the trip to Manali.
Day 4: Return Manali - Chandigarh - Gurgaon (600km, 15 hours!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The return from any trip is always like this - resentful and reluctant - especially if the trip has been successful beyond expectation. We start from Manali at around 10am, and plan to cover the entire distance to Gurgaon on the same day. Tough task, I know, but I also know that if we are able to reach Chandigarh by nightfall, we should be okay as the road after that is pretty good.
We tumble down the valley of Kullu, go past Bhuntar, cross the tunnel of Aut and are in Mandi by noon. The going is easy. The skies have cloud cover, so the heat is also bearable. The road till Bilaspur goes by without much effort. By this time it is 2:30pm and we are in need of lunch.
We make the mistake of stopping by a roadside dhaba - I think it is called Sagar. The location is nice, with a good view of the valley. But the food is beyond description. I have not come across dhabas that cannot make a simple daal tadka. Sadly, we pack up and leave, with next-to-empty stomachs and try to sustain ourselves with the food supplies - cookies and munchies - that we had stacked in the car.
The halt gives me some breather, though, and we are able to brave the dragon-holes of Swarghat. By the time it is around 5:30pm, we are safely across the treacherous patch, and on our way to Chandigarh on the highway.
By the time we enter Chandigarh it is already evening. The roads are busy, and it takes us an enormous amount of time to waddle past the 'bhool bhulayya' (maze) of the strangely-built town. We contemplate about staying the Chandigarh that night, but then decide against it.
Dinner at Best Western hotel just after you cross the town is passable - although I remember having better food here earlier. Anyway it is 10pm by now, and no time to worry about food anymore.
We hit the road with a vengeance, cross the necessary towns of Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat etc. - each looks like a distant galaxy slowly swirling away from us. The dhabas at Murthal near Sonipat look like space ships - with their exceedingly chunky and colorful lights. We manage to reach the outskirts of Delhi half past midnight, and reach Gurgaon by 1:30pm after a very very long and tiresome day.
Yet the spectacles of the snow-clad mountains and valleys on Rohtang road are good enough to keep me going for a few more days! ... All in all, an absolutely refreshing visit to the foothills of the greatest mountain range on Earth!
Best
- Shreekant
(12 April 2013)
Comments