After a long awaited wait to visit the Himalayas, I finally was able to plan a long 6 day trip to Manali in Himachal Pradesh. I started planning from Oct 2020 and after cancelling some plans and modifying others, I finally made the plan to visit Manali in Feb 2021 from 6th Feb to 12th Feb.
I began my journey from Vadodara (my home town) -> Delhi -> Chandausi (pick up Akanksha) -> Delhi -> Manali -> Delhi -> Jhansi (attend marriage) -> Jaipur (visit brother-in-law) -> Vadodara.
Chandausi, Uttar Pradesh
I had to pick up Akanksha from my in-laws place in Chandausi and our journey began for Manali on 5th Feb.
Here are some pics of the last minute packings
I booked a cab from Chandausi to Majnu ka Tila, New Delhi using Make My Trip which costed me around 3000 Rs. We started from Chandausi at 2 PM and reached Delhi at 7 PM. I was a little worried about the cab getting delayed due to farmer protests being held at Delhi borders but thanks to Google Maps for providing alternate routes so that we easily avoided the congestions.
Majnu Ka Tila, New Delhi
We had our bus starting from 10 PM so we still had 3 hours in our hand, and we decided to go for dinner in the near by Tibetian area. We found ourself at Kalsang Cafe, near to Buddhist Monastery.
Pics from Kalsang Cafe:
After having our dinner we reached back to our pick up point and waited for a couple of minutes for our bus to arrive.
Pics while we waited for our bus:
Our Reo Travels bus arrived on time and we found our seat and were really excited for our bus to start moving. The bus was clean and the more important stuff, we were offered 2 bottles of packed water and a lot of snacks.
While we were waiting for our bus to start:
The bus made two stops, one at night around 1 AM and then in the morning at 7 AM.
Finally we reached Manali at 11 AM and we were picked up by Orchid Green Resort and Spa from Manali Private Bus Stand.
The Hotel was a mere 10 minutes ride from the Bus stand.
Day 1 : Lost in Manali
The Hotel was clean and sanitized and it had cabs always ready for the visitors to go any place they want in and around Manali.
We quickly refreshed ourselves and decided to visit near by Hadimba Temple. So we decided to walk with the guidance provided by Google Map. Interestingly the route provided was an incorrect one and it shows the location near Mall Road. We reached the location and asked some locals and found that we were at incorrect place, so instead we went on exploring shops at Mall road and visiting near by Nature Park.
Hadimba was located near our hotel but we had totally taken an opposite road, hope we had consulted the locals before.
We decided to visit Solang valley next morning only if we could wake up early.
Day 2: Second Try at Hadimba Temple and Jogini Falls
Tired of walking up and down hill the previous day, we woke up late and postponed Solang valley for next day and decided to visit Hadimba temple.
We had a heavy breakfast at Suraj dhaba located near our Hotel and went for Hadimba Temple. We found local aunties asking us to take picks with large cute furry rabbits for 30 Rs.
Wherever we went we were haunted by guys who were selling Kesar (Saffron) and aunties who wanted us to try out the Manali dress and have out pictures clicked. We tried out one guy who was selling Kesar, the product seemed authentic to me but not to my partner, so we decided to not buy them. But the same Kesar selling guy followed us till we moved out from Hadimba temple to the nearest Autoricksaw stand asking us to buy with a lower price. After ignoring him we took an auto to our next destination which was Jogini Falls.
The auto wala charged us with 130 Rs to take us to Vashishtha Temple, from where we had to trek to visit Jogini falls, but amount seemed fair considering he had to drive it up and down the hills, which looked like a fun ride to me.
Jogini Falls
Finally we reached Vashishtha temple and after asking the locals for guidance we started our trek to Jogini Falls. The trek from Vashishtha temple to Jogini Falls was a trek to remember. It was beautiful considering the surrounding scenary, peacefulness and the beauty of the houses along the trek. We were mesmerized by the variety of different plants and trees we found here, since these did not grow in our side of India.
We also found the stones along the trek were abundant with Mica. They shined like pieces of glass in the stones.
We stopped at a small shop along the trek where a local aunty was selling breakfast, snacks and tea. The view of snow peaked mountains from the shop was amazing and we decided to rest and have some tea. The aunty mentioned that all the trees which were dry and were devoid of any leaves were actually apple trees! We had been seeing these trees all along from day 1 but failed to recognize them since this was the first time we saw apple trees.
After completing the trek, we had late lunch at a nearby hotel and found a cab who took us back to our Hotel. Remember Ola, Uber and others cabs do not work here so don't bother yourself searching for a cab online.
Day 3 : Solang Valley
On the morning of Day 3 we woke up early and by 9:30 AM we were ready for Solang. I contacted our hotel reception to see if they can book a cab for us or guide us for Solang, but the person who could guide us and help with cab was not available so we decided to directly ask the cabs waiting outside our Hotel.
We found a cab driver 'Pawan' who was willing to take us to Solang and told me that the cost will be around 1000 which seems fair to me. We took off to Solang but before that Pawan guided us that we needed to get ourselves snow proof clothes so he took us to one of the stores.
We got the clothes at rent for 250 Rs each including the rubber boots, we also took a guide with us who would help us do activities such as Yak ride, Snow skating etc.. we opted for almost all of them except paragliding. These activities along with guide costed us around 6K.
After wearing our snow proof jacket clothes, we made us look like astronauts ready for a moon ride, took off for Solang. Along the way Pawan showed us all the locations where bollywood movie scenes where shot like "koi mil gaya" and "Tango Charlie".
We were back by evening and we had enough time so we went out to explore the surrounding area of our Hotel which is known as Log Hut Area. It was a fun experience and we found some lovely places where we clicked some pics.
Log Hut Area
Day 4 : Kullu - Water rafting in Beas river and Nagar Castle
We again contacted Pawan to visit Nagar Castle and Water rafting area in Kullu, actually Pawan himself suggested these areas the previous day. Pawan led us to a place he knew who organized the water rafting, there we had our breakfast a special local dish called Siddu. Siddu was a light breakfast and tasted more like idli stuffed with some masala in it.
They informed us that they organized two types of rafting, first on was a long ride of 45 mins and other a shorter on of 20 mins. We opted for the longer one and was told it will cost of 8K, including all pics and videos taken during the rafting, but we negotiated it to 6K and he quickly agreed. I think we could have further negotiated it but any way we put our life jackets and were ready for rafting.
The water was flowing smooth, being little turbulent at some rocky areas but the part I was worried of was getting soaked in cold water. Though we eventually got all wet, even the guide splashed cold water on us as we began our rafting. Later the cold feeling was replaced by the excitement and fun.
After completing rafting we went to Nagar Castle, Kullu. This is a medieval castle built by Raja Sindh Singh in 1406 AD and survived the earthquake of 1905. This castle is now under Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and they had a restaurant in one portion of the castle. We had our delicious lunch here and then returned back to our Hotel.
Pics : Nagar Castle
Day 5 : Old Manali
Two more days to go and we decided to visit old Manali and see Manu Temple. I searched for restaurant which serve pork dishes in Old Manali and found ourselves in Drifter's Inn & Cafe.
They serve delicious meal and we filled ourselves with "Keema Pav" and "Pork chilly".
From there we continued walking and reached Manu Temple and continued where the road led us into prestine pine forests. We stopped and rested among the pines trees and then returned back walking our way back.
Pics: Manu Temple
While returning back, I saw a tattoo shop and decided to get a tattoo on my left wrist.
Day 6 : Shopping
We decided to go to Mall road and get some souvenirs for our family members since next day we had to leave Manali. We had lunch and visited Canada Pizza to fill our craving for Pizza. We continued shopping till evening and even had to buy a separate bag to carry the gifts.
Day 7 : Last day
On our last day, we had our Reo Travel bus booked to take us to Delhi. All buses from Manali to Delhi, leave Manali in evening and reach Delhi the next morning. To spend some time we left our luggage to Hotel reception and left to explore the surrounding areas to Hadimba temple.
We spent most of our time resting in the pine forest surrounding Hadimba temple and in the evening we reached Manali private bus stand. Surprisingly the bus which was taking us back to Delhi was the same one which brought us Manali and the same driver and same conductor!
Next early morning we reached Delhi and the journey continued ..
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