I know its been long that I went to this place...but just thought I should pen it down here for everybody’s benefit and also so that I remember it for time to come.
Had been to Manali for 2010 new year eve. the place is nice, good, better, awesome..... its all you can ask for in winters if you want to get frozen. We travelled from Delhi to Manali via Pathankot. It is a detour which we had to take as we wanted to visit the famous temple "Jwalaji". The travel from Pathankot to Manali is awesome. Roads at some stretches were still under construction but the scenic beauty is splendid. We hired a tavera which was really really comfortable even in the last seats which I had to share with my nephew. The winding roads took three of our travelers throwing up number of times and we got to stop and take some pics. The gorges, streams, ice capped mountains cannot be ignored throughout the journey. Jwalaji to Manali is completely a ghat section drive which surely increases the travel time, but that’s something that you will not cry about as one gets to see lots and lots. We left at 11:00AM from Jwalaji and reached manali at 08:00pm.
Had booked Kushboo resort in Manali for 2nights & 3 days. But this was more of a hotel than a resort. The staff of the resort is nice and welcoming. I had a booking for a family suite and a double bedroom. The hotel manager was kind enough to upgrade both the rooms to family suites. I dint like the food that they served the guests. The buffet was bad. But the view that you get from the rooms is awesome. As you draw the curtains you get to see snow capped Himalayas, which is a treat to watch at any given point of time within the span of the 24hrs that every one of us has.
We woke up the next day and headed straight to a place called "Gulaba" which is approx 25 Kms from where we were staying. This place is where you actually get to hold the snow and also to walk in it. The amount of traffic that you encounter in a narrow stretch of road to reach up there is crazy. So, we had to park our cab and get to the snow fields by other means. The options that we had were - 4x4 jeeps, Mountain horses (Pony) or walking for 4kms. Walking was something that seemed out of our reach, Jeeps are something that dint really excite us. So the only option left was to ride a mountain horse. We got a couple of pony for 1000Rs for the journey up and back. But I must admit the ride is scary. Each time the horse goes really close to the edge of the road which already had some hard snow, you get the feeling that you are going to slip into the valley just beside the road. Reached up to Gulaba and guess what...... the place was freezing cold. My hands turned from brown to purple to grey as I dint carry any gloves. Thanks to the heavy fur coat that dint let us freeze. Got back to our hotel by evening after having a lot of fun in the snow.
Travelled back to Delhi the next day morning via Chandigarh. For me, Manali is a nice place to enjoy for a couple of days, but it not that kind of place where you cant stay for a week or so, cause not much you can do there apart from playing in snow, shopping at Mall road, which is over priced or just doing some more tiny miny things. My ratings – Manali/Gulaba – 5/5, Travel – 4/5, kushboo resort – 2.5/5
Date of travel – 28/12/09 – 01/01/10