Himachal Pradesh – The neck of the Indian subcontinent, sits precariously between the perilous state of Jammu and Kashmir in north, Punjab on the west, Haryana & Uttar Pradesh on the south and the controversial land of Tibet on the east. Blessed with bountiful natural beauty, Himachal Pradesh boasts of breathtaking Mountains, plump rivers, elegant Glaciers, trim and tidy meadows, enviable flora and fauna, topped with a deliciously cold weather. This place is not concealed from anyone anymore. With the rise in the household incomes people have started exploring places and Himachal Pradesh tops the list as a hot favorite.
I have explored Himachal Pradesh numerous times, courtesy, my father. My first memory of a vacation is of Himachal Pradesh when it was largely unexplored and still safe from the claws of the honeymooners and families of every tom, dick and harry. Since then I have seen the virgin land of Himachal Pradesh getting raped by tourists, day in and day out. On my last visit to this place, 15 years back, I swore off coming here again. But the beauty of this place lured me back and I broke my promise, for the better and for the worse.
I made the itinerary for the trip, roping in my immediate family, to make the journey worthwhile. I have been a firm believer that a great company makes the dullest of the places come alive. 13 of us started on this trip, comprising of 9 pot bellied oldies, with variety of illnesses ranging from heart troubles to asthma to diabetes to thyroid, accompanied by 4 youngsters. So you can envisage what the group looked like.
We stared the journey from Chandigarh in two hired innovas. It was June, an ideal month to travel to Himachal Pradesh, but a nightmare in the hot and sticky, Chandigarh. Leaving Chandigarh was a pleasure as we anticipated some respite in the hills. Drive through the country side of Punjab is a must for everyone. Green luscious farms and beautiful roads lined with healthy trees will immediately grip your heart and you will marvel at the prosperity of that state. It makes me wonder, why I have never seen a Sardar as a beggar. Another feature of the Punjab countryside is the water tanks placed strategically on the roofs of the farm houses. They come in every shape imaginable. From eagles, to aero planes, to Maruti 800 car! I do not know how, but it somehow makes the countryside much more appealing.
After 8 hours drive into the hills, we reached our first destination – Palampur. This was a place I had never visit before in my multiple trips around the state. Palampur is a quite little town, 35 kms away from the maddening crowd of Dharamshala and McLeodgunj. It happens to be a Tea producing region, so the huge farms of tea, surrounded by the Dhauladhar Range which is mostly covered with snow, makes one feel as if they are visiting one of the charming Himalayan town out of Ruskin Bond’s novels. It was pleasant surprise to see Café Coffee Day existing in such a bucolic place.
We stayed at one of our relative’s place in the Army cantonment for our 2 days stay in Palampur. Every morning we were welcomed by majestic snow covered mountains on our doorstep. Can anything ever be so pleasing to the eye, first thing in the morning?
Bir and Billing, our first stop, are world renowned sites for Paragliding. Billing, at 2290m is a take-off site and Bir, at 1400m is the landing site. Except for me and my sister, who had paraglided earlier, all others were biting their nails. The only constraint in going in for paragliding was that a person should be over 45 kgs of weight, which was least of our concerns, because 45kg was our weight when we were born! Most in our group were well over 90 kgs! One by one, all placed aside their fears and jumped into the valley for an experience of a lifetime, along with the instructor who managed the controls. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life till date. Cool wind slaps across your face, eye start watering pertaining to the wind, but you hang in there, on top of the world, feeling like a bird and think in your head, “Thank god I am alive”. Mid-air, my instructor sensed that I am quite fearless and adventurous so he made me do some crazy paragliding stunts. It was super awesome!
After a 45 minutes flight, we landed at Bir and headed out to explore the village. Bir seemed like a beautiful English countryside, with monasteries mushrooming all around. The only difference was that it is a Tibetan colony. A cascading river lures everyone and we gave in and took a dip in the deliciously cold water under the warm sun. Next stop was the Palpung Sherabling Monastery. Away from the human settlements, this monastery is tucked away into the deep dense forest. Painted in various bright colours, it shakes up your senses all of a sudden, which have been used to the greens all around. It has a majestic quadrangle, and a gigantic statue of Buddha. It happens to be one of the most beautiful monasteries I have ever seen in my life till date.
After coming back home, we lazed around and later packed for our trip next day to Manali. I personally did not wanted to go to Manali, because it would mar my beautiful memories of that place, having heard from people about the deplorable condition of that city made by the hordes of tourists. But with my father’s insistence, I gave in and included it in our itinerary. My fears were confirmed on reaching there, when we got stuck in a traffic jam on the outskirts itself! Our hotel was located, right in the heart of the bazaar, where the whole road was dug up for laying some kind of pipeline. 1000s of people took to foot and were strutting down the dug up boulevard, lest they miss buying out something. This was the scene right outside our hotel which looked like Chandni Chowk in Delhi. I wanted to cry out in pity for once beautiful and young Manali which had now aged and looked gnarled and ailing like an octogenarian. Our hotel, though a government owned property, was in a good condition, which was a respite. Nothing else about the place excited me.
Like every other tourist, we visited the must sees in Manali like the Hadimba Temple, the Buddhist Monastery, a newly built gompa and later did some shopping for unnecessary stuff which was of no particular use. Next morning, we headed out to Solang valley near Manali, where I had tried Paragliding years back. This also was overflowing with tourists scampering for different rides. I was thoroughly disgusted to see people all around me. The once lush green picturesque valley looked bald and ugly dotted with shops and eateries. We headed towards the newly built Ropeway, which took us to a peak above the Solang valley. It was 10,000 ft above the sea level. With high tariff of the ropeway, not many tourists come here from down below and thankfully it was still safe. It was thoroughly green and the pine scented air gave me a hedonistic high. We were sitting in the lap of nature and filled up our senses with the beauty which was missing in Manali and Solang.
I have always been fascinated by Psychedelia and Hippies. In Manali a sub-culture exists, away from the heart of the city, tucked away safely in Old Manali village. This place is popular amongst the hippies and foreigner and is frequented by people in search of hashish. The whole village is dotted with bars and restaurants where you will see a bunch of mostly Israelis, smoking Hash freely. Tourist refrain from going here as it is a different eclectic world altogether, which does not appeals to everyone. I had always wanted to visit this place but my family never took me there. But the time came now. 4 of us (Youngsters) from the group headed out to see the village in the evening around 7 p.m., of course after telling our family members. At first the place looked like a simple market, selling overpriced clothes and accessories to the foreigners. Surprisingly besides the shopkeepers, only one or two foreigners were seen walking down the road. Further climb up the road will unlock new secrets for which the town is famous for. Psychedelic smoky cafes, dull lighting, Bob Dylan songs playing in the background, groups of people smoking and exchanging chillums over food and beer; it all looked very mesmeric to my eye. Had I possessed more guts, I surely would have given it a try, but I don’t think I can develop enough courage in this lifetime to smoke hash. But the food we ate at a Tibetan cafe was oh la la. This food and the captivating and mysterious life of this place brought us back the next night, yet again.
During our stay in Manali, we also went to see another nearby town called Naggar. Naggar has a beautiful Castle made of stone and wood, which looked very stately to me. The song “Yeh ishq haaye” from the movie Jab we met was shot extensively here. The castle has now been converted into a hotel and also possesses a restaurant for the tourists who come to visit this place. We were again victims of the tourists and got no place to eat at the only restaurant there. The castle also possesses a temple and thankfully not many people knew that the pandit of the temple feeds Himachali food to the hunger stricken people like us, at a payment of Rs. 100 per plate. We sat on the ground overlooking the beautiful valley and ate a deliciously simple and satisfying meal, while people sitting in the restaurant above us, gorged on some foreign cuisine. Near Naggar Palace is the house of late Mr. Nicholas Roerich, who was famous painter and was the spouse of Devika Rani (First Indian Film actress). The house has been converted into an Art Gallery showcasing Roerich’s painting and the house above still showcases the belongings of Devika Rani and Nicholas Roerich. One fact that I came to know at the gallery was that Devika Rani was a grand-daughter of Mr. Rabindranath Tagore!
My three days in Manali left me with mixed feeling. I was sad about the condition of Manali but I was happy to have visited the old Manali village which was largely unspoilt.
The last part of our journey was to Keylong, which falls under the Lahaul Spiti District. It was due to my continuous insistence that plans were made to go to this place. We started from Manali at 3.30 a.m. to avoid the traffic jam at the Rohtang Pass. The road from Mani till the Rohtang La was actually not a road but a quagmire made from the melting snow coupled with mud on the road and mountains. Traversing through it became difficult and we were stuck in a jam at 5 a.m. in the morning. But thankfully it cleared soon and we reached Rohtang La by 7 a.m. The cold was bone chilling at that time in the morning. A cup of tea and a plate full of maggi provided the much needed warmth and we proceeded towards our destination. If we were cribbing about the condition of the road from Mani to Rohtang La, the roads beyond made us literally cry. It was pathetic, to call the least. But the change of scenery from snow clad Rohtang Pass towards Keylong is bamboozling. After Rohtang, the road only descends into the valley, but what enfolds in front of the eyes will leave you gasping and will make you forget all about the bumpy road beneath us. There was no traffic at all, on this road, so we were descending all alone through the serpentine roads between majestic green mountains, with traces of snow here and there. The road from Khoksar to Keylong is Beautiful! The Chandra River runs along, on the left, never leaving your side. En route we passed through Sissu, which was another small village with Sissoo tree bordering the road.
Keylong was a small sleepy town in Lahaul Valley, with nothing much to offer. It is generally used as a stopover by travelers going to Leh. We came here just to laze around and possibly explore the Chandratal Lake, Baralacha Pass and Triloknath Temple in Udaipur. But after a bumpy ride from Rohtang La to Keylong, none were ready to venture out to visit any of the places. So we spent the whole evening exploring the small town and shopped for some local artifacts.
The road to Chandratal Lake passes through Kunzum La leading to Spiti Valley, but due to bad weather conditions the Pass was closed and so Chandratal Lake was crossed off from our list. Triloknath Temple was also waived off because no one wanted to especially go 50 kms for a visit to the Temple. Our only option left was Baralacha Pass which was 75 kms away from Keylong, towards Leh. Baralacha La stands at 16,500 ft above sea level, with absolutely no vegetation! Due to this, the amount of Oxygen in the air is very less, leading to breathing troubles. Since we had Asthma and Heart problem patients with us, we could not make up our mind, whether to go or not. Ultimately out of 13, 9 of us planned to go ahead leaving the others behind. But when another guest at the hotel, who happened to be a doctor, started gushing about Baralacha La and gave a green signal to the rest 4, we started forward, all together.
What should I say about Baralacha La? That it was gorgeous, beautiful, dazzling and mind-boggling and all related adjectives. I do not think words are not enough to describe, what my eyes saw there. I was blown away by the sheer magnificence of that place. How can a place be so austere and inhospitable, and still be able to trigger the waves of happiness inside you? The Suraj Tal Lake near Baralacha La, with its brilliant blue, was a stark contrast to the brown Mountains covered with gleaming white snow. Huge snow walls marked the road on both the side, which were cut through to make way. I felt surreal watching it all. Who cared, if the air was thin. As feared, none of us had any breathing problems. We encountered a spectacle in front of our eyes which would never have been possible given the distance. In the most dreamlike state we started back within half an hour, as advised by the locals. On the way back, we stopped at a place called Zingzingbar. We ate our most delicious lunch of Maggi, soup, omelets and sandwiches in the tents. After coming back to Keylong, none of us could stop singing praise about that place. It was 18th June, 2011 and I will never forget that day, till I bid goodbye to the world. I had visited Heaven!
We started our journey back to Chandigarh next day and decided to halt at Kullu for the night. Till Rohtang Pass we saw no cars at all. We had started at 8 a.m. from Keylong and reached Rohtang pass by 11.30 a.m. From Rohtang the ghosts of Manali came visiting us. Rohtang was brimming with people and cars. I wanted to puke, seeing the deplorable state of the once pristine place. Our downward journey till Kullu was a horror that I want to send into my repressed memories. From 11.30 a.m. we got stuck in a traffic jam! Smelling of diesel fumes and sweat, we reached our hotel in Kullu at 9.30 p.m.! A journey from Keylong to Kullu would have normally taken 6.30 hours and it took us 13.30 hours!
I hate tourists, even though I am a tourist myself! I hate what they have made of Manali and Kullu. But thankfully some unexplored still exist in the world for Travelers like me, who are not easily satiated. And northern Himachal Pradesh is one of those places. I would have liked to explore more of the Lahaul & Spiti region but work life ordered me back. I have resolved to make more money and go back there again. Nothing will dissuade me. And the next time, my road trip will take me to Leh, which tops my list!
My tryst with Himachal Pradesh was both sweet and sour. This is a lovely state, especially the interior regions. It comes closest in looks to Kashmir, which is heaven on earth. Not all can visit Kashmir, but Himachal Pradesh will surely show you a trailer of what heaven looks like!
