This Time Last Year in Manali

This article was last updated on May 19, 2022

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I usually am a person who stays away from questions like “what were you doing this time last year?” I don’t blame my memory for this attitude but my practical approach towards life but there are certain memories in life which make you go back to this time that year. My days in Roorkee were such days but then I am not here to talk about them. In fact those days would make for a good novel, so if someday I garner enough confidence to write a book I would talk about my Roorkee days and would take care that it doesn’t become another of those I-Have-Been-to-IIT novel 😀

I have digressed royally na?? 😀 Well am here to talk about what I was doing this time last year & what exactly was I doing? Well to be precise this time we were entering Manali. The road trip from Chandigarh to Manali was one of the best trips I had had in recent times. The oh! so beautiful valley’s just left me spell bounded. I have always been in love with idea of being in love with mountains but my imaginations & even Ruskin Bond had not prepared me for the reality which is just beyond words. The moment I had the first glimpse of a snow clad mountain I was super excited (it was my first snow viewing) & was clicking 9 to dozen hardly aware that Manali is surrounded by such mountains. Thanks to a lovely friend we had a cottage booked in the Forest guesthouse. The cottage we got was beautiful & oh! so col, I was facing that kind of cold after some 3-4 years whereas my hubby had never been to any place this cold. Our first day was spent in shopping & strolling around the place, we booked ourselves for a tour for the next day & gorged upon all kinds of yummy north Indian delicacies.

Next day we left early & visited places like Solang valley, I can not forget sitting at the foothill and having steaming hot Maggie! & Kothi, with Rohtang pass closed Kothi was last village up to which tourists were allowed and boy did we have fun? I will let the pictures do the talking.

Next day we visited Manikaran & also did water rafting at Kullu. We were apprehensive about the later but we decided to go ahead when the organizer said “ma’am you will not be wet, I ensure it would be dry water rafting.” Now we laugh at “dry water rafting” what fools we were. The water was freezing and each of us were wet to the core but glad we went through with it. It was an awesome experience.

Our next stop after Manali was Shimla. The places we visited there were CCD (I had a good cuppa coffee after say 4 days?) Summer Hill, The Ridge, Himachal State Museum & Library, few temples, shopping at Mall and last but not the least Kufri. Here again I will let the pictures do the talking

The best part of trip was at Kufri. We had climbed three mountains riding a horse. We had started at 2ish in the afternoon but as we came back it was getting darker & darker. Every time the horse would go down I would feel am gone but luckily we touched base safely. Here are some of the best snaps that I have ever taken, the beauty about them is that I was sitting on the horse & clicking away to glory. When we had started there was light & slowly slowly the sun started setting in..

It was easily one of those dream trip’s where everything went right. We visited so many places & missed few but the fact is that whole trip was so memorable that I am still in love with place. It was very difficult for me to choose these snaps out of some 600 snaps that we had clicked.

I can very easily say that by the end of the trip I had fallen in love with Himachal Pradesh, it’s beauty, it’s people & it’s food. Sometimes when I get irritated or bugged up with too much work I think about the days spent in Manali feel better. This visit has left a yearning in me, a yearning to go to to Leh and one day I surely will.

What’s your dream location for a break or a vacation?

Click HERE to view more pictures.

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