It was almost again the same time of the year when I visited Manali in 2017. Another breakfast table discussions in the office led a group of 5 people to plan a trip for overnight discussions under the stars in Kullu. Yes, we planned just a Saturday-Sunday visit to this place, and HRTC Volvo Bus is most comfortable and convinient mode of transport according to me.
If you board a bus @7 PM on a Friday Night, you will reach Kullu maximum by 8 AM on Saturday.
Most of the tourist prefer to visit Kullu along with Manali, but as I said, they are tourists. If you are a traveller, you would love to explore the place as maximum as your time and pocket permits. We had already booked a homestay in Kullu and started our trek to Bilji Mahadev at around 11 AM and thats how the fun begin.
Chansari is a village in Naggar Tehsil in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. It is about 12 kms from Kullu bus stand and is the starting point of Bijli Mahadev Trek. The journey up the hill is around 3-4 kms from here now.
One will pass through a dense forest along with few villages in between.
The villagers' huts, a primary school, children playing and working in the fields, shepherds with their sheeps and goats grazing here and there, locals busy in their daily household chores, the silence and a bird chirping all of a sudden, the wind whispering through the woods, the sun glaring through the trees, walking through patches with music soothing your body, clicking pictures with your best buddies and fighting over silly issues, if all these doesn't please you, then you are not meant for trekking.
We reached the top at around 3 PM where we met some crazy sheeps, goats and dogs. Playing with them made us forget all the pains we had in our trek. And of course a bowl of maggi along with a cup of tea, REFRESHING.
At the hill top we visited the popular temple of Bijli Mahadev. In this temple of lightning, it is said that the tall staff attracts the divine blessings in the form of lightning. It is believed that the priest of the temple has to restore the Shiva linga placed inside the temple using butter and sattoo after every lightning as it shatters to pieces with flash of lightning. A majestic view of Kullu valley can be seen from the temple premises. Bhuntar looks quite beautiful from up above.
We started descending at around 5 PM only to reach back to our stay in the evening. A riverside campfire with soulful music and dinner is a must in the hills. You should know that Kullu is also situated on the banks of river Beas.
After getting enough of sleep with started Sunday early in the morning to reach Jana village. There is a hidden gem in this village, an offroad waterfall which, people say, is frozen in the winters. Its water is as cool as ice, and it is surrounded by beautiful views of snow covered mountains. There is zippling adventure near the waterfall which costs around 300 INR per person for the longer ride. Locals also serve food here about which we heard later that it is the best and unique in taste in Kullu. Unfortunately, we missed it.
On our way back, we visited Naggar Castle, the official seat of kings for centuries, it is made up of stones and wood. It was once the capital of the Kullu kingdom. At around 12 in the afternoon, we checked out and moved towards Manikaran.
Manikaran is located in the Parvati Valley on river Parvati, located 4 km ahead of Kasol and about 35 km from Kullu. Manikaran is a pilgrimage centre for Hindus and Sikhs. There are temples of the Hindu deities Rama, Krishna, and Vishnu and Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib. The area is well known for its hot springs and its beautiful landscape.
We visited the Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib and had Langar there. Then we spent some time in service there to sort out fresh vegetables for food.
After visiting the local market in Kullu and having dinner, capturing a lot of memories we left back for Kullu to board our return bus to Delhi scheduled at 8 PM.
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