The first of many family trips #Lockdown

This was the first of the many family trips that are yet to come. After lot of convincing, saving money and planing, finally my family agreed for the family trip.

"Experiencing snow" was on all of our bucket list and we decided to strike it out of the list. With our dream destination in front of us, we boarded the plane from Bengaluru to Delhi. From there our bus to Manali! A very long journey indeed.

Goal for day 1: Finish major sightseeing
My eyes opened and I found all the fellow passengers and my family sleeping in the bus. The window was all misty. On wiping the window, all my troubles and backpain from travelling vanished.
The view <3

On arriving the Manali bus stand, we drank some garam chai, while waiting for our travel guide. The chai in the high ranges definitely feel different.

From there we went to our place of stay. Hotel beas view, and the view was just spectacular. The stream, the highway road and the snow clad mountains.

After some rest we started our sightseeing day with the Hadimba devi temple. The temple located inside the Vann vihar is a calm and serene place that takes you to a different place.

Fom there, we went to Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Manali. A small compound with a buddist temple where you can spin the wheels while chanting " Om Mani padme hum" and also meditate for sometime on the first floor. Taking pictures inside is allowed after paying a fee but i decided to just experience the silence.

From there, we went to Vashist springs. It's just a marvel of nature of how the water is naturally heated by the earth. The water is not just warm but it's hot!

Then from there, we visited Kullu. The vaishno devi temple- a big temple paying respects to different hindu gods and goddesses. The best thing you can experience here are the caves around which the temple stands. You can get inside the caves, pay respect to the deity inside.
From there we started towards Dhakpo Shedrupling Monastery. A beautiful place indeed. A school, staying apartments, prayer hall all enclosed within a compound. We also met few volunteers from health organization who come there once a week for regular checkups.
The place secluded from rest of the city is a world in itself.

All of the major sight seeing done on Day 1.
We didn't want to do any sightseeing anymore as we were on wheel for the past 24+ hours with very little and proper  rest.

Goal for day 2: Enjoy the high altitude weather and experience the local culture.

Major portion of day 2, we were just resting. Stepping out of our room, to the balcony. Enjoying the weather! Garam chai,paratha from the room service was just perfect. There was a swing in the hotel garden area, where i spend my time reading travelogues and planning.
We decided to go for snow activities on this day, but the weather was not our friend.
At the night

Goal for day 3 : Snow ❄️ 💙❄️
Heading directly to Solang valley, we had the whole day in our hand. To experience what we came for. SNOWWWWWW!
Coming from a place like Palakkad in Kerala, the weather we have experience is summer, extremely humid summer,monsoon, humid days and slightly windy days.
The excitement and anticipation was building up. On the way we got our snow jacket,boots on rent and paid up for skiing.
Skiing was funny experience. After so many attempts, I finally gave up and just shamelessly posed for pictures. My mother and sister also shared a similar experience. I guess all the 100+ people trying to skii also have the same experience.

After all that, we had the cliche pahadi food- Maggi and then tried the zip line. We took one way, thinking we would explore the way back on feet. And we didn't regret. Finally after all this time managed to learn to walk in snow.

The sun started to set and it started getting cold again. Our driver came for our pickup. That's when we realised we had spent our full day just experiencing the snow.
What a day!

Goal for day 4: Paragliding
This was on my bucket list for so long and I secretly wished that I make my mother do it too. After so much of peer pressure from me and my sister and some other people around she agreed. And to this moment she doesn't stop talking about it.
We chose Dobi for our paragliding experience as we had heard the sky-time would be more.

The trainers are very well experienced and helpful. They offer us with go-pros where we can take the video of whole experience.
The paragliding experience felt like being on a swing but instead of ground below the feet, it's just nothing. The bird's eye view of the place is just another amazing experience that I can't stop thinking about.
After this we spent some time near the streams where people where trying out rafting. We didn't do it as there was a long queue and mostly because we were mesmerized with the paragliding and busy discussing about it.

This was our last day of the trip and we headed back to the bus stop for our return.
This was the first time we as a family are going for any trip. And I am sure there are many yet to come.

Cut to April 7th 2020: I am writing this post trying to relieve this experience amidst the #lockdown due to covid19. This writing was more like a therapy for me for coping with staying in house for so many days.
We as a family still discuss and look back at the pictures thinking about the good old days, where everything was normal. The crowded streets,buses, standing queue for cinema tickets,dining out, chilling out with friends all has become like a distant memory. But this also gives me time to plan for our next trip.