Christmas celebration in Manali

Left Noida Sector 78 with my wife and 2 friends at 2330 Hours in my amazingly awesome Swift. The journey was comfortable as there was no traffic along the way in NCR. We took the Eastern Peripheral Expressway due to the protest at Delhi border and reached Murthal in no time. Had some snacks at Amrik Sukhdev (who would miss it while being in Murthal). There was fog at some stretches though, but it was not much of a trouble.

24th December 2020:

Finally after around 6 hours of driving in the plains, it was morning and I could see the mountains and the road started to turn and turn. All of my tiredness went away while i watched the mountains, heard the birds chirping and then, it was heaven when i saw the sun rising from behind the mountains. I stopped my car and kept looking at it until it was all out in the open. “This is what you came for” was the song which i played with all 4 doors of my car open (perks of being an early bird in the mountains ;) Had some homemade tea and then again headed for my journey ahead. But little had I imagined that it was just a start of the never ending beautiful journey ahead. The road ahead took us to Bilaspur, Barmana, Sundar nagar, Mandi and Kullu. We were fortunate enough to take the road less travelled through the beautiful campus of IIT Mandi. The road was very narrow with steep ascent and descent and full of thrill, deep valleys, pine trees, snow capped mountains accompanied by River Beas throughout.

Finally after 16 hours of driving, we reached our hotel and after check in formalities, I directly went to sleep.

25th December 2020:

Filled with energy in nail biting cold, we headed for our way onto the Solang valley. The road was beautiful amidst views of the majestic snow capped Himalayas in the company of Beas river throughout. On top of it, scenes of tourist doing paragliding and river rafting were a treat for the eyes. As we moved further after Manali, we started to see snow on side of the road and scenes started to be become more beautiful. The roads here were maintained by BRO and were beautifully engineered given constrains of the tough terrain. We salute our heroes who have worked so hard so that people like me can reach these places to enjoy the breath taking views.

The journey through the scenic Solang valley was full snow and snow capped mountains. Here you can do all the sports like paragliding, skiing, snow scooter, cable car ropeway, etc. The best thing that happened to me here was seeing Yak for the first time in my life (very personal to me as I am an animal lover)

After spending some time in Solang valley, we headed for Sissu from the engineering marvel “The Atal Tunnel”. The other side of the Atal Tunnel was intensely cold and with views which I had only seen in videos or my dreams. For the first time ever in my life, I wanted the Sun God to stay with us till we leave from here. The shining rays of the sun were bliss. Everything around me was a white paradise. The Chenab River was flowing very calmly and was frozen also. We went ahead in our car for around 4-5km from the exit of Atal tunnel and parked it as it is not allowed to park your vehicle on side of the road. From there, we went to enjoy the snow. The snow was white white and white and super soft. We enjoyed 2-3 hours in snow and clicked a lot of pictures for memories of a life time.

On our way back to the hotel , we stopped at Cafe 1947 in Manali to celebrate Christmas. There was waiting for about an hour, but it was all worth after the entry. There was live music, booze, hookah and food to take care of the long day tiredness in the chilled place. After enjoying thoroughly here, we went back to our hotel.

26th December 2020

Next day we headed for Kasol and Manikaran Gurudwara. The journey was very beautiful. Though there was no snow, but there was a lot of greenery. Throughout the journey, we were accompanied by Beas and Parbati River. We stopped for sometime in Kasol and then headed for Manikaran Gurudwara, took a hot water bath from the water of the hot springs. The beauty of seeing steam from running cold water of River Parbati cannot be described in words. It was magical. After spending some time here, we had lunch and headed back for Manali.

We reached Mall road, Manali in the evening and the next 3-4 hours flew for shopping. It was late and we went back to our hotel. Had dinner in the hotel and slept.

Had breakfast in the morning and headed back for our home. Driving in roads is always fun as the views are so scenic. It was no different today and driving in mountains was a pleasure again today. We stopped at Sunder Nagar Lake to enjoy the beautiful view. After some time, it was a delight to drive along with Sutlej River.

We stopped at Royal Dhaba to have lunch. It was an awesome place to have lunch as the food was delicious and the place maintained high levels of hygiene. Worth a stop if you take this route to Delhi from Manali. The location link is https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vna9LpdMQoYfEvCw9

If you want any more information or have any doubts, please write an email to me on akyiit30cell@gmail.com. I will be happy to answer to your queries or help in any way I can.