The Himachal Episode , September 2010
Place & Year: Shimla,Kullu,Manali, India / 7-Sep-2010 | 14-Sep-2010
Author: Srivathsa
Two days after my wedding ceremony, on September 7th, I had booked a package trip via makemytrip.com called the “Captivating Himachal”. The arrangement was to take a flight from Chennai to Delhi, take a trip in a Tata Indica from Delhi to Shimla, Kullu, and Manali, till the return to Delhi and then back to Chennai via a flight. As you might have guessed, my wife Aruna and I were the journey makers and takers.
To The Chennai Airport: We were fairly drained just after the wedding, but our vacation plan wasn’t permitting us to offer us time for a break. After Sriram helped us in a meticulous stuffing of our gear, on Tuesday evening, we (Aruna and I) went to the Vinayaga temple (which was closed) and Ponniamman temple, before we loaded ourselves onto the call taxi to the aerodrome. The airport was being renovated and we had a bit of tough time walking down the way to Hotel Sangeetha. (We didn’t know that was the easiest of our tougher times in the tour, then). The hotel offered us with some of the pricey foods it had and we chose mini Tiffin.
Just after the dinner (???) at 6:30, we entered the airport luggage loading/security premises, where I dumbly didn’t pick up my bag after check. Out of the blue ,before the boarding, it struck my mind that I had a hand luggage, for which I returned to the security , who snared at me , before handing me over my bag. We then, boarded the Indigo carrier. It was a nice start to the trip, even though we were getting hungry. It took the flight 2 hours and 40 minutes to land and to do ten solid minutes of taxing, before we got down at the airport.
Entering Haryana
On the way to Shimla
The Night at Delhi: After we picked up the luggage, we went down the alleyway bordered by people with name boards. Looking inquisitively on the name boards, I found the name Srivathsa Subramaniam (which should have been Subramanian) along with the subscripted “Hotel Kingston Park”. We weren’t too swayed with the driver’s looks, but with the “thoda” Hindi we knew, we asked him to wait for a couple of minutes, till we picked up our burger. We picked that up and got into the car. The car went thru the newly lit city decorated with gleaming lights for the Common wealth games, in a month. But then, suddenly the car took a few turns and the place was very gloomy and dark. It did create a sense of trepidation, being there at around midnight. Aruna was very silent. Probably, she was starving.
Every area passed by and I was waiting for the hotel, still. I was also praying that the hotel shouldn’t be in such places. Regrettably, when we reached after around 45 minutes of drive, the place was dark, sulky and dirty. The hotel was right there. I got down grudgingly. It had 3 stars on its crown, though. After, checking in, got into the room and locked it. The room was clean and nice. But I was in no mood to enjoy that. If I was alone, I wouldn’t have cared where the hotel was and how it is. But for the first time, when I realize that there is a girl who is with me, I had a grave heart thumping quicker than ever it was. I was praying God the whole night. And yes the prayers were answered and it was 5:30AM on a wakeful night when the driver of the Indica, that we were gonna travel the 7 days, Satish, called up. He started the chat in Hindi. He was let down, when I asked him to better converse in English. He did break the language and speak.
Trip to Shimla: Satish picked us up at Hotel Kingston Park following our check out. He was a lean man ,speaking broken English. I felt relaxed, just after I sat in the Indica. It was a 9 hours drive to Shimla via Chandigarh. As the driver picked up a parcel for the cab owner from Delhi, the drive was on the go.He also gave us an apple, the move that we found real nice. It was drizzling once we entered Haryana. It has been raining cats and dogs in these areas. We stopped up at the “Sukhdev Ka Dhaba”, as the driver raved about it. We went into the air conditioned South Indian section and ordered for idlis and tea. My tummy was by now, upset a bit with the long night’s insomnia. The Idlis were served and the tang was so bad that it made both of us, nauseous. It was so queasy that I took in a “Domstal” to resume the drive. It started raining then and the high way was congested with traffic. Satish did find a way out and now, we were hungry. Aruna was feeling bad that she should have heard mom asking her to take the “batchanams” of the wedding and chocolates, since we were hungry.
At the entry of Haryana, I plunged my hand into my hang bag to pick my camera up to click the still of “Welcome to Chandigarh”. It was only when I switched the camera on; I realized that there was no memory card in it.Oops! We had to buy one. Then we stopped at Hotel V2C in Chandigarh for the admirable lunch. Resuming the drive, Aruna resumed her nap. Once we entered the Himachal, it was uphill. I was looking at the people there and was wondering so many things about their livelihood. We did stop for a tea on the way. It was 5 PM, when we reached Shimla. We took a Porter for hauling the bags and suitcases to the Hotel Honeymoon Inn which was way up the hill. It was a dazzling view from the room we were prearranged. The hotel itself was great. It was pretty tranquil and unruffled. It was a peaceful evening in the room watching TV. For the dinner, we ordered for a lot of items, but wasted a large amount of them. The quantity was just too much for us. In the interim, Aruna was cribbing about my intake of food. We slept at 10 PM.
The View from Hotel Honeymoon Inn
The evening in the room - Aruna and I
To Kufri and back: It was six in the morning. It was not particularly cold ,as I anticipated it would be. But the frost was on the window pane hiding the beautiful view of the foggy mountainous city of Shimla. I cleared a bit of the frost with my hand and the sunshine did the rest. It was a fabulous sight from the room. We watchfully ordered Stuffed parathas and tea for the breakfast. But we weren’t careful enough. We wasted a few pieces. We walked down the lane to the car parking lot through the beautiful place, with children in uniform starting to the schools. The drive to Kufri began from the lot. Kufri was around 2 hours drive from Shimla. On the way, I even saw vehicles holding the titles starting with “TN”. It was surprising. The world is a small place after all. The traffic was entirely blocked. The roads had been on a toast ,due to the heavy rains in these parts of India. We had a tough time getting to Kufri.
We reached Kufri to see only two other cars parked in the parking lot. I was struck in wonder, if it was a tourist place. Getting down from the car, we were encircled by a couple of people, one was a guide and another was a person in charge of the horses to climb up to Kufri’s tourist places. Avoiding the guide, we paid the other person for the ride to the top. It was fun hiking up the horse, but the ride was through a series of horrible tracks totally crammed with mud and rocks. Felt pity for the horses though. My horse was smart and well behaved, but Aruna’s was wholly naughty. It had her on the nerves. It took us around half an hour up to the top. The disappointment was awaiting for us there. There was nothing on the top, except for the small good temple, a flower garden (the garden in my house is better), and nothing else. We went to the temple, prayed a little and then to the flower garden. It was so funny, that there was so damn nothing in that place. And then out of nowhere, I started realizing that it was totally off season. Kufri usually, in season would be filled with snow and it is famous for it. But it was fun. We called up Sriram, to tell him about all our experience. On the way down, it started raining. Fortunately, we had umbrellas in our bags. We got into the car for the downhill journey after seeing the tourist place that had nothing to offer for tourism. Heavy rains made us wait for more than an hour in a single spot. We were hungry and we reached the hotel, we ordered for a pizza. The plan for the evening was to go out for a walk in the Mall road, but then after a while we decided to stay in the Hotel and take rest. We watched the television the whole evening and then ordered for dinner. I had slight body ache at the end of the day before I went to doze off. Middle of the night, I found myself running with temperature. At 5:30, when I got up, had a dose of “Paracetamol 650”. The temperature ran down and we started. We got ready for the drive to Manali at 9 AM.
Shimla
Aruna on the ride to Kufri
To Manali: We had breakfast and went down to the parking lot (again hiring a porter to carry our luggage). The whole journey from Shimla to Manali was on the hills. The routes had curves every two minutes and the roads were narrow, tapered and dusty. After a while, my headache started to creep up a bit and Aruna was starting to feel woozy. We pulled over to get a few candies. At Sunder Nagar, Satish stopped at a bistro, which he said would serve tasty foods. To hell with him. The Roti and Dal were horrible. We couldn’t finish the food fully. Got on the car and back with our trip. Aruna and I slept for most of the time during the sickening and strenuous journey. Before we reached Manali via Kullu, my temperature was starting to get high. I wasn’t totally able to enjoy the views of the route to Manali and neither did Aruna. We reached the Holiday Cottages, which lies on the way to the Manali bus stand. It was a small but very pleasant hotel. They did offer us with a deluxe room (the topmost) which had a staggering view of the Manali Hilltops. It was a beautiful site, but by then my temperature had gone real high. We called up for a doctor, who came in and gave me a high dosage seeing my 102 F and of course an injection. I tried sleeping till 7 PM, but then Aruna was getting jaded. I felt so bad for her. I thought maybe I should have gone to the temples first, after the wedding and then should’ve come to these places. But also felt, it was more of karma.
Then I sat with Aruna before the dinner to watch the TV. I was well. Saagar was the boy, who was in charge of the room and service. He was a guy, who doesn’t speak English, but has a good attitude and shows good hospitality. We ordered dinner and my appetite was slowly but steadily decreasing.
The Mandir at Kufri
500 Years old Hadimba Temple
Local sightseeing at Manali: I decided not to go to Rohtang Pass (which is the best tourist spot) that day and take over the plan with local sightseeing since I didn’t feel very well. The fever was coming and going and the frequent dosages of tablets kept it in control. I wasn’t fully well. I knew that. But I have to make Aruna have fun and have to enjoy the trip. I kept myself going or at least tried to.
The local sightseeing started with our trip to the Hadimba temple, which is said to be 500 years old. On the way to the temple, the driver was explaining us with the story of Hadimba who was the wife of Bheema from Mahabharata. The temple had a serene look. On the walk path, it was these street side sellers of “photo with the rabbit” and “Saffron/Kesar”. We went into the temple, which was pretty much a dark place lit only by the very few lamps. We prayed and spent some time roaming in and around the place. We then drove to the Vashist temple, which is on the banks of the Beas River. We had to walk through the roadside market of Himachal Rabbit shawls. It was slightly drizzly and the temple was quite damp. It was a nice place though. We prayed at the Vashist Muni Mandap and also at the Ram temple. I had a coffee on my walk back. We drove back to the Manali market, where we had our lunch. I wasn’t able to eat well. My sickness didn’t allow me to. Aruna was upset with that fact. Back at the hotel, we had nothing to do from 3 PM. We were talking watching TV and getting ready for the Candle light dinner arranged for the night.
I was well till 7 PM, but then again the temperature started to soar. We had a nice Candle light dinner arranged on the balcony with a night view of Manali. The food was very good too. After the dinner, I had to take the tablets to bring the temperature down. But what bothered us more was the fact that, the driver had informed us earlier the same afternoon. He has told us that Rohtang pass has no snow this season and there were landslides on the path and Rohtang Pass cannot be reached. This totally disappointed us since, we had planned this trip majorly to visit Rohtang Pass. Of my previous visit, I really remember well, that RP was one of the best places I’ve ever seen. I wanted to show it to Aruna , so badly. Unfortunately after confirmations from the hotel owner and other people, we decided to drop the plan taking my health into concern too.
Vashisht Temple
The Candle Light Dinner at Manali
Solang Valley: I got up the next morning and took bath. I knew I wasn’t feeling right at all. My muscles were shivering every bit. The tablet I had didn’t have any effect. I called up the driver to postpone the trip to Solang valley (which was the contingent plan for Rohtang Pass) after lunch. I was really not feeling well. Calling up my dad, I did a good move of asking him to get the medication advice from our family doctor, Dr. Satyanarayanan. He prescribed us a couple of tablets. On the way to Solang Valley after lunch, I bought those tablets and had them. I knew it was going to be fine. But I never knew the other tablets, I had previously would land me into a greater trouble.
The route to Solang Valley is the same way to travel to Leh. It was a stunning view from there. I was happy and excited. Aruna was too busy sleeping to share it with her in the car during our travel. The clouds and the river nearby were brilliant creations of God. It was so very beautiful. When we reached Solang Valley, Aruna woke up. This place was very good. Aruna had a cup of tea. The place boasted with a view point at the top through the winch, horse riding and paragliding. With the health I had, we could only go for the winch ride to the top viewpoint. But it was a great ride. It was fun for the fact that the view was excellent. On the top was a small shop selling food items that excluded tea. Coffee was as expensive as 100 bucks. We took a few snaps and enjoyed the view. It was one of the nicest moments we had in the trip.
I guess I didn’t touch the wood there. On the drive back to the hotel, I started realizing what the previous medication had given me. Throat ulcers! I knew it was going blow up big. But then nothing could be done. Returning back to the hotel, my dinner had reduced to only curd rice. That was the only thing that goes into the stomach through my ulcery throat. Even with that I watched the TV and wanted to watch “Jackie Brown” and “Cast away” in some channel. But then, I needed rest.
Solang Valley
Solang Valley - The view of the mountains
To Chandigarh: Next morning, I got up only to become conscious that the throat ulcer had gone worse, but there was no fever. Now, all we wanted was to go back to Chennai. Home sweet home, Ain’t it? Just after the breakfast, we jumped back to the route to Chandigarh. It was not a bad drive, except for my bad throat and weakness due to bad appetite. I slept well on the way and for a change, Aruna didn’t. I felt so bad for her every time, that we couldn’t wholly enjoy the trip, just because of me. It is quite a natural guilty feeling that I couldn’t let out. In Punjab, at “Amaan Dabha”, we had a tea. My throat was so bad that I could even have more than a couple of sips. We reached Chandigarh at 5:30 Pm and checked into a hotel that was not good. It was the City Heart Residency. It was okay to stay there for a night though. I was so hungry, tired, weary and what not. After a bit of roaming on the dirty platform of the stretchy complex and hotels, we had only tea and a soft drink. In the room, we weren’t in good mood; not even to talk. Dinner was ready. Curd Rice. For both of us. Bad night.
Downhill Manali
Punjab - Aman Dhaba
Back to Delhi and Chennai: Without a good night sleep, without food, and weakness from fever and not to forget the ultra pain of the throat ulcer, it is not easy to get up from bed and get ready for a drive. But I had to and I did. We commenced the final drive of the trip to Delhi from Chandigarh at 9 AM. The travel was five hours long excluding our halt at the Haveli restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was magnificently constructed and was supposedly serving the best food in the state. But, Alas! I couldn’t have anything and Aruna, was not in a mood to have anything at all. She was upset totally about my health. We reached Delhi airport at 4, if I remember it right. The Jet Konnect flight from Delhi to Chennai for us to fly is at eight in the evening. We tried swapping the ticket for an earlier flight, but we would have to pay some 5000 bucks more. Damn it! We would wait! Even when I felt sick, the three hours at airport was fun talking with Aruna. We had a good time. At 7 PM, we had curd rice (a small plastic cup) that cost us 90Rs. (It is airport!). We boarded the flight and landed at 10:40 PM , just after Aruna had the Vegetarian meal on the flight. (She was allegedly tempted by the boy – next –seat’s food.). Sriram was waiting there to pick us up. I couldn’t talk a word to him. The irony was we had spent 60k on the trip and I wasn’t even in a position at the end of the trip to smile and say “hi” to Sriram.