Day2: Mountains!

I woke up sometime late in the night and found that the bus was standing still, stuck up in a long queue at a toll booth. It was getting slightly cool outside and there was a drizzle, too. I should have been sleeping but for the biggest problem: The bus wasn't moving. And I can't sleep inside a stationary bus. I've faced this problem in all the night journeys I've made. I get so jelous of all those people who manage to find a deep sleep when I sit and sweat inside a stand-still bus, rolling left and right, trying out all kind of postures to adjust my long legs into the cramped legspace. This time Isomehow managed to sleep and when I woke up again, f or the same reason that the bus had come to a halt, I looked out of the window to see the Sutlej flowing right beside the road, in its full might. Tried taking a snap of it in the night, but it didn't come out well. I should've had a tripod.: long exposure snaps never come out
well when tried with bare hands.

Next time I opened my eyes, I was gifted with the finest view of the journey so far: the bus was climibing the winding roads to Manali that passes through lush green pine forests, apple orchards, farmlands, and always following the river Beas. Manali is situtated on the banks of Beas.

Reached Manali and took a rick to the Youth Hostel, located 8kms away from Manali town, on the river bank. That was a pretty good and exceptionally neat hotel with wood panelling on floors and an amazing view of the mountains and the river from the balcony.

View from the Youth Hostel

We'd enquired about the possibility of making a Leh trip in the short time span we have, but was discouraged by the travel operators saying two days were nothing. We had to reach Delhi back by Saturday morning at least, to catch our flight on Sunday. So we checked out the Outlook traveller guide that we had, and decided we'd settle for Keylong this time. Keylong(pronounced Ke-long) is the HQ of Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. It lies 150km north to Manali, on the Manali-Leh highway.

We rented a taxi and set off soon. The driver was a cool guy named Amar. He was a hell of a driver. So perfect and smooth with the vehicle that we rarely felt we were riding a difficult terrain. The climb was just breathtaking: pine and deodar forests on both sides with streams making ornamental patterns between...The ride was scary at times. The term 'highway' is deceiving: the road was seldom broad enough for two trucks to pass by at the same time. It had no side barriers to stop vehicles skidding and falling in to the Beas hundereds of feet below. I heard accidents were very common during the monsoon and winter when the tyres fail to grip on to whatever little asphalt left on the road. But that was the whole thrill of it, too.

It was getting colder and colder as we climbed. M soon started sporting a pull-over, a monkey cap and woollen gloves. I fought with cold for a while, and decided that I'll stand at the Rohtang pass without wearing a monkey cap. That was the best I could do. It was too cold at Rohtang pass, which is at an altitude of 3500m, and the wind-chill factor brought the temperatures to near-zero level.



Descent from Rohtang gave us our first view of the Lahaul valley. The terrain changed immediately after the pass: There were few trees to be seen, and the greenery was limited to grasslands, shrubs, flowers and bushes. The reason for the startling difference is evident. The lower himalayan mountain ranges block the rain clouds from crossing over and hence it doesn't rain much on the other side of the Rohtang pass. Soon we got down to the valley and started following the river Chandra, which will later merge with Bhaga and become Chenab. We stopped at a place called Khoskar for lunch. M had one look at the place and whispered: "Shire!" They should've shot the movie there: it would have looked even better! We ate
amazing rotis and dal from a dhaba out there.

Road to Keylong followed Chandra river all the way. I could hardly call it a road. But I must say that Border Roads Organization, a division of the Indian Army that manages roads in this part of the country is doing an amazing feat. Landslides are the order of the day. The soil is so loose that without any provocation the roads could be swept away in a matter of minutes by the countless streams that run through the slopes. At many places, there were no sign of anything that resembles a way, and I was surpised to see that an Omni actually managed to tackle the big boulders and find a way through all the mud and rocks.

Chandra river, and the road...

We were traveling through the Himalayas! Wow! There were snow-capped peaks everywhere. But it being summer out there, all we could do was to watch the ice on the distant mountains: we couldn't get to touch it at all...

Reached Keylong by dusk, checked into Hotel Snowland that had a wonderful view of the whole place. The room was really good with cozy bed and all. It was really chill by 9pm. Had dinner from a tibetan restaurant: I tried a Tibetan veg delicacy: don't ask me the name, i forgot :( But it was definitely very good. Quite filling, too.

Then we slept, deep in the Himalayas...