My next place to explore was in Himalayan ranges. The place called Manali, in the beautiful state of Himachal pradesh. I am always inspired by the magnanimity and legendary stories, facts about Himalayas. Always loved to visit many places in its ranges. Finally I started off with Manali. We planned a trip to Manali on April 2009. One of my friends was in Gurgaon at that time. Me and one of my friend travelled from chennai to delhi and joined our friend at Gurgaon.
There are lots of travel agencies which arrange buses from Delhi to Manali straight away. From delhi we have to travel 14 hrs to reach Manali. We boarded the bus at delhi on 11th April 5 PM and reached Manali by 12th morning 8 AM. From the moment we enter the state of Himachal pradesh, I loved the each and every sight. The roads to reach Manali were not having any hair pin bends or steep climbs. The roads were built parallel to the river Beas, its a smooth climb and the sceneries through window were awesome as below.
12th April 2009
Vashisht Temple
Vashisht temple has a hot spring water pool. Many people take a dip in that for its healing effects. The artistic work on the temples wooden construction were splendid.
Hadimba Devi Temple
This is the temple which comes in Roja movie. The Temple resides amidst the deodar trees forest. This place is related to epic Mahabharatha.
Hadimba devi is the mother of the giant Gadorgajan. He was born to Bhima and Hadimbadevi. This temple is dedicated to that mother of Gadorgaja, who gave birth to such a mighty son.
The place around the temple had a great soothing effect. We took a walk through the deodar forest with a cool breeze embracing us all the time.
The view as we came out of Hadimba devi temple was splendid the climate and snowy peaks in our sight welcomed us for a great experience.
Buddhist Monastery
This monastery was built in Tibetan architecture. It has many deities of buddism and very huge statue of budha. To take a snap with him we need to climb up the stairs and reach first floor of the monastery.
Thus ended the first day of our trip at manali. But the actual day began after 8 P.M. Many people know what I mean here. The room we stayed became the dance floor and we had a good teacher's and Davidoff for company.
13th April 2009
Well this is the most adventurous day in my life till now. Know what!!! we did para gliding and sking at Solang valley. That was a life time experience for me, though the para gliding lasted for just 3 minutes, I can never forget the thrill and fun I got out of it, flying at an height of 1000m above the valley gazing the himalayan peaks from an eagle's view was an awesome experience.
Then we went to a place called Gulmarg where we have place for skiing safely for beginners. This place was the peak of our trip. We enjoyed the snowy peaks, padded with the skiing boot and trying out the basics in skiing. An ultimate experience of being surrounded by snow clad peaks.
14th April 2009
Well this day was in exact contrast of what was the day before . . . We visited the Holy temple of Manikaran. Legend says this is the place where goddess parvati, the consort of lord shiva lost a valuble jewel in the river flowing in that place and shiva ordered the nagas to find it back . . . the nagas dug hole deep into earth to find the jewels and hot water sprung through each hole bringing out many precious stones . . . This place is having many hot water springs through out the temple. The water is hot enough to cook rice, when a pot with rice is just dipped into it for few minutes.
15th April 2009
This day in my life gave me a shocking experience . . . Guess what !! We were robbed . . .
When I woke up I heard voices from the other room, my friends were speaking of something . . . and the words were 'someone, thief, stole everything' these were the words which woke me up that morning and to our shock we found that someone has opened our hotel room's window from outside and robbed our belongings . . . except for the Digicam which had the memories . . . Well first time I was a victim of such big theft . . Though we lost many valuble stuffs I cant forget one line which my pal told that day . . . After the Manali police came and investigated the crime and all is over, we were just having a talk and this guy he said "Bloody fellows they stole my jeans, how am i going to get a similar one like that, it will take time for me to choose a similar one" . . . well there is this guy who has lost his K850i Sony ericsson mobile and he said nothing . . . Even today we laugh over this untimely dialogue of his . . .
Those were the splendid, beautiful and terrific four days in my life filled with all variety of experiences.
