The (im)perfect plan – Manali

On a random day was just thinking what do I do for my next trip and felt that another Himalayan trek would be a suitable for the month of May and started to browse through the internet.
But then one place was been stuck in my mind from long time and that was Manali.
As we decided Manali was a place we took a flight to Delhi and an overnight bus ride from there towards our first destination that is Kasol , A land filled with GREENery 🙂 and scenic views.
I had seen a couple of videos and read a few things about the beauty in kasol and often mentioned as an ‘offbeat’ place from manali which is just around 2 hours far, kasol an absolutely beautiful town has become a heaven for foreigners and locals alike.
Often a great place for hiking ,adventure and also a spiritual retreat to many travelers after exploring the GREENS of kasol and walking along the streams of parvathi valley we decided to stay at Tosh a village around 2kms from Kasol.
We stayed with Himtrek stays at tosh even though we had an option to drive up the mountains we decided to trek the mountains to move our legs a bit and of course save a bit of money since it was just just 2kms (incase you want to take taxi it costs around 1500 – 2000 per car), must say the ambience and the food was amazing but the most amazing part of the stay for was sipping that tea and looking at Parvathi river flowing and an astounding views of the greater Himalayas. As we spent our night looking at stars we also got some good rest before started our day back a descend towards the town of kasol.

“Chai at tosh”

Then we decided to go towards manali our key place on which our whole trip was planned as the internet mentioned it’s an overcrowded place , nothing much to do in the city just an overrated place etc, Well partially I agree with the part of overcrowded I don’t think most or any of the places are overrated this applies to all the famed places around the world.
These famed places get famed due to their beauty , of course humans being humans and the innocence of the the local people are converted into a monetized minds which is sad but stands the same for all of us including me,getting back to our trip manali was just as it was mentioned such a beautiful town amidst the mountains.
Probably the timing couldn’t have been better post winter manali gets opened to all kinds of adventures for the summer, as we reached manali in the noon we realized that the pre-monsoon showers had already started we walked through the pine forest or also known as Manali Nature Park. it’s quiet and a peaceful retreat in between the city and highly recommended place.
As we reached our stay we decide to visit the local market and explore the local streets and food of old manali.

“Streets of old manali”

I would say the best way to explore old manali is stay near old manali a lot of hostel option many small treks nearby and a lot of tourist attractions in the surroundings as well
Our next destination was the mountain village of Naggar but before that we met a lady where we bought some local goods she mentioned another place called sethan, the best decision we took for the day a left from the village of prini and around 15km up the mountain it reaches the hydropower station which over looks the hampta pass, trekking up the mountains will connect you to the actual hampta pass with no crowds since it was almost off season we had the roads for ourselves like our whole life story the most unplanned trips always turn out to be the best.
As we were greeted by some beautiful local ladies of the region we had some ‘Pahado waali’ maggi and chai.

“Sethan village enroute hampta pass”

As we left the Hampta region for our next destination, Naggar, the rain began to increase. The journey through the Himalayas is always beautiful, but as the wind grew colder, we made the decision to stop at a charming and lesser-known waterfall on the way to Naggar to enjoy some “Siddu” (a steamed bread filled with peanut, walnut, poppy seeds, potato, and other ingredients depending on the region) and some momos for a very special and must-try experience there.
There was no sunset on the day, and the breeze only grew colder. On our way back, we stopped at a few local shops to see some Himchali specials. As we continued towards Naggar, we visited the renowned Naggar Castle, a historical structure from the area that was constructed by Raja Sidh Singh, the first king of the Singh lineage. We were astounded by the castle’s architecture and wondered if modernization was erasing our roots and our true culture.

“Temple inside the Naggar castle”

We had rented a two wheeler for our day outing towards Naggar which is according to me the best way to explore if you like to cruise through the Himalayan breeze and then asking upon the owner where we could spend a couple of days and he told us go towards Sissu and Keylong. We decided to ride towards Sissu through the famed Solang valley and do some activities on the way but as always “God has his own plan” as we planned to visit Sissu the rain gods decided to pour all his might which resulted in an epic ride and an unforgetable one while the weather was around 10-11 but surely felt like 0 because of the rain and the heavy winds around, while we struggled through the whole solang valley a Chai shop was our savior while we shivered as we stopped the chai and momos was our savior it’s also a lesson to everyone when you’re in a region which is cold make sure to keep your body warm all the times otherwise it could turn out quite bad on the body.

“The famed atul tunnel”

We continued our ride through the famous Atul tunnel which is around 8kms long and makes the journey much more easier than taking the adventure route of Rohtang Pass and finally reached the scenic village of sissu and spent some quality time in the village. We had booked a stay with Mr. manoj in the homestay some atheletes from the Indian cycling team were staying in the same homestay and decided to stay 2 more days due to delay in training due to rain so we were given an oppurtunity to upgrade to a Mud house due to this unseen situation.
Mud houses were used in the history as well by many people in the region and this is probably the only stay in Sissu  as of now, it was an amazing experience which should not be missed out.
Also the rates are very affordable at around 2000-3000 depending on the season and Mr. Manoj is a great host ( Sissu Camp and Mudhouse Stay).
After waking up to a ‘warm’ morning which was around 1c degree since sissu almost reaches -20 to -25C degree in winters but it was still cold for us since we are not used to this kind of weather condition , we went towards Koksar a village which is around 25mins from Sissu it’s a quaint place which another offbeat place in the region of Lahaul towards Spiti and showcases the extragavant views of the mighty Lahaul and Spiti valley (which shall be covered in the upcoming blogs) we spent some quality time in the village and enjoyed some settled snow.
As we returned from koksar back to our mudhouse we visited our favorite place in sissu a small hotel run by locals who make some lip-smacking Thupka and due to that cold the taste  just got better each time we had in the span of 3 days.

Somewhere out there in koksar valley”

These were definitely the best 3 days of the trip a slow paced life and some good food while we had to return to manali with heavy hearts manoj’s mother decided to give some of there home grown vegetables we were overwhelmed by the hospitality.
We started our return towards manali hoping we could the paragliding but the weather condition wasn’t suitable so we decided to do another activity that is  zipline in middle of a river to be very honest its quite a thrilling experience  where they dip you into the water when you’re right in the middle after another cup of chai and some nice burgers which we had in foodtruck nearby we decided to  move towards the visit some more local places on the Vashisht known for  natural hot springs around which can be accessed for free as usual like many places in India the cleanliness around the place isn’t great the most important thing our ancestors have shown is as long as you are good with nature it will protect you back but sadly we are too greedy to understand this at this point.

We also visited the famed manu temple in the old manali region which has a great architecture and some nice views, even the rain made it more enjoyable honestly.
Our adventure didn’t stop there as we decided to return from our last attraction we were surprised to see petrol from our scooter was stolen 🙁 a terrible experience as we had a bus to catch in an hour. Also a “VVIP” had arrived in Manali so they had blocked the road for their easy access to the town so we had to walk all the way from our homestay with around 17-18 kgs on our shoulders for around 3.4kms to the main bus station I’d say this as our first ‘City’ trek :).

Bus stand- manali”

Boarded our bus amidst rain as we moved towards Delhi we put our heads to some rest as we said a Goodbye to our trip to manali

 

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