The magic started right from the airport — this cute airstrip in the middle of a valley-(could be easily an airstrip somewhere in Europe !) , surrounded as it is with mountains all around it — then the drive to Manali- with spectacular views of the flowing Beas river and snow capped peaks.
One pleasant difference from the Uttaranchal hills was that these were not populated (or should I say polluted) with human inhabitants. Most of the dwellings were around the base of the hills and mountains — compared to Kumaon hills where the houses are as high up as the mountain peaks ! — still Manali was much more crowded and developed than I remembered it ( went there 23 years ago )
Enjoyed the Swiss chalet type or Kashmir type constructions of houses and simple loved the roses blooming all over- in all kinds of colours from shades of crimson, oranges, yellow, white and even purple.
Our hotel was in New Manali — ( bad idea to stay so far from city proper) — -if one goes to Manali –they should only stay in the heart of old Manali — else it is a waste to go to Manali — just the commute to the city each time is unnecessary stress- bad roads, fast drivers ( an old white haired man of 70 + yrs gave us a ride once till the city and even he drove like a maniac !) and exhaust pollution- and then anything worthwhile in Manali is in the city or near it.
Checked out all celebrated eating places — one thing they had in common was that the helpings were larger than those in Delhi — shareable by 2 easily ( not for heavy eaters) — Il Forno — near Hidamba temple- run by Italian lady- nice food, had stone oven pizza, pasta, salad and the definitely on of the best tiramisu’s i have had, Tibet Kitchen — lovely momos and ting mo , also had decent Chinese here, had a meal at the Johnson cafe — nice trout dishes- recommend staying here –if anybody wants to stay in manali. Visited The Lazy Dog — as reccommended by my sonand enjoyed it enough to revisit it the next day as well — armed with our ipad and computer !
The celebrated Bob Dylan cafe –looked quite seedy and a dope-y kind of a place.
Visited the Naggar castle — pretty castle made totally of wood and elaborately carved on all surfaces — — amazing location — had a birds eye view of the surrounding valley till far — no way an enemy could approach without being seen. –also visited the Roerich art museum — over hyped I felt till we learnt that he used natural colours made with stones, fruits, flowers and leaves. — mostly painted the peaks around Manali — thought his portraits of his mom, wife, Nehru, Indira, etc were much better. This Roerich chap — a german jew also married a celebrated Indian movie actress — Devika Rani. Their home in Naggar had been converted to the museum .
Rohtang Pass was closed- snowed over still –but we went till the highest snow point open (about 25 kms before Rohtang) — very cold and windy, with the kind of cold which gets under the clothes — but the snow was solid and dirty –black with exhaust fumes and muddy with so many tourists- trying to ski, or getting pulled on snow sleds, etc. So many tourists drive up till this point that there was a traffic jam while we were returning ( about 20–30 minutes after we reached) rather than sit in the car and get frustrated at the jam- I preferred walking and I covered 3–4 kms easy before these guys could catch up with me –there must have been more than 300 cars lined up one after the other- and still coming.
Solange valley– with its ropeway and paragliding, zorbing activity –again seemed like an over sell.
In fact all touristy things in Manali seemed a hype — the best is to walk around on the hills, enjoy the cold air and the scenery, have food at various places and just chill –rafting is the only worth while activity- the walk from the Johnson cafe to old manali- through the deodar forest reserve( am sure it was created to preserve some of the original manali environs) was the manali as I remembered — only these tall deodar trees, and huge boulders.
Later half of the vacation was at a resort halfway between Manali and Kullu — this resort we enjoyed — was right next to the Beas (the river flowed about 5 ft from the edge of the property. The rooms were built in wood and slate — chalet type architecture- inside was totally wood, fireplaces in each room, views of river and this huge landscaped garden with gazebos overlooking the rivers, benches in nooks and under trees — apple, pear, apricot, walnut (a huge one right in the middle of the property) — enjoyed ourselves here the three days we were here.
Rafting was a fun experience tho’ it was quite short — a bare 15 minutes- my daughter and husband rowed along with three other professionals — i sat in the middle of the raft and still fell over ( thankfully inside the raft itself and not overboard) — got thoroughly drenched and the water was freezing — — good fun — -tho’ the rapids seemed violent to me — they may not have been very violent or maybe the guys running the raft were good at avoiding the really rough waves and swirls.
All in all was a relaxing 6 days- did nothing except read, eat, walk and generally just laze around.