Manali – HP
Reached Manali - HP at 5:30 pm after a few attempts we finally found a budget Hotel – Vijayant @ INR 300 per day, the room had a good view of the market area of Manali, there is SBI ATM near the strip.
 |
| Hidimba Temple |
Sep’23 we trekked about 2km from the Manali market to Hidimba Devi Temple which is an ancient cave temple dedicated to Hidimbi Devi, sister of Hidimba, who was a character in the Indian epic, Mahabharata, The temple is surrounded by a cedar forest at the foot of the Himalayas. The sanctuary is built over a huge rock jutting out of the ground, which was worshiped as an image of the deity. The structure was built in the year 1553. |
| Mahamaya Durga Temple |
About 1.5 km from Hidimba Temple we reached the interiors of the sanctuary, on the way up the hill there are apple plantations and small huts along with cement houses, overall the hike was refreshing since the way to Hidimba Temple was toxic due to traffic and narrow roads.
Sep’24 we trekked about ½ km to the river bank temple which is just behind the Manali bus stand, the river was amazing the sound of gushing water just relaxing but the major drawback was that it was used as a Toilet by the locals, also near that area were a lot of Cannabis plants along with some livestock.
Sep’25 we visited the Himalaya Nyinmapa Buddhist Temple which is about ½ km from the Manali market it is located in the interiors but would be worth the visit, it has the usual beauty and ecstatic of a Buddhist temple, the living quarters for the monks which is located in the temple premises reminded me of some of old colonies located in south Mumbai.
Sep’26 boarded a bus from Manali Bus stand @INR 250 – 53 km to Rohtang Pass it took us around 3 hrs 15 mins to reach since the roads (Leh–Manali Highway) were very bad due to landslides, try and avoid traveling in small cars to this location since they would lack the power and traction required to make this journey. We spent about 2.5 hrs in Rohtang Pass the view and climate was just uncanny, it was the first time I had felt the extreme cold weather and it wasn’t even winter, we had intended to push forward to Spiti Valley but unfortunately due to bad roads and time constraints we had to scrap the idea.
As expected refreshments in Rohtang were expensive Tea/Coffee – INR 20, Biscuit – INR 20 but it was worth it.
Sep’ 27 at about 8:40 am we boarded a bus @ INR 450 – 260 km to Shimla – HP
Nice post.
ReplyDeleteGreat read.
ReplyDelete