DEV BHOOMI - Day 5

8th July 2010

Another morning in Manali. We were not supposed to be staying in Manali for 2 nights on the way to Ladakh. And here we were spending 3 nights and 2 whole days. Nature sure has a strange way of turning your best laid plans to dust!

Wake up and get ready, albeit at a very relaxed pace. Have breakfast at the dining room. Dinesh is heavily into Lemon Tea, Arshad likes his tea strong and I prefer very light tea and hence the many cups that I am wont to consume in a day.

Leave the hotel at around 10.45 am. and proceed towards Vashisth Temple and Hot Springs. Its around a 3 km. drive to the parking lot before the temple.

The last 750 mts is an uphill walk. You will find lots of shops and salesmen, selling everything from Saffron, Shilajit, Shawls, etc. The loudest are the ones, who insist on showing you Chingoo! More on that later. The whole stretch is interspersed with budget hotel, restaurants, tea stalls, tour operators, shops, internet cafe, bakeries and even a bike service centre.

The Hot springs are inside the temple premises. Cameras are not allowed inside. Separate enclosures for Men and Women. Go inside to find people taking a bath, with soap and all. Thankfully arrangements have been made, so that the main water is not polluted. The water is piping hot. Wash feet and hands, visit the temple. Come out and take a few pictures of the temple entrance and the surrounding mountains.

Walking back to the parking lot and we are again accosted by salesmen, selling us CHINGOO! Curiosity gets the better of us and we troop into a shop. So what is CHINGOO? Chingoo is a blanket made of the hair of an animal called Chingoo! It would have been nice, if the guy had just said that and shut up! But he didn't, and we were subjected to a 15 min speech on the virtues of the chingoo, the way it is manufactured, etc. We ask him the price, and lo and behold, he tells us that it can't be bought! It is given on hire for a period of roughly three to five years. After that you have to return it in whatever condition it is in. For this you pay Rs. 5,500/= only. Now the best part, you get 5 free gifts along with this! All of which are things like bed sheet sets, pillow covers and the like. "If you want to take it right now, you can pay by credit card or cash. Otherwise you can order it, give your address and it will be delivered to your doorstep via V.P.P." The choice is entirely yours! (If I had purchased this, or rather hired the chingoo, I would have been surely barred from coming home). We troop out of the shop. On the way back to the car park, we are accosted by many more shopkeepers, who are ready to offer from 2 to 10 free gifts. We have a hearty laugh and move on.

We come back to the hotel at around 12.30 pm., park the car and decide to have lunch at the Mall. We decide on Chinese at Mount View restaurant. Decent food. Finish and decide to have Ice cream as dessert at one of the shops on the Mall. Head back and reach the hotel at around 2.oo pm. Relax for an hour or so and decide to leave again, to visit Naggar Castle and the Roerich Museum.

On the way to Naggar Castle, we stop by at the National Institute of Mountaineering Sports (NIMS), now known as Atal Bihar Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (ABVIMAS) whew, what a mouthful. Good location, but looked pretty forlorn. Visited the museum housed in the premises, just about ok.

Leave after around 15 mins and are on our way to Naggar. Stop by in between to buy some Apples and Naaspati (type of pear) being sold on the sides of the road. The apples though small are delicious. For us Bombayites the price we got them at, was a steal!

Reach Naggar Castle at around 4.15 pm. Beautiful wooden and stone structure. Part of it has been turned into a Luxury Resort by HPTDC. The views from the top floors of the castle are fabulous. Stop to take few pictures. There is also the Jagtipatt temple in the castle premises. Unfortunately it was locked and we could not enter.

Leave the castle and step outside to the German Bakery for some tea and snacks. Arshad checks under the table for unclaimed baggage! LOL. We order a slice of Lemon cake, a peanut cookie, Yak cheese sandwich and Lemon teas for Arshad and Dinesh and plain tea for me. I demolish most of the lemon cake, and take a bite of the sandwich. Not much to my liking. Leave after about fifteen mins., and head towards the Roerich Museum.

The Roerich museum is a nice bungalow, overlooking the town of Naggar. It is now a museum, housing some of the paintings painted by Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Roerich, who was married to Devika Rani considered the First Lady of the Indian Silver screen and the grand niece of Rabindranath Tagore. Most of the painting depict the mountains. Unfortunately could not photograph them, due to the reflection of the glass.

Its almost 6.00 pm. and the museum is about to close. We head out and proceed back towards Manali. On the way stop to take a few snaps of Apples growing on trees. (First time for city dwellers like us, though Dinesh would beg to differ). Also spot a red Scorpio sporting the Live To Drive sticker. Is it a Team BHPian in the mountains?

Reach the hotel at around 7.00 pm. Lots of discussion regarding tomorrow's Rohtang crossing. Road is open, from what we gathered after speaking to cab drivers. Decide to buy bread, butter and cheese, just in case we get stuck on the road, or for emergencies. Fill all the water bottles. Total of around 18 litres. Diesel cans are full. Will fill diesel in the Bolero on the way to Rohtang, at Rashpian Filling Station. (24 hrs. open) in the morning. Time of departure has been fixed at 4.30 am. Pay up all the hotel bills and request the manager to serve us tea at 4.15 am., which he agrees to.

Have dinner at around 8.45 pm. Vinayak and his tour group are leaving for Chandigarh tonight, by Tempo Traveller, for their onward journey to Bombay. We bid farewell to Vinayak and assure him of keeping in touch. Touch base with Rameshbhai and Padma Tashi. Padma is leaving for Leh tomorrow at around 10.00 am. He promises to meet us either at Darcha or Jispa, where we will be spending the night. Say our goodbyes and good nights and retire to our rooms.

Its going to be hard days drive tomorrow and we need to start early. On that note we hit the bed.

To be continued.............................