Friday, July 07, 2006

Shimla - Manali (16th June 2006)

16th June 2006

Start Trip Meter: 610 km
End Trip Meter: 889.7 km
Route: Rai - shimla-arki-bilaspur-dehar-sundernagar-mandi-aut-kullu-katrain-manali
Stay & Cost: Single Bed, Kishor Guest House, Rupees 250 (Inclusive Taxes)


I wake up at 5 AM, mount the saddle bag and bag on my bike. Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh is very moist in the morning and a very pleasant weather.




Bidding shimla goodbye, I head towards arki. The ride between shimla and aut is pretty monotonous as I never stopped and interacted with any one. There was only one thing in my mind.. reach manali.

The Aut tunnel (Pandoh tunnel, Larji project) is a miracle. Almost 3 kilometers long this wide tunnel is a great pleasure to ride thru. Stopped at the Manali check post, I pay 100 rupees (Which was Acknowledged) as the "Levy & Charge fee for development of tourism on vehicles entering manali town".
I top up my tank at manali.
It was 16:00 hrs. I leave manali town area, and cross the 1 vehicle-at-a-time bridge thats enroute to rohtang pass. I was then planning heading for palchan/maadi for stay as manali would be very costly.. and I had my 5k living & food budget. I meet a manali enfield bullet bike rental shop owner (just after the bridge) and sip into a tea. Rohtang was snowing that evening. And the Bullet Rental Shop guy suggests me to stay at Kishor Guest House,old-manali for a reasonable priced stay.

I meet many Israelis in old-manali. These are the same Israelis who will show up at pang and leh :)

In manali I stay at kishor guest house. The owner kishor meets me and we decide to have a party.. While I was serious with this trip all the time, and did not drink (but for 2 days), we decide to have a drink.
I buy 6 pegs of 8 PM whiskey and kishore ends up drinking the larger half of the bottle :) LOL. I check my email, manali is cheap (20-30 rupees to an hour). I go to sleep and call it a day!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home


create a site