Like most of my other trips to Himalayas this one too was entirely unplanned. Guess not planning the trips is my secret to visiting the mountains regularly plus of course the fact that my job offers me the leeway to take a week off at a short notice.
So the reason this time was that my wife gave birth to our second child - a son on September 17th. And my mom was busy sorting out some pension issues post my dad's untimely demise in June. Both of them were in Bangalore and neither of them showed any inclination to return to Hyderabad anytime soon. I decided that I wasn't in a mood to return to Hyderabad alone either, decided to go back mountains, checked the airfare to Delhi, called up my boss to check if he was ok with me missing for a week and there it was folks - within an hour of failing to convince my wife and mother to return to Hyderabad- i was all set to visit Ladakh - a trip I was planning for the past 7 years and like most plans - remained just a plan. Here are the details of the trip. Hope you enjoy it.......do get back with your feedback and feel free to contact me if you plan a trip to the mountains.
September 30 - Bangalore
After having been with my wife during and after the birth and working remotely - Thank god for VPN!! - it was time to go back to Hyderabad. Spent the big part of the morning trying to convince my wife to return to Hyderabad in the next fortnight, but didn't meet with much success. Next tried to convince my mom to return with me (who's going to cook, clean, wash and take care of me???). But she was having a tough time doing all the paper work and running around Canara Bank and refused to return to hyd until she achieved her goal. So took a decision to take a week off since my company offers a week off as Paternal leave.
Since I already had an eticket to hyd by rail, I booked a return ticket to Delhi from Hyderabad - Rs. 5,200. Tough luck as Yatra.com announced a 50% cash back on all air tickets booked on or after Oct 1 on are booked using ICICI credit card. Just missed it by a whisker.....opportunity loss of Rs.2600
October 1 - Hyderabad,Delhi
Reached home at 8AM and thanks to our three week absence, the electricity board folks had switched off power to our flat for non payment of bills. Had a flight at 1.30 pm to Delhi and hence I had to do the following in the next 3 hours.
(1) Power up my office and personal laptops, transfer data from office laptop to personal laptop, burn some office data on a dvd and deliver it an office friend
(2) Go to my good friend Badri and get his BSNL sim card. BSNL service may be second rate, but at least you get a signal everywhere
(3) Freshen up and pack for the trip
(4) Fill up my stomach.
(5) Do all of the above without power in my flat!!
Somehow achieved all of the above and reached airport at 1 pm and managed to board the flight. This was my first Indigo flight and I was pretty impressed.
3.15 pm - Flight landed at Delhi airport on time and having paid 5K from my pocket for the flight, I was in no mood to pay for a taxi and tried my best to get a free ride or at least a DTC bus to ISBT. Having failed, stuck a deal with an auto driver, paid him 70 rupees for a ride to CP metro station. Took the metro from CP to ISBT (Kashmiri Gate) and was there by 4.15 pm.
I had three ways to reach Manali - take the 4.30pm ordinary bus - Rs.350, take the super delux bus leaving at 8 pm - Rs. 650 or the Volvo leaving at 8 pm - Rs. 900. Since the ordinary bus was leaving earlier plus since it meant saving 600 bucks compared to Volvo, I opted for it. After a 2 hr. halt at Panipat due to an accident between our bus and a lawyers brand new Alto, including a visit to the police station, the bus finally Manali at 10 AM on time!!!
October 2 - Manali
Checked into a hotel overseeing the bus stand - Rs. 250 a day. Decent accommodation including color TV and running hot water. Freshened up, took a stroll on the mall, checked my mails and booked a rail eticket from Udhampur to Delhi for next Monday.
Took an auto for a tour of Manali. The fare was 300 bucks and the driver assured me that this was because the total distance covered would be around 30 kms including some tough climbing. I fell for his story and since they had an auto strike that day was short of options. Visited Vashist temple and hot springs and since I had already freshened up, felt no need to strip again and take a dip at the hot springs. Vashist is a nice place to hang around - mostly foreigners - that too Israelis live here. you can check my photos at picasaweb. Next stop was another shiva temple - beautifully redone recently with some amazing wood works and then I was off to the Hidimba temple - the most famous temple in Manali. The driver then dropped me at the bus stop showing me two other places that were within sight of the bus stop itself. I was then that I realised that he has taken me for a ride. Out of the 5 places he had promised to take me- only two were useful and the total distance covered was less than 15 kms.
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