Manikaran - heaven on earth

On our last day at Manali, we decided to go all the way to Manikaran and then drive back from Manikaran to Chandigarh airport to catch a 7 PM last flight out to Mumbai.

Left Manali at 6AM and drove in rain through mountain sides where there were many rocks that had fallen on the roads (we did not read the news.. and had no idea that the entire area was taking heavy rains. Leh which was 100 or kilometers away had a cloudburst and many people died that week) and finally reached Manikaran at 8 AM.

Our expert driver told us "if you want to see Chandigarh airport by 6:30 this evening in this weather, you have to be back here by 9:15. That is assuming you get 30 minutes for one break!"

We took him very seriously and went past the bridge, the Gurudwara, the cave, the shiva temple, the durga temple, the ram temple including me taking a dip in the hot springs at the Ram temple!

What an entrance to a temple!

Here is a video where the little one is bugging me about a dog. She has a biscuit in her hand and it is eye level with the dog! Of course she couldn't shake him off!

Another 4000 year plus old temple with the same construct as the Vashisht temple in Manali..

There is a place here where a board says "Shiva and Parvathi are said to have meditated here for 13,000 years".

The bell at the temple entrance echoes through when you ring it.

For a minute you can totally believe why anyone would chose that as a location to stay put for 13k years. The steep green and brown cliffs on one side, the raging river on the other side, the hot springs on yet another side make you feel the power of nature and the ephemeral nature of man.

We did manage to race back to Chandigarh and it was one glorious drive past the airport, the Beas (Byas) Parvathi rivers confluence (sangam)

all the way around the Bilaspur lake, Sundar Nagar and along the Sutlej river into Punjab. We even drove past a new IIT near Chandigarh!

Here is a beautiful but noisy video..

We made it just 45 minutes before our flight, but it was enough for us to get into the plane and be on our way to Mumbai.

One amazing thing at Manikaran is that both the Gurudwara and the Temple have a Langar where they provide free food for anyone who walks in. They do this by throwing in sacks of rice and lentils and potatoes into the hot spring (which is pretty much boiling over) and out comes cooked rice, dal and aalo! Mother nature's kitchen. Should ask the food network to cover this. Truly amazing.

They also take some water and put a tea bag in it and drink instant Chai! Apparently there is a place which is a 2 day hike from Manikaran called Kheer Ganga where the water is hot and foamy that it looks like Milk. There you make Chai Latte!

Our driver told me, "only way is to hike, but the place is beautiful. You should take more time and go with a trained guide. The two day hike is worth it" and I was thinking "let me see. cannot get that kind of time off now with the little kids. by the time they are old enough to join me on a hike like that, I will be too old to hike!"

In any case, if there is a next time, we will try to see KheerGanga.

Happy enough that we got to see Manikaran. It is truly heaven on earth and the ride along the river is truly worth it, rain or rocks!

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Rohtang - a near miss

On our Manali trip we did try to go to Rohtang pass. A truck had its real axle break and pretty much blocked the one lane road for a good kilometer on either side and after waiting for a few minutes we were told by our driver that it would be 2 hours to clear it.

Instead we decided to go the valley and have some fun.

Visibility was bad anyways and the driver told us that it wasn't exactly a good idea to go there that day. So we spent a good 3 hours on the van going up and coming down.

The scenery was till fantastic on the way.

So were the signboards.

We also went up and down the state of the art ski lift they have in this valley and visited the "pizza hut" on top. The visibility was non-existent at the top of the ski lift. We seriously thought that this was a real "Pizza Hut express" on top of the mountain. The FIL and me were amazed. I was comparing it to the "quickie Mart" on top of the Himalayas that comes in "The Simpsons". Myself and my FIL made it past slippery paths and little rivulets of slush in heavy rain to check out this place and guess what it was?

A small yellow canopy with an electric Oven and a Nescafe machine powered by a pulled down connection from the ski lift. The menu was all Italian and the guy did make a decent pizza based on feedback we could hear.

It was Hut Pizza!

So at the end of the day, we missed out on going to Rohtang but had a ton of fun in the valley!

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Dream Job

Many a time when the daily routine got too stressful, San and me have had conversations that run something like this:

Me : I am tired. My health is going. Enough with this house/school district/money business. My parents gave me a good education. We can try to do that without this expensive school district thing or anywhere in the world. Let's retire. Or at least let me retire..

San : Can you come back to the real world please?

Me : Why can't I just start a drive through shop which sells only four things.. Maggi noodles, samosas, Chai and filter coffee? We can make a living doing that? no?

San : Where?

Me : anywhere on I-5. you will have a queue a mile long.. trust me!

San : usually shakes her head and walks off or says something to the effect of "by tomorrow your head will cool down and you will be back to work"

Recently we found a dude who is doing my dream job..

On a route between Rohtang pass and Manali, there is a guy who under a simple yellow tarp canopy makes simple omelet sandwiches and Maggi Noodles!

Hot noodles when it is really cold outside! Unfortunately he makes no Chai/Coffee to go with this. Still it is a pretty good deal for 30 rupees a plate.

Mochu's Cafe on the gate behind IT-BHU in Varanasi, used to be a favorite Saturday night hangout for us because our regular mess halls would be closed Saturday. Mochu would make us a plate of Maggi noodles for 5 rupees between 8-10 PM only. A big aluminum vessel where maggi was constantly added and removed.

Some of us south Indians would call it Mochus "Akshaya patram" where he kept coming up with noodles for a large crowd. He also sold us cheese sandwiches (2 nicely cut triangles with Amul cheese) for 2 rupees and Chai for 1 rupee. In winter when you see your breath condense in front of you, the hot Maggi would taste divine.. just divine.

In close to 20 years the Maggi plate price has gone up 6 fold, but the good news?

The taste has stayed the same!

ps. In the audio you can hear my FIL ask me :

Is it clean?

I say "the seat is clean".

He then tells me "not the seat.. the plates and spoons" and I say "you can't expect much here. The noodles is boiling. the hot noodles will kind of take care of the plate.."

funny how I switch cleanliness standards when we travel in India.

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From Chandni Chowk to almost China

One day we were stuck in a Toyota Innova going through old Delhi in pouring rain, competing with horse and bullock carts through the only open road to the Red Fort.. and before you know it we were flying into Kullu airport!

This was by far the most beautiful landing we have experienced!

We also had a great hotel in Manali called Snow Valley. It had really nice views and an apple trees everywhere. The land is so fertile here that there are apple trees on the side of the freeways. You can stop anywhere, pluck apples on the road and keep going! No wonder every rishi and his dad worth his apple lived in this area many thousand years ago.

Manali is truly breathtaking. The mountains, the clouds, the waterfalls from 10000 foot mountains, the rivers that gush through with such force, the lush greenery.... this tops all the national parks we have visited so far!

we should set up a bed like this at ground level in Cupertino! Truly loved this bed and the pillows.

This is a 4000 year old temple. Look at the stone placement on the original temple (it has a makeover roof and an outer wall now).

There are hot springs all over the place. Hot springs with NO sulfur. Fresh hot water that keeps coming. People wash clothes from open hot water springs that flow 24x7. The water going through the drains is steaming. Sat down in a spring in the Vashishtar temple and did not want to come out. The first few seconds, you feel like it is scalding you, but once the warmth gets to you, it just takes over. It was so refreshing. For a few minutes, forgot the world and then the word "daddy" got me out of my trance. Did not even feel like taking any pictures or videos after coming out of that bath. Luckily, FIL took a few videos to help with the blogging!

If I can feel confident of meditating here for a few days, it is not hard to believe that the gods meditated here for a few thousand years!

It was a pity that we could not stay there for a few days here and a few hours in that tank.

Truly felt blessed after spending that day in Manali. There seems to be a sizable Israeli population in Manali. Almost 20% of the local population seems to speak Hebrew. Shop signs are all in Hebrew! I was very envious of these souls who get to live in a place like this with so much peace and tranquility compared to souls like me who are trying to find themselves in the west. In retrospect when you visit Niagara falls or Yosemite on any long weekend you will find the place populated with desis to a point where any non desi from the east coast would feel similarly envious!

The next day we went to Manikaran and drove back to Chandigarh on what was really nasty weather. There were flash floods everywhere and it was pouring slush and rocks from the mountain walls. Thanks to our skilled driver and the kids being well behaved (and scared for the most part) we drove 12 hours through Himanchal Pradesh along the Beas, Parvathi and Sutlej rivers and around Bilaspur lake, with one 30 min stop, to make it back to the busy Mumbai.

Anyone living in Manali is very lucky. Next time, if there is a next time, we will try to go there when it is snowing!

Hopefully Vasishta Rishi has blessed us with another visit...

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