Day 62 (Thurs 7 Sep) - Mandi / Manali
We got up and had a surprisingly nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We packed up our gear and headed off to the bus stand to catch a bus to Manali. Luckily just as we arrived at the bus stand a bus was leaving for Manali so we clambered on.
The bus took the busy valley road which followed the river. There was some impressive sheer drops on our right hand side as we started to climb up the valley. As we travelled we could see temples perched high up on the sides of the valley. Now again elegant 'rope' bridges appeared strung across the river.
Our bus driver seemed intent on overtaking every vehicle, even on blind bends. It was getting pretty scary as he was driving really fast and recklessly. Suddenly we had to stop as there was a queue of traffic in front of us. People were getting out of their vehicles and looking over the side of the road down into the valley. It became obvious that a vehicle had left the road and was at the bottom of the valley. People were trying to help but everyone on our bus seemed to think there was no way the passengers would have survived the fall. We thought after witnessing this our bus driver would slow down and take a bit more care, but no he seemed more intent on getting to Manali as quickly as possible.
We drove on for another half a hour and came to another queue of traffic, as normal our driver decided to over take everyone. When we got to the front we noticed that a bus and a truck had had a head on collusion and both vehicles were pretty smashed up. By this time we wanted to get off the bus and walk! Sarb looked terrified .
Our bus driver continued driving like a mad man until we had gone through a large tunnel in the mountain ater which he seemed to drive at a snails pace. We have no idea what was going on in his head but we were grateful that we had to change buses when we got to Kullu .
When we arrived at Manali the Bus stand was mad. Manali seemed to be a busy tourist place and there were loads of hotel and tour touts. We fought our way to the booking office to find out about buses to Spiti Valley and booked a ticket for a bus early the following morning.
We needed to sort out some accommodation for the night so we popped into Chopsticks restaurant for a late lunch whilst we considered our options. We had a tasty tibetan lunch - Jo had vegetable momos in soup whilst Sarb, being more adventurous, had the fried mutton momos.
Sarb then headed off to find a place to stay. He managed to get a really cheap room at Pushpak Hotel which was ideally located near the bus stand. When we settled in the room we realised why it was so cheap - it smelt damp and it was dirty but we were only staying one night and were getting up really early the next morning so we stayed put.
Later we explored Manali a bit - it could easily be an alpine tourist resort in Europe. The surrounding scenery is stunning and you only remember you are in india when you hear and see the mad auto rickshaws beeping down the road.
We had an early night as we had to get up at 4.30am.
The bus took the busy valley road which followed the river. There was some impressive sheer drops on our right hand side as we started to climb up the valley. As we travelled we could see temples perched high up on the sides of the valley. Now again elegant 'rope' bridges appeared strung across the river.
Our bus driver seemed intent on overtaking every vehicle, even on blind bends. It was getting pretty scary as he was driving really fast and recklessly. Suddenly we had to stop as there was a queue of traffic in front of us. People were getting out of their vehicles and looking over the side of the road down into the valley. It became obvious that a vehicle had left the road and was at the bottom of the valley. People were trying to help but everyone on our bus seemed to think there was no way the passengers would have survived the fall. We thought after witnessing this our bus driver would slow down and take a bit more care, but no he seemed more intent on getting to Manali as quickly as possible.
We drove on for another half a hour and came to another queue of traffic, as normal our driver decided to over take everyone. When we got to the front we noticed that a bus and a truck had had a head on collusion and both vehicles were pretty smashed up. By this time we wanted to get off the bus and walk! Sarb looked terrified .
Our bus driver continued driving like a mad man until we had gone through a large tunnel in the mountain ater which he seemed to drive at a snails pace. We have no idea what was going on in his head but we were grateful that we had to change buses when we got to Kullu .
When we arrived at Manali the Bus stand was mad. Manali seemed to be a busy tourist place and there were loads of hotel and tour touts. We fought our way to the booking office to find out about buses to Spiti Valley and booked a ticket for a bus early the following morning.
We needed to sort out some accommodation for the night so we popped into Chopsticks restaurant for a late lunch whilst we considered our options. We had a tasty tibetan lunch - Jo had vegetable momos in soup whilst Sarb, being more adventurous, had the fried mutton momos.
Sarb then headed off to find a place to stay. He managed to get a really cheap room at Pushpak Hotel which was ideally located near the bus stand. When we settled in the room we realised why it was so cheap - it smelt damp and it was dirty but we were only staying one night and were getting up really early the next morning so we stayed put.
Later we explored Manali a bit - it could easily be an alpine tourist resort in Europe. The surrounding scenery is stunning and you only remember you are in india when you hear and see the mad auto rickshaws beeping down the road.
We had an early night as we had to get up at 4.30am.
posted by Jo and Sarb at
9/07/2006 07:06:00 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home