Took me some time to write another post. A lot has changed since then, Pimapple is gone. Worldmappin is up and running. My friends have written countless number of interesting posts on this new community.
I had gone to a work trip to the enchanted valley of Lahaul recently. During the rainy season, our side of mountains is usually devoid of tourists for they want to witness snow which is long gone in the month of July. The lower Himalayas get plenty of rains making it somewhat difficult to travel in the mountain region.
However, rainy season is the best time to be in the snow desert of Lahaul for it witnesses a minimal amount of rain during the monsoons and on top of that roads are free of traffic.
Our destination was nothing in particular and we just wanted to travel as far as possible on the same day. However, that was not meant to be as it rained intermittently, and we decided to break our journey into two parts. The first part was staying in Manali wherein a friend invited us over to have a look at his property.
But before we start, a little background about what happened in our state last year. It rained hellfire and destroyed everything. The rains last year wreaked havoc and unfathomable loss of property and life happened. Because ours is a tourism dependent economy, it was important to have a balanced monsoon this year, which so far has gone along the expected lines.
Tourists have returned to the valley, but a little hesitation is still lurking in the air and that's why the roads and hotels were literally empty.
Last year, the newly built National highway comprising of tunnels and flyovers got damaged so bad that it remained in disuse for almost a year. However, diligent Public Works department has worked diligently to make our journeys faster and comfortable. We got to cross two such tunnels on our way and what a pleasant surprise it was!
It took us around 3 hours to drive 135kms (83 miles) and our hosts welcomes us at their property. A huge mansion, if I can call it that, spread over acres stood in front of us. Traditional woodwork rising as high as fifty meters looked really pleasant. And we had the entire place for ourselves because it was devoid of any other tourist. No parking woes, no stress about people partying in the lawn and playing obnoxious musical numbers.
The staff was welcoming and because they had just us to take care of, it was all working at lightning speed. The open courtyard was being utilized by the staff to play all sorts of games. Even I indulged in a game of volleyball wherein I played so bad that they had to request me to be the referee 😁
It is only during such lean tourist periods; one gets to appreciate the beauty of Manali. View from our room was breathtaking. It did rain during the night but we were so tired that we only got to know about it the next morning.
There was Deodar Forest right next to our place and even the thought of walking inside it made me shiver. Tall trees spread along the expanse of Beas River where even the sun would not dare enter. I inquired about jungle walk and they told me that it is better done in groups with a guide along for the route may be really wild.
Hopefully, some other time, we will enter inside that forest chasing the sunlight.
