[Biraj]

Anyone that has read my past travelogues, must be aware about Crusoe and Neil. Crusoe is my Linea T-jet, and Neil is a Punto MJD owned by my wife (and fellow BHPian) Bhavi.

The last time Neil went on a long trip, was when I did the diu. This time the plan was to take Crusoe but as luck would have it, I lost Crusoe's RC before the trip, thus was left with no other option than to take Neil.

Before starting with the details, here's a glimpse of what all we experienced.

[Biraj]

It had been more than 6 months since my last road-trip. Thus, I decided to utilize the pending leaves and go for well deserved trip to Himalayas. Since both Bhavi and I had enough leaves in our kitty, we decided to make this trip at leisurely pace.

Day 1:

We wanted to start around afternoon on March 5 but seldom do our trips progress as per the plan. After a long discussion at home on which car to take, we decided to go-ahead with the Punto. In retrospect, it turns out to be a great decision as:

• Extra 15 mm of ground-clearance was very helpful
• Smaller overhangs were also very useful
• While the distance traveled was similar to what I covered during the kalatop trip. The fuel expense was at 50% of it.

We started at 7 PM and faced one of the worst weathers of the season. There was a dust-storm along with thunder-showers. We decided to spend some time with my parents-in-law, while waiting for the weather to clear up. We finally started around 9 PM and made a dash towards our first stop at Murthal.

The rain-continued but we could manage decent speeds. Since we visit Murthal regularly, we decided to give the Dhabas a miss, and try Chokhi-Dhani. Quite honestly, it was a disappointing experience. We moved from there within 30-40 minutes and decided to take a halt near Ambala.

The past few day were so busy that I has feeling extremely tired. We reached Karnal around 11.30 PM and checked into Savoy Greens. Spending 3100 for 5-6 hours of sleep did seem expensive but it seemed safer than other options on that highway.

Day 2

We started from Savoy around 9 AM after a heavy breakfast at McDonalds. We took Ambala-Kharar route to avoid Chandigarh. All the pace that we had built in Haryana+Punjab was lost at Swarghat. The roads from Swarghat till Bilaspur are in pathetic condition. I wanted cover as much distance as possible in daylight thus, we drove non-stop till Bilaspur. We stopped for lunch at Lake View Hotel in Bilaspur at around 1.30 PM. This restaurant offers amazing view of the Govind Sagar Lake. I was astonished at noticing the remains of the old Bilaspur city in the lake. One can see the roof of temples and palace of Bilaspur's king, protruding from the lake.

Govind Sagar Lake


Remains of the old city


A closer look


100% unadulterated Coke and view


Telling the tales of times gone by

After a heavy lunch and some rest, we started at 3 PM. The roads improved and covered distance quite rapidly (on a Punto). Sundernagar seemed really Sundar. We reached Mandi around 4.15 pm but it took almost 90 minutes to cross Mandi. Shiv Ratri is a major festival in Mandi and the celebrations continue for almost a month after Shiv Ratri. As a result, there was a terrible traffic jam in Mandi.

After Mandi we sped our way to Kullu (not before crossing the magnificent Aut tunnel). At Kullu, we took a turn towards Naggar. It started pouring when were near Kullu, and the weather kept deteriorating. The last 5 KMs to The Castle (Naggar) seemed quite tough due to the combination of darkness, tiredness, rain, narrow roads, steep climb, etc. We finally reached our hotel at around 8 PM.

Here's some detail about the hotel we stayed at:

THE CASTLE
The Castle was converted into a rest house, a hundred year back and in 1978 this ancient building was handed over to HPTDC to run as a heritage hotel. This medieval Castle was built by Raja Sidh Singh of Kullu around 1460 A.D. The hotel overlooks the Kullu Valley and apart from the spectacular view and superb location this has a flavour of authentic western Himalayan architecture. Here, a gallery houses the paintings of the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. Naggar also has three other old shrines. Hotel Castle is an unique medieval stone and wood mansion, once the home to the Raja of Kullu and now an HPTDC Heritage hotel.

Source: http://www.hptdc.nic.in/cir0201.htm

It's a beautiful and peaceful property. A famous song from Jab We Met was shot in this castle and many other movies have been shot here.

Here are a few pics of the The Castle and the view from it:

Castle from a distance


It can be an eerie place after dark


Neil in front of The Castle


Our private balcony


Wonderful view


Meguiars QD at work

[Biraj]

Day 3:

It started with a lovely breakfast at The Castle, and then we went to Solang Valley. Solang Valley is a very touristy place, and I wouldn't want to go there again. It's crowded, it's dirty, it's full of hawkers, and one can get hit by landing para-gliders, or if unlucky even get hit by mules/horses/ponies (whatever they were). Bottom line - It wasn't my type of place but that doesn't mean, others won't enjoy there. There's a lot to do there (Skiing, para-gliding, snow-boarding, etc).

Here are some shots of Solang:

Road widening work before Solang


Solang has this


and this


Basically, all this

We went to Manali from Solang, and enjoyed a lovely late lunch at The Johnson's Cafe. A trip to Manali is made well worth by the amazing food that this Cafe serves. Being a teetotaler here isn't a disadvantage because one would find the best ice-tea here.

Here's a sample of the food:

The famous Trout


Wonderful pepperoni pizza


A brave puppy that can chase away monkeys


The famous Iced-tea

After the lunch, we saw the usual temples in Manali and then headed back to The Castle.

The dark alley to Hidimba temple

Day 4 and 5

These were days when we just wanted to relax. Started Day 3 at around 11 AM, had a nice breakfast and then did a toss-up between Shimla and Mcleodganj. Shimla won thus, we headed towards it at around 1 PM. A relaxed drive through the route via Bilaspur helped us in reaching Shimla at around 8 PM. Checked in to Hotel Landmark . It was selected due to parking, location, view, and accessibility to The Mall road. We stayed there for 2 days and did nothing. Just a stroll to The Mall, enjoy something to eat and come back. That's it!

Beautiful route from Manali to Shimla:

After Kullu


Before Aut


Aut tunnel


Some dam


Mind your head

Some pics from Shimla

View from The Mall


View from our room at different times of the day:

[Biraj]

Day 6

A relatively early start meant we were ready by 11 AM. Looked out from the windows and it was overcast. While checking-out the hotel manager warned us that the weather forecast for Narkanda is not positive thus, we should plan for some other place. We were thinking "how bad can it get in mid-March?".

We finally started from Shimla at around 12 pm. It started drizzling but the roads were good so, we maintained decent speed. The first signs of Snow was at Fagu. We were really excited to see snow around us but still wished to see more. As they say, "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it". After we crossed Theog, the rainfall changed to Snowfall. The snowfall kept getting heavier with time, and the visibility as well as grip was starting to get affected. We reached Narkanda at 1.30 PM and headed towards Hotel Hatu. The idea was to rest there for a day and head towards Rampur on the next day. The road to hotel Hatu had snow + ice + muck i.e. it was a tough <1 KM drive to the Hotel from NH22. To make things worse, a truck had got stuck 100 meters before the Hotel. We had to park our car on the road and walk up to the hotel in extremely heavy snowfall.

Luckily, they had a room and delicious food for our lunch. Special mention to the team at Hotel Hatu. The guys there are very helpful and offer great service. It might not be the most luxurious space one can find but will definitely be a recommended place for stay.

When we reached the Hotel we saw a garden with greenish tinge but after 1 hour, we could only see white.

Let me allow the pictures to do the talking from here on.

Overcast sky in the morning


Clouds got heavier as we moved further


Crossing Kufri


Snow at Fagu


Enjoying the weather at Fagu


The intensity of rain was increasing with height


Snow + Slush at Theog


The Goodyears performed much better than my expectations


See, snow


Posing with Snow


Enjoying the twisties


Rain giving way to snow


And the snowfall decides to become heavy


Even more heavy


The route towards Hotel Hatu


The place where we stopped. It was very slippery


Road in front of the hotel


Entry to Hotel Hatu


Walking back towards Neil after lunch


Neil enjoying the snow


Blue car with white roof, but not a Mini


Divine


Every cloud really has a silver lining


I'm missing it will be an understatement


Next morning


The following pics explain the intensity of snowfall

Clicked within couple of hours


Clicked within an hour


First pics was clicked in the evening and next was clicked at early morning of following day

[Biraj]

It snowed almost the entire night. There was a snow storm too, with very strong winds blowing outside. We were quite nervous whether the car would start because there was the fear of Diesel freezing. I checked the temperature on Google and it showed -6 C. We hoped that our beloved Punto won't let us down and went to sleep.

Day 7

The day started early at 8 AM. I peeped out from the window and all I could see was white. Let the pics take over from here:

The view outside




I went down to check Neil. The first thing I saw was:


Then I saw Neil


We did live to drive here


Neil wearing a white suit


We wished for some snow, and got this...


I was thinking, how would we get out of here?


Thus, started taking the snow off


Neil's Mohawk


The Bolero refused to start. Fortunately Neil started on first crank.


After idling Neil for an hour, we started the journey back.


Dangerously beautiful roads






Achieved a milestone


Snow came to say "GoodBye"


We entered clouds


And exited them to see beautiful vistas


The trickiest section - Fagu


We slid our way through


Slow traffic was hurting the momentum




Finally, crossed Shimla

After having lunch near Shimla, we continued on our way towards Chandigarh. Since the return journey was done at almost 20 KMPH, we reached Solan around 7 PM. I called Ross Common in Kasauli and booked a room there. We stayed there for the night.



Day 8:

In the morning we first clicked a pic of Neil's rugged look and then gave it a good wash with ONR.

Before


After

We started around afternoon and had delicious lunch at world famous in Punjab, Gyani Da Dhaba. After lunch we headed towards Pinjore and saw the garden. While it's beautiful, it's crowded by future couples of Punjab thus, next time I would give it a miss.

After a long uneventful drive, we reached Delhi at around 8.30 PM.

Here are some pics of Pinjore and the road that leads to it.

Finally, at home

Thank you for reading/browsing!

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Secretariat]

Good Lord; That's some snow. Not a very common experience driving on an Indian road.

Nice travelogue with some lovely pictures. Neil Esq seems to have relished the experience too .

Some tips please for driving in snow and on ice laden roads, without aids like snow tires.

[ghodlur]

Biraj,

One word for the travelogue. Fantabalous. The pics esp of the snow was simply great. Liked the mohawk look of Neil. How much distance did you cover and how much did Neil return back in terms of average.

[CliffHanger]

Woah! Are the snow covered Punto's pics real?

They look out of the world, the second pic especially.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful travelogue.

[venkatt1800]

Congrats Biraj for a successful trip amidst such terrible weather. The pictures of the snow filled Hotel Hatu are just mind blowing. The thread and the machine which enabled it-Neil-deserve five stars.

[bhogalrajnish]

wow I miss home. Very good write up. I once did Rampur to Shimla on my bike, Narkanda had more than a feet of snow. I still remember the chill..

[sajusherief]

Wonderful travelogue Biraj. Never thought a hatch back can make such a trip through the slush. Can see from the pics that you had a wonderful time!

[D4D]

Amazing experience you've had.
Did your Punto require snow chains on the terrain?
And a diesel(correct me if I'm wrong) isn't always going to start on the first crank in the cold?

[coolguru4ever]

Very nice write up and love the pics. Have been to The Naggar Castle in Manali, but we went on a taxi (too boring). And Pinjore is just an hour's drive from my home. But your pics just made the places look amazing. Have to plan a road trip to the Himalyas.
And the trip you took the car was a true test for her potential. Whoever underrates a Punto, should read your post.
All the best for the upcoming adventures.

[tamed_explorer]

Amazing! I have always been thinking of taking my Ritz vdi on such a stroll but never got that confidence. Now I am confident enough after going through your narration and hope I will sail through these minor hiccups.