Manali

Manali is the most heartwarming and welcoming place I have ever been to. It is not a place, it’s a feeling; feeling of being to a place that can give you the best of both the worlds – the vibe of a city life and vibe of peace away from the chaos that cities contain. Yes, Manali is that one place where life is a perfect balance of serene beauty and the well connected city life.

As we enter Manali, we see mountains all around us, the river Beas flowing calmly along the main highway like taking us safely to our destination. Manali is a mysterious place, one gets what one seek – the happening social life to the alone peaceful vibe, you get everything in here.

Just after checking in, the excitement is to climb us as much as we can on the way to Rohtang pass ( which is closed during winters) or atleast that famous Rohtang tunnel. My luck wasn’t good enough to find either of them open but this place has a way of showing what we need instead of what everyone tells. We landed up at the last open village – Gulaba and the view was just perfect as if the place was waiting for us to visit it in the most beautiful way, the fresh snow, the serenity of fresh breeze, perfect snow capped mountains all around and no chaos – just the mountains, snow, that feeling of belonging there and us. We plagued in the snow like kids, made angel wings, snowman, did some snow fight, played snow cricket, diving in the snow and everything that is possible to be done in snow. We didn’t want to go back at all but sun set or snowfall would close the way down or make the road up slippery making it difficult to go down so we had to end our session of snow fun and move to our next stop – Solang Valley.

The Solang valley is a place of adventure sports – skiing and paragliding taking up most of the attention. Just like others we were so excited for paragliding but we had to trek up to the place from where we will start and that was a task in itself as we were tired already but it isn’t that difficult otherwise. Reaching up, we have a lot of things to see – mountains and mountains along with lots and lots of snow and most importantly people like us in mixed emotions – some scared and some excited. What’s important is to believe in two things – the people there who will make you do it and second your own self who wants to experience everything in life by their own self. After taking off from that cliff, look around in the mountains, feel that fresh breeze and feel how you’re literally floating in the air between the mighty mountains and enjoy every single second of flight. After landing, sit for a while and let this sink in, the adrenal rush is high, you feel like it was just seconds and you won’t be able to accept that yes you did it. The mountains just gifted you a welcome gift – the flight in the mighty mountains. If you still have time or it’s still bright, try to do ropeway on the same day.  Go back to your place and retire after a good meal.

Next morning, after our breakfast, we wanted to cover hidimba temple – Manu temple – Jogini falls and just sit beside the first friend in Manali – the Beas. It snowed all night that day and was still snowing so we had to look for umbrellas around and luckily there was one shop open at Mall Road that early and the gentleman who owned the shop was so kind that he not just offered us umbrella on rent but took us to a small jungle that if we trek would be the shortest and the most beautiful way to the Hidimba Devi temple. He also gave us a few tips on places to visit and what to take care of during snowfall in Manali. We headed into the woods covered in white, going as slow as we can to capture everything in our heart. This trek from jungle gave us a lot of furry friends, yes there were 7-8 dogs who moved with us all the way in snow just to show us the path because the jungle was empty and this adventure was indeed beautiful in every possible way. Every single place added so much to our experience that we wished to stay more and more at each stop. It was like the place is asking us “ tu thorhi der aur thehar jaa” quite literally.

Make sure you sit and observe around and click nth pictures because I bet you’ll not find a place better than this one. yes Manali welcomed us in the most unique way – it gave us all the love the city can hold in every possible way. The cherry on the cake is people of the city- the kindest and most genuine people I have come across in a long long time. I was very skeptical initially if we can trust strangers but this city is a heaven on the map of India with everything perfect.

This place will always remain close to my heart because of not just the mighty mountains and snow but also the warmth and love that captured my heart. It is so far the most welcoming city I have ever been to.