HP: New Delhi to Manali 8-11 Jun 2011 (Pt 1)

On 8 June 16 of us flew AirAsia into New Delhi to start our Himachal Pradesh (HP) Adventure organised by YonGo. After a wonderful late supper meal at Sandoz and spending a night at New Delhi Sunstar Residency Hotel, we trooped to New Delhi Railway station the next day to catch the morning train to Chandrigarh. The train journey was absolutely comfortable with meals being served on board. The 266km train ride took about 4 hrs. On arrival at Chandrigarh train station, we were packed into four 4x4 Innova vehicles to begin the next phase of our journey to Manali. The road journey of 273km took about 9 hours with several stopovers along the way. It was close to supper time when we reached Manali for dinner. Fortunately, we had a quick lunch at Singh's Chicken Resturant (ala Nandos) before hitting the road.

On the first day in Manali, we strolled up to the 500 years old Hidimba Devi Temple which is sitting atop a small hill and to Old Manali Town to visit Manu Temple. From there, we took a short-cut hike through Manali Nature Park (filled with tall Cedrus trees) to Manali Town. The pleasant walk took about 3 hours. That evening, we had a wonderful meal of the famous Manali Trout fish.

The following day, we proceeded to Solang Valley for the intrepid fellows to try out paragliding. We also did a 3 hours leisure trek from Solang Valley through two villages to Manali (13 km away) experiencing the rich village lifestyle and culture.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/9867.

Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/hp-rohtang-pass-to-tabo-12-1562011-part2.html