Trip to Rohtang Pass

Rohtang Pass - The gateway between Manali and Leh-Ladakh

Every tourist coming to Manali will definitely have Rohtang Pass on their itinerary. It is a must visit to view the amazing snow clad mountains and engage in the various activities & adventure sports available at this pass. This pass is the gateway between Manali and Leh-Ladakh. This forms an integral part of one of the only two roads by which you can reach Leh-Ladakh. The other being the Srinagar - Leh highway.

Considering that we had just finished the grueling (slight exaggeration though) mountain biking expedition to Jalori Pass and the late night escapades in the markets at Mall road Manali, it was an early wake up call to visit Rohtang Pass. An early start is essential to beat the traffic and the chaos on the road considering that some parts of the road are so narrow that only a single row of vehicles are allowed to cross over and that too only in one direction.

How much I wished that house belonged to me :)

Sun kissed Himalayas

We woke at 3 AM and got ready to leave for Rohtang Pass. Got a call from reception at around 4 am informing us about that the car was ready. We deposited the luggage in the cloak room of the hotel and decided to take the souvenirs that we got custom made last night at Mall Road in Manali with us to Rohtang Pass. We met the taxi driver Mr. Lagan. We called him Laganji during the entire trip. We started the trip at around 4:30 am from close to the Manali depot. Laganji stopped at a shop some 1 km from Manali to rent warm clothing to wear while at Rohtang Pass. We also hired a skiing instructor to enjoy skiing. The skiing instructor was a young filmy guy named Anup. He shared a lot of trivia and facts with us during the trip, showing us shooting locations for Bollywood films like Jab We Met and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, etc. Anup was a native of the village named Nehru Kund after the late Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who would have water only from this kund (pond) while he stayed at Manali. The roads leading up to Rohtang Pass were winding through some lush green forests till the last village named Mothi. Beyond this village there is no human habitat as it gets really cold during winter with this region having snow nearly 10 months of the year and with no vegetation the place resembles a white desert. We could see a long queue from a distant as all the tourist vehicles lined up to go towards Rohtang. A very distinct fact that I noticed during the trip was that all the cars were white in color. It was a rarity to see a non white car. On the way we saw a lot of nomadic tribes with their flock of sheep, mules, horses, dogs, etc. walking through their way. Laganji told they belong to a community called "Giddh". It was amazing to witness nomadic life on the move in today's age of information technology, space and nuclear technology one really wonders what change will schemes like UID (Adhaar card) or NREGSS or mid-day meal programme  etc. bring about in their lives. Theirs is a small and contented life with all their materialistic belongings packed and on the move along with them.

Sunrise @ Rohtang Pass

After close to 3 hours we finally reached Rohtang Pass. It was the first time that I was seeing snow in my life. The view was awesome. The sun was up but it had no effect on the temperature. It was extremely chilly on the roads and freezing once we stepped on the snow. There were already a lot of people who had reached the place and enjoying in the ice. We got ready with the gear to start skiing. We entered the ice and Shyam was the first one to start skiing. He had a tough time trying to balance on ice and had a couple of falls. He finally decided to stop and Akhilesh was next to try. He also had a similar start but after a couple of falls picked up the tricks really well and started skiing at least with the help of the instructor. After about 15-20 minutes it was my turn to try out skiing. I had a similar fate as Akhilesh but had a smooth time skiing with Anup’s help. After about an hour of skiing we decided to eat something since we had not had a breakfast also. We stopped at one of the local makeshift shops on ice which were selling maggi and omelettes. We had maggi and tea. Akhilesh then had a second round of skiing while I got busy with photography.

Shyam ready to ski !!

Akhilesh ready to ski !!

Ready to ski !!

SAS - Pro Skiers !!

Maggi & Tea Break

Strike a pose !!

Anup with Akhilesh

After all the heavy duty skiing, we decided to do something childish now. What else could be more childish than snow fights and sliding on snow? We went up to the top of the ice covered hill and slide all the way down on our butt & back. It felt really amazing. By now it was 10:30 AM and we taught it would be better if we leave early and avoid the traffic. So, we called in Laganji and packed all the skiing gear in the car hood. We started our journey back at 11 AM and on the way did loads of photography on the snow capped mountains. Unfortunately we were stuck in a huge traffic jam which lasted for over 2 hours. It was really frustrating to sit in the car empty stomach for 2 hours. We finally moved out of the traffic and reached the point from there paragliding is conducted. We got a glimpse of the tourist's paragliding in the vast expanse of the sky with only the mountains for company. Paragliding along with river rafting is something that we really missed doing due to lack of time. If we had waited too long over here we would have been delayed and considering that we had to leave for Chandigarh in the evening was another reason to leave early. We earlier had plans to go to Amritsar to visit the Golden temple but had to drop the plan as the last bus to Amritsar from Manali was at 3 PM which we would not be able to catch on time.

Snow clad Himalayas

Tourists reveling @ Rohtang Pass

Yaks @ Rohtang Pass

Traffic @ Rohtang Pass

We dropped off Anup at the shop and took his contact details. Laganji dropped us at the Manali market near the Mall Road. We decided to book the tickets to Chandigarh and have lunch before we went back to the hotel. We went to the Manali depot and booked the AC bus to Chandigarh for 7:30 PM through HRTC. We then moved towards Mall road and had lunch at a local restaurant. We ordered Punjabi thali and unlike yesterday night at the dinner the lunch was good. Lesson learnt, always try local food when at a new place do not try a delicacy that they are not known for. When in Rome be like the Romans. Post lunch we had juice at Mall road and then kept the souvenirs at Manish’s shop. We then went back to the hotel to collect our luggage. We made the balance payment and got fresh in the restroom attached to the cloakroom. Since we had another couple of hours to go till our bus departure time, we waited in the hotel lobby for an hour. We left the hotel an hour before our bus timing, collected the souvenirs from Manish and bid them farewell. We had the famous aloo chaat at Mall road and then rounded up with juice again and then waited at the bus depot for the bus. 

Shyam, Laganji, Anup, Me & Akhilesh

Ready to leave !!

Choco chips ice cream with vanilla topping !!

Stuck in traffic !!

The bus was delayed and we were in for a surprise when we saw the 5 PM bus coming in at 7:30 PM; all thanks to the Manali traffic. Here, is when we met the last of the Karthik’s at the Manali depot. He was also going towards Chandigarh and was going to board a flight to Hyderabad from there the next day. We boarded the bus and started the trip to Chandigarh. We were so tired that we just dosed off and didn't even wake up for dinner !!

Shooting location for "Jab We Met"

Snow clad mountains with cloud cover

Snow clad mountains with cloud cover

Paragliding @ Rohtang Pass

This brought the curtains down on an excellent trip to the state of Himachal Pradesh with Rohtang Pass being the icing on the cake. Will surely hope to be back to Rohtang sometime someday very soon !!

Many more memoirs to share ……. Sachin