Rohtang : an icy peek

Rohtang : birth of the Beas

Rohtang: white wilderness

Manali: Picture Postcard

Manali : clouding judgement

Manali : Behold! the Beas

Manali : Hotel room with a view

Manali : Hidimba temple

Manali : Living the Beas

From this part of the trip i became noticeably happy, mainly due to the abatement in heat. we flew from delhi to chandigarh, and from there we hired a taxi to Manali. from this point onwards began our tryst with judas taxiwallahs. beware of them. they'll charge you the moon, you need to haggle with them about the price per km. we finally agreed to rs. 6 per km with this hip young taxi wallah with streaked hair, what he didn't tell us was that all charges are from "garage to garage" i.e., charges are according to round trip and the fair essentially is about 12 per km. we didn't know that, we got ripped off

but the journey itself is a fantastic repast to the eyes. it meanders through the green rice fields of punjab with rivulets from the irrigation canals glistening from amidst them, then snakes through the himachal valley with the Beas river for accompany all along the way. The beas is always with you through out the journey to manali, and as you get closer, the river loses its sedate calm and becomes more torpid and turbulent. i liked the latter better, it fills one with such a euphoric feeling. there's something about juvenile green trees and an icy pure river that makes you feel "Pahadi" all of a sudden, and it doesn't leave you till you leave the landscape.

Manali, is a beautiful town located 40 km from kullu in the kullu valley. although the town is largely unaffected by the tourist population, it does tend to get crowded during the tourist season, esp. the weekend punju crowd in the peak of the season. on our first day in Manali we visited the Hidimba temple, which i loved because its an idyllic pahadi temple. it was nestled on top of a hillock and was surrounded by cornifers all around. we then went to the manu temple which about 3 km from the city . this temple had magnificent views of the entire valley.

there are two kinds of people in manali, non vegetarians and 100% pure vegetarians. what the heck is a 100% pure vegetarian food?, because all the restuarants in manali make that claim. you almost think they'll feed you plants straight off from the fields . however non vegetarians need not despair, my bro and i found a non descript tibetian restuarant on the main street which served the best momos i've ever tasted. however due to the large hippie population we also saw some restaurants serving israeli food and stuff, but seriously due you want to eat israeli food in a place called "hotel parampara"?.

the next day we left early for the Rohtang pass. and this place needs to come with a traffic jam warning. easily the mot hideous, humoungous, cacophonous jam, you've ever seen and that too at an altitude of over 12,000 feet. You have to reach there early because the later you reach the farther your vehicle will be parked and the more you'll have to trek. the best option is to hire ponies and behold the snowy scene peacefully, rather than huffing and puffing and getting all cross and bothered. i really was disappointed with Rohtang, this was my second visit, and the first was with my school mates 8 years back and the place was in pristine condition, now the snow was all dirty and the air consisted solely of diesel fumes. but the snow capped peaks all around almost makes up for the chaos down below. the Beas actually originates in a glacier near the Rohtang pass, so one can see the young toddler river struggling past the rocks. i was fascinated by the reverse life cycle of the Beas that one witnesses as we proceed to the origin.

there are other places to visit in Manali, like Vashist were the hot springs are located, but i wouldn't recommend a dip in that unless you fancy watching flabby naked people. urgh. but vashist is a cool place, and i'll say that only if there are cool places to shop and cool things to buy. got some neat suede bags, wrap skirts and some really hip junk jewellery.

I miss Manali, even as I'm writing this. I miss the pahadi feeling. this is one place, i'll definitely come back to, come back to revisit dear old Beas

breathtaking

This kept the old king going

Agra fort : pearly inside

Agra fort : the entrance

Agra : The pearl next to a decidely dirty lake

so right, Delhi finished over and done with, we decided to assault Agra the next day. assault is the right word. so the situation : two cameras (one of which could store about 600 images) in the hands of two people who have a passion for capturing anything remotely touristy, namely mom and bro, and one harried non photogenic, photo -op hater, namely me, and a neutral dad, off to the taj in a bus with a schizophrenic A.C.

i love visiting old monuments, what i hate is the touristy element. you know, that whole group thing with a guide in the middle, trashing out facts, and then cliched photo poses. i don't necessarily have a problem with it, it just makes me go , " bugger".

our first stop was the Agra fort, which, if you have a moment to spare, is magnificent. but since the temperature was 43 when we came to visit, i didn't have a moment to spare. bugger. the heat can destroy so many moments sadly. all the photos we took at the fort and later at the taj have me frowning. and then the assaultees were in turn assaulted by the " in house" photographers both at the fort and at the taj. they are the most annoying race next to IA's cabin crew. they haggle you, they show you the grand range of their ouvre, they haggle you some more and the only way to get rid of them is to succumb. yes, get a photo taken and be done with it.

after the fort, it was time for the taj. i still relish my first sight of the taj, way back, 8 years ago, on a school trip. my heart skipped a beat. it still has the same affect. the sight of the taj, through the darwaza, is still awe inspiring. the kind of mood when "harry met sally" becomes tolerable. yea slightly mushy. but a nice feeling. yes the taj is magnificent, but pity its so neglected though. rather deeply under valued. but the heat can still spoil all these nice mushy feelings. and then my parents had this ruddy mad idea about sitting on this love seat and having a photo taken, thesame seat where DI pointedly sat alone, rmbr?. ruddy mad idea because hullo? its 43 degrees, how can anyone be smiling? or how can any one want memories?. it takes all kinds.

while returning from the taj, the A.C finally gave out and there was mutiny on HMS southern travels. and that was funny because the mostly gult passenggers were trying to speak hindi and sound nasty and threatening. the bus puttered to a stop at mathura, which is a shockingly dirty place. since we were the only folks not to fight with the driver about the A.C, the man stopped another bus, and got us seats on it while the other passengers were busy temple hopping. thus, the weird face of come uppance. oh btw the A.C on this new bus was rocking. the frown ceased to exist but sadly both the shutters were closed

India gate

Designs on red sand stone

The Ashoka pillar

The Qutub Minar

the magnificent Ba'hai lotus temple.

Delhi : The city of kings

"are you guys crazy?". june 15th, 1 in the afternoon, we had just landed in Delhi, and my folks wanted to go Sight-seeing!. dear lord!. the outside temperature was 42 degrees. folks like me, who have lived in bangalore right through, cannot comprehend such temperatures, infact we didn't know that the thermometer was capable of reaching such temperatures. so first lesson, do not come to Delhi, in the months of may and june, or if you do, get umbrella and sun screen lotion, trust me if you don't have these two, This city will make you vicariously enjoy the insides of a tandoor, and that you don't want. the best time to visit Delhi is in the months of October, november . when the city seems like its romancing the autumn.

but no poetry for us, we did end up sight seeing, sans umbrella and sunscreen lotion. thats why the bitterness. this city has no dearth for tourist attractions. it might have a water shortage but when it comes to tombs, graveyards and mughal monuments, it can make a neat donation to other cities. thats so odd, everybody who was anybody in the mughal era seems to have tomb for themselves. and they took their tombs seriously. and people here still take their toms seriously, so much so that you need to pass through hazaar metal detectors at the entry. since we were goin to the big mama of all tombs, the Taj Mahal the next day, we skipped all the tombs.but Humayun's tomb is worth a visit.

on this trip we went to the lotus temple, which is actually a B'hai praying area, not a temple in the conventional sense. its a very beautiful structure and looks remarkably like the sidney opera house. the inside of this temple is very serene and the best time to visit it is in the morning, because one needs to enter the complex bare footed. after that we proceeded to the Qutub Minar, which is situated in Mehrauli, near Saket. its a fantastic structure, and if my history serves me right, took 3 emperors to build it. in the same complex is situated the Ashoka Pillar, which is an iron pillar which has supposedly not rusted for 800 years and legend has it that if one can encircle their hands around it, with the back to the pillar, their wishes will come true. the government of india it seems, doesn't want your wishes to come true, theres a fence around it and you'll be arrested for trying.

we then went to Chatrapur, which is like a colony of temples, there are modern temples everywhere in this area, dedicated to almost all the gods one is familiar with, the very lavish architecture in all the temples suggests that the temple trust had a lot of money, but not the soul of Bob Geldof. Sigh.

we went to the India gate and then finally to the birla temple. I'm bored now, i won't elaborate on these, i'll talk of Delhi chaat instead. its comme si comme sa, if you like pommegranates in you dahi papari, you'll relish it. and the gol gappas were a lil too thick, but on the whole pretty decent but not worth the hype.

i was with family, so we didn't go to any nightclubs in delhi. mebbe another time. surely

welcome to my travel blog.

I'm not a travel junkie, however i do travel a fair bit. I've been to most places in india and I've loved it. a couple of weeks back my family and i went on a 6 city north indian tour and we took about 400 pics. i needed a place to put them and ofcourse my thoughts on the entire experience. thats why this blog.

so why garam chai?, well the beta name for this blog was lost wanderlust, but after much thinking, i've decided it must be garam chai, on translation hot tea, because wherever i've travelled to, into the deepest of boondocks, there has always been someone who has offered me garam chai, its the one constant in every place i go to and when you are living out of a suitcase or backpack, or moving from hotel rooms or tents, that one constant can make a world of difference.

godwilling, here's to more and exciting travels!!!