A High Altitude Himalayan Jam

Journey to Manali

Traffic has become a nuisance in most parts of the world. And it is one of the numerous problems faced in India in day to day life. The traffic in India is a nuisance in metros, cities, towns, highways, lanes or by lanes, in fact at any such place where you can go in a mechanical transport. There are scooters, motorcycles, cars, tractors with trolleys, smaller trucks and heavy-duty trucks flooding the roads everywhere and honking like hell. These are duly complemented by bullock carts, horse carts, cows and buffalos matching the other traffic on highways as well as in the city roads, and not to forget the daredevil cyclists who will have no hesitation in jumping ahead of your vehicle without any signal or warning. But no one complains till one really gets hit and life on roads carries on.

Life in mountains may be slightly easier, as there is not that much of traffic there, though it has increased manifolds there too and more often than not you find over speeding ‘Tata Sumo’ Taxis overtaking on turns or coming head on towards you. But here too, one can get adjusted very soon, especially when one drives through beautiful mountain valleys enjoying the sights of majestic snow-capped mountains or of the rivers with crystal clear water flowing just next to you. And there are no cyclists, no bullock carts and no buffalos on the roads.

Last summer, in June, I decided to move on into Himalayas to escape Indian summer as well as the maddening traffic of plains. As I was on a visit to Pathankot, small town in North Punjab, I decided to move onto Manali, the picturesque hill station in Himanchal Pradesh, for a day or two. I hired a Tata Sumo Taxi, because these were easily available, economic and also robust for a mountain ride, especially on bad patches of road. I warned the driver not be in hurry, as I did not want to spoil the pleasure of Himalayan sightseeing with an accident resultant of rash driving. He accepted gladly.

The journey to Manali was quite interesting. The traffic situation was similar to as any other Indian hill journey. But all the way it was pleasant to view beautiful high Himalayas.

Though it was June, still one could see snow on top of distant mountains in Kangra Valley. I kept my camera handy to click on any good view. The drive through the valley was a mix of hill stretches as well as straight roads. But my taxi driver kept his cool and neither he drove rash, nor was tempted by straighter parts of highway. On the other hand, in fact, he was boringly slow, and was letting even the overcrowded slow moving local buses to overtake us comfortably. I admired his patience. Though later I came to know the exact reason for that. He was too driving for the first time in this region. He had come to Pathankot from Amritsar, and just happened to take my offer as well as a chance to see the area too. The slow drive took us by evening to Manali. We passed through towns of Mandi and Kullu, by passing Dharamsala, the seat of HH Dalai Lama, by few kilometres. In fact from Mandi we travelled all along beautiful Beas River, flowing on the bed of the valley.

Summer Time Manali was overcrowded and look like a local vegetable market of any north India City. For a moment I was scared to have landed up at a wrong place. But no, it was only the main street of Manali, which was full of summer crowd. The crowd as well as the awkward one-way made our drive difficult. It was approaching dark and getting cooler very fast. The references of couple of Hotels of Manali, which I had taken from my acquaintance in Pathankot were difficult to find, and unlike a real tourist cab, my Taxi Driver knew nothing and waited calmly for me to find out a suitable lodging place. The places I checked were either overpriced or overcrowded. I was tiring and my last reference says Palchan, near Manali. On checking it was found that it was a small Hamlet roughly ten kilometres off Manali towards Rohtang Pass. Fed up with seeing too much crowd, to take a feel of real Hills I decided to move ahead. We were at Palchan in fifteen minutes and have gained some height too. Month of June and here I got a freezing breeze, as I got out of the Taxi in the spacious parking of the Lodge, reference of which my acquaintance has given. Luckily I got the last room available at a reasonable rate far from the madding crowd, which I had encountered half an hour back. The Taxi driver was also accommodated in an outhouse. With sun already set I did get the last glimpse of the mighty Himalayas, still in snow in June. In fact the valley of Beas with snow-capped mountains in background did remind me of many Bollywood film songs, which must have been shot here.

Later I asked the host of the lodge the best place to spend the day in Manali, with an opportunity to get the best view of Himalayan valleys and snow. He instantly suggested Rohtang Pass. I was shocked at his suggestion of spending a day at 13000 feet. But when he said that almost everyone coming to Manali visit there, and even people from Shimla come on day trip. And still it has snow on it. I thought over and accepted. He said to move early as moving later means getting stuck behind Army Convoys and resultant traffic jam. This was another surprise as was the time suggested, before seven AM in that chill. Rohtang Pass in fact, is one of the highest roads in the Himalayas and world, is gateway to Leh and to Lahul Spiti region in Himanchal Pradesh. It stays closed due to heavy snow from Nov to April-May every year.

Drive to Rohtang

And so it was, next day at fifteen for seven AM I was off in my Taxi with my eagerly interested driver on to the serpentine road climbing to Rohtang. And we were not alone. There was already a rush of taxis and cars racing in the same direction. The road was narrow just enough to take on one car at a time, but an Indian behind a steering wheel is no less than Michael Schumacher. So cars of different sizes kept on overtaking us. Not bothering about them I had started enjoying the view. On one side one could see the beautiful Beas Valley around Manali, with lush green mountains in the background, and on the other side were taller snow-capped majestic hills leading to Rohtang; each turn alternating the view.

As the height increased, the chill also increased. We could see the ascent towards the snow line, which was nearing fast. One could feel the air getting thinner too. Luckily I carried my quilted jacket too. I have never been to 13000 feet earlier, but being a keen skier I was familiar with peculiarities of snow, and have in fact skied at 11000 feet altitudes earlier. But I was not sure about the knowledge and anxiety of persons sitting in fellow cars as well as that of my driver.

We reached 10000 feet altitude in over an hour’s time, already twice as high as Manali. The Manali town still visible in the valley like a dot. We took a break at a place called Marhi at that height. Here there was a line of makeshift restaurants, along with a spring of crystal clear water.

An ideal picnic spot! But I am sure no one would come there just for picnic. I could see a parachute in the sky, a hang glider in fact. I decided to have only a short break for tea and recouping for the might of Rohtang. Firstly I did not want to be overtaken by more traffic and then thought off to take a longer break there on return.

Starting again after a kilometre we found another row of restaurants along with army post. From here traffic to Rohtang, still about eleven kilometres was regulated. There was no army convoy and luckily traffic was still moving up, so we rushed through. Now we had reached the height where there was accumulated snow along road in the shades, from where fresh water was getting milked, probably into the spring we saw at Marhi. Though still one had no idea which side Rohtang Pass was.

The Rohtang Pass

After another twenty minutes’ drive we encountered another bunch of makeshift restaurants in shacks, with numerous cars parked along. We had reached the Rohtang Pass. The vehicles were lined up along road also and some were moving too. It was quite chaotic. There was snow all around less on the road and few feet off it. We moved on it, after a turn below a massive hillock we could get the view of the mountains on the other side of the ridge, all covered milky white snow. We were now crossing Rohtang Pass. And yes moving ahead we saw the stone marking of Border Roads, showing 13050 feet high Rohtang pass.

And from there one could feel minor descent of road moving down gradually into a flattish valley on the other side.

I got down few metres ahead, telling my driver to park somewhere in the chaos of vehicles there. There were vehicles lined up on the road, till half a kilometre on the other side of the pass, and parked chaotically almost at every snow less spot in that area. As I was telling my driver, one hawker, probably a Tibetan, or a native of higher altitudes, with numerous snow boots with him, gave unasked advise for not parking anywhere there and instead park it slightly away near shacks. This was to avoid getting stuck there. I eagerly accepted and told the driver to go there. As my Taxi moved away, the gentleman offering free advise came for business to me. He offered snow boots and other snow gadgets on loan. Knowing snow well, as it was chilly but in bright sunlight, the melting snow would have meant slush at places. I took the snow boots at paltry ten Rupees, and was to collect my shoes from him at Border Roads marking stone. And there was business of offering snow boots and gloves in progress all around. Some people were offering pony and sledge rides too. Somewhere in near distance was snow scooter also.

But I moved away from the chaos and crowd, to take pictures of majestic snow clad Himalayas and the Valley on the other side.

It was a gorgeous site. I have been in Hills especially in Himalayas all around but I hadn’t seen mountains as beautiful as these. I took out my digital camera and started taking the pictures. Clicking almost from every angle as I turned back in the direction of my arrival, my heart sank. It was one of the shabbiest views I had seen in the hills in India. At Rohtang pass proper there was chaos of vehicles. There were people loitering around in snow all over, and where there was no snow, vehicles were moving, some parked, some about to be parked, and others trying to get out of the ones parked. This was the highest parking in the world, and also the highest traffic jam in the world.

But people, whether in jam or not, were enjoying. Some walking and slipping in the snow, some taking a pony or sledge rides and some just playing with the snow. Many had seen snow for the first time, and some like me for the first time in the month of June in India. I enjoying seeing their activities moved around, taking pictures of the chaos of vehicles. Moving wasn’t easy as one had gained too much of altitude without any acclimatisation. This could have been dangerous, which the people picnicking didn’t know. But in India things carry on till really something happens, and I could see no one of non-acclimatised one day tourist falling down. So everything with every one was just fine. I even saw some people with skies, and I really missed mine. View all around was interesting, having forgotten the chaos of vehicles I probably had started enjoying the mela of people there. To add on to it were various vendors asking for a mule or a snow scooter ride, which I had to ignore continuously.

In an hour of stay at Rohtang pass, apart from enjoying the snow clad mountain views and site of chaos of vehicles and people and enduring the chilly breeze and harsh sunlight together, I decided to move back, with a scope of halting streamside at Marhi. I had to locate the person who had my shoes. He was found near Border Road’s Rohtang Top stone, where he had located his makeshift open-air loan store. Paying him I got my shoes back. It took me some time to find my Taxi among numerous other vehicles parked near shacks. My driver also had enjoyed the stay at Rohtang thoroughly. I asked him to move on towards Marhi.

Again we were lucky to cross main Marhi area without getting stuck, though number of vehicles there had tremendously increased, since we left that place. Moving further to streamside, I sat in one of the open-air makeshift restaurants, asking for tea and snacks. The crystal clear water of the stream and snowy mountains in the background was much more pleasing site than the chaos at Rohtang. At a short distance someone was offering paragliding rides too. I enjoyed my brief stay at Marhi along with other people having their refreshment halt.

Few minutes later, I was with my slow moving driver, proceeding towards Manali for night stay and next day’s move to Delhi, back in heat and traffic chaos.

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