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Ladakh 2009 – Day 2 – Bilaspur to Manali

August 19, 2009: After covering 420Kms on the first day, this day was going to be much easier, only about 170-180 kms to cover. So we took it easy and decided to start a bit late.

I noticed something, that whenever i'm in those hills i wake up quite early, which is quite strange in my case as i'm not at all a early riser. But this early rising thing gives me opportunity to click photos like these

Yes it was a bit cloudy, but after last day we were quite ready for the rains. So by 8:30 our stuff was packed and loaded on the bike ( you'll see the "packed bike" soon ) again and we were ready to leave bilaspur. We didnt eat anything for breakfast as we decided that we will do that we will reach mandi and then stop for our breakfast.

I had already talked to Shyam the night before and we were going to meet at Aut. Shyam was already out on his trip to shringi/ghiyagi and he decided to join us till manali ( that was his plan till that point ).

So, we started keeping in mind that the rains will come to haunt our drive again but we were hoping that it will kind enough to keep away from our path for some time. and it did, for the first 10kms ! and then it came back in its full strength. Within the first 20 mins of our journey we made our first stop. and since it was raining so hard we thought that we will just eat our breakfast there. So here we were at another roadside dhaba, eating our breakfast. i had tea and chips !

In about half hour the rains stopped and we were on our way again. After that the ride was actually beautiful, no sun, and clear roads. And there were no more interruptions for the next 80 kms. Thats when we stopped , right after the "pandoh dam", for some Tea and a "fan".

And after about 20Kms of more driving, we finally met Shyam. Right after we crossed to Aut Tunnel, which again is another 3 km long wonder that should be seen.

Here i'm right outside that tunnel. and right behind me is my "packed bike" © Shyam

This meeting turned out to be quite good for of us. First Shyam got some aaloo pranthas packed for lunch when he started from his guest house. And second he knew about a bypass, which skips all the messy roads of Kullu city! Wonderful, i say :D

We had our lunch at that bypass then, with a view of the Beas river and Kullu city. One of the best lunch of the trip i must say.

The bikes parked at the side while we were eating our lunch. © Shyam

From Ladakh 2009 - Photos from my mobile

And then after that fullfilling lunch, all that left was to finish the remaining 60-70kms to reach manali. But the rains had something more in mind. About 30kms before manali, it started raining again. But this time the rains were not going to stop us now. We wanted to finish the days travelling now. So we drove the last 30 odd kms with light rain going on. It wasnt difficult to drive in that rain, but was actually quite fun getting wet and driving on those narrow roads. All one needs to do is to be a bit more careful and not drive too fast. Thats all we did, and by 4 pm we were in our hotel room.

One thing i have learned is to never stay at Manali. What we do is we stay at a place called Vashisht, which is 5 kms after your cross manali mall road. The advantage of staying there is that the place is much quieter and cleaner and cheaper than Manali city and its give the best view of the manali valley.

From Ladakh 2009 - Day 2 - Bilaspur to Manali

By the time we reached our hotel, which is the best in Vashisht and all you pay is Rs 400 for a double room, we were quite tired.

But shyam and i still walked down to the city, after some rest and food at the restaurant. 12kms of walk ! Should i include that into the total kms covered in the trip ;-)

Link to the album for the day

And Here is the map for the whole trip of the day

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