I finally made it to Manali this past weekend. I had been thinking of going there for quite some time now, since I had thought I needed a short break.
I had a great time. I went by an overnight bus that takes 14 hours (seems like a lot), but I slept like a baby. I woke up in Manali on Saturday morning feeling just great.
In all, I spent just two full days in Manali. I stayed in Old Manali, the Israeli backpacker haunt, and spent my time enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, fresh cherry juice, ganja and doing absolutely nothing. I went on a hike above Manali the second day which brought me to an interesting destination– the camp of a young Japanese guy who has sworn off the world and lives in splendid isolation with towering views of Himalayan peaks and the Beas river. The day I got there was the day after a full moon night when he had organized a rave. A few stragglers were still around. Check out this video.
I have a soft spot for Manali. This was my third time there. The first was as a young kid on vacation with my parents, but it was on my second trip, in 2004, when I spent three weeks doing a mountaineering course there, that left an enduring affection for the place. It’s a beautiful town, with great mountain air and scenic beauty, and is probably the only hill station in India in my book, where a visiting tourist doesn’t get hassled by touts and shopkeepers all the time.
This was the view from my room’s balcony. See what I mean by it being a beautiful town?
A few interesting things I noticed this time:
1. The availability of fast broadband connections through BSNL all across Manali. I also saw a couple of ads for BSNL’s 512 kbps connections, and when I did go online a couple of times, I swear that the speed was as fast as anything I’ve experienced in Delhi or Bombay. Impressive! There’s no reason that a software company can’t function out of Manali.
2. Great cell phone coverage through Airtel (my carrier) in and around Manali. Manali is pretty high at 8000 feet. I didn’t expect to have cell phone coverage, but it was excellent and what’s more, my GPRS connection’s speed was faster than in the metros. Probably because the load on the network there is lower?
3. Himachali women have glorious complexions. Must be the mountain air.
4. Israelis everywhere. I was told that 90% of all the foreign backpackers in Manali are israelis drawn by the combination of cheap living and cheap ganja. This year though, arrivals are down some 50-60%. The owner of the hotel where I was staying mentioned that Indian embassies aren’t issuing visas to young Israelis as easily as they used to do earlier. Who knows if it’s true, but if it is, then, is it because the Israelis’ bad rep is catching up with them? The locals hate them.
5. No mountain biking in and around Manali. I was really disappointed. I inquired at quite a few places to see if I could rent a mountain bike and was finally told by an adventure tour operator that there are simply no trails around Manali. He used to rent mountain bikes till 3-4 years back for biking in and out of the main roads coming in and going out of Manali, but with heavy vehicular traffic, it is simply too dangerous now.
6 . The influx of south Indian tourists. Watching south Indians struggling with the altitude is a funny sight. Even more so is the one of south Indian women in elaborate saris. It just doesn’t click. Anyway, I was surprised to see at least four restaurants advertising Andhra cuisine on Manali’s main drag.
7. Manali’s tourist season is six months long, from April through September. In the freezing winter, some of the locals stay put, others head to the plains, but the hotel industry shifts bag and baggage to Goa. I met so many cafe and hotel workers who divide their year between Manali and Goa. I’m so jealous.
If you happen to go to Manali after reading this entry, do check out Octarine — the Open Source Cafe. It’s just a month old. I met the proprietor Aljae Singh, she’s really cool. She quit her media job in Delhi a few months back, moved to Manali with her young daughter, opened this cafe and is now working on a bunch of pretty cool business ideas centered around organic fruits, fair trade and eco-tourism.
