Day 14 and 15 -
We were perky tourists for today. Woke up late to a heavy breakfast and set out for Manali town. On the way to Manali town ,7km away from Kalath,we saw the remnants of the flash flood that struck here a few days ago,a smashed door of a Tata sumo .It was said that due to landslide on one end of the road,the tata sumo maneuvered closer to the riverside end of road (Manali to Kalath has river Beas flowing along the town),unfortunately,sudden flash floods swallowed the entire sumo into the river. The markets were closed for the day as a rally to save a waterfall (a Dam as to be built some where around) was taking place. We ambled around the town like awe-struck tourists. Climbed up a small hill,to the Hadimba Mata temple. Vivek instantly recognized the temple,from a scene in the movie Roja,where the heroine comes to this temple after her marriage. It was a nice place,but commercialized by tourists. Lots of commercial avenues near the temple,where one can take pictures with a pearly white ,fluffy,cute hare or even with a mountain goat. We walked down towards town in search of food,a good Chinese restaurant. We had lunch at CHOPSTICKS, a neat Chinese restaurant in the heart of the town. The non-veg folks had a finger licking time with their chicken . In Vivek's words, they had so much chicken that day , that the head chef would have had to kill all the chicken in his supplies and probably would have taken a gun,walked out of the restaurant ,hunting down more. We were fat,bloated,over stuffed and more than satisfied with the food. We shopped for a long time, buying sweaters,ponchos,shawls,hemp chappals(which was a huge hit, Velu bought 8 pairs !!),apple Jam and anything that seemed inviting. Gannu got lost in the market,and Tarle like a concerned father in search of him,PV and Vivek had a hilarious time,pulling Tarle's leg. We reached our rooms at Kalath , just in time for dinner and more rummy followed. Amit Rana gave us herbal tea,almost four cups of it,but obviously none of us got remotely high on it.
We started out to Solang Valley at 9am. It was going to be an adventure filled day! First stop was ATV (All Terrain Vehicles), they were massive huge monsters. The Father-son team,cheekily stole the one man ATV (where one can manually control the gears) .We were stuck with 2 man ATV , taking turns riding it. It was fun,nonetheless. Next up,paragliding !We took a cable car to the cliff . My heart was racing,I was excited,my first time,but I was scared as well. Velu was a pro at it,a pilot by profession and done a paragliding course for 3 months. I was predominantly sacred as we got closer to the cliff, I insisted on going last. But,the next thing I know,he had strapped me up. The instructor and I had to run a little while before the wind thrusts up the para-glide, I was petrified that I forgot to run after sometime,he managed to run the rest of the way,and we were in the air! I was frightened for the initial 30seconds,tightly gripping onto the ropes connected to the para-glide,then I calmed down a little. It was just exhilarating, I felt like a free bird flying in the sky. It was so peaceful and I felt like an eagle soaring at these high altitudes. Those 7-minutes was a new found freedom . I had a pleasant landing (unlike a few others who landed on dung!). Next up,was all boring horse ride, It was such a drag! Vidya and I couldn't wait to get off our horses! It was painful in every sense,physically strenuous on the back,a cocky horseman, frequently hurting the animals. I felt responsible for each time the horse was whacked by the horseman. Our adventures for the day was over. We returned to our rooms at 8 pm. We had bottles of GODFATHER and vodka(largely finished by me) to accompany us through the night,and of course the other. We had a good time,and mostly played rummy and had interesting conversations. Went up to the terrace to continue making noise.The neighbors even came out to complain. We retreated downstairs,and fell asleep.
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