Nov 6, 2019
It was for an acquaintance turned friend Rajesh who made it more interesting by showing me around. One of the days, we had been to Kullu on work, on the way back I asked Rajesh that I wanted to get into the river, not the water but the riverbed. Rajesh found a way to reach the riverbed. The first thing I noticed was that all stones, big or small, were rounded. I could hardly see any rock with sharp edges. That's Rajesh finding a safe path to get closer to flowing waters.
In Himachal, main roads run parallel to rivers. Here, along the right bank of Beas is NH-3 and on the left bank is a rural road connecting towns and villages. The monastery where I stayed was on the left bank, a few kilometers from this bridge. These bridges are important links. I'm not sure if they are designed to take dynamic loads of moving cars but it's a common sight to see small cars on the bridge.
The spot chosen by Rajesh was really nice. The sound of flowing water was soothing. However, I had to be careful, one misstep meant falling into chilly waters. Not to mention the current and submerged boulders.
Water was clean and clear.
That's my friend Rajesh, we are in touch and hope to visit his home town Dharamshala some time.
After spending some 30 minutes in the riverbed, we headed back to the monastery. Here's a shot of the bridge. It's just wide enough for a small car and a pedestrian to pass by. There are unspoken rules for motorists; only one car on the bridge at a time. For the sake of safety and time, everyone respects the rules here.
A couple of views from the bridge. Somewhere in the vicinity is a rafting start point. I saw a couple of rafts with excited tourists.
There's one raft heading downstream. Some reason, I don't even want to try it. Just once I had sailed in a coracle in river Kali near Dandeli. Unlike rafts, coracles are highly unstable and only a skilled and experienced pilots can negotiate them in rapids.
Rajesh on his Honda Hornet speaking to an acquaintance. On that bike, we rode up to the top of a mountain on which the monastery is situated. The top was covered in a fir forest, ground was covered in snow. The place had an eerie silence. Rajesh didn't want to risk going further due to predatory animals and we were just two unarmed men.
On the Dec 5th we rode to Manali on the same bike. We visited Manu Mandir, Hidimba Devi Mandir, Ghatotkacha shrine and Himachal Pradesh cultural museum. Close to Manali is a village called Shuru, we visited it to meet up with an old acquaintance of my brother. Memories of the rural Himachali hospitality is still fresh and warm. The return journey to Kais was something else. In Himachal, sunset happens around 3-30. You must be wondering- how? Once the sun goes behind a mountain and if you are in the shadow, you can feel the temperature drop rapidly. We started from Shuru around 4-30 and reached Kais by 7-30. The entire journey I was shivering, trying to block the wind sneak into my clothing and helmet. With some 5 off kilometers to the monastery, we stopped at a teashop, the fire and hot tea felt heavenly. When we resumed our journey those five kilometers felt like ten. What an experience that was!
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