“Oh God Naina! Can you please dig your head out of that book? Look around you. You are surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Stop looking at those pictures and look outside your window at the actual mountains for ones.” The hazel brown eyes hidden behind those huge glasses looked up. A sense of irritation was quite evident in them, yet they accepted defeat. She shut the book and pulled it close to her looking out the window with a faint smile as the cold air caressed her face.

“So where are we going again?” He asked, putting his hands around Naina’s shoulders. “I thought you asked me to ‘dig my head out of the book’. I knew you’d be clueless, that’s why I was looking at our Xplaces itinerary!”exclaimed Naina.

“Naina you know how Bunny is right? Go ahead tell us about the trip please, we’d be completely lost without you” Aditi the badass of the group voiced out.

“Yes Naina, I don’t know about these people but at least I’ll be completely lost without you” Bunny said giving her a quick wink. Ignoring this comment she began to slowly take our four millennial musketeers through their epic Manali trip itinerary. Oh, wait! I didn’t introduce you to Avi, our fourth character. My bad, he is so neglected everywhere that even I forgot about him.

“So now this bus will drop us at Manali, then from there we will be taken in another bus to Naggar.” she was about to continue when Avi cut her off. “Are we sure about this itinerary? I mean I haven’t even heard about this place before.”

“Yes, I know and that is why we are going there. It is this small village between Kullu and Manali. Everyone goes to these places and don’t even look at Naggar and it is so ironic because Naggar was once the seat of the Kullu kingdom. That said, we will then proceed to the Naggar castle.”

“Naina you become the queen and I’ll be your Raja Sidhi Singh.” Bunny spoke, to everyone’s surprise. “For someone who acts completely clueless you know quite a lot” Naina said with raised eyebrows.

“Naina I am a man of many talents. Y’all will never understand that” he said with a smirk. “Anyways going ahead, we will then visit the Roerich Art Gallery. After that dinner and then we’ll be dropped at the hotel. That will be day one.” Naina continued.

“Wait I know about the second day. Let me continue from here” Aditi spoke. “Wow! Aditi also knows stuff. I should really start reading some books.” Avi retaliated. “I am not going to react to that comment. This is my zen mode. So, for the second day after breakfast, we are going to the Sollang Valley. And that is where the real fun begins. So basically Sollang Valley is the hub for winter adventures. Skiing, Paragliding, Horse riding, etc. And we are doing all of them by the way.”

“Now that is why you know so much about the second day. No wonder.” Said Avi. Now this comment was followed by a lot of beating from Aditi. “I thought you were in your zen mode””Well, not anymore. Anyways after that, we’ll be going to the Atal tunnel if it is open. After that dinner and back to the hotel. There ends day two. Naina, please take it from here.”

“Okay so on the third day, there is not much, we will just go sightseeing in Kasol and Manikaran.” Said Naina

“I am looking forward to that, we should go to one of those treks. And also have amazing Persian food in Kasol, after all, it’s known as the ‘Mini Israel of India’. Bunny said looking out of the bus window. “Bunny now you are just scaring me,” Aditi uttered what all three of them had in mind and in return she only received a crooked smile from Bunny.

“Okay, day four. After breakfast, we are going to Bijli Mahadev Temple. This route also includes a one-hour trek. I have heard a lot about this temple. It seems that the lingam of Shiva inside the temple gets hit by lightning every twelve years. Locals believe that this act is the lord protecting them from evil.”

“You are such a bhakt Naina, you believe in all this?” asked Bunny “Yes I do and please let’s not start with that debate again.” Naina replied.

To this Aditi said “Yes please don’t. And I’ll continue before y’all get into a fight. For day five we have a lot of things planned. Hadimba temple, Vanvihar which is a park, Vashista temple, Club house, Tibetan Monastery and Mall road. Now this day has something for all of us, Naina you’ll love all the temples. Me, Bunny, and Avi are going to have a great time at the Clubhouse, they offer a lot of activities like zip lining and stuff. The Monastery is beautiful, I had seen the pictures. Finally, we can shop at the mall road. That is how our day five ends. On the last day we’ll have breakfast and early morning we’ll be dropped at Manali.”

Avi was unable to contain his excitement and almost cried out “Sounds fun man. It’s gonna be epic!””It’s definitely going to be an amazing trip and for that some people really need to loosen up a little bit.” Bunny said, putting his hand around Naina’s shoulders which almost choked her. Finally the journey came to an end and the four of them tightened their duffel bags to get started with one of the best trips they were about to have and which would influence a lot of youngsters to add a Manali trip to their bucket lists.

 References

www.tripoto.com

www.trawell.in

www.timesofindia.com