Trip to Manali - Details of Journey by Road

Well, to start with, after I did all my research about travel options, among air, rail and road. There were 3 airlines, Indian Airlines, Spice Jet and Jagsons Airways providing flights from Delhi to Bhuntar, airport in Kullu. Information on net told me that airport to Bhuntar is 55 kms. However, when I discovered that Bhuntar was on my way from Kullu to Manali and taxis were pretty easily available from Bhuntar to Kullu.

As far as train is concerned, I think we need to change the train somewhere in between as it is only Narrow Gauge in Kullu. So this idea did not suit me as I was going with my mom and uncle who are quite aged to change trains along with the luggage.

Next option was by road using either Volvo or private taxis. There are sevearal sites where you can book a cab from delhi to manali. However, I found them quite expensive @12000/- for a trip. I just felt that spending more on my journey part rather than on my accomodation and sight-seeing would not be a right thing.

Hence I decided to finalise with Volvo buses. I got good reviews from several people who told me that it is quite comfortable for aged people. And since I had never tried it myself, I thought to give it a chance.

There were many avenues to book Volvo buses from Delhi to Manali, some of them are:

http://www.volvo.com/bus/india/en-in/
http://www.volvobusesindia.com/ (I booked through this one as rest were going full !!)

My experience with Volvo's though was quite mixed one. Some key things which I would remember next time I use volvo to travel for long distances (meant over-nite) are:

1. You should choose the first 4 seats which are normally numbered as 1,2,3,4. Usually there are 2 drivers in each bus so that one can drive and other can sleep for the rest of the journey. Hence one seat is normally reserved for a driver. But this is not necessary and if there are no other seats, this seat can be given to passenger, but it depends and is discretionary to the driver and staff on board.
2. You should keep necessary stuff with you in handbags as luggage would get locked in the rear compartment just like it happens in airlines.
3. You should carry some woollens to use in nights as you never know if temperature falls outside the bus and ACs start working more efficiently :). Some travel operators do provide blankets which are quite sufficient in normal conditions.
   

Bad part of our journey:
We did face quiet tough times as our bus got stuck in a landslide near chandigarh. We were not really stuck in landslide but we could not move ahead Keerat Pur Sahib, 50kms from Chandigarh as the highway was supposedly closed due to landslide farther up the road. And hence several buses were there in the queue before us and most of the tourists were just standing on the road. Since it was 6 in morning, most of them were stretching and busy getting fresh. After an hour or so, we all realised that if we do not go back to local bus stand some 3-4 kms below the point where we were stuck, we might not able to move from there at all. This was due to the fact that line of buses behind us had already started increasing and was not stopping as more and more buses were enqueing.
Hence we came back to Keerat Pur Bus Stand and then had breakfast and ladies could freshen themselves and get food for children & infants. Next we started to talk to different people trying to find out ways to get manali. I saw some Tata Sumos standing at the bus stand . I went to a guy and found out the price he would charge for taking a cab full of us to Manali from that place. He told me it would cost me around 5500/- for a cab. I was not qutie convinced as I didn't know what to do. So I just came back and waited for drivers to tell if they got any news about road getting cleared from their colleagues up on the hill. Drivers normally have few of their colleagues coming back from the other side.
After talking to them, I could make out that they were not quite optimistic of getting this route cleared soon. Btw, tata sumos would have taken another route to Manali. Basically we went through
Chandigarh --> KiratPur Sahib --> Ropar --> Nangal --> Una (we enter HP) --> Badsar --> ShahTalai (distt BilasPur) --> Barthin (distt BilasPur) --> Prinni Nagar --> Sundar Nagar --> Ner Chauk (distt Mandi) --> Mandi Proper --> Pandoh dam --> Bajoura --> Bhuntar Airport --> Shamshi Main Market --> Kullu --> Katrain --> Manali.
Basically we had circled around the Gobind Sagar Lake to avoid the main chandigarh - Manali Highway which was blocked due to landslide.

So somehow we reached Manali at around 9:45 PM. Luckily the hotel manager was quite a nice person, Mr. Lalit. He was waiting for us and the cab driver, Monty just came withing few minutes at the bus stand to pick us up.

We reached our hotel, Dreamland which was around 2kms away from the main market and bus stand.

While coming back, I asked the hotel manager to book the front seats in the volvo bus. Charges were same, 1000/- per seat. Till our return date, government had permanently closed Chandigarh-Manali highway due to landslides. So the drivers chose to go via Simla. We left at around 7 in evening and I slept for almost all the night part of my journey. We were at Ambala at around 7 in morning. We had taken a hault at Ambala to get freshen up and have some thing to eat. Then we reached Delhi at around 12 and reached home till 3.

Read next blog for my experience and learnings during my stay at Manali.

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