Keylong - II : Manali to Koksar

26-07-2005: We got up at 4am, freshened up and checked out from the hotel. Reached the bus stand at 4:45am. We had booked out seats the previous day itself and they were 10 and 11. There was a bus standing right at the entrance of the bus stand with board reading 'Manali - Keylong' and no place to keep even a single foot. We were not worried at all, because our seats are booked and hence we thought it must be a different bus. We saw another bus standing in corner with very few passengers and was carrying the board 'Manali - Keylong - Leh'. I was relived to see that. Went inside, and then to the seat numbers 10 and 11. There was a foreigner and a desi guy sitting on those seats. I showed him my ticket and told him that these are our seats. The foreigner replied "Same here, same here"!!! I couldn't understand what he wanted to convey. Then the desi guy told us that this is the Leh bus the our bookings are in the other bus itself!!! We reconfirmed it by asking in the enquiry counter. When we showed him our ticket and told him that how can we get to sit in those 'reserved' seats, he shouted us saying that it's not his responsibility. I first thought of pushing Subha inside somehow and then travelling sitting on the top. With this idea, I even went up the bus and fixed my ruck-sack there. But later on seeing some amount clouds in the sky, I withdrew from the plan. We then decided to do the six hourse journey by standing. I went up the Leh bus and put our big ruck-sack there. And then we wentup the Leh bus and put our big ruck-sack there. And then we went inside and stood there. By around 5:30am, both the buses started together.

The conductor of this bus was an extremely helpful nice guy. When he reached near us, we showed him this ticket and described our helplessness state. He told us not to worry at all and ensured us that when both the buses stop for the breakfast, he will talk to the conductor of the other bus and get us the reserved seats. He also found a half seat for Subha to sit. Then he started talking to me in general and some other passengers nearby also got interested in the talk. One person, learning that I am from Kerala, started talking great about Kerala, like it's the best state I have ever seen, Kochi is the cleanest city I have ever seen etc.... I was really happy to hear all these and also happy (as a Keralite) to know that this person has not seen the bad parts of Kerala ;)

Though I was standing, the journey has already become interesting. For sometime, I was actually worried if the idea of the conductor (to get my researved seats for me) will really work. But I didn't have to worry about it for long. We over took the other bus, which was lying dead (breakdown) on the road!!! So, in fact, we were fortunate to miss the Keylong bus and get into the Leh bus. The conductor was also happily saying that 'good that you entered this bus'. He was such a nice guy!

The pictures outside were slowly changing. For sometime, it was just pine trees on hills. There were small water falls at times. Though it was a bit cloudy when we began our journey, it cleared up quite soon. Sun was bright and up. The road is quite steep and hence the bus was moving slowly. Cool breeze was coming in through some of the opened windows. Most of the windows were shut. We could hear the roar of the river Beas, even when we had reached quite high up. At times there were big groups of goats crossing the road or walking through the road creating traffic jams. But they are quite cute to watch, some of the look dumb and some look like villains and it's the best watching those cute little ones. Not many birds were seen on the trip, except for some eagles which were crossing us at times. We could see some really big eagles! The geography was also changing slowly. Big pine trees were slowly disappearing. There were nothing more than mere grass and
some small plants. Snow started appearing on the hill tops. We were getting really excited with the views around.

This road is quite narrow. Not at every place, two big vehicles can cross each other. Probably every 200 mtrs or so will have a place to cross over. If two big vehicles meet other than these places, one of them has to go back and reach such a wider road area. Most of the vehicles through this road are regular travelers. If one see another big vehicle approaching and he feels that they is no place to cross over if he goes ahead, he'll stop the vehicle there and let the other pass by.

The bus was supposed to stop at a place called Mahri for breakfast. But our driver was not very keen to have breakfast. He wanted to pass the Rohtang top as soon as possible. The reason for this is that the Rohtang top is a big tourist attraction and because of the over crowding of tourist vehicles, the traffic gets jammed at times. So, he wanted to cross before tourists really come to the place. He was successful in that. We crossed the Rohtang without any trouble. When we reached Rohtang, many people got down. There was one empty seat, which is actually the top of the toolbox of the bus. Subha immediately shifted there. Also, the conductor could move in to his seat (seat number 1, right near the driver). He invited me to share his seat. I was more than happy to accept the invitation. The journey on the top of Rohtang (2-3kms behind Rohtang to 5kms after Rohtang) had snow walls on both side many times. Because of the ice melted water flowing throughout, the roads were not really in a good condition. But the views around were so good that the bad state of the roads didn't bother us at all. Lots of army vehicles were going (recovery vehicles, other army trucks etc) around. We were carrying some bread and butter. We 4 (we two, conductor and driver) shared the breakfast. The conductor and driver took only two pieces as they said we'll stop for breakfast soon. Though only 18kms from Rohtang, it took one hour to reach Koksar, where we halted for breakfast. It was 9:30am by then and we had covered only 69kms, another 46kms more to Keylong.

More in the next part...............