Exploring Manali: A rainy day in the hills

After 15 hr on the bus (why can’t they have sleeper busses on this route? 🙁 ), I reached Manali around 11 am. I knew already that it would rain and was slightly concerned about the roads when leaving. Fortunately, it was only a light drizzle so there weren’t any issues. Seeing some old landslides on the way still makes me a bit nervous…

I had booked a hotel in Old Manali, Treebo Trend Celebriti (fancy! – At least I hoped so), a bit apart from the busy road but still close enough to reach all those cafes within 5-10 minutes. It was in the middle of apple orchards and my balcony had an amazing view over the mountains. Those 15 hours were fully worth it!

When the rain didn’t get even slightly better after one hour, I gave up and ventured out. I had made one packing mistake already: I only had one thick sweater and no thermals. It was only 13°C out there and the rain didn’t make it feel any warmer. At least I came prepared with a rain jacket and umbrella.

Of course, I had done my homework on where to eat, and being in full-on pizza mood the entire week, I decided to go to Bella Vista. After a 20-minute walk, I unfortunately found it closed, and being renovated… great. Il forno it was then, another recommended Italian place and another 20-minute walk uphill. Deep puddles and cars are a bad combination when walking and I had a hard time avoiding them…

The effort was fully worth it though! It turned out to be a cute, rather rustic restaurant with amazing pizza. I could sit outside although it still rained which was extremely beautiful and peaceful.

Il Forno in Manali, Himachal Pradesh

I’m not a fan of Mall Roads but since there was not much more to do on such a rainy day in Manali, I went down to check it out. It was as expected: the regular touristy shops with the regular bags, scarves, jewellery, and whatnot. Nothing new.

Fun fact (added a year later): I had the funniest experience around 6 months later thanks to this trip! Apparently, some guy saw me there in the market, fell head over heels in love with me (love at first sight!), failed to find me again, and randomly found me on a dating app which then led him to my Instagram account (a bit creepy if you ask me). I most surely shall write about this one day, it’s such a funny Bollywood-like story (without the Bollywood ending)! 😀

Because of the rain, my hands felt like falling off, so I had a Kesar Badam (Saffron and Almond) Milk in one of the shops. Way too sweet though. I linked a recipe because it’s an awesome thing to make at home. 🙂

As expected, there were a lot of travel agencies in Manali that offered treks. I was quite disappointed: the snow line happened to be very low this year hence hardly any longer treks in camps were available. One guy even told me that the Kheerganga trek in Kasol was still closed, but another guy later said that it was not true. The second guy offered relatively cheap day treks to Solang Valley (1200 INR/~17 $) and told me that I could go to Jogni waterfall by myself on one day. Sounds like a plan! And to be honest, it seemed way too cold to even think of camping! Day trips and cozy hotel rooms seemed to be a much better idea.

It finally stopped raining in the evening and I could fully appreciate the apple trees in full bloom all around the hotel. Is there anything more beautiful than blossoms after rain?

Apple tree blossoms Himachal Pradesh

After a break in the hotel to warm up (I swear, I will never go to the hills without thermals anymore #lessonlearned), I went to the third cafe/restaurant in Manali that was on my list: The Lazy Dog Lounge (how could I of all people NOT go to a place with this name? 🙂 ). Ambiance-wise it was excellent but I was slightly disappointed with the food. I ordered chicken pad thai noodles but didn’t like them much. Maybe it was just not my taste so I don’t want to be too hard with my judgment, I’m simply not a peanut person. But even the Ginger lemon honey tea was so sweet that I had to change it to a Chamomille without sugar. Maybe the mountain people just like it extra sweet. 🙂

All in all, it felt like quite a lazy day but at least I was able to make my first plan. After all, that’s why I had decided to come on such a rainy day, so I would not waste a nicer day finding out what to do. Let’s see what day two has in store for me!

The Summary

Distance covered

By bus: 560 km

Duration: 15 hrs

Cost: 1279 INR

By auto: 3 km

Cost: 200 INR

By foot: 8 km

Accommodation

Treebo Trend Celebriti

Cost: 1800 INR/~26 $ (via Booking.com)

Rating: 4/5 (awesome view, clean and spacious room. Breakfast buffet is OK)

Food

Il Forno

Lunch: Pizza Margherita with extra jalapenos, ginger lemon honey tea

Cost: 580 INR/~8 $

Rating: 5/5 (super delicious pizza, they had homemade chili oil on each table which I loved, nice ambiance and great service. The cost for non-veg pizza is slightly on the higher side (especially compared to Delhi) but justified)

The Lazy Dog Lounge

Dinner: Chicken pad thai noodles, ginger lemon honey tea (free because I returned it), Chamomile tea

Cost: 460 INR/~6.50 $

Rating: 4/5 (I personally didn’t like the food too much but nice presentation; the first tea was way too sweet but they exchanged it for free; great and fast service, perfect ambiance with sofas and great chilled-out music, not too loud, good bar menu)