Travel Stories

Yaar! Humein Waaps Jana Pdega (T1 D3)

lahul valley

You Know how emotionally difficult it is to get out of bed when it is cold outside. Ah! that feeling “need a few more minutes of sleep”. Nevertheless, we had to get out of our beds and get ready. Let me remind our readers, it is a work trip/ vacation. Today we will be going on a road trip to Pangi Valley ( Chamba). And the reason behind waking up early is Mr Gaurav.

Mr Gaurav is our Point of contact in Pangi and he told us to start early if we wanted to reach Pangi on time. Because only BSNL works where Gaurav lives, that too occasionally, we recorder all the conversations with him. The idea behind it was to create a substitute for google maps while driving without a signal.

Gaurav
Gaurav

We started driving at 8:30 am after enjoying Chai Parantha for breakfast. Jagat Sukh is close to Manali, so it took us about 30 min to reach there. Here, we bought some snacks, energy drinks for the journey and filled gas at the gas station. Manali is a famous tourist destination of Himachal Pradesh and every year millions of tourist come here to enjoy. Read more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manali,_Himachal_Pradesh

manali to Phindru Village pangi
Manali to Phindru Village Pangi

From Manali, we drove towards Solang valley and Via Attal Tunnel we reached Sissu. We kept driving along Chandra river and reached Tandi where the Baga river from the Keylong side merges with Chandra river and forms Chandrabaga river. Our words will not do justification with the beautiful scenery so leaving that for you to see by yourself on our vlog.

Now, from Tandi there is a diversion, if you are headed for Leh-Ladakh then go towards Keylong and if you are visiting Lahaul and Pangi Valley then go towards Udaipur. Tandi also has the last petrol pump, so do not miss that as we did.

Tandi Bridge
Tandi Bridge

From Tandi to Udaipur, most of the road was narrow but well maintained. The scenery again was breathtaking and we stopped at many places along the way. Driving alongside the majestic snow-covered mountains we reached Udaipur by noon. from here is a diversion towards the famous Trilokinath Temple ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilokinath_Temple_at_Tunde ).

lahul valley
Lahaul Valley

As we were not feeling hungry we kept on the road towards Pangi. After driving few kilometres we hit the never-ending Kaccha road, to make sure that we were on the right path we asked the driver coming from the opposite direction. Thankfully we were on the right path and were also informed that roads are not going to get any better for the rest of our journey.
After driving for an hour or so we noticed our car’s fuel level was almost half. We asked a pedestrian if there is any petrol pump nearby. To our surprise, we missed the last petrol pump which was in Tandi. While discussing how on earth we missed that, Shubham told us that he thought it was Tindi, not Tandi. Tindi was still 20 km from there and he would have stopped us in Tindi for refuelling.
The problem was that we cannot contact Gaurav and ask if he can arrange fuel in Pangi for us. So we inquired at the nearby shop if he knew where can we find fuel. Unluckily, no was the answer we got.

Now we had two option. Drive back to Tandi and say done for the day or drive back to Udaipur, find some local vendor who sells fuel and return on our way. In both ways ” humein waaps jana pdega”.
Without wasting any time we drove back to Udaipur, and luckily we found fuel. We paid a little extra but it was better than driving back to Tandi. After refuelling, we realised we might get late to Pangi. So, we stuffed ourselves with delicious Mutton Momos and soup.

Refuelling
Refuelling

After eating we were back on the road. The condition of the road was so poor but the scenery was out of this world. None of us has ever been to such a beautiful place. The glaciers, the clear Chandrabaga river and virgin lands were a treat for the eyes.

Road To Pangi Valley
Road To Pangi Valley

As we reached the borders of Lahaul and Chmaba, we were stopped by police on the road. They checked our papers and inquired about the first aid kit and gave us their number in case of any emergency. Soon, we left and further ahead in our journey, clouds started dipping. This was already a tough road to drive on and rain would have made it worse. Luckily it only started raining heavily when we reached Phindru village. Here Gaurav was waiting for us. When he saw our car, he felt relief. According to him, we were supposed to be there by 3 pm and here we were at 6:30 pm, almost getting dark. He told us that he was worried, the roads are not good and he thought we might have stuck somewhere because we were driving a small car.
Gaurav then took us to his beautiful house, which is on the other side of the river. He lives with his parents and his younger brother who is pursuing his graduation lives in Hamirpur. We sat with his family for a while and talked about politics and the poor state of Pangi. Gaurav then showed us our room and told us to charge our devices when there is still electricity. The electricity supply is also not good in this region.
After settling down, Gaurav brought us dinner. He also brought local wine which was the icing on the cake after a beautiful drive. We talked for hours about our work and the Pangi region with Gaurav and then went to sleep.
Today it was raining and was almost dark when we reached, but tomorrow we will be exploring this beautiful village (Phindru).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *