The first time that we visited Manali, Himachal Pradesh, was 11 years ago as newlyweds. I LOVED the place - the weather was pleasant, the crowd was less and apple trees were in full bloom. It was a dreamland. The same year my husband's colleagues planned a trip to Kullu and Manali and though we had visited it only a few months ago we didn't want to miss a second opportunity. Unfortunately the second trip was a great disappointment, it was exactly the opposite of what it was the first time.
We made our third trip on the 26th of this month, this time with our son and my dad. If I rate this trip I would say it was somewhere between our 1st and 2nd. We were there for only 2 days and it was constantly drizzling both the days. On the first day we set about visiting a few temples and a Tibetan monastry. Because of the rain we just rushed about and could spend only a few minutes in each of these places.
On the way we saw a local woman working on her loom.
The apple trees hadn't started blooming but we found one with beautiful blossoms outside a temple.
There were plenty of shops selling knitted goods, but only very few with crocheted items.
There was yarn shopping too. I picked some random colors.
On the second day we went to Solang Valley. It was raining and all I wanted to do was stay buried under the quilt. Initially I refused to go and asked the rest of the 3 to make the trip without me but eventually relented and agreed to go.
Anyway I am happy that I went because otherwise I would have missed the actual snow fall. It started out light and became pretty heavy by the time we were prepared to leave.
After two days of enjoying the snow we are back again in Delhi where summer has just started and I am already dreading the heat and dust of Delhi's hot summer months.