When I travelled on a historic route - TTTT 23

Last month I traveled from Amritsar to Delhi by Golden Temple mail. The train starts from Amritsar and goes all the way to Bombay.

So if you are wondering, whats so historic about this route, well, let me try to convince you!

- Before winding up our day at Amritsar, we went to Wagah border, Attari village. Lahore from there is just 23 kilometers. (from the India Border).

- Before partition, I am guessing the train line which starts from Amritsar would have ended at Lahore.

- I remember reading about Sadat Hassan Manto, traveling all the way from Pakistan to Bombay by train!

- I also have read, Mahatma Gandhi doing an all India travel by train where he mentions crossing over to Lahore by train,

So, coming from Wagah border and travelling from Amritsar in a train going to Mumbai via Delhi, dont you think, I just traveled by a historic forgotten route!

Yeah, I do not get to cross the border! But ain't my imagination weird and correct?

Cheers,

When a journey from Spiti Valley to Manali took 18 hours during the day - TTTT 22

Yes please, during our last trip to Himachal Pradesh, we had 2 days where we traveled during the day (that too 12+ hours)! Previous post indicated one, now its time to write about another such long day.

We had completed our 10 day trek in 8 days, by not taking a rest day plus covering 2 days distance in 1 day (27 kilometers). So we got two spare days and we made most of it!

This day, we started at 6 AM in the morning from Mudh Village in Spiti, again by a local bus We took 4 hours to reach Kaza too which is in Spiti. After around 1 hour for breakfast, we could rent a vehicle which would take us to Manali for about 9.5K.

So we started from Kaza and we had travelled around 47 Kilometers, our tyre went flat. The driver changed the tyre and within few meters the spare tyre burst out!

We were stranded in Spiti Desert for almost 3 hours with zero support. As there was no vehicle which to take us. Very few vehicles plied on that road leaving us with no option but to wait on the road!

Finally after 3 hours, we could manage a spare vehicle from Spiti itself, a 10 seater TT and we resumed our journey around 3 pm. Reached Kunzum Mata temple and Kunzum pass around 5 30 PM and Rohtang pass around 11 PM.

Made it to Manali and then Naggar around 12 in the night. So there it goes 18 hours of travel. Some pictures from Spiit Valley are below!

When a journey from Himachal Pradesh to Punjab took 12 hours during the day - TTTT 21

It was one awesome journey from Manali all the way to Amritsar. Yes it took 12 hours by road. And it was done all during the day! It was fun, but it did take away one precious day, which we could have explored Himachal Pradesh, never mind, we got to see Punjab as well!

Day started at 7 am when we got ready and packed our belongings from our homestay in Naggar / Himachal Pradesh. We managed to catch a local bus heading towards Kullu and from there we hoped we could get a direct bus to Chandigarh.

Kullu to Chandigarh shows 270 kilometers by road, so it would be close to 7-8 hours. We were hoping to hop on Volvo as going by ordinary bus in the hills would be much slower. Boy we managed to reach Kullu around 10 15 AM and then there was a Volvo bus heading to Chandigarh around 10 45 AM, booked the tickets.

The bus started on time and made all the way through the hills with loads of curves with pretty good speed. Only thing was, there were sharp turns to an extent where many people started throwing up. We managed to stop for lunch around 2 PM and then finally got down at Ropad/RoopNagar Punjab at around 4 15PM.

The main road where we got down and the bus stand of  Ropad are atleast 3-4 kilometers far. We managed to check out the Ropad Railway station hoping to catch a train which would make our journey quicker. But the only train to Amritsar was in the morning and we were left with no option but to go by bus and we walked all the way to the bus stand.

I was already feeling the heat. I was sweating badly and then we had to walk too with the luggage, boy it was tough, finally made in time to Ropad bus stand where we got a bus to Amritsar, All this was at 6 PM.

Distance between Ropad and Amritsar is around 190 Kilometers. I wondered if we could make it before midnight. We reached Jalandhar around 8 15 PM and the bus broke down leaking diesel fuel. We were put on a replacement bus and finally reached Amritsar around 11 PM.

What a day it had been. Luckily there were plenty of lodges around the bus stand and then got a room and finished dinner at around 11 40 in the night and slept off. Thoroughly entertaining day, considering we hopped on multiple buses, walked by foot, went to a railway station too!

Cheers,