This time I would like to tell you about my latest backpacking from Manali to Leh. I have been there before, however, this time the voyage was more fun and adventurous than before. This was a 485 km journey along different river valleys that took around 20 hours with an overnight camp at Sarchu at an altitude of 4,000 m. This highway is open only for 3 months every year. During the other seasons of the year it is closed because of the heavy snow. I will call it a breath taking tour in the Trans Himalayas.



I would like to start with the first phase, that is Manali itself; a gateway to Leh and Ladakh. Manali is a beautiful town located in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. Kullu has been famous for its gods and deities all over the world. Manali has gathered a million of tourists from around the world for its beautiful valleys, mountains, thick deodar forests, water falls, besides Manali is also famous for its malana cream(top quality hashish)available here. Every year lots of tourists gather here just to taste the quality hashish, however it is banned here but still you can see a lot of tourists smoking hashish joints around Kasol, Parvati and almost everywhere.



I am also planning to visit Kullu in November to see the rich culture of this gods place when it celebrates the International Dushehra festival of Kullu where thousands of Gods all over the hills gather and dance, lakhs of people gather to take the blessings of local gods called Devtas.





To start with my first day, that began with the dangerous 30 km climb to Rohtang. Amazing thing about Rohtang is its height and the name; Rohtang means heap of dead bodies I don’t know why it was named like that. Rohtang lies at a height of 3,900m and is a place where natural vegetation stops.



As we started our journey, the weather was real bad, a lot of fog prevent us to feed on the scenic beauty of the place and it was raining continuously since two days. Somehow we got to start, not letting the weather disturb us. So I along with my three Spanish friends and one Israeli babe, who gave me a great company all the way to Leh. This guy called Assi from Spain was an awesome guitar player and a great singer too, his music kept us on a high during the whole tour.



From Manali, the road starts along the river beas and continues by sharp uphill curves up way till Rohtang. On the way my Spanish friends was stunned to see the beautiful views of lush green forests and big waterfalls. Rohtang is considered as a gateway to Lahaul and Spiti, a great cold desert in the Trans Himalayas. People have been lost there due to the sudden deterioration of weather. The weather keeps on changing many times in a day. Fortunately, when we reach there, the weather was awesome it was sun shining all the way. We stopped there on a road side dhabha for our breakfast. On the way we met a stream of jeep safaris, buses and Enfield motorcycles set off to Leh from the Kullu Valley on a two day journey to travel along the second highest motorable road in the world, which reaches a dizzying altitude of 5,328m and that sounds damn crazy stuff to me.