Second honeymoon @ Himachal Pradesh

The purpose of the trip: Second Honeymoon

The purpose of this contest participation: Well... Third Honeymoon ;)

The honeymooners: Mrinal and Anuradha

Click here to check out my entry for MyPurpose contest. 

We tied the knot on 10th November 2008. And our first best miya-biwi-dono-raazi decision post marriage was the honeymoon destination - Ooty! So much so that we decided that however busy life gets, we'll ensure that we plan a honeymoon every year. This way, we'll get to explore all of India as well as the world. And feel as newlyweds always ;)

Jaisa desh, waisa bhesh

So we planned a November-October cycle and kept the destinations unplanned. Too much planning makes life too boring, right?

In the month of June last year, we thought of going to Shimla-Manali. Mrinal had never visited any snow-clad mountains and I had never been to such places with him. So we both were pretty excited.

Adventure @ Kufri

In Shimla, we visited Kufri... the road trip defined what beauty is all about. The Himalayan Panorama view from was simply awesome!

We held a snake around our neck... what an experience! It was so ticklish I couldn't stop laughing while onlookers wondered why we aren't scared of the snake a bit. We were never this close to wildlife!

The next day we headed to Manali and visited Hanogi Mata Temple on our way.

Manali has much more to see than what we visualize the place to be like. Take for example Hadimba temple... it's very different from the temples we had visited until then. With the legend carefully drafted at the entrance of the temple, it kinda took us to some other time.

Hadimba Devi temple

Vashisht Bath, Hot Water Springs, Van Vihar, Tibbetan Monastery... Manali was much much more than what we could have expected. But the biggest surprise had to come the next morning (read very early morning)!

When our driver told us that we'll have to leave for Rohtang Pass at sharp 4 am... you can guess what we felt. But we cannot be more thankful to him. Had we not followed his strict instructions, we would have been stuck in never-ending traffic for hours.

 

Rohtang Pass

But as soon as we reached Rohtang, it started drizzling. At an altitude of 13,051 ft with all the breeze and rain, we could barely stay out of the car for around 15 minutes. But those 15 minutes were truly blissful! Yes we were on snow... together and freezing! And it was a rather weird situation - the beauty of the place insisted we stay back, the temperature tried to push us away!

Well, we returned to Manali by lunch time. It was raining and the weather was too cold for us. But then, we don't get to visit such lovely places often, right?

So we spent the day roaming around under an umbrella while the cold breeze and showers ensured we get closer to each other. As if nature knew it was our second honeymoon!

PS This post comes at least seven months after our trip... Thanks to IndiBlogger and Cleartrip's My Purpose Contest.

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