Day 3 of the trip
HRTC bus for Chamba arrives at the bus stand half filled. Atlast my engineering skills came handy. Whoever said education always comes handy was correct at least in my case. Few pushes and elbows later, I have the window seat. Yay!! All thanks to BEST route 512. Just as my I placed my luggage and stretch my legs, Mr. Conductor ordered everyone to get out of the bus and buy tickets. I was WTF!! Thanks to a lady seated next to me my seat was still reserved, while many others lost theirs.
Cool breeze and a less bumpy ride ensured that I could sleep peacefully for few hours. Woke up at Banikhet. Arriving at Chamba I got a rude shock, it was way too crowded and definitely not my imagination of a hill station. For a moment I felt Lonavla was much less congested. Enquired about the bus to Killar. There is only one HRTC bus from Chamba to Killar starting at 5 am. Then went straight to Tourist office at Bachat Bhavan near Iravati.One Mr. Rajiv there was of great help. He gave some contact details of home stays and advised to do ManiMahesh first and then proceed to Sach. He recommended Tashika travels instead of bus. Later in the conversation, the recommendation was more like an insistence and that’s when I decided no matter what I won’t be taking Tashika travels and HRTC will be my choice.
By noon, I was back at Chamba Bus stand and the bus to Bharmour was as 1PM. There is a Bus every hour from Chamba to Bharmour and vice versa. Bharmour came and Night Mare begun. Every single cabbie was sure that there would be no more shared Bolero to Hadsar that day and were convincing me to take their cab for Rs. 300. Next stop, Raju Guest House near bus stand. Beware of this place, gives only false info and is highly overpriced. He had almost got me convinced that there would be no guides available in Hadsar and I have to book one for here itself for Rs. 750 per day. Then he wanted me to take their cab for Rs. 400. That’s when I realized, what I was being made a Chutiya. Next stop mountaineering institute in Bharmour. There was just one guy and he had nothing to rent out. While accompanying me to the taxi stand assured me that there will be a Bolero to Hadsar coming soon and guides will be easily available there.
Soon, a shared Bolero arrived and 3 people filled in with me, that guy had one more seat to fill for. I requested him to leave for Hadsar and agreed to pay Rs.20 extra. He agreed and dropped me at Shanti GH at Hadsar. I all this drama, forgot to get a pair of shoes for the trek. Damn!!
Hadsar is a lovely little village and I liked it very much. Got a landslide view room at 400 for two nights. Next day bargained hard and brought the tariff down to 350 for two nights with 2 dinners. Booked a local guy Mr. Negraj to be my trek guide@ Rs. 300. I wanted to trek as much as I could till 1PM and then begin the return journey. A family had come from SurendraNagar to visit ManiMahesh. Their plan was to trek to top and return the same day. We had our dinner together, where they advised me to continue to Manali from Killar and not to return to Chamba.
That was it for the day. Good night
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