Bhrigu Lake Trek — Day Three
27th June 2022, Monday (Next day story link at the bottom)
It’s 5:45 AM and I can hear noise from other batch which arrived last evening for summit .. They were shouting like its been 8 AM and we are departing for summit .. whoever is sleeping will be left now .. They were basically having fun early morning and those of us who wanted to sleep till late today as we had to step down today were getting annoyed :D
Tried hard to sleep back but so much noise that you can not sleep anymore. Finally we woke up and came out of sleeping bag and the tent. It was 6:00 in the morning and pleasant cold .. I could see different batches of hikers all around .. Forgot to tell you, we had a big tent nearby and it was a shopkeeper who sells tea, maggie, rajma rice, daal rice, eggs etc. You can purchase food items from this shop if you feel hungry. This shop is very useful for those who are doing solo trekking with their own tents. This shop owner is the same uncle who run the other tent shop down the trail which we visited first day. So in the evening he comes here and then in the morning he run downside shop.
One of our trek mate was studying engineering in SRM Chennai and he had his final year online mode exam scheduled today for which he had to reach to his cafe in old Manali by 3 PM today. He was worried and since summit day he was requesting Tarun to leave early on day-3 so he could reach on time for the exam. Tarun assured him that he will make him reach on time no matter what.
Finally after the breakfast we left for the downward steep descent towards chaudaa mod (14th Turn) where a tempo traveller or alike will wait for us to drove us back to Himtrek basecamp. Today we will not get lunch and we have to manage it on our own after reaching Manali. We were very fast on the slope and within one hour we covered 75% of the trek hence Tarun asked us to take a big break as our commute had still not reached at the point and so its better to stay here in pleasant weather rather than down the road in hot weather .. YEs, Manali also was not such pleasant weather as compared to these hill tops.
After an hour we started back and reached to the tea shop which we had visited on day-1 trek. We had tea and maggie here whatever individual preferred (not part of HimTrek).
Started back and reached to the road where we had to wait for approx 30 minutes to get the tempo traveller.
Finally we passed Gulaba and reached to Himtrek basecamp. Here we returned the rented items and got our original stuff back like shoes, bags, etc. Everyone left the camp except me as I had plenty of time to spend. It was 2:30 PM now and I had my bus from Manali to Delhi at 6:45 PM in the evening. I asked a Himtrek employee if we have shower facility here to which she replied yes and guided me the direction. I took a quick shower and was very happy as its been 3 days without bath and weather here down the hill was not that cozy so a bath was pleasant. I stayed there for another 30 minutes to charge my phone as it was switched off and I needed it for the bus boarding as ticket was in phone only ( A mistake to be avoided in future, carry a print in such situation). I left the campsite at 3 PM and walked for around 1 Kms to reach to Old manali main market which is famous for party nights. Many pubs/bars on the street and I could hear live bands performing in cafes. Here beside the club house, there was a South Indian restaurant on river side where water sports activities was on going. I sat here for the view to spend some time and ordered Masala Dosa, which turned out to be average in taste but not bad for INR 100 at tourist place and river side view.
It was 4 PM now and I thought I should now move towards the private bus station in advance and spent the remaining time there nearby the flowing river .. Yes the bus stand is by riverside. I asked few auto drivers how much they will charge from Old Manali to Private bus stand and all of them asked 300 INR. I thought I have plenty of time and nothing to do so I started walking towards Mall road based on sign board directions. After 2 Km walk I reached to Mall road where I first purchased fresh local Plums and then moved in a cafe nearby. It was 5:30 now and my bus was for 6:30 PM so I decided to move on as traffic around the mall road is unpredicted in peak seasons and can result in missing the bus very easily, you never know. I took an auto from here and auto charged for INR 150 from here and dropped me at bus stand by 5:45 PM.
As per ticket bus departure time was 06:45 PM and I had booked Zing bus via redbus.in website. Around 6:30 PM I thought I should search the bus now and to my surprise bus was leaving for Delhi (15 minutes before scheduled departure time). This was not the only shock, as soon as I reached to the bus helper(conductor) and showed my ticket, he checked his list twice and said Sorry we (Zingbus) have not received any booking on your name from redbus. I showed him the ticket again and emphasized that ticket is booked 4 days prior and clearly indicates your bus number and even seat number, allow me to sit and if someone else comes on same seat with valid ticket, I will pay you entire fare again for a seat and will discuss with redbus later on for possible refund legally. Bus helper was a nice guy and he allowed me to have seat but asked me to carry the bag on seat as without ticket he said he can not put the bag in luggage compartment, to which I was ok as it doesn’t matter. Bus conductor started talking to someone regarding the issue probably in his company service desk meanwhile I also tried to contact redbus customer care number which no one responded or called back (pathetic redbus, never use it again). May be the helper guy spoke to redbus in between and I got some otp which I showed to the helper and he confirmed that they now have info about my reservation in this bus. I was finally tension free that journey has no glitch now. After some time from next stop another guy boarded the bus and he also faced same issue and was very angry. With this experience I have decided never to use redbus nor the zingbus. Why zingbus? because their AC was not working, they don’t provide any bag/holder behind seats so you can’t even put your mobile for charging. You have to hold it in your hands for entire journey. Driver used to turn on AC and turn it of after every 5 minutes. No blankets were provided as its a must in every AC volvo bus. Overall I would never recommend Zingbus or redbus service to anyone.
I reached Delhi on time and booked Ola cab to reach my society .. Memories for lifetime ❤
