The Return Journey from Prashar Lake

The Guest House at Sunset, Prashar Lake, Himachal Pradesh

We used Mandi (Himachal Pradesh, India) as the base for our Prashar Lake trip. For our return journey Sesha booked two tickets in a private Volvo bus through Satluj Travels (located next to the Mandi Government Bus Stand). One can get the tickets in a Manali-Delhi Volvo passing via Mandi. Our past experience with private tour operators have not been too good. And this one too proved to be no exception.

We were given the starting time from Mandi as 9.30 at night and we were promptly there. The bus came up at 10.30, an hour late. But I guess this could be a standard practice by tour operators as they assume that passengers would turn up late according to the Indian sense of time.

The configuration of this Volvo was different from the government operated one, the latter is more spacious. Still, there was ample leg room even in this bus. The driver was a moron of the first order (but then, I think it is luck and you can get morons even on government buses) and would negotiate all the turns on the hill roads at a breakneck speed. I was almost always sliding off my seat and in spite of the good leg room it was very difficult to sleep.

Around 6.00 in the morning the AC of the bus broke down and with a Volvo you can't open the windows. They opened the roof ventilators and the morning weather was pleasant. I would not have given a damn whether the AC worked or not, I would have preferred to reach Delhi on time. But the moron driver wanted to get it repaired. At the first shop they tried, they were unsuccessful after wasting 45 minutes. A short time later, he tried to get it repaired at another shop and around 7.30 in the morning (by the time we should have been in Delhi but we were more than 250 kilometers away yet) we ditched the bus and hopped in an ordinary government bus at a traffic signal.

By 8.30 the day was getting hotter by the minute. We finally reached home around 12 in the noon and both of us had to miss the office that day. We are going to stay away from private bus operators as far as we can.

Delhi to Manali on a HP State Transport Volvo Bus

When I went to Shringi Vatika (Himachal Pradesh, HP) the second time to get my cell phone back, Sesha did not come with me (he has less number of leaves than me). When Sesha is around, I almost always end up traveling on a Khatara (uncomfortable) bus.

This time around my younger nephew came with me. He is quite tall (6 feet 2 inches and still growing) and he would have been quite miserable if the seats are cramped. At ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi) when we started inquiring for deluxe buses to Manali, we were told that there was a Delhi-Manali Volvo available at 8.26 that night. The tickets for this bus are sold from the first floor of ISBT.

We headed to the HP counter. The first floor at ISBT was much less crowded than the ground floor. It was just 6.30 in the evening but still the only seats available in the Volvo were for the last row. We decided to take it. Since, we had to get down at the tunnel before Aut, we were given tickets up to Bhunter. I paid Rupees 1590 for two tickets and my nephew immediately remarked, "Bua (Aunt in Hindi) there you have already spent almost the price of your cell phone." The bus was supposed to leave from platform 6.

We went to platform 6 around 8.15 and there was no sign of a Volvo. After a few minutes we asked a bus conductor of another bus and he pointed out the Volvo standing near a wall and said we should head there as it is almost time. After depositing the rucksack in the luggage space we walked in.

This was the first time for both of us in a Volvo and the bus looked comfortable and spacious with lots of leg room, till we reached the last row. The last row seats were really cramped in the Volvo but luckily there were just three of us for 6 seats and we could spread out on two seats. My nephew was in the middle seat which opened up to the aisle, so he had some leg room. I was on a window seat (not originally but since no one turned up I moved to it) with the next seat vacant.

They play a movie in the bus that runs till 12 at night. On our trip they played Bhagam Bhag, a truly silly movie and many passengers grumbled that they can't go to sleep. I am OK with silly movies occasionally.

Otherwise, the journey was comfortable. However, on the return journey we had to travel by various Khatara buses and to his credit he never complained even once.