Manali
Old, layered, dust-and-gold. Royal patronage stacked on Sufi shrines stacked on Mughal mortar.
Manali is the Himalayan adventure base — paragliding, white-water rafting, ski slopes at Solang Nallah in winter, and the road north over Rohtang Pass to Lahaul-Spiti and Leh in summer. Old Manali (north of the Beas, hippier, café-heavy) and New Manali (south, hotels, family) are two different towns ten minutes apart. The Hadimba Devi temple in deodar-cedar forest is the obligatory stop; the hot springs at Vashisht are the obligatory soak. Mid-October closes the Rohtang Pass to civilian traffic until late May. The Manali–Leh road, when it's open, is one of the great high-altitude drives on earth.
Source · Wikipedia · Manali,_Himachal_Pradesh · CC-BY-SA
Old, layered, dust-and-gold. Royal patronage stacked on Sufi shrines stacked on Mughal mortar.