{"id":22689,"date":"2014-05-10T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T07:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=22689"},"modified":"2014-05-10T12:46:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T07:16:05","slug":"day-72-bilaspur-to-mandi-himachal-pradesh-kanyakumari-to-leh-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/travel\/day-72-bilaspur-to-mandi-himachal-pradesh-kanyakumari-to-leh-cycling","title":{"rendered":"Day 72 – Bilaspur to Mandi, Himachal Pradesh (Kanyakumari to Leh Cycling)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By this time because of previous day’s cycling, my mind was set for cycling in mountains. Now even if there was a long climb, nothing would happen and I would do it inspite of exhaustion. My mind gets empty. It is present in the moment and nothing comes in it when I cycle up slope. Anybody I used to pass by, they see me with smile on their face and knows that I am at least going to Manali. Unlike previous day, the truck numbers reduced drastically after Barmana as they go to and from ACC cement factory present there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ACC<\/a>
ACC cement factory, Barmana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I came across the beautiful town Sundernagar and its beautiful man-made lake. It is also situated in a broad valley and I could see wheat cultivation as well. I like the market place in mountains. Beas river was flowing in the opposite direction all along my way. Wherever I used to stop by for water, I used to enquire about the further terrain from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Manali<\/a>
Manali is not far had it been in plains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the starting of this tour, I have hardly bought bottled mineral water except few times in Kerala when I needed cold water. Otherwise, I have always got my bottle filled up from restaurants, dhabas, taps, hand pump, clay pots, etc. and have never fell ill or had stomach problems. Now as I am in Himachal, I do not have to think twice about the water I drink because I know its fresh and clean.\u00a0<\/span>My average speed also got better than previous day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Riding<\/a>
Riding green<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I stayed in one historic gurudwara at Mandi and slept in the langar hall as there was no room for a single person. Rooms were occupied by paramilitary forces because of the elections coming up. It rained a lot whole evening at Mandi and it became cold. I found myself in a really embarrasing situation there inside the gurudwara because of the communication gap and I went with a group where I should not have been at all. After seeing me sitting the group, the person conducting the ceremony called me before starting and that is when I came to know what was I into. It is known as “Amrit Chakhna”. Sikh people who do it can not shave or have hair cut life long. They can not intake alcohol and share their food with others. I would have also got a “kirpan” which I had to carry and there were several other obligation they told me. Later, they asked me if I am ready to follow all these, I can sit. But there was no way I could do it.People there were very friendly and peaceful. I took a leave from there and was laughing inside at what I had experienced and what I would have become had I been the part of that ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By this time because of previous day’s cycling, my mind was set for cycling in mountains. Now even if there was a long climb, nothing would happen and I would do it inspite of exhaustion. My mind gets empty. It is present in the moment and nothing comes in it when I cycle up slope. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1285,"featured_media":22690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4474],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel","8":"category-unusual-india"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1285"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}