The Himalayan Ski village coming up near Manali

On my flight to Kullu on an Air Deccan ATR 42, I happened to be seated next to the managers and CEO of the Himalayan ski village coming up near manali.I had been tracking the news reports for a year now and it was good to see them in the flesh. Obviously, I had a lot of questions for them and what I gleaned after the impromptu interview was :

1. The ski village slopes will be functional in 2008. They are currently training a large bunch of local ski instructors on skiing methods of instruction, patrolling and rescue.

2. The Gondola lifts will take skiers onto the Shethal Dome, where there will be more chair lifts. There will be a mix of bunny, intermediate and black diamonds. They promised to make it international quality, like Vail or Whistler 🙂 ! including dressed slopes I hope

3. There will be a complete resort with Hotels, shops and food places near the ski lifts.

This will be a first in India, where a complete ski resort with all the bells and whistles thrown in. I cant wait to get my carving set on the slopes. I plan to ping the ski village guys on a regular basis and keep news up to date here.

Ski video

Youtube video of me and Asmita at Solang near Manali

 

Back from Vacation in Manali

We all had a rollicking time in Manali, Himachal pradesh. The idea was to have Asmita experience her first snowfall , get her excited about the hills and skiing. The first two days were a let down as the snowfall till then was dismal. Luckily, the rest of the week saw fresh snow and we could go out and ski.

And ski we did !

Stopped in Delhi on the way to check out the Taj Mahal at Agra. It was a day trip steeped in history. The place was fascinating and haunting given that I had just finished the book “the Last Mughals”. Check my pics in flickr.

I have to mention my dismay (I have gone past being shocked at stuff like this) at the state of the Yamuna behind the Taj. The river was a just a sewage drain ! Black and with plastic and other disgusting flotsam. Agra will have to treat this water ASAP, but I suppose the UP government has other fish to fry given the gruesome stuff getting uncovered in Noida.