I made the journey from Kurseong to Mirik by shared sumo locally called as Syndicate in this region. In Mirik, I stayed at Haamro Ghar Homestay and I highly recommend them if you are planning to visit Mirik. Sumendu Lake is the highlight of this tiny town that is spread around the lake that also boasts of a monastery.

A Journey in Photographs of Two Days in Mirik

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

While I have crossed Jalori Pass a number of times over the years on journeys to Kinnaur and Spiti, it has taken forever for me to undertake the trek from Jalori Pass to Serolsar Lake. There is also the small hike / trek to Raghupur Garh (Fort) and the seemingly offbeat nature of the same meant that in the autumn of 2014, I ended up being awed by the majestic valley views from Raghupur Garh (Garh = Fort). That time I was staying in Sojha at one of the two homestays in the tiny village and remember witnessing a majestic moonrise!

Another time in 2017 or 2018, I was accompanied with locals and we reached Jalori Pass in the afternoon and as soon as we started the trek, it started drizzling causing us to consider the Serolsar Lake trek for another time. It was a warm summer and I was put up at Jibhi this time around. I had always thought Serolsar Lake trek to be quite popular and the thought of hiking / trekking with 100-odd first time city trekkers ensured I kept this on the sideline.

I guess it was third time lucky (in hindsight) as I was planning a spring sojourn to Kinnaur in the end of March. The original plan was to head to Batahad village and trek to Baga Sarahan via Bashleo Pass. I had been to Bashleo Pass earlier in 2016 with Jita and had no idea it was a straightforward downhill trek to Baga Sarahan; otherwise we might as well have spent a few days in Baga Sarahan and other parts of Kinnaur. A quick phone call to Thewa Ram Ji in Batahad confirmed my suspicions about snow at Bashleo Pass. It was therefore decided that we would play it by the ear and try to catch the first bus of the day from Kullu to Banjar.

I called the HRTC Kullu bus stand guys and found out that there’s a Kullu to Banjar bus at 530 am and then at 7 am, then at 8 am. We made a practical target to catch the 8 am bus from Kullu bus stand. I tried calling HRTC Banjar but their number was out of order. Anyway, HRTC Kullu guys had informed me that while Jalori Pass was open a few days earlier, recent bad weather and subsequent snowfall meant that buses had stopped plying across Jalori pass and they were only going till Jibhi and Sojha.

We woke up on a fine sunny morning and were quickly on the road at about 715 am. I immediately called HRTC Manali and they said that I would have to rely on a local bus to go from Dobhi to Kullu at this early hour. The Manali to Dharamsala-bound Bedi Travels bus came around and got to Kullu bus stand at 8 am. The Kullu to Banjar 8 am bus had been cancelled (maybe due to the recent snowfall at Jalori Pass) and we continued till Aut in the same Bedi Travels bus and made good time to reach Aut at 9 am.

A Banjar bound local bus was about to leave from Aut but was already full; in the absence of any other options we jumped in and struggled to find even breathing space. The bus was filled to the brim and it was really difficult with our backpacks but the necessity of these kind of journeys is the helping nature of the locals and that ensured everyone managed to survive. The weather was holding up and the sun was still out. Rain was forecast after 1-2 pm and I was hoping we would find a bus headed to Sojha (Shoja) from Banjar bus stand.

I thought that the bus would get less crowded at Balichowki but it turned out to be the opposite as more and more people got in! Thankfully, it was our turn to get seats and it was a smooth arrival at Banjar bus stand. The time was about 1030 am and a few raindrops came around from the overcast skies. I went to find the bus timings for Sojha and was promptly told by the enquiry counter that bus service from Banjar to Sojha has been temporarily suspended with the inclement weather alert and imminent rainfall. The next bus from Banjar to Jibhi was the Gadagushaini bus at 12 noon.

We were in a fix and had no idea what to do next! A couple of taxi guys hovered around quoting outrageous prices for Jalori Pass. A Banjar to Bathad bus was scheduled to leave at 11 am and I briefly flirted with the idea of going to Bathad. Thankfully, sense prevailed and when a shared taxi alto guy came asking, this time I asked him the price for 2 people to Sojha. I told him we lived in Dobhi village and he quoted us the local’s price at INR 200 per person. He had two more passengers who wanted to go to Anni village (across Jalori Pass) and the alto guy was supposed to drop them till Jalori Pass only. It was well known that there would be local shared sumos ferrying passengers from Jalori Pass to Khanag and Anni.

It felt like Banjar town had the same old traffic jam problems. This road has long been awarded the status of a National Highway (NH-305) but there has been no work done on the ground. Anyhow, it was comforting to see a police guy with a walkie talkie directing the traffic and we were soon out from Lower Banjar to Upper Banjar and on the road to Jibhi. The condition of the road was quite terrible (to say the least) and I reminded myself that I wasn’t missing out on too much by not coming this side inspite of living in Kullu Valley.

I was happily surprised when two buses crossed us; they were coming from Khauli – just a bit ahead of Gada Gushaini. Jibhi had the look of a shanty tourist town with multiple colourful homestays/guest houses, cafés, restaurants on both sides of the broken road. There was a sort of relieved sigh to see that we had not chosen the easy way out by opting to stay in Jibhi. Just after we crossed Jibhi and neared Ghiyagi – close to the diversion of Sajwar; the rain started coming down and had me scrambling for my jacket.

In conversations with the co-passengers, I asked if anyone knew the chowkidar/caretaker of the PWD Rest House? The reply was pleasing – it appeared that there was now a newly built Forest Rest House in Sojha as well. I was keen on staying at the vintage PWD Rest House in Sojha and not at one of the numerous homestays / guest houses. The plan was to hopefully find a ride to Jalori Pass next day and trek to Serolsar Lake and come back to Jalori Pass and then decide the further course of action depending on the weather.

The shared alto guy dropped us on the road near the signboard of the FRH in Sojha and I was left wondering about the exact location of the PWD Rest House. The rain was steady and my rain jacket had to be summoned from the small backpack. I didn’t have to wait long to quell my doubts about the PWD Rest House as it turned out to be adjacent to the Forest Rest House in Sojha. We saw smoke coming out of the chimney of one of the houses but were not able to find the caretaker and thankfully went to the Forest Rest House and met the chowkidar there.

He called the son of the PWD Rest House Caretaker and told us to meet him since the Forest Rest House was already booked (which turned out to be untrue!). The son of the chowkidar was very helpful and asked us to take the confirmation of the booking from an official phone number in Kullu. The lady in the office confirmed our stay in ten minutes and asked us to take Set Number 2. We thanked and put our bags in the spacious set number 2 and since we had not eaten anything since morning, asked the caretaker’s son to recommend a place to eat in the town.

He suggested that the Forest Eco-Tourism area has a recently inaugurated canteen and he recommended that over the dhaba in Sojha. So, we just hopped across the gate and found the dining room. Fresh aloo paranthas were the only option to be made in a jiffy and with the cold breeze blowing due to the rain turned out to be perfect. We had multiple rounds of masala chai and requested rajma+chawal to be made on order for dinner.

The whole valley was engulfed in clouds at this moment and it felt quite dreamy. It was a feeling of contentment and satisfaction after a full tummy and the weather gods reciprocated when it stopped raining once we stepped out of the dining area. We decided to go for a short walk in Sojha and see how it has changed over the years. The rain had caused the temperature to plummet and at 2700-2800 metres altitude, Sojha was quite chilly. It looked timeless though with the floating clouds in the valley below.

We came across a handful of newly established hotels in terms of staying options and a few cafés as well. Sojha seemed to have hit the right spot in terms of still keeping the scenic beauty intact unlike Jibhi which can clearly be said to be under the clutches of over-tourism. Locals working at an under construction hotel invited us to sit by the side of the bukhari and we enjoyed the conversation for a while. At about 230 pm, we were back to the PWD Rest House and just in time for it to start raining again.

Thankfully, the PWD Rest House had a long corridor with glasses and we had carried our books. It was teeth chattering cold and we enjoyed the same since these were the last few days of a long winter before summer winds blew in the valley. When the rain relented for a bit, I went around wandering in the PWD Rest House compound and then we went dot on time for our awaited late lunch/early dinner of rajma chawal in the dining area at 5 pm.

Rajma chawal was ready and we were served steaming hot bowls of the ultimate comfort food. It was delicious and we asked for masala chai to round off a grand eating experience in the lovely interiors with the aroma of deodhar wood furniture. We requested him for early morning chai at 7 am the next day and he asked us to just wake him up and he will do the needful. Since we had forgotten a pack of biscuits, we wandered off to the nearby shop in Sojha and with no rain ended up walking to the Banjara Retreat.

The landscapes seemed surreal with the floating clouds and we couldn’t have been more pleased to be out for our evening stroll. We also noticed a number of 4*4 vehicles on the road heading to / coming back from Jalori Pass on our walks on the road in Sojha. So, it was decided to start walking next morning for Jalori Pass and hope that we got a ride in one of the vehicles heading up (if there was) so we could start the Serolsar Lake Trek from Jalori Pass at an early hour. We got back to the wood and glass interiors of the PWD Rest House and made ourselves cosy.

It kept raining on and off and after fiddling with reading and aimless scrolling on the phone, we called it an early night and put our alarms for 630 am. Once the thick blankets got warmed up, it was a nice sleep and we woke up fresh and raring to go and trek to Serolsar Lake. We woke up the canteen owner and he quickly made tea for us while all of us shared the solitary packet of biscuits. We were out on the road even before it was 730 am and since it felt like a nice, clear morning we were happy to start walking on the road to Jalori Pass.

The distance from Sojha to Jalori Pass is almost 5 kms and I was hoping to find a camper or locals headed to Jalori Pass and catch a ride so as to save time. Of course, there were no sounds of a vehicle and we were pleased to be in a thick forest hardly 1 km after walking past Sojha. We spotted a variety of colourful birds in the forest and started encountering snow on the road. There were also a few private tourist vehicles parked on the side of the road as the snow on the road increased and we figured that the vehicle owners were smart enough to come back and take their vehicles when the road became clear.

Just as we were nearing Jalori Pass at about 9 am, two 4*4 campers carrying a bucketful of tourists crossed us and I was in a spell for a moment. Jalori Pass was totally snowed out and there were many vehicles / shared taxis waiting. Some were from Anni, Khanag side while the recent campers who had crossed us were ready to take tourists back to Sojha. They were charging about INR 200 per person for the 4.5-5 kilometre distance between Sojha and Jalori Pass. We went to the nearby dhaba and had a round of black tea; requested dhaba uncle for a plate each of rajma chawal and kadi chawal upon return.

Since we were told the distance between Jalori Pass and Serolsar Lake is 5 kilometres and the fact that it was a level trail, we calculated roughly 3.5 hours for the coming and going and included about 30 minutes of spending time at Serolsar Lake. Our breakfast turned out to be green apples that we had carried and told the dhaba uncle that we would see him on the return. There were a couple of local youngsters standing at the start of the trail and I asked them in the local lingo if there were any confusions that we may encounter on the trail and they said it was a straightforward trek.

We started at 910 am and the weather was holding up for the moment. The sun was playing a constant battle with the clouds and the weather forecast showed 70 odd percent chance of rain/snow at Jalori Pass after 1 pm. So, our aim was to get back after the trek to Jalori Pass before 1 pm and decide the next course of action based on the weather. It was nice to walk on fresh snow although I was a little surprised to see multiple dhabas at the start of the trail. The youngsters who had arrived in campers to the top of Jalori Pass were apparently headed to Serolsar Lake but were playing in the snow seemingly unaware of the fickle mountain weather.

After crossing the cluster of dhabas at the start of the trail from Jalori Pass, we entered a dense oak forest that would continue till we reached Serolsar Lake. There was pin drop silence only interspersed by the sound of falling drops from the melting snow on branches with the currently abundant sunshine. Thankfully, the drops were few and far between and did not create puddles on the trail and we could continue to crunch the fresh snow under our feet. Our heads had to be covered though with the sort of occasional rainfall effect of the same!

We crossed a meadow where the HP Forest Department puts up tents for staying in the summer. Although there were no markings on the trail, the path seemed fairly straightforward and could have become confusing in the snow. Hence, we had asked beforehand and were told there is no turn as such and the entire path is straight rather than a sharp right or left turn somewhere. After 20 odd minutes of walking (roughly past 1 kilometre) there was a camping site to the right and another 360 degree campsite somewhere to the left. The left side campsite seemed to have a vantage viewpoint and could make for a nice nature camp in the summer months.

We continued walking at a brisk speed and after the 2 km mark, came across another cluster of dhabas (all of them were closed with the recent snowfall). The sun was out and two benches were kept at just the right place so we opted for a five minute breather. Here, we met a couple of locals who were walking ahead of us – they were going to open their dhaba that was located close to the lake. They were carrying supplies and told us that they roughly call this 2 km dhaba stretch as the sort of halfway point.

I started feeling quite warm in the direct sun and we opted to start walking again since we were not really tired at all. After this point, the trail gets a little smaller in width and with the melting snow required a bit of extra concentration. There were a few downhill stretches and then uphill stretches but nothing alarming and after another 40 odd minutes of hiking, we came to another area with spread out dhabas(all of them were closed). I figured that the lake was nearby; the watch showed that we had covered 5 kilometres but Serolsar Lake was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there were steps on the other side of the trail which meant there was more distance to be covered. On the other side, there were about 2-3 sizeable dhabas and one of them had been opened – courtesy of the local couple who went ahead of us. I noticed that the watch showed that we had covered about 5.6-5.7 kms at the dhaba point and I ended up asking the dhaba owner that everyone says that the distance between Jalori Pass to Serolsar Lake is 5 kilometres. He replied saying that the distance is almost 6 kms but like a popular myth, incorrect information has been floating around presumably to make it feel more attractive to first time trekkers!

He said that Serolsar Lake is hardly 200 metres ahead from there and told us to continue straight! We alighted past a flight of snow-laden stairs and came upon a stunning sight. Serolsar Lake looked incredibly beautiful surrounded by snow and had absolutely still waters with a reflection of the nearby trees. There was an iron gate that signified the entry to the walking path around the lake. The first reaction upon seeing Serolsar Lake was that it is quite big whereas in the photographs on the internet it looked quite small.

We walked a bit on the path that was totally submerged in snow and I had a glimpse of The Budhi Nagin Temple that was located on a higher platform on the left overlooking the lake. At first I thought that we would visit the temple but then I quickly deduced that there would be no pujari at the moment, the path was entirely snowed out and a quick look at the sky suggested that the clouds will be back soon. There were a couple of signboards instructing visitors to maintain the sanctity of the lake and not to go near the water. Snow had seeped in inside my shoes and I felt a bit chilly now that the physical activity was reduced to gazing at Serolsar Lake and clicking pictures!

The time was about 11 am and we started climbing the flight of stairs and sat at the dhaba. There was only maggi on offer (which I hate!) and so we decided to ask for black tea and a packet of whatever biscuits they had (nor that I like biscuits!). We had covered more than 10 kms without real food and had 6 more kilometres to trek to get back to Jalori Pass. The weather was holding up for the time being and we totally relished the black tea (laced with cardamom) and biscuits sitting on the wooden benches. We thanked the dhaba couple for leading the way and they recommended us to return in the summer!

In the summer months, every slope on the Jalori Pass to Serolsar Lake trek turns into a camping ground and with the numerous dhabas around – food is never really a problem. Only the presence of crowds deters me from heading to popular places in the high season. We started walking and mentally recollected the landmarks that we had encountered on the way so that we could return safely even if the weather worsened and the visibility reduced.

It was almost 12 noon when we encountered the first visitors on our way back. Another group was accompanied with a local guide and were trying to trek to Serolsar lake on a day when bad weather was forecast after 1 pm. The trail itself had become a bit slushy once more people had walked on it. We opted to sit on the same spot where we had rested at the 2 km mark on the way. As soon as we sat on the benches, it started drizzling and within no time turned to snow. Thankfully, another dhaba had opened by then and was serving 4 youngsters who were having maggi / etc. We sat under the tarpaulin for a minute and decided to just get back to Jalori Pass since it was not too far from there.

Within a matter of minutes the snowfall gave way to fog and mist and we were in a white forest all of a sudden. Thankfully, we were well prepared for this scenario and at this juncture we reached the first campsites where the trail widens. Here, we encountered a number of tourists chilling at the dhabas. Some were headed to Serolsar Lake in this inclement weather. Tourists were enjoying the unexpected snowfall and it felt nice to see the raw feel of the joy of travel. We were back to the dhaba at Jalori Pass just a tad before the clock struck 1. Dhaba uncle gave us a thumbs up and said well done and confirmed that our food is ready!

We gobbled up the rajma chawal, kadi chawal and it was really really delicious and felt even more so after a total of 16 odd kilometres of hiking in the snow. It was a nice feeling to know that living in Kullu Valley was working well for our fitness levels and we were almost on par with the locals in terms on basic speed in hiking even while not trying to speed up. Campers and other 4*4 vehicles were parked on both sides of the road on Jalori Pass and now we had the choice of going to Anni, Khanag or Sojha, Jibhi. It was still snowing and we instinctively said it is best to return home to Kullu Valley and sought about figuring a vehicle.

A shared camper guy said he’s charging INR 200 per person from Jalori Pass to Sojha and that he will leave when the vehicle is full. I tried asking him INR 200 till Banjar so that we could get a bus from Banjar to Kullu but he wouldn’t budge and I figured that he might take more than an hour to fill the number of passengers. After the lovely lunch, we were also ok with hiking back to Sojha along the road if it stopped snowing/raining. Just as we were wondering, I spotted another camper guy who was about to leave for Sojha. I quickly ran and asked him to drop us to Banjar for INR 200 per person. He had no other passengers and asked us to get in as he had to go somewhere and was in a rush.

As we say, sometimes we make our own luck and this camper guy seemed to be doing the same. We paid the dhaba uncle who was so kind that he came to tell the camper guy to drop us safely! There was a local family of five headed to Ghiyagi and off we went without wasting any time. As usual, aimless chatting was the order of the day and the gentleman of the family invited us to their home in Ghiyagi. The snow turned into rain just a few bends after starting our journey and by the time we reached Sojha, there was no sign of snow but only rainfall. The cold also abated a bit and even though my socks and feet were totally wet, I was ok.

The camper guy was quite friendly and told us that he was in a hurry because he was anyway headed to Bhuntar to get the servicing of his vehicle done. He agreed to drop us till Aut for INR 500 total for the two of us. We made good time from Banjar and reached Aut at 4 pm. Our reaching home was delayed as the bus from Aut took forever and after changing another bus in Kullu bus stand, we got down at Dobhi at 630 pm.

The weather was pleasant, our hearts were happy and it was an adventure of a trek from Jalori Pass to Serolsar Lake that made all the difference!

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

We landed in Istanbul and travelled across Turkey to places like Trabzon, Van, Gaziantep, Izmir, Selçuk, Antalya and traversed across numerous towns and villages in the Turkish countryside. If you are planning a trip to Turkey, here are the links for the posts.

Istanbul : Tips for Backpacking

Trabzon : Travels on the Black Sea Coast

Van : A City of All Day Breakfasts

Gaziantep : UNESCO approved eating!

Photographs and Memories from Travels across Turkey

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It had been a glorious few months in Kasar Devi and we had braved through the winter cold. As soon as February began, we chalked out plans to visit the nearby places for weekend visits.

In the last week of February, we left early morning from our cottage in Kasar Devi and walked to the diversion of the road for Jageshwar near Almora, and were lucky to instantly hitch a ride till Chitai Golu Devta. We paid our respects at the temple and started walking on the road and were lucky again to find another ride that dropped us at Artola – the point from where the road diverted for Jageshwar. I remembered from my earlier visit that it would be a pleasant 2 odd km walk from here as the region around Jageshwar is surrounded by pine and deodhar forests to reach the Dandeshwar Temple.

Since the distance between Almora and Jageshwar is only 35 kms, we didn’t bother to have breakfast when we left from Kasar Devi and figured that it made sense to eat an early lunch along the way or directly after reaching Jageshwar.

In 2015, I had stayed in Jageshwar for a day and someone had mentioned that while Vridhh Jageshwar was quite close to Jageshwar; it was a good 8-10 km distance from the road and there was a diversion road for Vridhh Jageshwar from Artola. In the absence of a proper mode of transport (bus or shared taxi), it wasn’t practical to think of a day visit from Jageshwar to Vridhh Jageshwar and back. I had multiple bags with me and therefore had to sort of plan my travel accordingly.

It was a surreal walk on the road from Artola as there were hardly any vehicles and we reached Dandeshwar Temples at about 1230 pm. We were quite hungry and came across a boutique stay on the way to Jageshwar after crossing Dandeshwar Temple. The dining area looked very inviting and we asked the staff if it was possible to make lunch on order? They said lunch would be simple dal, green leafy vegetables, chapati and rice and would take about 30 minutes to make. We requested them to speed it up as we were super hungry!

Food was out of the world when it arrived after some time and we ate till our stomachs were full! The 250 Rupees per person charge felt absolutely worthwhile. We thanked the staff wholeheartedly, paid them and set on our way. We visited the various temples in the Jageshwar Group of Temples complex; crossed the Jataganga stream to reach the Kuber Temple. Jageshwar town seemed to have expanded and didn’t have the charming feel as earlier so we were already thinking of an alternate plan of stay!

We asked the Pandit Ji at Kuber Temple about the hiking trail for Vridhh Jageshwar temple. It was early afternoon and we had ample time for trying to head somewhere else. Pandit Ji was quite confident and told us that the trail to Vridhh Jageshwar was well marked and pretty straightforward. He estimated that the hiking – trekking trail from Jageshwar to Vridhh Jageshwar is about 3-4 kms and should take between 1.5 to 2 hours maximum. He also told us that there were a couple of homestays right in front of the Vridhh Jageshwar Temple and that we would have no trouble finding a place to stay for the night.

It was about 315 pm when we started our walk from Kuber Temple. There was a proper cemented path with beautiful houses surrounded by early spring flower blooms on the way as the onset of the Jageshwar to Vridhh Jageshwar trek. One of the homes had such an incredible array of flowers – on the pretext of asking about the trail, I ended up asking whether the house was also a homestay! The lady of the house quoted a heavy price and we figured that as a classic trait in Uttarakhand. I stuck to the task of confirming the path and was told that a road is being built and that we should take the walking trail even after the road joins.

We were on the right trail and easily climbed a steady ascent in the initial 15 minutes. The weather was sunny when we had started but quickly began to change with clouds gathering and a breeze starting to blow even before we had reached the first road construction that was said to be our first landmark. I tried asking anyone on the trail where the path joined the bigger road in progress but there was no one to be seen and as if on cue, it started drizzling.

Thankfully, we had carried our rain jackets and since we had a rough idea about the trail, continued walking on the dirt road and kept a look out for a walking trail ascending towards our right. The drizzle was steady and we were overjoyed when a vehicle appeared on the road and was kind enough to stop for us. The gentleman was a local who said he was aware of the correct trail to Vridhh Jageshwar and informed us that it is easily identifiable.

We were ecstatic to spot red rhododendron blooming flowers in the forest and even though the road was dusty, the drizzle came as a welcome delight with the smell of petrichor. Even though it was only around 4-415 pm, it started feeling a bit dark in the forested region and we heaved a sigh of relief when we finally saw a hiking trail emerge from the road. It was a sharp ascent and although I was still uncertain about us being on the right path, the occasional raindrops and cold breeze ensured that we kept going ahead rather than second guess.

After about 20-30 minutes the light improved as we climbed higher and were relieved to notice that the drizzle had stopped and the sun had started peeping through the clouds. The rhododendron flowers looked even more beautiful after having a shower in the rain. We clicked a few pictures and I made a mental calculation that there was daylight till 630 pm at least. Even if we were on the wrong trail, our general hiking direction was in the region of Vridhh Jageshwar Temple and we were quite confident about making it to a homestay before dark.

Just as I was starting to get worried about not reaching Vridhh Jageshwar nor seeing any signs if we were on the right trail, we came across a stone boundary and there were multiple trails branching from that place. It was getting super confusing and for a minute I contemplated turning back and just getting back to safety in Jageshwar since we knew the way back. As a distraction, we decided to take a small rest break sitting on the stone boundary and were pleased when a dog came from somewhere.

The presence of a dog increased the possibility of a settlement nearby and my joy knew no bounds when a group of women carrying firewood appeared from nowhere and told us that we might have missed the correct trail but pointed us to a path and said that we will hardly take 15-20 odd minutes to reach Vridhh Jageshwar Temple. It was about 515 pm and we thanked the ladies and rushed on the trail. We had a spring in our step and relief on our minds now that we finally knew that we were about to reach Vridhh Jageshwar Temple and that there were 2 homestay options there.

Within no time we reached a road-head where the road had very recently been laid with tar and for a moment wondered if we had to go left or right but google maps quickly solved the problem. Recent development in the remote areas means there is hardly any place left without mobile network and internet connectivity. The weather had totally cleared and the sun was out. We were in front of the Vridhh Jageshwar Temple and there were only a handful of buildings.

I had assumed that this was a temple town but the solitude felt even more pronounced when we saw that there were only a total of 4-5 buildings that comprised Vridhh Jageshwar! We were shown the room at one of the homestays and were quoted a reasonable price of INR 500-600. It was a basic but pretty comfortable room with an attached bathroom and the owner was soft spoken and a kind hearted man. The homestay doubled up as a dhaba with a general store and the owner lived there with his wife. We requested him for an early dinner of freshly cooked dal, vegetables, rotis at 730 pm and quickly asked him if there was a chance of attending either the evening or the morning aarti at the Vridhh Jageshwar Temple?!

He looked at the watch and asked us to rush to the temple as it was about to be 6 pm and the evening aarti would begin anytime now! We were having a great day and loved this piece of information and quickly walked to the Vridhh Jageshwar Temple. The evening colours in the sky were simply out of the world and the horizon was being painted in yellow and orange hues. Since we were at a much higher altitude, the air felt cleaner and colder and the green hills completed a pretty picture.

The temple was a massive stone structure and the architecture style was similar to the bigger temples in the Jageshwar Group of temples. The Vridhh Jageshwar Temple pre-dates the Jageshwar temples and is said to have been established in 7-8th Century AD. The evening aarti was about to begin and it felt peaceful and calm as there were no other pilgrims or visitors at Vridhh Jageshwar. There is a certain charm about visiting places off the main tourist circuit and we were quite pleased with being able to sit in the aarti and feel the mantras being chanted.

After 30 odd minutes the evening aarti was over, we thanked the Pandit Ji and spent some time gazing at the stupendous after-sunset views. We were super hungry and walked back to our homestay which also doubled up as a general store and a dhaba where pilgrims and visitors could get food made on order. It was almost 7 pm and food was going to take a little longer to get ready so we went to the room and aired it out a little. A bit of fresh air in closed rooms always works wonders. While Jageshwar felt hot during daytime, there was a proper chill in the air in Vridhh Jageshwar and it was not even night yet.

We were quite relieved when the owner uncle handed us an electric rod to heat water (if we needed it). The night skies from the homestay terrace were incredible in the absence of any light pollution in Vridhh Jageshwar. There was a solar powered light at the Vridhh Jageshwar temple but that was hidden by a big tree in the homestay compound. The electricity conked off and decided to give us an even more epic view of the stars. We weren’t complaining and went to the dhaba area when the food was ready.

It was nice to see a proper family run place and aunty was making hot chapatis. We gobbled up the offerings as we had nothing to eat after the fabulous lunch in the afternoon. The wind had really picked up and it felt like a thunderstorm was on its way. We ate well, thanked uncle and aunty wholeheartedly and went back downstairs to our room. It had started to get cloudy and funnily enough the electricity came back!

There was full 4G internet connectivity and it felt nice to lie down in the warmth indoors and do some aimless scrolling. We slept well, after all the body had a nice workout with the hike and was pretty tired.

It was a spectacular morning as the weather had cleared and a stunning 180 degree view of the Himalayan ranges awaited when we were going to the temple for the morning darshan and aarti. There were crystal clear views of Mount Trishul, Nanda Devi and other peaks. We were overjoyed and requested for aloo paranthas for breakfast and enjoyed them in the outdoor sun with the splendid views. Even though the original idea was to leave back for Kasar Devi early morning, it was a delay that felt totally worthwhile.

Someone mentioned that Vridhh Jageshwar lies on an old trekking/hiking route commonly used by pilgrims and it is possible to continue via walking trails to reach other important temples in the region. At around 11, we started walking towards Panuanaula (next sizeable village on the road) and I came across a signboard and a trail towards Jageshwar Dham which mentioned the walking distance as 3 kms. We quickly understood that we had surely got lost in the jungle yesterday and made it to Vridhh Jageshwar by a much longer and confusing trail. A shared taxi duly arrived and we got a ride till Panuanaula.

I don’t remember the exact sequence but it was rhododendron flower season and we got down at a place called Toli where there are a couple of local shops that make fresh squashes. The homestay uncle in Vridhh Jageshwar had given a reference of one of the squash makers and we ended up picking a number of bottles of the various varieties that they recommended. The prices were also quite reasonable, we thanked the owners and caught one of the numerous shared taxis bound for Almora.

It was a feeling of contentment and satisfaction to come back to our cottage in Kasar Devi!

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

We left at 1130 am from Kullu, after a hearty meal of rajma chawal and made it to Jispa by about 3 pm after a stop for shipping orders of my book ‘The Goodness of Strangers’ from the Post Office in Manali. There was a slight chill in the air as it was the first week of October and we were well prepared with our winter jackets. The landscape was still green as we crossed Solang Valley and after we emerged past the Atal Tunnel it was a completely different ball game in Lahaul. A cold breeze welcomed us and it was clear that it was going to be super cold in Lahaul valley with the wind chill as it seemed to have already started snowing on the high mountains.

We paid the SADA development fee that is being levied on all non-local vehicles for entering Lahaul and moved towards Tandi and Keylong. The autumn colours of Sissu were not at their best this year; yet with the popularity with instagram tourists it was a crowded stretch. We were flexible with our place of stay in either Keylong or Jispa but were keen on finding something with ample open spaces for us to walk around. Since there was plenty of sunshine still left in the day, we made a consensus and decided to go till the PWD Rest House in Jispa and see if they had rooms. Anyway, we would cross the other prospective options in Keylong – Jispa on our way to the PWD Rest House as it was located at the fag end of Jispa town.

The caretaker was around and recognised me from a previous visit. He said that the PWD Rest House has only two rooms and that one room is already booked for a night but both the rooms are available for the next day. We quickly asked him to book both the rooms for the next day and to show us the room available. He recommended to us to book the room and that he would put extra mattresses and since it was a cozy carpeted room, we would be well served. We agreed and requested him to check if the booking for the previous room was cancelled so that we would get both the rooms. We were quite pleased as the rooms came with an attached washroom and had a working geyser.

It felt a little funny to be spending two days in Lahaul acclimatising even though we lived in Kullu Valley. We figured that since the plan was to spend a few nights in Merak village at about 4400m, it was best to spend a few nights at 3000-3500m to minimize the chances of AMS. The wind chill in October in high-altitude areas is a killer and therefore we wanted to get used to the cold in Lahaul before the super cold of Merak. Jispa already had the feel of a deserted town where the homestays and restaurants were closing for the season and we were thankful that a lone eatery was open near the PWD Rest House. The said eatery was also going to close down in the next few days and we felt lucky!

The original plan was to head to Zanskar now that the road via Shinku La / Shingo La / Shinkun La was well and truly operational; stay a night in Padum and then move to Leh via the dirt trail route that passed through Zangla, Lingshed, Singge La and Sirsir La to end up near Photoksar and join the highway at Wanla. Since we did not have many days in hand, it was ultimately decided that the long route via Zanskar might turn out to be extremely tiring and that it was better to head to Ladakh via the Manali-Leh highway only. Local news in Lahaul also indicated that vehicles were only allowed to cross the Darcha check-post after 9 am because it had started freezing on some sections of the road to Zanskar as well as Leh.

We spent a nice two days in Jispa soaking in the abundant sunshine and enjoying the autumn blaze of Lahaul Valley. It was a memorable meal at one ‘The Climber’s Café’ in Keylong Bazaar and the nearby dhaba also made fresh food so there were no complaints. Nights were freezing cold but it sort of prepared us for even colder temperatures in the next few days.

We had a nice cup of chai and left for Darcha at about 8 am with a plan of having breakfast at one of the dhabas in Darcha while waiting for the check-post guys to wave us through after 9 am. When we reached Darcha, there was a newly constructed dhaba / restaurant just before the police check post and we decided to stop there. Funnily enough, there was no need to wait till 9 am and the road to both Zanskar and Ladakh was open for vehicular traffic. We were still in two minds with regards to taking the longer route via Padum and Singge La to reach Leh and even put Padum as our destination in the diary of the police check post officer.

The dhaba owners were from Rarik village and told us that while the road to Padum was in excellent condition; the road via Lingshed-Singge La was in fact a dirt road with a few tricky and frozen sections that would take us over 10 hours to reach Leh from Padum. Before we finished our cups of black tea, the deal was sealed and as we walked back to the car – I remembered to ask the police officer to change our destination to Leh instead of Padum in the check post register. The road past Darcha felt like a breeze and we quickly started ascending to Zing Zing Bar and towards Baralacha La.

It was a clear day and based on our previous autumn trip to Leh last October, we were keen on staying in the region of Hemis/Thiksey this time around. We made good time on the road and despite leaving quite late crossed Sarchu around noon. The weather was absolutely clear and there was nary a cloud in the deep blue sky. It was a fine day as we crossed the flat land past Sarchu and the aquamarine waters of the Tsarap Chu were flowing beneath us in the valley below. It felt like pin drop silence at over 4200m, and we stopped for a while to admire the views and the pristine colour of the water.

We opted to not stop for a snack/lunch/tea at Sarchu since we were not feeling hungry and continued towards Pang. The dustiest stretch of the entire Manali to Leh road was the road from Sarchu to Pang. There were a few sections with single lane traffic that caused mini traffic jams with a number of trucks lined up on both sides. It was sudden hunger that compelled us to stop at Pang – Pang looked like a fancy avatar of the grimy ramshackle dhabas from a decade ago! It was close to 2 pm and the eatery where we stopped was almost out of food – the lady was only able to serve one plate of semi-cooked dal and rice among the four of us.

Anyhow, I have never liked Pang and the feeling was reinforced when I tried to go to pee. There was a lake sort of water body visible behind the multiple dhabas and no prizes for guessing what the stench was like! Our friends went to another dhaba for some chowmein noodles and were quite surprised that most of the eateries in Pang also doubled up as accommodation options in the night. I was mildly shocked to know this since Pang is at an altitude of some 4600m, it is not pleasant at all to stay at this altitude without being properly acclimatised. Authorities should look into this in the light of the rules for tourists to acclimatise before heading to Pangong Tso/Changthang and other high-altitude areas of Ladakh.

We were happy to bid goodbye to Pang and start our ascent to the other passes viz. Lachung La and Taglang La. The road was in excellent condition and it was mildly surprising to see snow piled on both sides of the road at Taglang La. Of course the outside temperature was freezing and a deathly cold breeze blew. We tumbled down the pass and crossed the dhabas of Debring and I saw a faint road leading to the left side to a nomadic settlement – Kharnak. I was supremely interested in Kharnakpas and their weaves like challi, pherri, tsug-dul, tsug-den and more made from yak wool, sheep wool and the likes.

In no time we were at Rumtse and ogled at the varied hues of the mountains that were enhanced with the evening light and the rich autumn colours. We crossed the pretty looking hamlets of Miru, Gya, Lato and made a mental note of staying at one of these three villages on our way back. A night stay here would considerably reduce our single day travel time on the return journey enabling us to leave early and still reach Kullu Valley before dark. It was close to 5 pm when we crossed Upshi; the Indus river was a pristine shade of blue while the autumn colours were a shining yellow.

We had started to keep an eye out for signboards of homestays since the idea was clear that none of us wanted to stay in Leh. Hemis quickly went out of the reckoning since we crossed the diversion after crossing Upshi. With no extra help from google maps, we decided to take the right turn to Thiksey monastery and were certain that there would be a number of homestays there for us to stay. The time was around 520 pm and the sun would soon go behind the mountains. We decided to ask a young kid on the road about a homestay and he indicated to us to take a right and we would find Goltuk homestay. He didn’t seem very confident about our choice though and suggested that there was a nice hotel nearby that would be better for us.

Nevertheless, we thought lets see this Goltuk homestay and then figure our options. We took a right and saw a signboard for a homestay and asked a lady who was walking on the street and it turned out to be her home! She showed us the rooms and while the price mentioned was also ok, the rooms did not come with an attached washroom and that prompted us to ask if there was another homestay nearby that might perhaps have rooms with an attached washroom? She suggested another homestay just around the corner and we sought about finding that. It was duly spotted after a short walk and while we liked the open spaces and the garden, the host was missing and there was no one who could show us the rooms!

In the meanwhile, the light had started dwindling and it would soon be dark within a few more minutes. The cousin sister of the host came to our help and called the aunty to come with the keys of the rooms so that we could figure our possibility of a stay. At the outset, she said that we could only stay for 1 day because there was a festival planned for the next evening at a neighbour’s home. She also said that one of the washrooms had a water problem. We liked the rooms that both came with a clear and direct view of Thiksey monastery and agreed on a reasonable price for 2 days and promised her to cooperate with the meals if she could not find time for cooking! Simple breakfast and dinner was included in the offerings of the homestay.

The homestay had only two rooms and one was on the first floor and the other one was on the ground floor. Aunty at the homestay seemed to have had troubles in the past with Indian guests who were happier with mainland food rather than trying local Ladakhi food and therefore she tried to make us stay for only 1 day. I don’t blame her for her thought process because I have observed lately that the boundaries between a homestay and a hotel are blurred and happy-to-please hosts simply don’t know how to turn down demands laid out by guests. It appears sometimes that some folks stay at a homestay primarily due to the comparatively cheaper price and then take undue advantage of the hosts’ kindness by laying down demands as per their whims and fancies.

I’d say the demands / whims and fancies might be justified at a hotel but not at a family run homestay. Hence, the lady was initially wary of us but was quite calmed with our mention of living in Kullu Valley. Little did she know that we were actually looking forward to freshly cooked Ladakhi dishes and since the homestay also had an adjoining kitchen garden in the farm, most of the produce would be fresh and homegrown! Aunty gave us a quick round of tea as a welcome drink as we put our bags in our respective rooms. We ogled at the beauty of the after-sunset colours with snowy peaks in the backdrop, even as stars began to shine in the brilliant high altitude Ladakhi sky and the yellow shaded poplars stood tall in the rapidly intensifying cold while the timeless Thiksey monastery watched the proceedings quietly on the other side.

We unpacked our bags and kept the home baked zucchini teacakes and the apple cakes out so that we didn’t forget to savour them. On a thoughtful whim, we cut a generous slice of both the cakes and presented them to aunty in the kitchen. Aunty and her cousin sister warmed up the cakes and took them for the entire family to taste! We were so glad they loved it and thanked us for getting them a taste of homemade bakes. As part of the homestay culture, it is a nice thing to do to break the ice.

Our joy was multiplied upon seeing that Thukpa was being made for dinner! We entered the kitchen and traditional dining area lined with Chogtse tables and thanked aunty for rustling up thukpa at such short notice. She replied that making thukpa was no trouble at all and all she had to do was pick fresh produce from the farm. The flat noodles used in the thukpa were locally produced in Leh. We sat and gazed at the traditional cookware and collection of utensils in the sitting area. Aunty served us thukpa in the traditional bowls and I liked it so much that I had three helpings! I think it was then that aunty must have realised that we were indeed going to turn out be amicable guests who knew how to stay at a homestay.

Aunty told us that next day’s dinner would be a little difficult for her to make because of the evening function and suggested that we could dine at the nearby Chamba Hotel that always served excellent food in Thiksey. We told her not to worry and that we will manage. Our plan for next day was to head to Leh for lunch and get the car washed as well.

It became colder as the evening progressed and after the drive we chose to relax in our rooms. The sight of the dimly lit dwellings on the base of Thiksey monastery was calming. We called it a night and tried to sleep early so that we could wake up at 6-ish and perhaps walk to the monastery for the morning prayers.

It was a cold, cold night and the modern quilts and blankets were no match for the hitherto traditional warmth of the homestays. I had a mild headache and even though we had spent a good 2 nights in Lahaul acclimatising in the same altitude and temperatures – I was a bit surprised by the same. We had carried our tea masala and ginger and aunty was more than happy to let us make our milk tea. It felt nice as the sun was out and we went to the first floor balcony to enjoy our tea. We made an extra cup for aunty as well and she was so happy with the result that we let her know the secret of the magic masala as well!

The fun of living amidst nature has no parallel and we laid out a carpet and sat in the garden. Aunty said there would be basic omelette and khambir (local Ladakhi bread) for breakfast and that it would be served at about 9 am in the open canopy in the garden. The canopy lent a very Italian vineyard feel to the setting as it was covered in green with black kidney beans vines and had a sturdy wooden table and chairs beneath it. Of course the icing on the cake was the sun shining brightly on Thiksey monastery, making it an impeccable setting. Aunty’s sons were up as well and we met them too. Breakfast was served at 9 and it was fun to dig into the tiny muskmelon grown on aunty’s farm. We thanked her for letting us try a homegrown muskmelon as we were totally unaware about them growing in Ladakh!

We sat and lounged in the sun for a while but quickly realised that the direct sunshine was too much to handle and funnily enough my mild headache persisted. It was time for a hot water bath after the rigours of the road journey on the previous day. The room felt quite cold and we quickly figured that the room on the ground floor would receive sunshine only in the latter part of the day. Anyhow, I sat outdoors after the bath and was reminded of the classic conundrum in Ladakh – it was hot in the sun and still felt very cold in the shade, especially with the breeze blowing. In a few more minutes, it was time for us to head to Leh.

When we mentioned autumn colours, the elder son suggested to us to go to Matho monastery if we wanted to enjoy the full splendour of the fall/autumn colours as it was located at a vantage point. He was also kind enough to share the route by road as the route suggested by google maps had a bridge repair issue and was closed for the time being. It was a longer drive but the stunning autumn colours in Matho village and then on the way to the monastery were surreal and we were delighted to have come that side. We chose to walk back to the village from the monastery and also tasted ripe but very sour seabuckthorn berries after some locals’ insistence!

After a good part of more than an hour spent in Matho village, we continued on our way to Leh. As we had expected, the autumn colours were not as pronounced as they were in Matho. On the way, we came across a small scale industry drying seabuckthorn to make it into a pulp. I was keen on buying the pulp and even got the contact of the lady in charge of the processing, but it turned out that seabuckthorn pulp uses a lot of preservatives otherwise it spoils pretty quickly. Even though the price offered for the seabuckthorn pulp was almost half of what we get in Lahaul valley, I ended up not buying a bottle since it involved a detour to Chuchot village and there was nobody to guide us.

We were keen on having a nice meal in Leh and tried to make a reservation at Alchi Kitchen but it turned out that the Leh branch of Alchi Kitchen was closed (like it was a year ago!) and they were taking reservations for a meal in Alchi! With the change in plan, we had to find parking space at Rabsal Parking near the main bazaar and then walked to Tibetan Kitchen. It was progressing to a funny scene as Tibetan Kitchen turned out to be closed for the day; Bon Appetit felt like a confusing walk as our friends were already super hungry. So we spotted the signboard for Summer Harvest – saw a few locals come out of the restaurant that validated the eatery and decided to have our lunch there!

I still had a niggling headache and while I kept trying to forget about it, there was no denying that I was not at my 100%. The food at Summer Harvest was satisfactory and some dishes turned out to be excellent. We paid the bill and now it was about 230 pm and all of us went our separate ways. I went sauntering in the market on my customary walk and meeting my old acquaintances if they were around. The car had to be taken for a wash before we head to Pangong Tso / Merak village the next day. So, everyone had roughly 1.5 hours before we decided to meet up on the main road near the circular bazaar in Leh. It was very hot during the day and quite dusty with all the endless construction everywhere near the main road.

It was a sort of aimless walk for me – I bought some Saspola apples, drank a glass of the sugarless apricot juice at Dzomsa, tried to (unsuccessfully) buy a chogtse table, met with a known shop owner to check if they had a surplus bundle of Zanskari spuruks, perused the circular market for the indigenous black peas (shrannma or nagshranma) and bought a kilo, tasted some chhurpe, wondered what was the black cake called skotse and largely marvelled how far Ladakh has come in terms of tourism. Tourists from the cities were buying an average variety of dried apricots for astronomical prices without bothering to check the quality and taste. I never heard the name Halman (fine variety from Turtuk and the villages around the Dah-Hanu area) when I was in the bazaar.

I used the washroom at the fancy looking café opposite Dzomsa and figured that Leh had well and truly arrived on India’s tourist circuit with a bang and for raw experiences it was essential to travel to some remote locations still untouched by tourists. As soon as I got free, our friends arrived and we sat in the car. While waiting, I spotted the gentleman who was the orchestrator of the great hitchhiking escape from Diskit to Leh in a winter snowstorm. I quickly ran out of the car and after confirming he was indeed the same person – thanked him for the kindness and gifted him a copy of ‘The Goodness of Strangers’.

I was overjoyed at this unexpected meeting and wondered about possibly gifting copies of the book to some other kind folks in the Changthang region who were responsible for the experiences detailed in a few chapters of the book. We started on our return journey back to Thiksey since we were very keen on spending the evening in the farmstay-homestay. Our tummies were filled for the time being but the issue of eating dinner outside remained. We enjoyed a nice evening gazing at the colours in all the directions while my nagging headache continued prompting me to rethink if I was prepared to go to Merak inspite of this minor struggle.

In the evening, aunty was dressed up and ready to go for the evening ceremony of the nearby party. The sound of drums and revelry started coming from the direction. She asked us what were our plans for dinner and I told her that we had a heavy lunch outside and that we would be happy to eat a light meal. Aunty anyway had to cook food for the family so she asked us if we were happy with with simple pulao and we told her pulao was exactly what we needed! She quickly rustled up a cooker and all the farm grown vegetables went in it resulting in a delicious and light pulao / masala chawal. All four of us thanked her wholeheartedly for the extra effort because we were mentally prepared to go to Chamba Hotel for dinner!

I think it was then that I made up my mind that in the two days spent here, we had not even gone to Thiksey monastery and just running off to the cold of Merak didn’t sound very appealing. The added charm of seeing the autumn colours along the road via Chang La to Changthang and on the return via Chumathang was not enough to wean me off the thought of staying longer in Thiksey. It would be no fun if I didn’t feel better after reaching Merak as well. I was certain that it was not AMS since I had no issues in breathing but it was a constant mild headache. After dinner, it was decided that our friends would leave for Merak after breakfast since it would take about 6 hours from Thiksey and we would stay put at the same homestay. We decided to meet near Upshi at 3 pm after 3 days even if our phones didn’t work and we were not able to communicate.

We slept early and I made a mental note to myself to check the oxygen level if the headache persisted the next day as well. I was also keen on waking up early for the 6-30 am morning prayer at Thiksey Monastery but was also aware that we had two more mornings at the homestay. Aunty had already confirmed that we could move to the upstairs room and she would be happy to host us for 2 more days. It was a relaxed morning and I felt very nice to be able to soak in the sunshine with the perfect masala chai. Our friends left early after a quick breakfast of toasted bread and butter and when aunty asked us if we wanted traditional Ladakhi butter tea & khola or bread + butter for breakfast – we opted for the traditional option. She was pleased with our choice and laid out a carpet in the garden.

Out came two traditional goblets that were made from a specialised metal and two wooden baskets with barley flour and another with buckwheat / whole wheat flour. She mixed some homemade ghee and sugar and put the different flours in different goblets and then poured the salty butter tea on top. We mixed everything with our fingers and made the flour into small balls to eat. It tasted delicious and we told aunty that we had eaten this as khola earlier at Yuthok Homestay. We enjoyed cups of butter tea with the khola and finished off our breakfast in no time. Aunty also cut a tiny watermelon grown on the farm and we totally loved it!

After a while, the direct sunshine became too much for me and I chose to sit on the chairs but the headache had already returned. We are keen on walking around Thiksey and enjoy the magic of the autumn yellow of the poplar trees. After partially enjoying a walk under the canopy of the yellow trees on the side of the road, we decide to turn back because there is no fun in inhaling the toxic fumes of the trucks that are in numbers on this road. While coming back, I get my oxygen level checked at Hotel Chamba and it came totally fine and we quickly deduced that my headache is due to the exposure to direct sunlight. I had forgotten to carry my sunglasses to Ladakh.

We got back to the homestay and enjoyed the warmth of the mansion-type room on the first floor. I lay down for a bit and slept and instantly started feeling better. Now that the reason for the headache was largely clear, it was decided that I borrow my partner’s sunglasses and try to never look directly into the sun. We head back to the restaurant at Chamba Hotel for lunch and the food turned out to be super delicious. It is a place run by the monks and the restaurant cook/staff was from Jharkhand and made excellent food. We sat in the shade and really enjoyed the time spent here. We set out for a short walk post lunch and explored the by-lanes of Thiksey.

The library looked very appealing and was managed by the monks. We stepped inside and saw a few young students study in the warmth of the indoors. The book collection was massive and there was even a tea/coffee machine for visitors. There was pin drop silence and we quickly realised that the Thiksey library might just become our new favourite place while we stayed at the homestay. I was immersed in reading a historical book on undivided Ladakh when I received a phone call and had to go out. The outdoors had a sprinkling of blooming flowers and there was even a cute café in one of the corners. We wondered if the café would be a great hidden find when it was open during the summer.

When it was close to 5 pm and close to sundown, we decided to take the long walk via the road to Thiksey Monastery parking and while I gazed at the views on the other side – my partner climbed the stairs to the main monastery to find the exact timing of the morning prayers. The autumn colours in the direction of Leh city appeared to dazzling in the mellow evening light. I started feeling a bit cold with the evening breeze once the sun went down and opted to walk back via the road route. There were a few monks also going for their evening walk while chanting prayers and it felt nice to be in calm company.

My partner came back via the shortcut path through the stairs and we ended up meeting near our homestay and continued the walk. The sky was painted in orange and pink hues and with the moon peeking out from behind the barren mountains presented an unforgettable sight. We savoured the ethereal beauty of Ladakh for as long as the light lasted and then aunty presented us with another piece of information that made proceedings even better! She was cooking purple cabbage momos for dinner – the cabbage she had just picked up from the kitchen garden. Aunty and uncle were supposed to go to the party at the nearby family’s house and therefore aunty said dinner would be ready by 730 pm.

We were ecstatic to hear that as early dinners were a habit for us and also the fact that aunty said that she had got a bottle of local chaang for us to drink! The momos along with the fresh chutney turned out to be so delicious that we polished off the entire container of momos that aunty had made for us. We thanked her numerous times and told her that these were some of the best momos that we’ve ever had. We walked under the open skies for a bit and appreciated the moonlight. The room was cozy and much warmer than the downstairs room and that meant we slept peacefully.

The view of the sunlit Thiksey monastery first thing in the morning was the icing on the cake. We had the absolute pleasure of doing nothing but just went through the morning with basic stretching, yoga and meditation. After a relaxed hour or so, we went to make chai and also gave a bit of the chai masala powder to aunty. In return she gave us a packet of seabuckthorn tea and a sapling of the wild mint growing in their farm. We had a quick breakfast and then decided to go sauntering around to some places recommended by aunty’s younger son as he had by then realised that we were happy to go anywhere quiet where we had less chances of encountering other tourists!

We went to the road and found a ride after walking for a while. The army guy was from Bikaner and dropped us to the viewpoint past Stakna monastery. It was a memorable view of the aquamarine waters of the Indus River with the autumn yellow of the trees and Stakna Monastery with an array of snowy peaks in the background. The sun was shining with full force and after some time we had to find a shaded space to wait for the ride back. On some sections, we walked under a shaded canopy of trees and absolutely loved the raw feel of discovery. We were unable to find the park suggested and ultimately after we found a ride we were dropped at the Thiksey monastery diversion.

The restaurant at Chamba Hotel came to the rescue and we ate our lunch in the supremely relaxed setting and also made a mental note to eat there before we left for Upshi, the next day. We head straight to the library after lunch and spent a good 2-3 hours reading. I wondered in my mind how travelling is all about being flexible and the joy of these offbeat things can only be felt, and not spoken. Since tomorrow would be the last day for us in Thiksey, we walked back to our homestay and made sure of not wandering around here and there so that we could wake up early and go to attend the morning prayers at Thiksey monastery.

Aunty asked us whether we wanted rajma chawal or chutagi for dinner and we unanimously voted for chutagi! It was an early dinner as by now aunty had figured that we ate by 7 pm. The chutagi was super yummy and we thanked aunty for the incredibly delicious food. My headache had miraculously almost disappeared and we attributed it to the sunglasses and the strategic decision to not walk with the sun directly facing me. Next morning, we woke up very early and walked the stairs of Thiksey monastery in the chilling cold. The prayers started a bit late than what we were told but the feeling of calm was so beautiful, that we sat through the entire hour long ceremony. Thankful to the monks to have plied us with multiple helpings of butter tea.

At the homestay, while packing I found that the half kilo meetha karela vegetable from Kullu Valley had not been used and I asked aunty if I could make it for everyone. She was pleased at trying this exotic looking vegetable. We ate it with the local khambir bread in a magical setting under the green vine and a view of Thiksey monastery. It remains a classic memory from this particular trip to Ladakh where the objective became to relax at the homestay in Thiksey.

Later in the afternoon, we said our thanks and goodbyes to the family and started walking to Chamba Hotel for lunch. It turned out that they had just closed for the season and in the absence of any other options we decided it was better to get to Upshi and find a nice eatery there. It made sense to reach Upshi early so that our friends did not have to wait when they returned from Merak via the Chumathang route. We were lucky to find a ride within no time of standing on the road. It felt excruciatingly hot in the harsh Ladakhi sun and when we stepped inside the stunningly beautiful interiors of Rigo Restaurant in Upshi, the old memories of eating food at dusty dhabas in Upshi were washed away.

Ladakh has truly changed – for better or for worse, that only time will tell but it is still possible to have new experiences with homestays like the one in Thiksey leading the way in showcasing local farm life in Ladakh at a reasonable price. The onus remains on us visitors to embrace the life lived by the locals – after all thats why we travel ‘To become a local in every place we visit!’

We met with our friends at 330 pm in Upshi, and drove straight to picturesque Lato village on our way back. Next day, it felt like deja vu when it started snowing as we crossed Taglang La and once we crossed Baralacha La and reached our home in Kullu Valley – aunty from the Thiksey homestay called next day and told us that it had snowed and the Manali – Leh highway was closed for traffic.

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It had been almost three months in Kasar Devi near Almora and since the coldest months of the winter were behind us and spring was fast approaching, we thought why not head to Munsiyari just before the Holi festival holidays! We were in the third week of March and the post-pandemic era of travel meant that the bus service to Munsiyari was not operational and that necessitated finding out details about the shared transport options from Almora to Munsiyari.

I started by asking at the local shared taxi area in Almora and they were clueless about a direct option from Almora to Munsiyari. Someone suggested that we first take a shared taxi from Almora to Bageshwar and then try our luck for another shared taxi from Bageshwar to Thal and then figure another shared taxi from Thal to Munsiyari. Another idea that locals figured was to take the morning bus to Pithoragarh and then find a shared taxi from Pithoragarh to Munsiyari. The trouble with both these options was the probability of spending a night in transit in either Bageshwar or Pithoragarh and while both these places are tourist destinations in their own right, we were in no mood with a break journey.

I reminisced about my grand summer of 2015 in Kumaon, and recollected sketchy details about direct shared sumos that plied between Haldwani to Munsiyari and left from Haldwani at about 6 am. They would cross Almora at about 9-10 am and reach Munsyari in the daylight around 5-6 pm. I was able to find out more details about the shared vehicles from Haldwani to Munsiyari through local contacts in Almora and they confirmed that it was indeed the best way to reach Munsiyari from Almora in one day. My local contact shared the phone number of the daily service and these days a tempo traveller plied on this route.

The charges were fixed at INR 1000 per seat from Haldwani to Munsiyari and after some negotiation, we were able to finalise 2 seats from Almora to Munsiyari at 700 per seat. Since we had booked in advance, we were able to secure excellent front seats. On the day of the journey, we came to the bypass road near Almora and even though the tempo traveller was about 30 minutes late from the estimated time, we were overjoyed to sit in a direct vehicle that would reach Munsiyari before night fell! It was a smooth ride despite multiple tyre punctures; with excellent food stops on the way. As we reached the highest point of Kalamuni top – the scintillating array of Panchachuli peaks with a surreal pink sky welcomed us among the candelabra of jagged white peaks.

We were keen on staying in a homestay in Munsiyari itself for 3-4 days and directly taking the same shared sumo / tempo traveller back to Kasar Devi, Almora. It had been a while since I had tasted the delicious and unique dishes of Johar Valley which is a whole lot different than the usual Kumaoni food available elsewhere. A basic search on the internet revealed that all the homestays in Munsiyari seemed to be located in Sarmoli village and while the initiative was excellent, as always I was looking for a raw and novel experience.

The perfect adage of ‘what you seek is seeking you’ worked when the owner of the tempo traveller had recently started a homestay and on the phone he welcomed us to stay and promised home cooked meals. I was a bit skeptical because there were no pictures shared but the fact that it was a newly built homestay meant that it would have the modern conveniences that we looked forward to since we were already living in a pretty basic setup in Kasar Devi. We reached Munsyari and were dropped close to the bazaar where the homestay was located in a quiet and peaceful lane. The owner Pankaj was soft-spoken and kind and we agreed on a price of INR 1000 including basic home-cooked meals.

The homestay was a new building some 2 minutes walk from the original home of the owners. The room was spic and span with an attached washroom. As night fell, we were asked to come to the original home for dinner. It felt quite cold and our joy knew no bounds when aunty ushered us into the warm confines of their old home. We were seated on the dining table adjoining the kitchen and she served us hot food with chapatis straight from the tawa. The food was yummy and we ate well, thanked her for the same and requested her if it was possible to savour different varieties of local food over our course of stay.

She was happily surprised to have guests who understood how a home-run kitchen works as the first stayers at their homestay. We told her to not get hassled about our food and that we had no untoward demands and would be happy to eat whatever was being cooked for the family if aunty was busy! Since Holi festival was around the corner, aunty told us that she might have to go and attend a few get-togethers and that we should be prepared to eat a meal or two at a local dhaba if she was not around.

Pankaj Bhai told us that someone will bring us tea in the morning at the homestay itself – we filled our water bottles, wished them good night and walked back to the homestay. It was fully dark at this point and the stars shined in their full glory with the Panchachuli mountains providing a great backdrop. We woke up early next morning and went to the roof for a legendary one hour Munsiyari sunrise! It was freezing cold but well worth it to see the sun come from behind the snowy mountain range and the rays scatter in all directions in the blue sky.

Over the course of our stay in Munsiyari; we walked around town and went to the usual places like Nanda Devi Temple, Darkot village, Tribal Heritage Museum, saw the colourful holi festivities of the locals, and explored the local market, but the highlight of the trip was the hike to Khaliya Top. The entire trail beginning from Balati Bend was filled with pink and red rhododendron flowers in full bloom. We had started very early in the morning and the views of Panchachuli peaks were extremely clear in the cloudless sky. It remains an unforgettable memory walking in the forest with the splash of colour everywhere the eyes could see.

As we climbed higher, the views kept getting better and after we crossed the KMVN Guest House – it felt even more surreal while climbing to Zero Point. It was almost a 360 degree view. We savoured some dry fruits with the magical sights around us and even as a rousing wind started blowing, we lie down in the meadow. There was some unmelted snow in some parts as we neared Zero Point. In hindsight, it felt like luck was on our side as clouds started gathering as soon as we started our descent at around 1-130 pm.

The rhododendron delight made me wonder if it would be a good idea to visit Munsiyari for the autumn colours!

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Shashur in the local language literally translates to – ‘in the blue pines’. I would come to know about the adage when I reached there; Shashur Monastery is indeed surrounded by a small forest of blue pine trees and is reachable by a 3 km uphill walk from Keylong – which is preferred by the locals. For folks travelling by car, there is also a 5 km long motorable road to reach Shashur Monastery.

It was afternoon and clouds had just started gathering in the sky, and since there was a road that led to Shashur Monastery – I was more or less confident (or rather, hopeful) of being able to hitch a ride. I began my day in Keylong and opted to head to Tandi Bridge and Beeling village in the morning after a quick breakfast at one of the eateries in the bazaar.

Also read : Othang Gompa – The Crown Jewel of Pattan Valley, Lahaul

Over the last 2-3 days, one thing had led to another and as I visited one monastery, I was being guided by the locals for exploring other monasteries in Lahaul. I climbed to visit the Yardong / Yordong Monastery in Beeling near the HRTC workshop close to the Tandi bridge but was mildly disappointed when the doors were closed and there was nobody to show me around the cave-sort of monastery. However, I felt a tad unlucky when I met a monk while climbing down who said that he had the key to open the doors.

Read : Othang Gompa – The Crown Jewel of Pattan Valley, Lahaul

Anyhow, I started walking back to Keylong and someone in Beeling village suggested that I take a quick look at the ‘Jabjes‘ in the fields. Jabjes are the holy footsteps of the lama embedded in rock and I was happily surprised to be shown a rock with a clear foot imprint. Since it was the month of July, we were roughly in the middle of the summer in Lahaul Valley and the fields were awash with potato blooms. I enjoyed clicking the surreal landscapes and thanked the gentleman for bringing me to the fields.

After a few minutes of excitement of clicking Lahaul Valley’s rich summer landscapes with Keylong in the background, I decided to resume my walk back to Keylong.

It was around 2 pm in the afternoon and I went to the room to rest for a while and perhaps eat something (can’t really remember). At about 3-30 in the afternoon, I was unsure of what I wanted to do and once I got back to the road I saw the signboard of Shashur Monastery directly in front of me! It seemed to be a cue; since Shashur Monastery was one of the prominent monasteries in Lahaul Valley and there was a motorable road (dirt road) that went all the way to the top. I had decided about visiting it on one of the days when I was in Keylong and not exploring the other monasteries.

I made sure of refilling my water bottle before beginning the hike and asked the passersby for the best directions to reach Shashur monastery. Some locals told me that even though the motorable road would lead me to Shashur Monastery, the distance would be about 5-6 kms while there was a shortcut that would take about 1.5 hours for the 3 km distance on foot.

I was keen on hearing more about the shortcut and they told me that the shortcut would be a sharp ascent and I would keep meeting the road after every few bends. The trail itself was well defined and I was told to find the next shortcut very close to where the previous shortcut had ended.

I started on the path and within a few minutes lost my way because I was unable to find the shortcut. Nevertheless I continued walking on the road till I came across the next shortcut and was able to follow the aforementioned trail. After covering some distance, the path duly came in the midst of blue pine trees.

The shortcuts were quite steep and sometimes had a water canal flowing past and it so happened that I slipped and ended up falling near one of the canals. Thankfully, only my jeans was soiled and the camera had been saved. I felt a little cold with the fall but thankfully Lahaul’s arid air meant that I would be dry in no time. I was hoping to get a ride in one of the cars headed to the monastery since I was always in vicinity of the road but funnily enough no car came and I continued walking along the uphill trail.

Read : Khangsar, Kwaring, Sarang, Kolong – Exploring Lahaul Valley

Like all other things in life, I began to enjoy the hike and the views as I climbed higher; the sun didn’t seem harsh anymore and the yellow roofed Shashur Monastery started peeping from among the blue pines. I crossed an ethereal looking patch of ‘sia’ (or wild roses) that clearly stood out with the tantalising pink blooms.

A sort of storm seemed to be brewing in the distance and the Chandra river (or was it Bhaga!) shined whenever a sliver of sunshine fell on it. The green fields lit up and it presented a sight as bucolic as it could be. I reached Shashur Monastery after walking through a large stretch among the juniper trees and had all but forgotten about my soiled jeans that was dirty but drying rapidly at that time.

There was some sort of construction work going on near the chorten outside the monastery and one of the labours from Bihar indicated to me the entrance to the main monastery and I was glad when a young lama offered to show me around the different structures.

There was a signboard placed right in front of the monastery noting that : Shashur Gompa was founded by Lama Deva Gyatsho of Zanskar in the 17th Century and belongs to the Drukpa Sect. He was a missionary of Nawang Namgyal, who was the king of Bhutan. There was a small gompa here at the same spot before the bigger monastery was established by Deva Gyatso. Deva Gyatso stayed at the monastery till his death.

Shashur Monastery is quite big with a number of rooms and has a number of valuable thangkas with one thangka over fifteen feet in length. There are also well-preserved wall paintings depicting all the 84 mahasiddhas of Buddhism. In the month of July, Cham (masked dances) are performed by the monks in the monastery and the festival is called Tsechu, which is the most popular Cham festival in Lahaul.

The lama was kind and interesting and we ended up chatting and he allowed me to go to the different parts of the monastery and also opened a number of doors that were locked. The weather had started worsening and I was glad when he offered tea. The extra time had enabled me to notice the intricate bells (dorje) and I was able to click a few pictures with the mountains in the background.

The carvings on the door of the monastery are intricate and a nice breeze started blowing as soon as we had finished the tea. I noticed that a number of threatening dark clouds had gathered in the horizon and was hoping that the rain would stay away, at least until I had made it back to Keylong.

One of the doors of Shashur Monastery was incredibly beautiful with a delightful colour pattern along-with Buddhist designs. The lama and I made conversations in the open air balcony that had a vantage view of both sides of the valley. If memory serves me right, the lama was from Bhutan and I was quite surprised to know that it is customary for all serving lamas at Shashur Monastery to be from Bhutan. I was ecstatic when the sun peeked out from among the clouds lending a glorious light to the proceedings. He told me to try and attend the masked dance festival Tsechu at Shashur Monastery someday.

Just when I had thought I would encounter no other visitors, a lady tourist came in a taxi / cab and since there was no harm in asking for a ride back, I did and to my astonishment the car sped with the local Lahauli driver even before I could blink. I had a good laugh about this with the young lama and he said that human beings on earth are not alike and on this note, I took his leave since I would take an hour to make the long trudge back to Keylong.

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Since it was the middle of June and we are well aware of the dicey status of the Udaipur to Killar road that frequently gets stalled due to landslides, we decided that it was best to perhaps head to Keylong and then decide our further course of action. We left from home in Dobhi village at about 615 am and caught a Punjab Road Transport bus and reached Manali bus stand at 640 am. To complicate our already muddled thought process, I spotted the Kullu to Killar (Via Keylong) bus at the bus stand in Manali and asked Jita if we should sit in that one and simply continue with our original plan of heading to Pangi Valley? Jita suggested we should have breakfast first since he was feeling a bit hungry.

Read : Wanderings in Lahaul : Gemur Gompa (Monastery)

Manali mall road was empty at that early hour and when we didn’t find an open dhaba / eatery serving breakfast, we went behind in the by-lanes near the monastery and sat at one of the promising looking dhabas. The whistling of the pressure cooker was signal to take our seats and we asked for an aloo-pyaaz parantha each and ginger masala chai post the paranthas. It was a small eatery and seemed like a pretty popular place with many orders for packed paranthas. The paranthas were delicious and the chai turned out to be excellent as well. We thanked the guy, paid and as we were leaving for the bus stand it started drizzling.

I took my rain jacket out of the backpack and we walked back to the bus stand. We were a bit confused if we should head to Keylong first or directly go to Jahalman but the status of a homestay in Jahalman was not clear and it was decided we are better off staying a night in Keylong and familiarise ourselves with travel like the old days.

My first memory of Jahalman (Jahalma) is seeing the signboard on the Reckong Peo – Jahalman bus and wondering where exactly was this fascinating sounding place! Later when I would see the bus regularly in Kullu – Lahaul region, I would come to know that Jahalma (also Jhalma) is an important town in Pattan Valley, Lahaul. It is the gateway to the famous Kugti Pass trek from Bharmour to Lahaul as the starting (or ending) point of the trekking trail that starts near Rashil village.

I had a photograph of the timetable of the buses from Kullu – Manali to Keylong and was quite confident that there was a Keylong bound bus every 30 minutes or so. It turned out that some of the buses mentioned in the timetable are non-existent! We waited at the bus stand amid the thick diesel fumes and I kept wearing my mask to avoid any breathing trouble. So, after the Kullu to Killar bus left Manali bus stand at 7 am, the next bus that came was the Haridwar to Keylong bus that turned out to be so jam packed with the migrant Nepali workers and there was not even standing space. The conductor clearly told everyone not to get into the bus and we had to return dejected at our current circumstance!

I kept hoping there was a local bus in the early morning hours but that was not to be and all we did was get wet in the rain and hopelessly wait for a Keylong bound bus! The Haridwar – Keylong bus left the bus stand at about 830 am and now we were determined to somehow get a seat / standing space in the next bus. The drizzle was getting stronger and we had mixed emotions about letting the Keylong-Killar bus go. We kept hovering around the entrance of the bus stand to keep a keen eye on the buses coming so that we could grab the seats!

In the meanwhile, there seemed to be a long queue of people heading to Keylong and a few enterprising taxi guys were asking folks for a shared ride at INR 400 per seat. I proposed one extra smart taxi guy the usual bus fare and he scoffed at my offer! There were a few guys looking for Leh bound travellers as well for a seat in the Sumo / Minibus Traveller.

After some time, sense prevailed and we stood on the other side of the bus stand where the fumes were much lesser and we were able to see the incoming buses without getting wet in the rain. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity a bus to Keylong duly arrived at the Manali bus stand and we ran and somehow pestered the conductor to let us in. He informed us at the outset that there were no seats in the bus and given our 2-3 hours of waiting, we were pretty content with getting standing space and somehow getting to Keylong.

We hauled our bags in front and ended up standing for the entire duration of our journey, only getting a seat in Tandi (hardly 8 kms before Keylong). We requested the bus guys to let us off on the highway (or Old Bus Stand in Keylong) to avoid us the long uphill walk from the New Bus Stand. The scenery on the road after Solang Valley was pristine with the recent rain and clouds occupied centrestage.

We were quite flexible with our thought process and just wanted to take it easy in Keylong. At the outset, since it was about 1230 pm – the first task was to find a cheap place to stay. The weather was sunny and the blue sky was interspersed with clouds. As I spoke to some of my acquaintances who ran guesthouses on the main road, we were told that cheap rooms are a thing of the past and that 1000 Rupees is the minimum we would have to pay for a double room.

Since it was the tourist season for Ladakh, most of the rooms were full and one of my known person in Keylong indicated to me to quickly finalise a room as once the tourists started coming in it would become difficult to even get a room! I went to check a homestay and that turned out to be so spic-and-span that we felt it was easier to just stay at a normal guesthouse. It was decided that we would most probably leave for Killar in the early morning bus from Keylong.

Also read : Wanderings in Lahaul : Trilokinath Temple

We finalised a room for 1000 Rs. and immediately stepped out since it was a long time since we had the early morning breakfast. It was rusty decision making when we ended up ordering chowmein that turned out to be quite passable at one erstwhile good Angmo Dhaba! Nevertheless, we were keen on having a stroll in Keylong and see how much the town had changed with the Atal Tunnel. We descended onto the Mall Road of Keylong from one of the staircases and were frankly surprised with the level of frantic construction activity going on in Keylong Bazaar. There were loads of vegetable shops selling a wide variety of vegetables and some even had fresh strawberries from Sissu/Gondhla. There were a few fancy looking cafés and a new branch of HDFC Bank in Keylong town!

We loitered around for a good part of almost 2 hours and after enjoying the food at The Climber’s Café walked back to our room; and it turned out just in the nick of time as it started raining as soon as we got back. The temperature dropped instantly and it became quite cold. After it kept drizzling for an hour or so, we checked the weather updates again and deduced that it was better to call a local from Killar and get hands-on information. I called a guest house owner in Killar and he said that it had rained all day and that we should defer our plan by at least 2 days. We were quite stunned by the information and suggestion and decided to let go of the Pangi Valley plan for the time being and just head to Jahalman.

We stepped out for dinner at about 7 pm and saw that the rooms in Keylong were all sold out and one of the restaurants even refused to serve us dinner and said that the rush means that they are only serving food to in-house guests. Ultimately we ended up eating food at the restaurant of the guest house we were staying in and decided to call it an early night. It was very cold and we woke up to a sunny morning and immaculate blue skies with fresh snow on the mountaintops.

The views were epic prompting us to click a few pictures with our dslr cameras and after a quick breakfast we rushed to the bus stand. I called the HRTC officer in Keylong and he asked us to come to the bus stand itself. Upon reaching the bus stand, we were overjoyed to see the Shimla to Killar – Sural bus and quickly put our bags inside.

The HRTC officer informed us that there have been multiple landslides on the road to Pangi Valley between Udaipur and Killar near Thirot and that the previous day’s HRTC bus between Kullu to Killar was stuck at a very peculiar spot for the last 14-16 hours. The bus was stuck on a stretch and was able to neither move forward nor back since both the sides were closed due to a landslide. Thankfully, no damage was done and the passengers were safe. However, the HRTC officer said that the Shimla – Sural bus was supposed to leave from Keylong much earlier but had been waiting for the Kullu to Killar bus to reach so that all the passengers could be transferred to one bus till Udaipur and then depending on the status of the road, the final decision will be taken.

In the meanwhile, I also got fascinated with a JKSRTC bus stationed at the bus stand and saw a few backpackers triumphantly holding the tickets in their hands. I briefly toyed with the idea of heading to Ladakh but the supposed tourist rush quickly nipped the thought in the bud. We kept our bags in the Shimla to Sural bus bound for Udaipur and I chanced upon talking to local ladies of Pangi Valley (Pangwals) who belonged to different villages scattered around Pangi Valley.

Anyhow, the bus was jam packed and we had to step out when the seats that we had occupied turned out to be booked online and those gentlemen had made their way inside! Thankfully, another bus to Udaipur was supposed to depart in another 30 minutes. There were plenty of empty seats in the bus and after more time wasting at the HRTC workshop in Tandi we eventually made it to Jahalman village at around noon.

The scenery of Pattan Valley was as beautiful as ever with stunning green fields dominating the landscape while the Chenab (Chandrabhaga) river kept flowing serenely. As soon as we stepped out of the bus at the Jahalman bus stop, we spotted a signboard for a homestay. In keeping with the general style of the current travel, I was adamant that there might be a homestay at a better location and we kept walking ahead of the village until we reached no man’s land! Someone informed us that there are only two homestays and a Forest Rest House in the village and both of them are close to where the bus dropped us! So, we walked back and eventually reached the homestay after a short walk from the main road.

The weather felt perfect with a nice breeze blowing and the sun was largely hidden by the clouds. The lady at the homestay quoted us INR 600 for a room; it was a basic room with a common bathroom and I thanked her and asked her to quote us a price including the meals. Since she asked for a reasonable INR 1000 for both of us including meals and breakfast the next day, there was no need to bargain and we put our bags inside.

The morning parantha at Nalwa Restaurant had long been digested and I requested her if she could make a quick lunch for us since we were quite hungry. She casually remarked that we can finish the lunch and then head to Othang Gompa that was hardly an hour’s walk from the homestay and rushed to make rajma chawal for lunch for the entire family.

In the true essence of being in a homestay, I made sure of telling her to just cook something that she would anyway make for lunch for the family. Me and Jita were quite overjoyed at finding a reasonably priced homestay and the mention of a hike to Othang Gompa got us interested. We went out for a stroll and I came across the stunning location of the Forest Rest House that seemed to be in urgent need of repair. Once on the road, there was a small crowd gathered at the Beer & Wine Shop and upon asking, someone pointed to us the Yellow roofed structure of the Othang Gompa located on a hillock at a much higher elevation from Jahalman. We ended up walking back to our homestay since lunch would be ready.

Lunch was served at about 1 pm and after a hearty meal, the lady led us to the start of the trail through the fields and told us that the path is pretty straightforward and that we have to reach a yellow roofed building that will be visible after a bit of climbing. She also asked us to remember to take the same path back to get back to the homestay in the evening.

We were feeling quite lazy after a super heavy lunch but the incredible scenery on offer was a happy surprise. When the Pangi Valley plan did not materialise, we had started thinking maybe this will turn out to be a failed trip but it seemed like our luck had turned a corner and the troubles would lead to something good.

We were walking through a water canal fed by the snowmelt and being directed to one of the fields. Almost all the valleys of Lahaul grow a variety of exotic vegetables during the short summer season and the chief reason for the high yield of broccoli, iceberg, lettuce, leafy etc. is the ample water supply through the channels. There was a variety of wildflowers surrounding the path, white, yellow, pink, blue and different shades of other colours of flora was delightful. We stopped every few steps to admire the view in front of us and had our first glimpse of the wild rose – Sia (on this trip). There is an unsaid pleasure in revelling in nature’s delights and after 15 odd minutes of the lazy trundle, we had ascended to a path that was clearly visible. The weather was still cloudy and we were thankful that it wasn’t sunny!

Even though the lady had said that it is not more than an hour’s walk, we were quite certain that we would take at least 2 hours to make the climb all the way to Othang Gompa / Monastery. We crossed a nice grove filled with wild roses – sia and looked back to marvel at the stunning green fields of Pattan Valley with the Chandrabhaga river flowing calmly. It was an unrelenting ascent and quite stiff in some sections. We were passing through a juniper forest and the nice fragrance added to the feeling of exuberance that only the vast skies of high altitude regions give.

After about an hour or so, as we made a long climb – we came across a dirt road and quickly understood that there is also a motorable (sort of!) road to Othang Gompa. At this point the yellow roof of the monastery was clearly visible and the short-cut walking path became even more uphill.

The views kept getting better as we climbed higher and the sun also shone through the clouds. Thankfully, I had carried my hat that protected me from the full blast of the sunshine. We were huffing and puffing and were grateful to have carried water with us since it had become quite hot. We were having a gala time clicking the landscapes with the blooming wild roses reminding ourselves of the glorious days of travel in the pre-pandemic era.

On one of the climbs, I saw a car zoom on the road and before I could scamper to get to the road – it was gone. We met a shepherd who told us that it was the Lama Ji’s car that had just whizzed by and that we just missed it by a whisker. We were concerned with the opening of the monastery and now it was more or less guaranteed that the Lama Ji will be there to open the monastery doors.

At this point, the climb became almost vertical and we crossed an old mud chorten with a newly built white chorten near it. To our massive surprise, we saw a few homes just before we reached the monastery. Apparently, there are a total of some 8 houses that comprise Othang village. All the houses in Othang village seemed to be quite sizeable and had cow sheds and fields surrounding the houses. There were a number of colourful wildflowers growing near the houses and for a while the numerous paths had us confused but ultimately we ended up asking a few locals working in the fields who guided us on the right trail.

A few fields were being sown with green peas for the family home consumption. The view from this village located on a much higher altitude than the road in Pattan Valley was stunning with snowy peaks clearly visible on multiple sides and the fields below us felt like a green chess board! On the way back, I even remarked to one of the locals to convert one of the homes to a homestay since it was clearly one of the prettiest hamlets of Pattan Valley in Lahaul.

After one final turn, we were in front of the yellow roofed Othang Gompa that had a green field in front of the monastery. The windows looked very pretty with the bold coloured patterns that are a hallmark of most Buddhist monasteries. Othang Gompa is a monastery of the Gelugpa sect (Yellow hat sect) and the yellow roof signified the same. Othang Gompa is also the among the very few monasteries left in Pattan Valley and perhaps the most widely regarded as well. A tall prayer flag (Darchog) fluttered in the courtyard of the monastery and the view from the top was quite epic. Lama ji was quickly spotted and he was clad in a red goncha. Here, we saw an old building and Lama ji said that one part was the old gompa and the adjacent building was the monks’ residence.

He showed us the insides of both the old and new monasteries and said that Othang Gompa was originally built in the 15th Century. The yellow building was recently built about 5-10 odd years ago and Lama ji said that the work was completed under his supervision. The old monastery had old statues of Bodhisattvas and also housed sacred Buddhist texts and manuscripts. He was very kind and even let me light a butter lamp when I offered to pray. Lama Ji belonged to Tungri village in Zanskar but had been living at Othang Gompa since the 1970s.

Check : Khangsar, Kwaring, Sarang, Kolong – Exploring Lahaul Valley

He said that there is another Lama from Ralakung who lives at Othang Gompa and he is in charge of the kitchen etc. So, even though he was keen to offer us tea – the Ralakung lama ji had gone to a village somewhere nearby to perform some duties. Earlier Kee Gompa was in charge of Othang Monastery, now the same is done through Karsha Gompa and that perhaps explains the monks from Zanskar at Othang Gompa.

It was a very interesting and fun conversation with Lama Ji about Zanskar, Pattan Valley and life in general and he even invited us to spend the night at the monastery itself. I asked him if the monastery offers services like a guest house but he replied that there are plenty of rooms and a big hall and some mattresses are kept so it should be a comfortable night’s sleep! He said that the lama from Ralakung made excellent food and that we would love spending the night at the monastery.

We were quite interested in the same but told him that the homestay guys will make dinner for us and that we have already booked a room at the homestay. We thanked him for the offer and I exchanged numbers with Lama ji to meet someday in Manali for a meal at Chopsticks! (Oh, in case you didn’t know when the tourists are gone from Manali, red robed lamas at Chopsticks is a regular sight!)

At that instant, we heard the sounds of a bus crossing the road behind the monastery and it simply continued on the road that climbed ahead. I asked Lama ji and he nonchalantly remarked that there is a daily evening bus to the next village. Me and Jita wondered if knowing this piece of information might have made us more laid-back and try to catch the bus rather than hiking all the way up from Jahalman!

Sometimes, it is best to not know otherwise the mind gets confused with multiple thoughts and ultimately you end up achieving nothing. We were triumphant at having come via the trekking trail to Othang Gompa. Lama ji told us that via road the distance from Othang Monastery to Jahalman was 13 kms while we would hardly take about 45 minutes via the downward sloping hiking trail.

We spotted a few bright blue lupines growing in the monastery compound and were quite astounded with the beauty. It was about 5 pm when we decided to start our walk back to the homestay in Jahalman. After initially trying to take the hiking trail, we decided to enjoy the walk on the dirt road for a few kilometres before rejoining the hiking trail somewhere along the way. That way, we would be able to savour the stunning views that were visible now that we were at a vantage point in Pattan Valley. We were able to clearly see the beautiful villages of Jobrang, Rapay and Rashil alongwith few other villages the names of which I have forgotten. Finally, we took leave of Lama ji and started our return on foot via the road only.

I was excited to see if the bus would make the return journey so that we would be able to see a different side of Pattan Valley at close quarters. As if on cue, the sun came out and made the proceedings quite hot. I had to pull my hat out once again and just when I thought it was time to put the dslr camera in, a nice frame came into the picture with the sun shining on the pink wild roses with the Othang Gompa flanked by snowy peaks in the background.

Read : Wanderings in Lahaul : Kardang Monastery

After walking for about 2-3 kms on the road, we came to one of the hairpin bends where the walking trail joined the dirt road and now opted to take the hiking trail and get back to the homestay. If we had followed the road, we would have ended up in a totally different area much farther than Jahalma.

The heavy lunch was nicely digested with the excursion. It was a very satisfactory and easy walk back and took more than an hour as we were at a relaxed pace. I remarked to Jita that for the first time in more than a year (or two) I had actually seen a place where I had not been earlier and hence felt very elated at clicking photographs with the dslr camera. With that ecstatic feeling in the heart, when we approached Jahalman village near the homestay I was already planning our next exploration in Pattan Valley.

There were a few locals working in the fields and one of them remarked that the cherries of Pattan Valley were almost ripe and if we had come a week later, we would have been able to savour those!

I am well aware of the joys of cherries and strawberries of Lahaul and asked them if those would be available in the market in Manali / Kullu?! There was another chance encounter with a contractor who was in charge of procurement of exotic vegetables from this region in the summer and he seemed pretty miserable at his plight when he had to wear a jacket in the Lahauli summer as the weather changed at the drop of a hat!

At the homestay, we thanked the lady for suggesting the Othang Monastery hike and for not telling us about the bus! She mentioned that there is a curry of the local buckwheat leaves (Kathu ke patte) for dinner alongwith chapati.

We were also looking forward to tasting the local brew that she made from barley grains. She claimed to be an expert at the brew since her husband was in the habit of regular consumption! It was an eventful evening with an excellent dinner and a glass of the local brew. The night was cold and the mobile batteries would be dead since there was no electricity in Jahalman. It was a comfortable and warm room with wooden flooring. Maybe the locals forgot to inform us – but when we returned to Kullu someone asked us about visiting Hidimba Temple in Jahalman and all we could do was show blank faces!

This small prelude calls for a longer and more detailed exploration of Pattan Valley in Lahaul.

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Even though we stayed in Raison, Kullu Valley for 5 months – we had never ever thought of shifting here (or anywhere else) for good. The semi-nomadic style of being able to live for a few months in any place we wanted did feel very appealing but after having stayed out of the rented Delhi home for almost 1.5 years, and paying the rent and salaries was too much. It was as if the stars had aligned when our friends were also keen on moving to a better place in the nearby area of South Delhi. When all four of us discussed this possibility; it resulted in a mutual decision of giving the landlady a notice of 1 month and that we would empty the Delhi home by 31 October.

Of course, none of us had even looked at a home yet and it was a bit easier with regards to home searching in Delhi with brokers around. The real struggle would start when we had to go home searching in Kullu Valley. I began by calling a few homestay owners in the 10-15 kms stretch from Bandrol to Katrain because that is where we were keen to live. We were not keen to live on the Naggar side of the road because that was where the outsiders of the valley lived and also it would be too cold for the winter. A few locals were encouraging and asked me to meet them when we came to Kullu Valley; the common consensus was that we would only find a home we liked if we found it ourself rather than hoping for divine intervention.

We went to Leh and were surprised to see it packed with tourists even in mid-October. It was a lucky journey when we were able to make it to Manali by a shared taxi from Leh on 15th October. It snowed on the high passes in the evening and the Manali-Leh road was promptly closed for vehicular traffic. Our aim was to find and finalise a home in 10-12 days and then head to Delhi so that we could empty the Delhi home. Thakur bhai (from Yuthok) had arranged our stay at his relatives homestay that was located adjacent to the road in the centre of Kullu and Manali. He was correct in figuring that a conveniently located home would enable us to explore more options. We started going and seeing prospective homes and finally after a week had shortlisted 2-3 options. The kindness of the owner triumphed over everything else and we finalised a 2nd floor home located in an orchard – conveniently located just a minute away from the NH3 in Dobhi Village, Kullu Valley.

7 November : Autumn feels, the trees had begun to shed their leaves and the wind was piercing cold everyday; as if it was preparing us for the colder winter. The skies were a shade of dark blue and the days were nice and crisp. The sunshine felt nice but the time of sunrise started to shift. There was a massive temperature change from the plains to Kullu Valley in the first week of November. The diwali pollution had got me in trouble in Jaipur/Delhi and the sudden cold after reaching Kullu Valley in the night caused a troublesome chest congestion that would only go after a few weeks. The house had been properly cleaned and we just had to come and start living. Of course, to make it feel like home we were to set it up and hang paintings on the walls. We had carried some paintings with us and got lucky when the electrician who came to fit the television agreed to drill the holes for the paintings. Since it was a brand new home and we were the first people to actually live in it – we were not keen on hammering the nails since all it would do is damage the paint on the walls.

Home in Dobhi, Kullu Valley

Online e-commerce had done well with all the companies delivering products and groceries in Kullu Valley as we had experienced last year in the lockdown. It made sense to create an order for basic necessities so that we would have a ready supply of groceries even before we reached. Basically, when we got to our home, a package with tea leaves, sugar, pasta, poha, oil was already there and we had carried the rest of the necessities like wheat flour, masalas, grains and pulses with us in the car in a small package. It only added to our happiness quotient when we saw that the kitchen was well stocked with utensils, casseroles, plates, gas connection with a cylinder, and all the other necessary accessories one might need. We had also carried a variety of teas; like Darjeeling tea, green tea, nettle tea, bergamot tea, and other local herbal teas procured from Uttarakhand.

Everyday troubles when you live in the mountains

Finding a home to live in Kullu Valley was difficult alright, but what seemed even more difficult was managing the workload. The 3 meals have to be cooked, the utensils have to be scrubbed clean (did I mention the freezing water), the house has to be made in order. Every little detail had been taken care of in the 3 bedroom home; viz. mattresses, bedsheets, quilts, sofa set, chairs and tables, bed-side tables, utensils, pots, pans and boxes in the kitchen, mosquito nets on the windows and doors. Our kind homeowner had even set the home with carpets and bed runners, extra bedsheets and even towels. We were floored by their gesture and ultimately ended up returning the carpets and bed runners (we had carried our own), the extra bedsheets and the towels. It is a testament to the kindness of these local Kullvi folks that they end up doing so much for strangers; even though they are not obligated to do so.

The sun rises from behind the mountains opposite to our home and directly hits the bedroom at about 815 am. Only when the sun lights up the room, do I rush to get up from the bed and quickly wear the jackets to start making the tea. Winter months mean there is less availability of cow milk and we make regular enquiries with the locals for 1 litre of fresh cow milk everyday. The first few days we take the easy way out by buying the 1 litre milk tetra packs. The kitchen feels quite cold and my hands freeze when I wash the ginger and then grate it with the cheese grater. It takes 15 odd minutes for the tea to be made and that is enough time for the kettle to warm up the drinking water and set up the table with biscuits/accompaniments for chai. Good morning tea is the pre-requisite for a nice day and I take extra effort in ensuring it always turns out good.

Chilling in Manali (as locals)

Even though the plant nursery guy doesn’t recommend buying money plants since there is every likelihood of them not surviving the cold; we buy a couple of money plants and also get a few succulents planted in earthen pots. The aim is to just feel that there is a bit of life around us. Thankfully, our friends are still at Yuthok Homestay when we arrive here and they come every few days so that we have a bit of non-fussy social life without making an effort. Once or twice, we go to Manali for live music and beer at Johnson’s Café and spend a nice Sunday afternoon at Martin’s in Shanag. It is nice to head to these places for a change.

Even though the sun is strong and shining in the balcony and we sometimes drink chai while soaking in the sunshine, the chilly wind would soon ensure that it became rare to sit peacefully in the outdoors for tea. Breakfast preparations would be simple and quick and it would usually be poha, upma or seviyan. We would take utmost care to use as less utensils as possible and would mostly eat breakfast from the pan itself (if practically possible). The wooden roof in our room traps the warmth of the sun and makes it nice and cosy. It is soon work time and we work on our respective laptops; the third room has been converted into a work room with a study table (and the storage cabinets serve a very useful purpose for ‘Indilocal.’

We would try to keep a very simple menu for lunch in the form of either dall or some vegetable to be eaten with rice or roti. I was in charge of figuring and planning the lunch and barring a few hits and misses we managed well. Making rotis was a big challenge and it was soon decided that the best idea was to eat rice for lunch and occasionally go to the nearby dhabas / restaurants / eateries whenever we missed roti too much. We have plenty of options with regards to eateries within our walking distance. The sun would shift to the big balcony at lunch time and if the wind was in control, we would try to enjoy lunch in the abundant sunshine. Post lunch, we tried to go for a customary 30 minute walk/stroll while the sun was still out. Evening time after 5 pm meant a rousing cold wind and we would have to make sure to wear an extra jacket and cover our head with a cap.

Thankfully we had a kettle because it was almost necessary to drink warm water all the time. The sun would go behind the mountain at about 330 pm; and the funny part was that there would be abundant sunshine till 430 pm only 10 minutes walk from our home. Life here felt like a perfect mix of urban and rural; we had the highway if we wanted to go anywhere to Kullu or Manali or we could just go in the big balcony on the other side of the house and be blissfully away from civilisation. Professional work would always get done like it does; evening tea making was a point of debate and although we would want to drink it – the fact that we had only 1 tea pot meant someone had to wash it! Sometimes, we would bicker and fight and tell each other ‘It’s your turn, it’s your turn,’ because the tea pot had to be cleaned and it was almost stupid to start the next day without chai first thing in the morning.

Thankfully, our landlord had installed a semi-automatic washing machine because if washing clothes is a task, then it is an even bigger task with cold water in the winters! Of course we had geysers in both the bathrooms and the kitchen as well but the mix of hot and cold is never really perfect and within a few weeks my fingers started having minor cuts as a result of the mix of the hot and cold water!

On top of it, as soon as we reached the Kullu Valley home, I fell sick – I was anyway not feeling quite well due to the pollution. So the burden of unpacking and setting up the home felt even more troublesome and I tried to compensate for it after 3-4 days when I started feeling a bit better. We ended up charting a plan for our daily activities and divided the work so that we would fight less and enjoy more! Of course, it was enriching to be able to experience autumn colours and watch the paragliders float in the evening sky while we sipped our tea. After 10 days or so, our landlord helped us by asking one of his relatives to deliver 1 litre of fresh cow milk to us every morning. We were overjoyed! I have always believed when you live somewhere, it is very important to do things like a local and a daily supply of milk is an important part of life here.

Eateries in Kullu Valley

We kept making plans for short day hikes and even ended up discovering a few village paths for going on walks. It is no fun to walk with vehicles passing you by and we enjoyed the joys of ambling along on different local trails. After settling into life in the new home in Kullu Valley, we began to enjoy the new routine and also started going out to the nearby eateries. Sometimes, if we felt like eating paranthas we would go early in the morning to the roadside Shubham Dhaba for piping hot tandoori aloo, mooli and paneer paranthas served with curd and chickpeas curry. There would be days when we would seek the indoor warmth of Crimson Restaurant for dinner and have a simple vegetable with chapatis. When we went on our walks, once we saw a new roadside eatery that had just opened and ended up eating delicious siddus with chutney and ghee.

We had kept the lookout on for a help who would come and cook a meal for us and do the utensils but it seemed that such luxuries were hard to come by in Kullu Valley. Wherever we asked, it was understood that here everyone did their own work and that the concept of house help did not exist at all. I had known that it would be difficult to find someone to do the house work, but had no inkling that it would prove to be almost impossible. We were pretty clear that we didn’t want a full time help because it just becomes too much of a hassle to make staying arrangements for the help. Since the windows and the doors would largely remain closed through the winter, the house wouldn’t accumulate much dust and there was no real need of regular cleaning.

As the days progressed into weeks and we completed our first month of living in the new home, we felt a proud sense of accomplishment. We had somehow managed to organise our daily lives, figure the food, wash the utensils efficiently, go on long walks everyday; and still make time to enjoy the sunset colours with the evening chai. The weather turned colder in December but we were prepared for it; and were really looking forward to have our friends from Dehradun visit us in the end of December. We had planned to go on holiday in the second half of December and perhaps it was that happy feeling that enabled us to sail through the first two weeks of December. Or maybe it was the new OTG that we had ordered that really seemed to make life easier!

Baking = Happiness

The aroma of baking would spread around the house and there is no better feeling in the world than the warmth and coziness of a home during the winters. We had put table lamps with warm lights around the hall and in the bedrooms as well and coupled with the wooden roof, it exuded a calm and welcoming feel. The nearby Roots Café made excellent ragi bread and bajra bread and sometimes we would pick the multigrain bread from Bread of Life Bakery close to Manali. The vegetables in November were mostly locally grown (radish, spinach etc) and tasted better than their counterparts grown with pesticides in the Indian plains. Open toasts made with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and paneer were turning out to be quite amazing and to make life easier we would eat them straight from the oven tray. The paneer in Kullu Valley is especially good and always freshly made.

We had got into the habit of early dinners and also figured with time that if a special dish was being made, it made sense to make extra quantity of the same since it was cold and nothing would go bad. It made wonders with the dash of confidence after the successful cooking experiments and that enabled us to successfully make thukpa (from memory, having seen the preparations umpteen number of times at Yuthok). The black peas were procured from Spiti Valley and there was one time when the thukpa we made lasted us for 3 evening meals! During the cold winters, there’s nothing like an early evening soupy dinner that warms you up from the inside and is not heavy as well.

Persimmon in the Winters

The stiff breeze in the afternoons caused the remaining leaves to fall off the trees and that also meant that the last hanging ripe persimmons on the trees had to be picked up or risk getting rotten. I bought 10 kg persimmons (that turned out to be 7.5kg) from the fresh picking going on in an orchard close to our home. These were safely kept aside to be eaten as 1-2 pieces everyday in the sunshine. Persimmons can cause a cold if eaten in inclement, stormy weather and I had to be especially careful with the not-yet-fully-cured coughing. The fact remains that persimmons are super healthy fruits (largely pesticide free) and make for a nice snack in the afternoons.

Things would get really chilly when it rained every few days and we would see snow on the nearby mountaintops with every spell of rain. The locals said it was a a sign of an early winter when the daffodils / nargis flowers bloomed earlier than usual and we were merry with arranging a vase full of daffodils gifted to us by our landlord’s son! The nargis flowers had a peculiar, sweet fragrance and lasted us for a full 25 days. Of course, there is a lone flower seller in Kullu and we would occasionally buy flowers from there for decoration. One of the days, we also entered Reliance Smart Point in Kullu and that also meant we would use e-commerce very sparingly from now on for groceries, as everything was available at a much cheaper price than amazon.

The cold meant there was no possibility of us trying to set the curd, so we would make kheer every now and then. When we felt the need for more sweets and snacks, I researched online and found some companies delivering namkeens from Jaipur, Mysore Pak from Almond House (Hyderabad) and I personally made a few phone calls to get a few kilos of desi ghee sweets straight from Jaisalmer. India Post is quite reasonable for couriers with sizeable weight. We had carried a number of gajak boxes from Jaipur for near and dear ones as a diwali gift and due to unavailability of a few of these folks who had gone elsewhere, we always had healthy sesame and jaggery gajak from Narayanji, Jaipur!

The trees slowly but steadily shed their leaves and were rendered bare by the middle of December. The views of the snow capped mountains kept getting better as it got colder and with the floating paragliders the evening sky looked especially enticing. It was a strange sight to see the bare apple trees surrounding us and for a change even seeing the vehicles on the road gave us a semblance of belonging. We could clearly see the road from our front balcony now that there were no leaves on the trees. It was fun to see the tourists come in droves in the packed Volvos even as the threat of covid resurfaced again. The news of our friends arriving from Dehradun post-Christmas brought a wave of cheer and we began setting up their room in anticipation.

Holidays in December

We went on long walks on the holiday, baked recipes like persimmon bread, cookies, muffins (for Nilza), pesto pasta with fresh basil procured from Manali, Chettinad egg curry, ate chole puri at Behl Sweets in the rain and at Sapna Sweets in Kullu, spent lazy afternoons at Roots Café in Bandrol, made and drank a lot of mulled wine, watched a lot of movies, stayed warm while it kept raining continuously for 4-5 days. On one of the long walks, it was a memorable time when we remembered to buy a Christmas tree and decorated it with pine cones. The days got shorter and shorter and I remember that the sun rose at 8:50 some days and would set at 2:50 in the afternoon.

In between, our earlier milk lady had sold her cow and after a few days break; with the help of a neighbour we were able to secure supply of fresh cow milk from another home. Since there was plenty of extra milk, our friends from Dehradun taught us how to make ricotta cheese. With this new skill under my belt, we made ragi and bajra bread open toast sandwiches. After wondering where to go in the touristy rush of the new year, it turned out to be a fabulous trip to Jana when we decided to stay at a cottage in the woods with a grand view of the snow mountains. When we went for a walk in the evening, the weather gods fulfilled our wish as we witnessed a fresh flurry of snowfall. In no time, the road turned white and after enjoying the snowfall for a good hour we returned to the warmth of our cottage when it was still daylight. It was a memorable evening with copious amounts of Morpheus Xo and an adrenaline rush next morning to drive back on the slippery road in the snow.

Day trip to Lahaul

In a first, there was the added thrill of having a Kullu number Thar and everybody decided that now that we had a 4*4 wheel drive, it made sense for me to learn driving on snow. Even though we knew that there was a huge possibility of a traffic jam while going and coming back from Lahaul – we decided to go! Of course there was a massive traffic jam at Solang Valley, the fact that we had a local number car meant we weren’t stuck for too long and reached the other side of Atal Tunnel soon. The road was totally snow bound and I engaged the 4 wheel drive for the snowy and slippery stretch. It was bone chilling cold in Lahaul and we were pleased to eat paranthas and momos for brunch/lunch at the only open eatery in Keylong.

The original plan was to stay in a nice homestay in Jispa / Keylong but when we reached Jispa it turned out to be a scene of a locked village and there was not a soul to be seen. We did enjoy the drive though and were greeted by a number of frozen waterfalls amid the blue skies. The traffic jam while coming back was a pointer to the scene while going back and we tried to be smarter by leaving early from Lahaul. It didn’t really matter though and we were stuck in Solang Valley for another 2 odd hours and were so tired that I didn’t want to sit in the car even for going to a restaurant for dinner! Nevertheless, we had a gala time observing the behaviour of the tourists who were piling snow on their stationery vehicles and a lot of tourists looked funny with the jumpsuits in bright colours.

First Snowfall in the Kullu Valley home

After this adventure, we decided to spend a few quiet days at home so that we would not get stuck in more traffic jams! Our friends left for Sainj Valley on 2nd January and we missed having them. It was back to routine now and the holiday did feel like a welcome break once it was over. The two meals a day routine was on and finally it seemed that the days started getting bigger and sunrise time was advancing by a minute every few days. Our Dehradun friends had really wished for snowfall and it seemed their wish was a bit late in coming true when the weather started turning bad from 8th January. It rained continuously for 2-3 days and became frighteningly cold and since we were unable to go out, we baked apple crumble from the apples given by the neighbours. On 9th January, it started snowing on the nearby mountains and the nearby village was shrouded in a blanket of white. In the night, I kept looking out of the window but it seemed as if there was no activity.

When we woke up next morning, it was eerily silent – I pulled the curtains and saw the most astonishing sight. It was snowing heavily and we were in the midst of a white landscape. We called our near and dear ones on video call and shared the joy of the first snowfall in the new year with everyone. It stopped snowing in the afternoon but the white landscape remained till the next morning. Once the snow melted, it lent a fragrant feel to the surroundings and it was magical to go on walks nearby when the sun was out and the views were crystal clear. We had a memorable time celebrating ‘Saja’ or makar sankranti when we were invited by Yuthok Homestay Thakur family for lunch. I had a minor discomfort of a strange skin infection that would stay with me for the next month or so!

On one of the many walks, we ended up venturing to Palrabling – a Tibetan colony in Dobhi located by the river. It was a pleasant surprise to visit the monastery and meet old Tibetan men and women. The sky colours were turning dramatic during sunset whenever the weather was stormy. I was terribly missing fresh haldi ki sabji and my wish was answered when the vegetable seller in Manali had fresh turmeric! One of the days we invited Yuthok Homestay family and sister for lunch and were able to make spinach and ricotta quiche and a snack! They liked it and thankfully we had the Jaisalmer ghotua remaining. We were glad that they came and asked uncle and aunty to definitely come next time. In the last week of January, we saw the first signs of life when we noticed fresh yellow flowers sprout from the ground where there was plenty of sun.

We only had a small electric heater in our home to combat the winter cold but we would rarely use that and preferred to be clothed well and snuggle under 3 layers of blankets. Landlord uncle came to the rescue when they installed a tandoor bukhari in the glass room upstairs. It was fun to sit in the warmth of the tandoor when it was snowing outside!

On 31st January, we were out for our everyday walk and had an epiphany – that we should try going to a nearby cottage and asking the staff there if they were looking for part-time work. It was a big stroke of luck that we found the caretaker couple who were out of work the same day and the guy agreed to come for work to our home the next day. He turned out to be a fantastic cook and seemed to be the answer to all our troubles! He told us that either him or his wife would come everyday and we were very happy with the excellent food that they made and the ease with which the utensils were getting done.

Driving to Manali in snow

We had more bad weather as February started and now that I had successfully driven the thar on the snowy roads of Lahaul, we made a plan of a staycation in Manali and booked 1 night at a nice English cottage. It snowed and snowed for 2 days and when we left for Manali from Dobhi, it was snowing heavily like a snowstorm and we actually wondered if it made sense to go. Then it dawned on us that this might turn out to be the last snowfall of the winter for us and it was now or never! The locals in Manali were really kind and helped me navigate the slippery snow and we somehow made it to the snowed out English cottage! I heaved a sigh of relief after we parked the car and noticed that it had snowed about 3-4 feet and the cars parked 2-3 days ago were completely covered in snow. We had a grand time in the snow and I was very happy to see a properly snowed out forest in Manali.

It took a lot of manoeuvring and patience to drive back from the slippery roads of Manali next day and again I thank the locals who helped me navigate the car in my slow speed! Once we were back in Dobhi, it felt like the weather had shifted. It was only the first week of February and the grass was green everywhere now that the rain had watered the ground and the sun enabled growth of new life. We baked an apple pie in celebration and it turned out to be quite amazing! The nights were even colder once the skies cleared but the days were nice and warm and the sunshine in the big balcony felt like a lifesaver. We ate our first palak patta chaat of the season at Roots Café and started going out more during the day to make ample use of the sunshine. Now finally we thought that the house work was being managed well and that gave us a chance to enjoy more. The arrival of strawberries and raspberries in the markets of Kullu – Manali gave us a lot of cheer and we made breakfasts of chia seed bowls!

From Kullu Valley to Tamil Nadu in March

We were missing South Indian food very much and ended up booking return flight tickets to Chennai. The plan was to relax and enjoy the relatively warmer weather of Pondicherry-Auroville and explore Chettinad and Madurai or Trichy. It was furiously cold when we sat in the Volvo bus to Delhi; took a cab directly to Delhi airport and reached quite early for an afternoon flight. Once we got down in Chennai, the heat turned out to be so much more than we anticipated and I was having an especially difficult time. The months of living in cold weather meant I wasn’t sweating and the body was just getting overheated. We figured it would be better to take it slow and thats what we did throughout the trip – ensuring a calm but memorable experience.

When we had left from Kullu Valley the trees were still barren and there was the anticipation of the plum blossoms turning the entire valley white in 2-3 weeks. We didn’t want to miss it for the world and planned our holiday around it. Our landlord called us when we had landed in Delhi and said, ‘The plum blossoms are here and if you don’t come soon, you will miss them!’ We were overjoyed on hearing this and told him that we were returning the next day.

We are welcomed by the most epic sight of the white plum blossoms and the occasional pink peach blossoms the next morning after reaching Kullu Valley. Our house help tells us that the weather had suddenly turned appreciably hotter once we left for Chennai. I am happy to be sweating again in the pleasant and bearable Kullu heat.

When we meet landlord uncle, he says, ‘You have spent the entire winter in Kullu Valley, so you totally deserve the joys of spring now!’

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Also, the theory of Chettinad food being spicy was also turned on its head after a few meals; the spice levels being quite mild and the use of spices was to flavour the food in a balanced manner than to make it overpowering to the palate! Isn’t this what travel is all about? To let us experience for real what we have only read so far.

After about an year and a half of ‘living’ in the mountains; spending last winter in Kasar Devi, Uttarakhand – and then the next year in Kullu Valley; we were really missing the raw feel of travelling in unfamiliar territory and thereby ended up booking tickets to Chennai. At the outset; it felt like a sea change upon landing in Tamil Nadu. The weather was comparatively mild in Pondicherry and Auroville and that sort of allowed us to somehow adjust to the unusually hot weather in March.

The drive from Pondicherry to Chettinad was memorable as it was overcast the entire day and that turned the countryside into a veritable shade of green. We left from Pondicherry at about 8 am after a quick breakfast of idli, sambar vadas from a roadside stall. On one of the short stops, it was nice to sip sweet tender coconut water and bite into chunks of plump sugarcane sticks being sold on the road.

It started pouring as we neared Tiruchirappalli, and it made for an excellent stop at a small coffee shop on the way – it advertised Kumbakonam degree coffee and it definitely had a unique strong flavour to the steaming mugs of coffee. We saw men and women working in the submerged paddy fields and as we neared Visalam, I had a short glimpse of a fort on a rocky outcrop and made a mental note of asking more about it.

We were shown the way to the palatial Chettinad Room and informed that lunch was ready to be served in the aptly named ‘Sapadu Shala’, (literally food room). The welcome drink Chukku kaapi made with dry ginger and palm jaggery was tantalising in taste. Lunch was served in a banana leaf and included a delicious array of dishes that made me wish I had a bigger appetite / stomach!

The Sapadu Shala was housed in a traditional Chettiar kitchen and it was a memorable sight to notice that traditional brass utensils were used for cooking as well as for decor to provide an authentic experience of a Chettinad mansion. The dishes served are homemade lemon pickle, onion pachadi, kar paavakai varuval (bitter gourd fritters), podalangai poriyal (stir fry snake gourd), kodamilagai mandi (capsicum+garlic mix), pookose poriyal (cauliflower stir-fry), vazhakkai varuval (raw banana snack), nei sadham (ghee rice), aavarakai sambar (broad beans sambar), sundavatha kulambu (bitter berries mix), rasam, curd and payasam.

My biggest and most pleasant surprise at Visalam was the abundance of greenery in the outdoor spaces and the riot of bougainvillea blooms in different colours like white, purple, red, pink, yellow (maybe I missed a few other colours!). The flowers spread like a carpet on the grass and with the breeze blowing in the open air courtyard spread bouts of happiness. I spotted eclectic cast iron chairs in the ‘garden café’ – the usual haunt for breakfast at Visalam.

One of the doors opened to bring forth the sight of the swimming pool and after the longest break largely caused to covid; it called for a short tryst in the welcoming cool waters. The sunset colours were most epic as we climbed up on one of the rooftops for a better view. As night fell, the sound of cicadas filled the air reminding us that we were in a palatial home alright; with the right mix of nature’s gifts.

Siva (staff at Visalam) charted out next day’s plan and since the weather was excellent for the time being, we decided to go on a leisurely heritage walk across Kanadukathan. The staff at Visalam is mostly employed locally and it is delightful to hear their anecdotes while they narrate the stories. I was astounded at the grandness of the Chettiar homes (built between 1850 to 1950) and when Siva pointed out that some of the homes were so huge that 1 home covered an entire street; I had to actually go back and check every street to confirm the same and it indeed turned out to be true.

Some of the mansions owned by the Chettiars had 60 odd rooms (a few even boast of 100 rooms) and a typical mansion would have a garden and their own well. The Chettiar mansions were opulent with use of teak, chandeliers and glass from Burma, Belgium and Murano (Italy) respectively and a hallmark of these houses was the intricate wooden work on the doors, pillars and even on the ceiling.  

A common theme among the mansions was that almost all of them seemed to be uninhabited. Siva took us across to a mansion that was in a family dispute and had an immaculately maintained half part of the house while the other half was in a derelict and crumbling condition. We also came across village ponds with temples constructed around them that served as water sources in the earlier days and also in the present times with well maintained clean water.

Evening was fast approaching and even though we felt like continuing the walk; the lure of fresh filter coffee was bait enough for us to return to Visalam. From 4 to 6-630 pm in the evening and 7 to 10 am in the morning, Geetha (staff at Visalam) is in charge of tea and coffee and I have no hesitation in saying that the filter coffee and masala tea at Visalam was the best during our entire Tamil Nadu trip.

Dinner was served under the skies by the pool and was an exotic mix of traditional ingredients made in a fusion style – all thanks to the chefs and Siva. The attention to detail was so immaculate and the experience so nicely personalised, I was compelled to ask Siva if there was a menu for guests or if he was a champion in reading their minds and knowing what they wanted to eat! It is the norm to eat a little more than usual when you are in Chettinad and that necessitated a walk around the pool. After gazing at the stars for a while, we decided to call it a night and slept in the cozy four-post bed looking at the Burma teak ceiling.

We woke up and rushed to get our dose of morning chai and filter coffee and ended up walking bare-feet in the lawn while listening to birdsong. It is delightfully relaxing and while Siva has made a hectic to-see list for the day; I am mentally prepared to take it slow. We have a light breakfast of the usual idli, podi dosa, uttapam, ragi upma and leave at 10 am.

What to see in Chettinad?

Athangudi Palace – Athangudi Periya Veedu

Hardly 10 odd minutes drive from Kanadukathan, the Athangudi Palace is a stunning Chettiar mansion with a dazzling hall. There are 2 young women at the entrance who ask for a 50 Rupee entry fee but language issues mean I couldn’t really ask them about the history of the Palace and resign myself to internet research for more details. Most of the rooms of the Periya Veedu are closed but it is the main hall that is the highlight here; and it comes as no surprise that it is a popular shooting location.

Athangudi Tiles

The defining feature of the mansions of Chettinad is the use of exclusively handmade tiles made in Athangudi and our next stop was to visit a tile maker. I spotted a tour group bus outside their premises and the eagerness of one of the managers to get us to ‘make our own tiles’ rather than simply explaining how the tiles were made meant we went for a quick perusal by ourselves and figured the different stages of the designing of these unique handmade tiles. The Athangudi tiles come with colourful patterns and are used on the floors, on the walls or even on the ceiling!

Sri Solai Aandavar Temple

It was nice to visit a temple in this part of the country and observe the rich architecture. There were a lot of locals also visiting the temple and the shaded part was a welcome break from the relentless sun.

Visalam Owners House, Kottaiyur

Aachi (Visalam House’s owner) is wonderful to talk to and she made sure we were shown nook and corner of the grand house. The hall had a grand ceiling decorated with yalis (mythical creature) and the inner courtyard with majestic round pillars made with Burma teak. She asked for a buttermilk to be served to us to serve as a coolant. Aachi affectionately means – grandmother.

Murukku Factory

This place in Kottaiyur was very authentic and ladies were frying murukku on firewood and making other sweets and snacks. We bought a packet of freshly packed murukku and wondered what all did they make! Later, after coming back Siva remarked that the ladies also made adirasam (a traditional sweet in Tamil Nadu.)

Karaikudi Cotton Weavers

Chettinad and Karaikudi region have a rich history of cotton weaving on handloom. We visited one of the cotton weavers and saw the excellent quality of sarees they wove.

Karaikudi Antique Market

A cluster of shops on the Muneeswaran Kovil street, Kallukatti in Karaikudi is more popularly known as the Karaikudi Antique market courtesy of the stuff sold coming from Chettiar mansions. The collection in some of the shops is excellent but the prices are quite inflated. Honestly, I think the shops have understood the game and quote 20 times the price of a product leaving you with almost no chance of buying it at a fair price.

It is excruciatingly hot with the sun beating down today and with no clouds to shield us, we get back to Visalam at 3 pm and immediately request for curd rice to be made for lunch. Siva is disappointed, having planned an elaborate meal for us. He coaxes us into sharing a vegetarian platter on a banana leaf, along-with the curd rice of course! I am especially enamoured by the carrot payasam.

We are advised to rest for a while because it is very hot outside. Once evening descends, we go for a short walk exploring the streets of Kanadukathan and are happily surprised at stumbling upon more Chettinadu mansions. There’s a curious looking place and it turns out to be a merchant selling freshly cold pressed coconut oil, groundnut oil and sesame oil. It is an especially pleasing sight when we see a spectacular sunset with the sun as a huge ball of fire. We come back to Visalam and wonder how will we manage to go to Madurai which is said to be even hotter than Chettinad!

Dinner is served early and is a simple affair for our tired tummies. We call it a night and wake up early the next day to enjoy seconds of the excellent masala chai.

CGH Earth Visalam, Kanadukathan

Visalam was a house built by KVAL Ramanathan Chettiar for his eldest daughter, Visalakshi, more than 100 years ago. Visalam has been splendidly restored by CGH Earth keeping in mind the aesthetics of the traditional architecture of the Chettiars. The Chettiar community of this region were prosperous traders and their palatial houses are standing testaments to their sense of class. Visalam is a fine example of the Chettiar’s aesthetic sense that was grand in its conception and painstaking in its details. Visalam is a heritage Chettiar mansion preserved in time and and today it is almost like a respected museum, having preserved almost everything of its original character and interiors from the time it was built. The furniture is period in style, flawlessly crafted and made from the finest Burma teak.

Contact : Phone – +91 484 4261711, Website : www.cghearth.com/visalam
Email – contact@cghearth.com  

Chettinad region is similar to Shekhawati not only in the arid and dry weather conditions but also in the stories of its inhabitants – Nattukottai Chettiars are businessmen who made their fortunes through businesses in Southeast Asia; mostly in Burma, Malaysia and Singapore. They used to trade in timber, gems, salt and precious metals. There are about 74 villages and an estimated 15000 mansions in Chettinad in the present time boasting of the use Carrara marble Venetian chandeliers from Italy, British ornamental steelwork from Birmingham and fine Burmese teak.

Note : I stayed at Visalam on a collaboration. The words and opinions on this blog are my own, as always.

Join Travelshoebum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.