It is one of those winter mornings, when you wake up to this beautiful thought in your head and you have a mesmerizing view to compliment your thoughts. Eyes stretch to see greater heights, eternally calm and silent mountains. Every mountain showcasing their own life, conversing with you in their own way. My last trip to Kasol was all about such mornings, waking up to beautiful thoughts and with the people I can share these mindless yet beautiful thoughts. Kasol is not just about the thing it is most famous about but if you actually stroll around and talk to the locals, you will realise the place has so much more to offer you.
A place full of great people, breath-taking views, small villages to explore, mouth-watering food and the enchanting Parvati River. All you need to travel to this place, is just a will to travel. The ones who travel with you, are the people you know are as crazy as you are and you can have the best time of your life with them. This trip gave me a perspective about how important it is to give away your comfort zone, especially when you are just three girls out there, scared most of the times to chill with other people thinking they might not take advantage of you but you have to trust! First time, the three of us were travelling without our guy friends and each one of us crazy in our own ways.
We left no stone unturned, from travelling in local state buses to walking in the middle of the night to our room through our phone torch lights since there was no sign of mankind on that path with no light whatsoever. Our room was on a clifftop, you had to hike up till there through a path carved out by the locals after crossing the shaky Kasol Bridge.
Our journey brought us close to each other in more ways that we possibly knew, also closer to the idea of trusting others and letting yourself loose to explore. We learned, what dream chasing is all about? When we met a guy and his sister who have opened a café in Kasol and Delhi at the age of 23. We also made friends with a group of people who every year travel here in the off-season from different parts of the world, just to unwind their lives and have a good time with each other. We sat and chatted with the owner of the place along with his glowing wife and mother-in-law for hours enjoying the sun, learning about what views they have about life, women of their family, why it is important to smoke hash and all that goes around in Kasol or in the world. Our cab guy, who took us to Tosh was also an interesting young fellow, giving us travel advice about Kulga, Pulga, Kalga and other small villages around, sharing what all he wants to do and how he is building his own house at a clifftop.
I believe there is nothing bigger than having gratitude for everything in life, your family, friends, surroundings, nature, animals and everyone that touch your life in the minutest way. You can embrace it by expressing it with people, especially when you travel. The people you meet and have conversations with, teach so much in life. Kasol is one such place, we enjoyed more when we took a step to trust and move around, spending time with all kinds of people who crossed our path. Understand, how it is so easy to live life and be happy with no luxuries and limited supply? How important it is to appreciate life and be happy?
I WAS AMAZED
That what I needed to survive could be carried on my back.
And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.
Every place you travel, should give you something that makes you a better a person and this was one such destination for us. Our journey was about strengthening our bond, eating, meeting interesting people, exploring nature, hiking and yes for what the place is famous for... but more importantly it was about exploring the life that encapsulates the essence of this place!
Julley!
This post was originally published on Julley Trails.