When you hear Kasol and Tosh, everyone around you speaks about good hash, Natural beauty and peace but they also say it isn't safe for a only girls trip. I always wanted to travel to Kasol and Tosh with my girls during my college days but apparently it wasn't successful,so 5 years after graduating we somehow made this trip work.
I was visiting Delhi for a friend's wedding and I had few extra days to chill around. So we thought we can do a getaway near Delhi. After shortlisting some 10 places, we realized we can do Tosh as it's some 500 km from Delhi but it'll get hectic so we let it off and planned a drive to Dehradun instead. I had a flight from pune on 28th November Thursday and I just had a vague thought why not Tosh,that's something we had always dreamt off.
As said vague, after few drinks down all three of us were settle for Tosh. So took a pen and started planning as it was a first for all of us.
1.First things first, we booked our Bus tickets to Bhuntar. We booked Himsuta, that's a government bus so we thought that'll have less stops. And we were right.
2. List down things the cafes we wanted to try and points we wanted to cover.
We boarded the Himsuta bus from Kashmiri Gate, The bus leaves sharp at 7pm so reach 10mins prior. The bus was from Kashmiri Gate to Bhuntar and takes 12 hours to reach and stops at dhabbha for food only.
We reached Bhuntar at 7:15am and asked the locals how to reach Kasol. They told us two ways, Take a bus from Bhuntar to Kasol that takes approx 1.5 hours to reach and would cost 60 rupees per person or take a cab to Kasol for 1000 bucks and time taken would be 45mins.
It wasn't a budget trip but taking a bus would save a lot of money and plus you get a chance to interact with locals.
So we took the bus and trust me it was one hell of a ride, music playing in background(I couldn't understand though but it was soothing) school kids talking about the gossip in school and old ladies sewing sweaters and Best part is the view outside snow peaked mountains and river.
We reached Kasol around 9:30 and booked a bus for return which was 1000 per person. There was a public toilet where we decided to freshen up. Trust me it was one of the cleanest public toilet I have seen in India. Also it was super cold in Kasol so we had to put few extra layers to feel warm.
Finally we took a cab to Tosh village, you can treck or take a bus to barsheni and treck from there but we took cab which costed us 1000 bucks for a alto. We reached the village in 40mins and explored a bit and also were super hungry so checked out the cafes around and choose freedom cafe as it was on a hill top and you could have a good view of snow peaked mountains. So we ordered some ginger lemon tea with some Honey(This is your essential for tosh as it was super cold, to be precise - 2°c), pink sauce pasta, veggie pizza and Nutella pancake. Don't waste time in pictures, enjoy the view and have food quickly or else it turns cold in minutes.
After a good food, we wanted to visit waterfall but we were lost like literally lost in jungle. We took the directions which were told by locals but we just couldn't find it. After a hectic treck, we found a group of guys they guided us there. We were at waterfall around 4ish in evening and a very sweet old lady told us to be at the resort before dark because you cannot trust wild animals. So we saw a beautiful resort above waterfall, we planned to have our stay there.
We stayed at Stonedage Inn which was a little climb from waterfall. Oh when I reached there trust me it was the best decision to stay there. It was so beautiful,they were wooden cottages and had interiors craved in stone. The room was a huge one and sufficient for six people. It has bunk bed good for three people and normal bed for three, it also has a comfy seating as you enter and a snow peaked mountain view. We changed, relaxed and went to restaurant to have some some ginger lemon tea. In a while a couple approaches us and asks if we're interested for some bonfire and we were like why not! The bonfire was somewhere for 500 bucks, so all of us gave a respected contribution which was minimum. And in 15 mins bonfire was set. New people different place and great Trippy vibe. Nothing more could I have asked for.
Sitting beside bonfire and discussing how we landed here or what lame excuse we gave at workplace and I had a wide smile because girls Trip was checked in my bucket list and was so happy that this happened.
We got up at around 7ish enjoyed the sunrise and sipped warm ginger lemon tea and now discussed about what a beautiful wedding destination this place could be. The resort manager sonu showed us the property as we couldn't explore last night as it was dark. The property was beautiful and had apple farm in front of the cottages. They also had few rooms for renovation which were huge and specific for family and big groups.
We had a delicious breakfast aloo puri, sunny side and omelette finally left for kasol around 10am. Treck back to village was quick. And we decided to walk Down to barsheni which was a 45mins walk and oh boy what a beauty. The river and snow peaked mountain and I just didn't want to come back.
We took a bus from barsheni to manikaran which was 50 rupees per person. After reaching manikaran we sat on a edge and enjoyed the hustle and peace together
We walked down to Kasol and visited German Bakery and had lemon cake and Banana Nutella Waffle. After some while we visited to cafe sunshine to get Kasol vibes and enjoy good food.
We had a bus a 7pm to delhi and realized this was one of my safest and first girls trip.
