I was nervous, it was a 10 day trip which I was planning to go for a very long time. I just don't understand, people keep running behind success but it's not just a destination success is a journey ! & this journey actually gave me the strength to face my fears. This small trip will absolutely be the first travel goal I ever achieved & I'm proud of it. Finally the time arrived , I managed to get two other friends to join me on the trip as well. We booked our flight tickets to delhi, packed our bags, everything was according to the plan EXCEPT FOR THE COVID19 SCARE prevailing in India & yet we successfully made it !
We boarded the flight at around 1:30pm on 8th March with our masks on(it seemed pretty wierd during that time!). After a two hour journey from hyderabad we reached New Delhi.As soon as we got down the plane we could sense the chilly wind against our faces even though the evening sun was blazing at us :)
The first thing we did as soon we entered the airport was getting stocked on liquor at a reduced price from this beautiful store called ''The Cellar'', present inside the airport itself & then we had to wait.....
Just outside the airport there was this small food court , where we had our late lunch sipping some beer. Hours passed by as we were talking about the trip and planning stuff . Finally we got into our bus at around 7:30pm near kashmiri gate and started our journey to bhuntar!
After an exhausting yet beautiful bus journey of 13 hrs cruising through the hilly terrain we finally got down at bhuntar. My favourite part of this not so ok bus journey was when bus driver stopped at a point for us to freshen up, early in the morning around 5:30am. Our palms got freezing cold as we got down the bus but nothing can beat the happiness of drinking a hot cup of tea , looking at the view and listening to the gushing river !( It was worth getting down the bus)
We met another group of three people after we got down the bus and they were really helpful in planning our next part of the trip. We actually had to go to kasol but they persuaded us that we also join them on going to CHALAL. We hiked for around 40mins to reach chalal from bhuntar. The scenic route , an amazing mountain view ,the cold wind grazing our face;it was just pure bliss!
•CHALAL
Chalal is a breathtaking & peaceful place unlike kasol, which is kind of commercialized right now. Chalal gives more of a village vibe and has a much better view than kasol.
We stayed the night at chalal gazing at the starry night sky(exactly as van Gogh painted it)& listening to the parvati river flow.
We spent the whole next day in chalal , I mean who doesn't want to!? We badly needed a break from our hectic mbbs schedule.
We just sat there looking at the blue sky, the snow caps, the birds chirping, playing with the cute mountain puppies & also getting stoned. That for me, is the very definition of RELAX...
Chalal has plenty of cafes with amazing riverside locations and superb food. It has the best parties in the whole valley!
•Places to stay in chalal : Maya cafe, whoopers hostel, many river side camps are also available.
•Places to eat in chalal: Maya cafe , freedom cafe, shiva mama cafe, shanti cafe
Next day morning ,the group of three who introduced us to this beautiful place, also landed us in another mind-blowing village called MALANA.
To reach malana we had to take the chalal trek trail to kasol. Not very long but a scenic route of 30-45 mins,with a rocky terrain, dense forest , roaring sound of the river and the lone standing mountain. After we reached Kasol we took a local taxi till the entry point(with "way to malana village"written on the arch) where the 1-2 hour trek begins to reach the actual village.The road to malana from kasol is not conditioned ,a bit rough with many narrow ghat sections .
The trek to this hidden village (not so hidden anymore) was actually kind off steep and insanely tiring. We walked in intervals, on the way we stopped for a longer break of around 10-15mins at a small shop where we gulped in maggi & re-energized. 40 mins later the village appeared .I stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and looked around just before entering the village, there was a waterfall behind, there were snow covered peaks right infront of me , a deep valley beneath me and the sky above is nothing less than a unimaginable painting!
As we entered the village , I could see snow all around. As beautiful as the village was, it's quite different from the rest of the world. We are neither supposed to touch the locals nor their temple, or else we'll be fined! But I was shocked ,the locals were really sweet and expressed themselves in a rather friendly manner. In the village we celebrated holi amongst ourselves by throwing the colours at each other, splashing water wasn't an option(the water was freezing cold).Apart from this malana is very popular in international stoners' culture for its famous malana cream. After exploring this incredible village we trekked back towards our taxi & returned back to kasol.
It was around 8pm by the time we reached Kasol from malana and we bid farewell to the other trio as they left for delhi on the same night. We were absolutely tired and hungry by then, so we headed towards the moon dance cafe. The place was filled with good vibes & candle lights. The food too was delicious!One should definitely try the Israeli food while in kasol. •"Everything was fine untill we realised we had to go back to chalal again because all our clothes/luggage were there and the only way, was to walk through the forest . It was 10pm, raining , pitch dark, the roaring sound of the river water hitting the rocks didn't seem so calming at that time and my phone battery was almost dead. We waited and thought for a moment , finally the three of us decided let's do this! I was walking in the middle and the other two ,one in the front and other in the back were holding their phone flashlights! We were absolutely terrified , turning our heads towards every single noise in the forest.At one point we lost our way and entered into some random camp site through someother path, we got shit scared! To our luck a lady was awake at that time in the camp and pointed us the way. We were so happy and excited when we started seeing the party lights of chalal, we literally jumped. As we reached our room , we did nothing, straight up fell onto our beds :)
After saying sayonara to chalal at 11:30am, we were on our way to kasol again. There was this suspended bridge over the flowing parvati river that connects Kasol to chalal. When I walked over the bridge , the river sound intensified ,the mountain looked more majestic and the forest appeared more wild ,it was just epic.
As we reached Kasol, we headed directly towards evergreen cafe to have our brunch. This cafe aptly described the words " food with a view " & also the food there was amazing(it had all kinds, continental , chinese, indian, Israeli but definitely do try the banana coconut smoothie there!)
Then we explored the whole area of new kasol. It's basically a huge market place. You can find all kinds of different stuff there from Indian to imported, you name it they got it!
After a while of roaming around in Kasol we went to Buddha cafe to try their famous infused brownies. But it was closed that day, we got pretty disappointed. While we were standing there, a teenager almost our age got outside the cafe and shouted " brownies mil jayenge" .So we went and sat inside the cafe, the place had a good 'Bob Marley' vibe to it. It started raining heavily so we had to stay in the cafe itself for a very long time. It was closed, we were the only tourists in the cafe, so we popped open our wine bottle and started drinking ,listening to some good tunes looking outside at the gloomy weather and rapid flow of the river. A bit later the teenager got our brownies. As we started eating them ,that guy held a mike in his hand with this huge speaker beside him , he started singing and damn his voice was too good! We offered him some wine and chatted for a while(later we found out he owned the cafe).That was one of the most surprising experiences we had in our trip. Later we took a room with a river view , finished the remaining wine and stayed the night at kasol......
The next day morning we checked out from our hotel in kasol and boarded the bus heading to manikaran.
The bus was completely packed and the journey went on pretty slow. We got down at the bus stand and started walking down towards the Manikaran sahib gurudwara. There was this spiritual essence in the environment. We took a healing dip in the hot springs and paid our respects to Manikaran sahib. The dip in the hot springs was really refreshing and all the fatigue just vanished into thin air. Then we went on to eat the meals served there. The best part about the food was that it was cooked from the water of hot springs (The food was delicious, nutritious & it's free of cost).
After we finished our meal ,we went to the lord shiva temple. The statue of lord Shiva was so intriguing, I have never seen such one till now. Just wow, absolutely stunning!
The place next on our plan was tosh, so we headed towards the taxi stand , took a taxi & started our journey to the last hippie village in parvati valley!
The road to tosh was in a really bad condition and we could literally see the rocks that had fallen on the road previously due to the snow and heavy rain. To top all of this off our dear taxi driver was driving in a very rash manner and I called shotgun first, that day :)
But the deep valleys , barsheni dam , light blue parvati river , snow filled forests make it absolutely delightful!
After we reached the starting point of tosh village we had to trek upwards for another 30 mins for a hotel with a better view.( the higher you trek, much better is the view). We stayed at a hotel named Mr.KK, as funny and wierd the name sounded for a hotel in tosh it was the highest point where you could stay and the view was just flawless(I mean it!). The rooms were made of wood and really cozy.
In the night we hiked down few stairs (not so easy) & went to pinkfloyd cafe. We ate hash brownies , smoked up and ate till our stomachs were full!
The people visiting tosh are not tourists ,they're travellers. Everyone there vibes with eachother just like that. We liked the cafe and ambience so much, we went there everytime hunger striked.
That night when we were in the cafe, we met a group of telugu people. The happiness of hearing our native language after 6 days that too from someone else cannot be expressed. Obviously we joined them and they were really good company.
While going back to our hotel , it started snowing slightly and the temperature there was around 3°C.
We dozed off for the night....
By the time we woke up next morning, everything outside turned white and it was still continuing to snow! Our plan was to actually trek to kheerganga that day, but the path was supposedly closed due to heavy snow and we were also told it was very risky to trek in such conditions. It wasn't all very disappointing though,as I looked standing in the balcony it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw.
White clouds, snow covered mountains, rooftops layered with snow & the cool breeze grazing our faces with -1°C temperature outside. We just sat outside getting stoned and gazing at the view for 3 hours straight.
In the night we scored some acid at freedom cafe and were tripping the whole night. That night we thought of going to our room but it was almost -3°c ,on top of that there was fog everywhere. Still, even if we wanted to make it our hotel it was a slippery steep path upwards. So we had to stay with the group of Telugu people at pink Floyd hotel that night. It was so cold and freezing we had to sit in front of the room heater the whole night. We couldn't sleep as well due to the acid trip, we were just staring outside the window looking at the foggy night absolutely stoned out of our minds!
I sat there until sunrise and the warm rays falling on my skin felt so good and satisfying.The next morning due to all the fog the path was much more slippery, so I had to remove my shoes and walk on my socks for a better grip(it worked though). By the time I reached the hotel room my soles almost froze(or atleast I thought so), they've gone numb. I was fine a little bit later. While getting out of the pink floyd hotel all I could see was fog but as I went back to my hotel and took the stairs to my room on the 3rd floor I saw a view I will never forget , there was thick fog beneath me, thick layer of clouds above me and then there was me in between along with the snow covered mountains! I also met some entertaining and fun people from delhi that morning, drank some tea along with them and all of us danced to some punjabi mix and then they left after sometime. Later I had my breakfast at around 8:00am , covered mysef in a blanket & slept like a baby.
As I woke up in the afternoon, we got ready and left for kasol that day. Once we stepped down at kasol,we went and sat inside this off beat place called jim Morrison cafe.
This place was too cool, with dim lights , crazy wall posters and really good food. We stayed there for almost 9houes , never got bored & met some interesting people too. The waiter who works there left everything back at Bombay & came here to settle down. One person there shared his experience of climbing Mt.Everest( he had done it twice guys!). There was this one other guy we met there who was a trekker and owned some cafes in chalal, it got late that night and we had no place to stay yet ,so he took us to his aunt's house in kasol( we had to walk for about 15 mins from the main market place at 12:30am). It was dark, we couldn't see a thing and thought, for one night where we stay does not matter.
But surprisingly when we woke up the next day afternoon (we were tired- no judging :p) the view was really great!
Finally the D-day arrived, by the time we woke up and started walking down to the main Kasol area it was around 3pm. We got to know about this government maintained hot springs in kasol, where they let you use it like a personal jacuzzi for an amount of ₹250. So we went there & relaxed for a bit. Then later that evening we head towards a german bakery on the main road, they had this small place to sit with cute little chairs, behind the counter . We got settled down there waiting for our bus to delhi. But the cakes there are to die for, they were awesome! We also had some street momos just before we got into the bus, they were absolutely delicious(we had like 4 plates of them!)
We got into the bus , I slept immediately , everything was fine until when I suddenly opened my eyes & there were police in the bus checking all the bags. Supposedly they found one bag with 60-70T hash in the bus with a registered ticket , but the person wasn't there. So he stopped our bus for around 1 hr , then he started doubting everyone in the bus. At one point the person behind me got scared and threw this small box with rolled joints under my feet. The police caught the whiff of it and started threatening me! Later the police calmed down for a bit and let the bus leave....
Next day we got down at Delhi and realised we had very little money left. We thought to go to some cafe and sit there until our train time but all the cafes were closed in delhi by that time ,due to covid19. So we took a room with the money left and ordered some food over swiggy. We couldn't take the risk of eating street food either in that situation. Finally we got onto our train & came back to Hyderabad all safe and sound. The surprising fact was that the virus was spreading so fast, at the beginning of our trip there 38 cases in India but by the time we were done with our trip and leaving ,there were around 150 cases!
As soon as I returned home, there was janatha curfew followed by the lockdown and everything came to a stand still. I am really glad I made that trip in time!
This is my first blog,
hope you guys like it,
until next time,
CIAO!