There is always a reason behind travel. People are either running away from something or looking for something new in their life, which they usually figure out on their way. The reason to travel doesn’t really have to make sense because I believe one should explore their potential by traveling around places by themselves.
Life is an ongoing struggle for everyone with many ups and downs. For me, I was hitting the rock bottom, with a lot of confusion regarding my career and just life in general. My mind was pondering over many questions regarding where does my happiness lies, what is absolute happiness, what is my purpose in life and what do I want to do passionately in future. Oh Yes!!, I was in my quarter+1 life crisis!! Struggling with my own personal issues, I had a sudden urge to getaway from all the people around/city life and spend some time alone by myself. Being bitten by the travel bug, I decided that the best possible way would be to get away for a week somewhere around in the mountains. I was uncertain about my parents being comfortable with this idea of travelling solo in the hills and that’s when it hit me that I could take permission to visit our vacation home located in Pangot, Uttrakhand. To my surprise, they were pleased by this decision and encouraged me to visit the hills by my self (baby steps towards travelling solo in the hills).
On my journey to Pangot, I took over the driving seat from my driver and decided to drive from Delhi to Haldwani (about 320 kms). For me driving on the high way from Delhi to Haldwani was a sort of milestone, which got ticked. The feeling of being independent and doing something new is always an exhilarating feeling.
My Time in Pangot
Pangot is a small village known as ‘birdwatcher’s paradise’, which is situated about 17kms away from Nainital in Uttarakhand, India. Home away from home, I spent a week in this beautiful and peaceful hill town. There was no network connectivity or wifi in my house, giving me a much needed alone time and a social media detox. I spent my mornings enjoying the picturesque mountain view, chirping birds and reading a book. Most of my afternoons went by exploring the new camps, resorts and lodges that had come up around this area. It was good exploring the hills by my self, interacting with the locals and coming across unique birds. One afternoon, after a long walk in the hills I discovered a Hanuman Mandir and I was baffled how can a Mandir be located in such an unusual spot. It kept me wondering what is the reason behind so many small temples found in top of the mountains or rare areas in the hills.
A day out of the entire week I went back to Nainital to have some delicious food from a restaurant called Sakleys, did some local shopping and enjoyed boating. Being the month of March the crowd was less and the weather was amazing, making it a perfect strolling day.
The last day, I hired a cab driver to drive me down till the end of the mountain road - Kunjkharak. The drive to this place was beautiful and completely mesmerizing. On our way here we also crossed various forest areas that made me hope if I could sight a wild animal, but I wasn’t that lucky. Arriving at this end point, Kunjkharak had a government guest house for forest officials which was not open for public. Thankfully my cab driver knew the care taker who let us in the restricted area to enjoy the beautiful view. I was completely lost in this view for about 1.5 hours and then ate my lunch (biryani), which I had specially got cooked for myself to enjoy with this view.
Two Learnings from my experience alone in Pangot
This trip made me realize my passion for travelling and with great courage I decided to start my Public Instagram account, sharing my travel stories to inspire people to travel around. I had this idea a year back too but lacked courage to start my own page and had a fear of what would people think. In these few days I learnt the importance of taking that one step so I wouldn’t regret my decision of fearing people’s judgment. If not NOW, then when!!?
A key learning factor from this trip was that after meeting and observing my care taker’s 7-year-old son (Lucky) living in our house; I realized that there is so much to be grateful for, specially the very things that we take for granted. Lucky had so little in life but he was so content and happy from within. He didn’t need any fancy or materialistic toys to be happy at all. It was so joyful to see pure innocence and happiness that reflected from him. It made me wonder that after having so much, we greedily keep asking for more, never being content with the things we possess. One should always be grateful for what one has as when you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.
This trip gave me a lot of time and head-space to think more important things and be present in what you’re experiencing. It helped me rejuvenate my self and I would highly advice people to travel solo without any social media or network (communicate at times of emergency). There’s so much to learn and grow as a person that traveling can help you with – decide where, pack and leave!
