I am damn serious of setting up my travel blog professionally and here comes my scribbles on our recent backpacking trip to Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Thank God my friend, who was supposed to this trip solo last year, missed it and so we tagged along with him this time. I will give him all the credit for his research and time invested in doing the research. Anyway, he has always been a very serious & studious fellow.So eventually I have determined that I won’t squander money anymore on some weekend getaways near Mumbai when I have more or less explored most of the beaches in Maharashtra (Maharashtra has unclean beaches except Ganpatiphule and Tarkarli), and also I have 2 days off for Diwali so scheduled of going somewhere in Northern India (I have been in a Himalayan hangover ever since we returned from the mind-boggling Kashmir & Ladakh expedition. It was my 1st visit to any Himalayan region (yes I have never been to Darjeeling or Sikkim despite being a native from Kolkata, West Bengal). Usually the 2 days off for Diwali luckily falls on a Thursday and a Friday every year so if you take 3 days leave you get 9 days off including the previous week Saturday & Sunday.We left on a Friday evening for Delhi on Yuva Express from Bandra Terminus so that we reach Hazrat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) by morning, spend the whole day in Delhi and then leave for Barshaini via Bhuntar, Himachal Pradesh in the evening (at 6.40 pm) from ISBT Kashmere Gate. The programme was more or less this when we departed from Bombay. But after spending the whole night sitting upright on Yuva Express, we were bereft of a sound sleep and our bodies were hungry/thirsty for a good sleep. So I thought of editing the programme a little bit & called up my friend who lives in Kaushambi so that we could get fresh and get ample rest till evening at their place. We reached Hazrat Nizammudin the next morning at approx. 10 am, took a taxi and reached my friend’s place by 11 am. We were dead exhausted, drained off of our enthusiasm and what not. After a good hot bath and sumptuous lunch prepared by the newlywed couple, the irresistibly beguiling & seductive bed was already summoning to me “come to the bed my love, you need this bed, and this bed needs you”. I had a contented sleep; my nerves, my eyes were pacified & ready for the upcoming week of backpacking to Parvati Valley.We left Kaushambi in an Ola (shouldn’t have taken it, Delhi Metro was a far superior option), got stuck in the traffic for nearly half an hour just before ISNT Kashmere Gate (yes, got a glimpse of Delhi traffic too besides Mumbai traffic). We reached ISBT Kashmere Gate pretty much before time. Ours was a semi-deluxe Himachal Pradesh State Transport bus (we were fretting what “semi-deluxe” meant before we actually saw the bus, thanks to our past experience of chair-car seating in the Yuva Express). We didn’t contemplate that we would be in for a pleasant surprise when we boarded the semi-deluxe bus. The seats were quite comfortable and it could be bent backwards during sleeping. The bus was supposed to leave at 6.40 pm but it got late by 10 mins. Finally we hit the road but the bus got gridlocked in another nasty Delhi traffic for about another half an hour. The conductor switched off the lights inside the bus and everybody fell asleep (the seats were super comfy). At about 11.30 pm -12 midnight, the lights were switched on and the bus had halted for dinner. We had a simple Punjabi dinner (chhole bature and lassi) as we didn’t want to upset our bellies so soon. The dinner halt was for a good 40 mins, hence we didn’t have to hurry. After the dinner, the bus driver started his NFS tactics and we shut our eyes trusting our lives with him. My sleep got interrupted due to a steep bend, opened my eyes to see the silhouettes of the Pir-Panjal Himalayan range in the darkness with the Beas River flowing in the gorge along the road. It was quite cold inside the bus in spite of all the windows and the door being closed. I covered myself fully with my newly bought Pashmina shawl (from Kashmir) and fell asleep again only to wake up at about 8.20 am, when we reached Kullu Bus Stand/Depot. Now we could have got down at Bhuntar and boarded the bus for Barshaini from there but we went to Kullu as we wanted to make our return journey a bit more comfortable & also reach Delhi a bit earlier (instead of traveling the whole day on a Saturday and also our train was scheduled to leave on the same day in the evening so it would be an extremely hectic journey all the way from Kullu to Delhi and back to Mumbai). Since it was a Diwali week, online portal was closed for booking tickets on the day of Diwali (Friday) so the conductor suggested to get tickets directly from the Bus Stand, Kullu. But the person sitting at the ticket counter informed one cannot buy tickets in advance, hence we need to buy the ticket on the same day. We were disheartened a bit, nonetheless we boarded a bus till Bhuntar (it’s just half an hour bus journey from Kullu) and reached just in time to get a bus leaving for Barshaini.
The bus journey was quite exhilarating while we crossed an iron bridge over the confluence of Beas & Parvati river, took some stimulating sharp bends, waved to the ever-smiling and fulfilled village folks, halted while a flock of slow-moving goats waltzed by giving a damn to their surroundings while the Parvati River is flowing incessantly in the deep ravine on one side of the road. Finally we reached Kasol (mini Israel as many travelers have named this place) at about 11.10-11.30 am (forgot the exact time)
 |
| Barshaini-Manikaran-Kullu bus route |
The bus journey was quite exhilarating while we crossed an iron bridge over the confluence of Beas & Parvati river, took some stimulating sharp bends, waved to the ever-smiling and fulfilled village folks, halted while a flock of slow-moving goats waltzed by giving a damn to their surroundings while the Parvati River is flowing incessantly in the deep ravine on one side of the road. Finally we reached Kasol (mini Israel as many travelers have named this place) at about 11.10-11.30 am (forgot the exact time)
 |
| The cute goats |
 |
| Kasol, Himachal Pradesh, India |
 |
| Moon Dance Cafe |
 |
| Crossing Parvati River towards Chalal Village |
 |
| The Parvati River |
 |
| The Iron Bridge connecting Kasol & Chalal on Parvati River |
 |
| Chalal Trekking Trail |
 |
| Trekking through the dense Chinaar/Pine forest |
We asked some of the camps like Cosmos Café & Camps, Moksha Café & Guesthouse (both not within our budget and also a bit far from the river), Rudra Cottage (they were full) and finally zeroed down to Om Negi’s Himalayan Camp right on the banks of Parvati River. There were 3 sets of tents established by Om Negi- the green ones were priced at INR 120 per head per night, the premium ones (right beside the Parvati River) were priced at INR 500/person per night and they would provide one extra mattress only for 1 extra person but wouldn’t allow 4 people together while the ones (where we took finally) were costing INR 250/head and they were allowing 4 people together in the tent.
 |
| Green tents priced at INR 120 per head per night |
 |
| Chalal Trekking Trail |
 |
| Shiva Garden Cafe |
 |
| Chalal Village |
 |
| The sacred leaf |
 |
| Chalal Village |
We returned to our camp and ordered lunch (my staple food was mash potatoes and rice :P) while the others ordered some chicken dish and rice and daal (yeah I know it sounded weird that we were still having Indian cuisine whereas Italian cuisine was one which we should have been having). It was quite chilly when we left our tents without pullovers or jackets and it was super cold near the Parvati River. Everything was just so pacific and tranquil all around. The only sound was that of the Parvati River flowing by. Few other groups were staying at the same camp, some of them started playing cricket together. After our lunch, we spend our whole afternoon sitting on the boulders beside Parvati River. The sequestered milieu devoid of any mobile network with the psychedelic music playing on the camp music system was just perfect for hiding away from the society and doing nothing except destressing & unwinding ourselves. The nightfall was swift and the weather was damn cold. We hurried inside our tent which was still warm, made ourselves comfortable on the woolly bed, covered ourselves with the thick quilts and then our session of card games commenced. In between we had ordered Nutella toasts, Nutella Milk Shake, French fries, black coffee (yes we were on an eating spree as if we go without food for days at Mumbai :D). So hours went by and we continued playing calling bray and passing bray. In between we ordered our dinner and had it superfast as the food was getting cold within few minutes. And we continued with our card games till 2.30-3 am until my hubby couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore and we got ready for bed. Now the attendants at the camp forgot to give us the extra mattresses as they were pretty “high”. We got hold of another helping boy and thankfully he got us some 3-4 quilts and oh my..!! My hubby and my friend had one of their best sleeps on the quilt bed while I and my friend’s wife managed on the normal bed.
We got up pretty early compared to when we went for bed the night before, had an extravagant English breakfast, made ourselves comfy again in the eating area of the camp overlooking the Parvati River and resumed our card games till lunch time. We had opted to have our lunch at Kasol and exploring mini-Israel & return to the campsite before dusk.
 |
| Small girls returning from school |
After roaming around a bit, we chose Evergreen Café for our luncheon destination and we had Chicken Schnitzel, Chicken Stoganoff & Chicken Steak.
 |
| The Evergreen Cafe, Kasol |
 |
| Decor of Evergreen Cafe, Kasol |
 |
| View of the Himalayas from Evergreen Cafe, Kasol |
 |
| View from the open sitting side of the Evergreen Cafe, Kasol. |
 |
| Inside decor of Evergreen Cafe, Kasol |
 |
| Parvati River, Himachal Pradesh |
Anyway, the last bus before lunchtime to Barshaini had already left when we reached Manikaran. Thankfully there was a Tata Sumo waiting for passengers to go to Kalgha and he agreed to take us at nominal charge of INR 450 and dropped us near the dam that is being constructed on Parvati River. The winding road leading to Kalgha has some spectacular panorama with the Parvati River deep below flowing incessantly.
This was our backpaking experience in Chalal and our Kalgha & Tosh backpacking is yet to come. Keep watching out this space for more. :)
 |
| Parvati River, Himachal Pradesh |
 |
| Well, that's me :P |
No comments:
Post a Comment