A brief love note to Himachal!.

Off we go to Jogini falls- from our hotel, it was about an hour and a half trek to the base of Jogini falls. Apparently, there is a temple and this water stream is considered super sacred, so before you step on the water with your shoes - think twice, as you do not want to hurt the sentiments of the local people here.

It is an easy walk to the base at least and few of our friends decided to move upwards for another hour and a half and apparently there lies the actual falls where the Jogini all starts from- so if you want to explore further, you may want to carry a bottle of water and pick up snacks to get your self re-energized.

To the base at least, I would not call it a trek, it is more like a walk - a walk through the village, a walk through the small streets which leads to the pathway of the waterfall.

So we reached to the base and HOLYYYY!! - Imagine you go the waterfall and it welcomes with the gushing sound of water, falling from the cliff - somewhere from the top. I was just spell bound and sat there for a while with my shades on and luckily, we were the only ones there at that point of time and after a while the crowd started to pour in. Phewwwww, at least I got to spend some wild time with Mother Nature.

In fact the views from the top are still more beautiful, as per the information received from a few of my friends. You ought to be careful, as the way to the top is pretty steep.

And so, we roll down and on our way back, almost at the hotel - there is a natural hot spring. Apparently, we were not allowed to dip ourselves in because of the pandemic scare- so we decided to just a have a peek and we obviously were not done with our day yet.

About 3 Kms from the hotel, there is a Gompa or a buddhist shrine - we decided to go to the shrine and offer prayers. After all, God is everywhere 🙂 and as we walked, there were some beaaaautiful scenic views - the stream moving along side us and making us feel safe to the mountains in the far away distance waving a Hi to us - everything was so peaceful and it was just as I wanted - No pollution, no people haggling for the costs, no traffic - It was just me and Mother nature!!! what a peaceful feeling.

We reached the buddhist shrine and offered our prayers and we still were hungry for more sights - so we left, to another Temple. Now, Now, I know why are we behind temples? and shrines? - Well, this one is a Little different, Hadimba Shrine- sits on top of a mountain and to reach there, its quite a bit overwhelming, because half the way one will have to climb them steep roads and half way climb them 1000 steps to reach the top. We basically went there for the experience.

By the time we finished and came out, it was already evening and there was a small museum right at the exit of the temple. We went in for a glimpse and it was all about the cultural tools which were used by the people of Manali in the past. After which, we decided to head to a cafe and enjoy some Live music for the night - After all, we are in the land of cafes.

That was about today, post the live music - If you are walking, I suggest you do not do it as there are no streetlights or very less street lights and may be unsafe as the wild will be free.

We reach the top in about half an hour - within half an hour, we covered a good distance on our way to the top . Haha, we were pretty much on the pro level now after all the walking in Kashmir!- Moving on- this smirk of conquering the mountain lasted only for a bit as the real test was about to begin.

The snow had turned into Ice and it was extremely challenging to reach the last 500 mts. The pathway was steep, iced up - but we were determined to reach the top as there was a small waterfall on the top- and this water as it falls down turns to a heap of snow and gives a shape of a Shivling. We obviously wanted to witness it live, so we somehow slipping and falling, made it to the top and witnessed it real time.

Now while coming down, If we slip and fall on the Ice- we fall on our backs or on our face- Either ways something is going to break and it was surely not the Ice. This is where the fear gripped in - Although. we were wearing snow grip shoes, the Ice layer there was super thick.

We had to find a alternate way and there was this way - where there was thick snow and although there was a risk of we submerging into the thick blanket of snow, we had to take this risk. As nobody was in the mood to break their face or their backs. Also, at that moment we heard the news that an Women fell and her nose was bleeding. This made us think that risking the walk on the snow was better than walking on Ice. We took it slow and almost an hour to complete just the 500 mts stretch.

Phewwwww!! we finally cleared the Ice walk hurdle and dammmmmn that was scary!. We walked our way back to the base and took a rick back to the hotel - from there we just chose to lay back and cafe hop our way through the night with some soothing live music

Oh! the nights!!! - one of the beautiful experiences- to just sit there near Parvati river and listen to all the stories which she keeps talking all night long in the form of water rushing downstream. Trust me!, this was one talk where I never got bored. As the time flew past mid night, I decided to bid adieu to Miss Parvati river and head back to the hotel for some sound sleep.

Oooooh boy, here we go - this is where it all started from, the same picture I drew in my first days--- Mountains, river flowing from the meadows of the giant mountains, few houses here and there, also a few birds to add to all the glory. It was all there, it was all LITERALLY there!!.

The serene Parvati river, still continuing her talks from last night in the form of gushing river flow and I was just there having a conversation with her - Her, me and no one else.

I believe- nature has her own way of having a conversation with us and we just have to listen :).

But what pains is the fact that, we humans are polluting this place by just throwing plastic everywhere and anywhere. I request you to please, where ever, which ever place you are travelling to - try and keep the plastic to the minimum - carry your own water bottles and any restaurant or any villager too will happily provide water, if requested politely. Also, dump the trash in the assigned places and not anywhere you feel like.

What is hurting is the fact that the educated lot too do this and that is shameful!!

Hmmm after the painful verse - One will have to cross a bridge over the Parvati river and walk by the river stream, through the lush paved mountains for about an half an hour to 45 minutes to reach Chalal. One can get lost with the conversations which mother nature has to offer.

As we lost track of time, we gathered ourselves back and started to walk back as we had many other places to cover - When we come to the mountains, one wishes to have a Royal Enfield to cruise through the mountain ways and find peace within and that was exactly what we were planning to do. An hour's ride from Kasol is the famous village of Malana and this was a perfect reason to hire the elite Royal Enfield.

PS- you will have to be careful as the ice tracks on the road make it super difficult to ride as there is no traction on the tires.

Once you reach the top of the mountain which will take an hour - there is another hour's walk from there to the other side of the mountain and this trek is the only way of reaching Malana village.

Beware : Malana village has its own rules and if you wish to touch any of the local tribe there or touch their properties ., you may be trashed by the locals and even the Police cannot help - As Malana has its own law, which no government dared to intervene in their matters till date.

After Malana. we decided to go to the all famous Manikaran Shrine on Dug! Dug! Dug!- this is one of the famous Gurudwaras and what's so special? - The Gurudwara has its own Hot spring and they do not use fossil fuels for cooking food- the water there is super hot that they have their specialized kitchen on the hot spring - Super efficient isn't it? 🙂

Imagine its close to about 5 degrees outside and this hot spring vapors keep the shrine warm from the inside. The artist - Mother Earth! is a freaking genius!

After offering prayers, we head back to drop off the vehicles and off to spend some bucks on shopping - then of course head back to the hotel. 😀

Feb 14

We had our flights booked for Feb 15 from Chandigarh to Bangalore and Himachal, Uttarakhand, Kashmir - are such places where natural calamities can strike within a blink of an eye and we did not want to risk it- definitely not after booking the flights back home. Hence, we decided to stick to the plan by reaching Chandigarh a day before - so that even if we get stuck in traffic, we still can make it to the flight the next day.

It was that time where I had to bid adieu to the most laid back trip of mine - From the all precious Kashmir to the Food capital and the land of the Golden Shrine - Amritsar, to the hidden gems of Himachal- woaaaaah!!!! I was there bearing all the harsh cold, freezing temperatures and not once did I get the thought of giving up - I guess that is Mother Nature., she sure knows how to keep people guessing enough that they do not have time to think about giving up.

It takes about 8 hours to reach Chandigarh from Kasol and it was almost evening - so we rest at the hotel for the day.

If you have any queries what so ever- feel free to reach out to me via this blog post or through my insta handle 'the_indian_banjara' - 🙂

I thank my beloved crew for these incredible memories! 🙂