Triund Trek & Paragliding at Bir Billing

We started off, in a group of 4 early from Jalandhar at 6:30Am. Reached Dharamshala by 12:30PM, and started looking for some hostels to stay at McLeod. At last we stayed at The World's Hostel which to be honest wasn't really as we interpreted it to be from the pictures. It was quite cheap (we paid Rs 300/bed in a dorm of four) and therefore had nothing much. But if you are looking for some good hostel stays, I would suggest The triangle folks, Zostel to be the priorities. As per the location, Zostel is located closest to the base camp point of the Triund trek.

After checking in at the hostel, we went on a hike to Bhagsunag waterfall, and had our lunch there at the renowned Shiva Cafe.The ambience was good and the food was fine. And ofcourse we never missed eating momos anytime. I mean how can one miss eating momos at a hill station? Whether we were going or coming back from anywhere, momos were always a part of our expedition. After the Bhagsu waterfall we only travelled around the local market, and didn't do anything else as it kept raining throughout.

The next day we went to the Triund Trek. Since it had lately snowfall, so it was mandatory to take a guide for the trek, and we shared it with 2 more people from Delhi. (Otherwise in other seasons, you don't require a guide.) It's 6km one side, and it starts at the Gallu Devi temple. This takes around 3 hours each side. First 4kms were pretty easy. Out of 6 of us, 4 of us only went for the last 2 kms, the guide himself asked the other two to stay there. This last part was all trekking through the snow, and it really almost took our lives. To our fortune, it also started to snowfall. Woaahh! we did a snow trek during snowfall. The view from top was so beautiful. It was all a whiteout sheet of snow, so stunning. Now, coming down through those 2kms was more steep and threatening than going up over it. But phewww, we were back safe. And obviously, we had maggi while trekking down.

And then, we took a taxi to Bir. Checked into the beautiful Zostel Bir 2.0. This was undeniably an elegant place to stay at. We played cards, UNO, Jenga till 1 at night. The best part about zostel is how all of a sudden you get mix up with the unknowns and start talking, playing with them.

In the morning around 10am, we went for paragliding. This is know to be the highest spot for paragliding in Asia and the second highest in the world. They charged us Rs2000 per person for 15min including the video and the travel to paragliding site. They do ask you if you want to do the acrobats mid air, and yes we did it! The height from which they take off is really high, you can have a great view during your time of paragliding. All the lush green mountains, city, monastery, they all look pretty. It's quite an amazing view to watch.