Solo trip to Khanag - Himalayas

It was 9 in the evening when I reached Delhi and being a foodie , the only thing that I wanted to do was to have my dinner. Leaving everything aside, Lavanya  and I started eating our dinner. Lavanya is my Btech friend and we have been friends for 10 years. Remembering all the funny incidents happened to us and continuing our habit of sharing the food, we had a nice dinner time.  As we both believe in the concept called, " Food comes first and everything next" 😛, once our tummies were full, we then realised the reason for coming there. We then took an Uber and started to our meeting point for our Khanags trip.

There I met Anuj who is the founder of the organisation through which this trip was planned and also my fellow women troop. We had a brief introductory session about ourself. And then realised that, we 10 people are from 10 different backgrounds. None of them are into the same profession. And most of them are from different states and different age groups.

With the comfort of being a human being and with the discomfort of how we are going to mingle, we strangers started our journey to Khanag in a small bus. It was almost a 22 hours journey. We slept for some time. And, then the Ghat road has started. Mrs. Shiv is the First Lady in the trip whom I liked the most in this 22 hours journey. I think she was around 50 years and she spoke and comforted everyone in her own way. I think she knows how to talk to people and comfort them, with her experience as the Vice President of a company in India. 

Later, My kiddo brain started feeling nausea once the Ghat road had started. 

This lady and lavanya gave me a vomistop tablet and put me to sleep. I'm really thankful to god for creating such helping creatures in this world. This small act of kindness and her genuine care towards me until I felt better put me to wonder. I felt much better not because of the tablet but because of that care she has given me.

Then, we stopped in Shimla and went around looking at the beauty of the place. It was an amazing view with the lunch. I had a yummy omelette along with tandoori paratha followed by tea in a restaurant there. 

Now, it's time for a gift. Now that I came so far, I gifted myself a nice scarf and a hat in Shimla. 

We again started our journey to Khanag. Khanag is a very small unexplored yet beautiful village in Himachal Pradesh. Driver was kind of grumpy just like that ghat road 😜 but Ann did a great job managing him and everyone. Oh, I forgot to mention, there was another male person in the group. He is one of the women travellers' sons who is in his 6th grade. Though, he is a kid, he had a good stand on his words too. He is going to become a responsible citizen of India for sure. 

On Dec 31st around 9 PM, we reached Khanag and interestingly, we were not tired. Oh my god, that’s the most beautiful cottage that I have ever seen in my life. It was in a hut shape with all the amenities except the heater. I’m a heater lover. Lol, even in summer, I wish to have a heater. It was -3 degrees there and there was no heater. Everyone in the group was fine without it except me. I really wonder how luxury made me its slave, craving for that heater. 

Every room had 2 quilts and 2 blankets in it. Lavanya and I made our bed nicely and the funniest part is, we need to put that heavy quilt on us to become warm. This is a funny and learning experience for both of us. We struggled while sleeping but we slept tight later.

Here I met a person named Arun Ji who is the Malik(Owner) of that home stay. He studied in Switzerland and lived in Delhi throughout his life. Later, with the desire to live with nature, he came to this place and settled here. Now, he became my inspiration. Lately, I was thinking of leaving Hyderabad and moving to my village. He just did the same thing that I was planning to do. With all the eagerness, I got all the information about his life and my craving brain was satisfied after sometime.

I really liked every person that I met on the trip. To be frank, I’m a great human lover. I love to know how people think and live their lives. I love to know their beliefs and why they believe in them. I sometimes wonder, If I’m more a nature lover or a human lover. It’s hard to decide, as both are the wonderful creations that the divine power has created.

It was -3 degrees here and we did not bathe for 2 days. Yewww , I did not bathe that day too. Lol, actually, I couldn't dare to bath. 

There was a person named Bhagwanji who was the caretaker of those cottages. He stayed with his wife there. They welcomed us with a nice chai and pakoda. Now, that was time to start our new year celebration. 

Meanwhile, a lady in that group grabbed my attention with her childish yet mature nature. She is a beautiful human in her own way. She is a Zumba trainer and Martial Art trainer. The most unexpected thing is, she is a traditional woman from Delhi. She is the most enthusiastic person in the group. My heart always finds a special place for people who know Martial Arts especially rifle shooting. The secret of this is, I think myself as a good rifle shooter and consider such people as my family group 😝.  That lady made all of us dance. I loved her the most on my trip. Everyone was enjoying their drinks, but I was with her trying to learn that martial arts Vala dance. Hahaha!!!! 😂

Next day, I woke up kind of late. And came out all dressed up and suddenly my eyes just stopped shutting down. Ahhhh, that’s the best place to start my new year. Chai with a view!

What an amazing view it was! I kept staring at it. I took so many pictures but was not satisfied with any of them at all.  I just kept staring at it, trying to capture it at least with my eyes. After some time, I closed my eyes just to make sure that I have captured every detail of it correctly. Yes I did. I really wish to capture this view forever in my eyes just like this. 

This was the most beautiful place!

Now, it’s time to explore the places around Khanag. We started for a small hike on a hill nearby which led to Khanags natural waterfall. I had done hikes before but this was the most difficult one. It was completely a steep hill and we had given sticks to climb it. 

At last, we reached the beautiful waterfall. While getting down, we met the natives of that place. They were on that hill in the process of collecting sticks for fire. They were scared to even talk to us. I spoke to them and asked them about their lifestyle and culture, explaining my culture. After some time, they became free and were ready for a photograph. I just felt them as the purest creatures living in that heavenly place not knowing anything about this outside world. Now, I’m in love with them. 

Now, my silent mode was on. I kept my phone aside and was just living in the moment with nature. 

The poet in me came out dancing with the humming of nature. We came back to our place and took really good pictures. BhagwanJi had lit the fire and arranged dinner around the bonfire. Wow, that was an amazing dinner.

Now, the most important and valuable part of the trip has begun. We started talking about yourself and different things happened to us. I spoke about the bad and good things that happened because of me. Being an introvert towards strangers, I kind of felt happy to openly speak about my tough achievements and learnings. We spoke of the funny and scary incidents that have happened to us since our childhood. These conversations are really the best takeaways. These kind of conversations help us to grow, understand and respect the difference in perspectives in a better way.

We were so involved in talking and realised that it was 12 midnight. So, with a cheerful smile, we dispersed to our respective rooms and slept happily. Next day, Lavanya and I woke up early and were ready to spend our time with nature. One of our friends from the women troop also joined us. We left to explore the Khanag village without letting anyone know. This lady, oh my god, she is so amazing and energetic. She has a good sense of humour and I really liked spending time with her. 

Once we came back, we started our journey to Jalori pass. From this way, we started climbing the Great Lower Himalayan Mountains. This is the best one of this year. Just the feeling of putting my feet on this Himalayas was a beautiful one. 

The trekking was not that easy here. It was quite windy that day and it was kind of slippery on the hill too. Bhagwanji was our saviour here. He took care of everyone. On our way, there were areas where snow tubing, skiing were taking place. You know what, I did skiing too. Yeeyyyyyy! 😁

And another amazing thing is, up on the mountain, there was a small temple where native people were offering prasad to the God. This shows that divinity is spread all over.

After reaching a certain point, natives were serving chai and also maggy. The taste of that chai and that maggy were the best one that I ever had in my life. In that chilling cold weather, this chai gave a cozy feeling. We danced with the wind and sang with the feel. My martial arts mom showed me how to laugh and dance until we cry over there.

Our return down was also worth remembering one. It became windy again. We all in groups, holding our hands tight started trekking down. This journey showed the power of unity and togetherness. Hats off to my women troop.

This is a statement that aptly suits my feeling, “More I think, a lot more I remember. Less I think, least I forget.” 🧡

After reaching our cottage, we started feeling sad as it was our last night there. We didn’t want to miss any other moment of being together. We started playing Jenga that had dares written on it. Every time a block is removed, the expectation is to do the dare that is written on the box. This was a scary game for me. Thankfully, I haven’t got any crazy dares. We played it for a really long time and enjoyed the feel.

Later, we had a nice dinner where Rajma curry and rice with ghee was served. Ahhhh, my mouth starts watering just by thinking about this. The taste of that ghee was so pure that I bought ghee from BhagawanJi.

We then started talking about our perspectives on love, marriage and everything. Everyone had their own stand on it but the best part is everyone respected others opinions.

We started back to Delhi the next morning. I really had good takeaways from this trip. After talking to different people with different perspectives, I feel like I have got some supernatural power that helped me understand things in a better way. I'm happy to end this trip with a lot of positivity, peace and a lot more. This nature, the great Himalayas and the people on this trip, gave me the best lessons that I can carry throughout my life.

Kudos to my trip and to my fellow human books and also to the women power !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  💕😇😁😁😁