Mandi and Kamand

We spent a good amount of time in Mandi and also visited the IIT Mandi campus in Kamand where Saurabh was visiting. Dada-dadi had flown in from Udaipur to spend time with us and enjoy the weather in the hills. We visited our favourite spots from two years ago - the local temples and the playground - and also explored some new ones.
Food was one of the highlights even in the most remote places that we visited: stuffed parathas for breakfast nearly every day every where, a lot of aalu and rajma, and delicious jalebis made in desi ghee.

 

  

  

 

Himachal highlights

We are back from our vacation in Himachal (at least physically!).Our trip highlights were the three treks that we went for, walking 70+  kms over a total of 7 days. 

The first was a three day trek on the Bir/Billing -> Rajgundha --> Plachak route. This turned out to be our favourite, and one that we are certain to return back to. The second was a two day trek to McleodGanj->Triund -> Snowline -> Ilaqa on the route to Indrahar Pass. Triund was a disappointment because of how crowded it was, but our adventure in going up to Snowline and especially the Ilaqa glacier more than made up for it. The third one was a two day trek in the Tirthan valley of the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP). We found Tirthan valley to be absolutely gorgeous. The trek turned out to be a bit more challenging that what we had hoped for, especially because of the weather conditions (rain and a hail storm!). But once we made it to our camping spot, it felt well worth it.
We stayed overnight in forest rest houses in most of the places except a couple where we had to camp. This made it possible for us to carry lighter backpacks and enjoy good food and comfortable beds at night. Just like last time, our experience with the Himachal forest department was  phenomenal.

I hope to post details of each of the trips with more photos. For now, only posting some of my favourite pictures from the three treks.