Sangla hike

 May 19th 2019: Pictures from a day long hike starting from the forest rest-house in Sangla village, going through farm lands and up to a beautiful lake. Priyanka, a young girl from the village, agreed to accompany us on the trek and shared many stories of her family and village. On the way back, we stopped at her home to meet with her family and she cooked a delicious snack for us made with their local millet. We also tasted some apples from their farm and discussed some politics - it happened to be the lok sabha polling day in Himachal that day.

 

Sangla village

Our next stop after Sarahan was Sangla. Sangla village is one of the most beautiful Himachali villages that we have visited. The Baspa river, coming from the Indo-Tibetan border, goes through the Sangla valley and is absolutely breathtaking. The village temple, with the Himalayas in the background, is as peaceful and humbling as it gets. We stayed at the forest rest house in Sangla which too, was a treat in itself.

 

 

 

 

Sarahan

 Our first stop on our Kinnaur trip was Sarahan. It was a long drive with breaks for maggi and a view of Kinnauri apple trees. Our stay at the Himachal Tourism's hotel Shrikhand was magnificent. We enjoyed the evening arti in the village Bhimakali temple and a walk to Vir Bhadra Singh's palace and lawns. A nice walk in the woods took us to a pheasantry where we were able to see the Himalayan Western tragopan or the jujurana.

  

  

 

 

Alive again

This blog has been dormant for a while. In the meantime, I have managed to complete my PhD and we are now bracing ourselves for the next set of adventures. Finally, I have a window of time to catch my breath and update this blog with some pictures from the last six months or so. Here goes..

Mandi 2019

We are back to our summer home this month- Himachal. We just got back from a 6 day trip to Kinnaur district which was our first time ever in this remote region famous for its apples. Overall, we are spending much more time on the IIT Mandi campus this time (as I work on finishing my PhD thesis in these final few weeks before my submission deadline). We have been making local trips to Mandi to our usual spots and some short hikes in the hills surrounding the campus in Kamand. Tomorrow, we plan to go back to visit the GHNP (Jibhi this time) for some hiking.
Pictures will have to wait. Just this one for the sake of our Mandi tradition

Anurag teaches Alapony

Anurag is often seen fooling around with my phone. Today I found this gem in my phone gallery

From the tea gardens of Munnar

A lot to catch up on. For now, a picture from our winter trip to Kerela.