In pursuit of a dream to explore the remote kingdom of Lo Manthang, this biker faced daunting challenges, from treacherous terrain to bone-chilling cold. Yet, the journey's true essence lay in the benevolence of the Nepalese people, who radiated warmth and resilience despite the harshest conditions, leaving an indelible mark on the traveler's heart and imparting invaluable life lessons.
Blogs
Travel to Shangarh - The Land of Meadows
Part I
In the peak winters of late December 2021, three of my friends and I had a chance to go and explore the land of meadows in Himachal Pradesh – Shangarh, which is a part of the Sainj Valley. This trip was exciting for us for multiple reasons – I was eager to travel long in my new car, was excited to go with these three friends of mine (I was the common link), and it was the first real travel opportunity we were getting after two years of COVID lockdown.
Although we had started planning for it a month back, it was highly dicey owing to the receding COVID scare, and many of the potential companies we contacted were hesitant. Thankfully, a day before the trip, my fantastic office colleague agreed and packed his bags quickly in all excitement! 28th December in the evening, we all start from Delhi in my car for an unprecedented road trip.
After multiple stops on the way and spending most of our night getting to know the group better, we started to see the calm and cold mountains just as the sun started to show up at dawn. Extremely tired and hungry, we reached Shangarh at 9 am but had to wait for about 2 hours for us to be able to check in to our place of stay. While our rooms were being prepared, we ordered food from the kitchen and sat to feel the scenic beauty of the place. Since it is the land of meadows, we were on the flatter side of the land, whereas all the four directions around us sprawled with splendid snow-capped mountains. Since the place was relatively less explored until then, there were not more than two residencies, and hence, the place did not have a hustle-bustle of the crowd.
The start of the day called for a few hours of rest as we lodged into our rooms. In the afternoon, we started to plan – “what do we do?” Having conversations with other travelers and owners of our residency, we identified a few beautiful places we could visit over the next four days of our stay, but we chose to keep our first day a bit light. We mostly just hiked around the village to feel the calm of the village life, something we were very distant from belonging to the national capital. In the evening, as it started to grow cold, we assembled at the common bonfire set up on the lawns of our residency. To our surprise, a powercut took place after our dinner, and it unearthed for us a magical sky lit with stars and all cosmic entities, and it was spellbinding. The collective excitement of this beautiful sky that all the travelers had was an instant ice-breaker. We all shared with each other the information gathered about the places we could visit, and within no time, it was planned out that two small groups, including ours, would go for a two-hour hike the next day.
We woke up the next day, and while we were munching a quick breakfast ahead of our hike – we saw around 20 of us (5-6 groups) all set for the trek to ‘Jan Gaon,’ which was way more than we expected until our conversation last evening! The hike began as a trail amid the forest, starting right beside our place of stay. It was a great time over the next 2 hours when we collectively hiked the trail, getting to know more and more people among different groups, pushing each other to hike and hike until we reached the destination as not everyone was equally experienced for this.
After multiple stops to catch our breath and ensure none was left behind, we reached a deep meadow in the middle of the woods of Jan Gaon. Some of us instantly collected the twigs and put up the bonfire in the middle of the day to win the cold. During the hike, all of us were engaged in conversations, getting to know each other; we played songs on the speaker while humming along around the bonfire to have a collective sense of bonding. All of us had managed to get some food packed ahead of the hike. We all shared that food by heating it on the bonfire itself, and it was much needed at that time to overcome our sheer exhaustion.
After spending a good couple of hours humming to music and having good conversations and humor, we started to see that dusk would take over soon, so we started to head back. The way downhill was quick, but it was a bit tougher and slippery owing to the patches of snow we encountered on our way. Also, we realized that only a few of us paid attention to the trial on our way in the morning, so we went off track multiple times on our way back and eventually had to redo some of the trails to get back on the right path. We also had furry company with us who made sure they played with us and didn’t let our exhaustion peak a lot. Right before the sun went down, all of us reached our residency, exhausted, and straight ordered food for all of us from the kitchen
Since almost all of us present in the residency were friends now, we all chose to sit beside the bonfire in the evening, chat about the amazing day we had, welcome more travelers who showed up at the residency during our absence, and have a fun evening with light music, warmth, and booze. We looked forward so much to our next few days of stay, which I will talk about in my next blog post!
Written by: Pulkit
Pulkit is a Healthcare Consultant for global pharmaceutical giants, and works heavily on analytics, data, and is a tech player. Loves to explore architecture, people, and city-life during his travels which he wants to make more and more frequent!
You May Also Like
In a monumental triumph of human determination, five mountaineers embarked on the first expedition to the formidable Mount Yunam, scaling treacherous terrain and battling nature's fury. Their unwavering spirit and collective teamwork culminated in a triumphant conquest of the uncharted summit, leaving an enduring legacy of inspiration for all adventurers.
