R D Mathur's Blog

Thirthan valley is truly a piece of secluded heaven. While returning from Tosh we decided to stop at Thirthan Valley, a gateway to Great Himalayan National Park. On reaching there we patted ourselves for finding this hidden gem. We stayed at Khem Bharti's Trout Valley hotel, a home stay. It is a perfect place to spend time with yourself. You can just laze around, go walking, cycling, fishing or just sleep. The river was just opposite our hotel and both sides of the road was filled with fruit laden trees. a beautiful evening I do not have words to describe the sunset along the river when whole Thirthan just lit up after a cloudy day making it truly magical. The night was clear and it was great fun lying on the roof of hotel watching the stars. The couple who owns that hotel were awesome and so was Mrs Bharti's cooking. The mutton curry rice which they served at lunch and chicken curry in dinner were probably one of the best I have had so f

After you leave Kasol and drive for about 11 kms you hit a town called Manikaran lo cated   between the rivers Beas and Parvati .  It is a pilgrimage centre for Hindus and Sikhs . The Hindus believe that Manu recreated human life in Manikaran after the flood, making it a sacred area. According to a legend, when Shiva and Parvati were walking in the valley, Parvati dropped one of her earrings. The jewel was seized by Shesha , the serpent deity, who then disappeared into the earth with it. Shesha only surrendered the jewel when Shiva performed the cosmic dance, the Tandava and shot the jewel up through the water. Apparently, jewels continued to be thrown up in the waters at Manikaran until the earthquake of 1905. Snow capped mountains as viewed from our Hotel   an evening in Tosh   Night sky beautiful views While according to the Sikhs , when Guru Nanak came here 1574, his disciple Bhai Mardana felt hungry but they had no food. Guru Nanak sent Mardana to

We left Mandi very early in the morning, after having a good breakfast of alloo parantha and chai, in the guest house and headed straight for Kasol vai Bhuntar and Jhari. On the way, as it was drizzling, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant, Nature Green Restaurant, for chai & pakoras. The restaurant is inside a garden, right on the banks of mighty Beas river. There is a small entrance fee to keep the unwanted people out, but it is a must stop to enjoy the beautiful river. Lovely Pakoras we had @Jhari.  View of the river from top Beautiful river Next stop was Kasol, a dreamy little town along the Parvati River surrounded by pine, fir and Oak trees. It is a perfect place to chill out and be with yourself in the lap of nature. We stayed at the Woodward Magique, a small hotel on the banks of Parvati river. Although the rooms there did not have a view of the river and there were some housekeeping issues in the hotel, its location made it worthwhile

One of the major benefits of living in a cosmopolitan city like Gurgaon is that you find lots of likeminded people and travelling with them is sheer fun. Last week on Wednesday morning, four of us decided to go to the mountains and visit Dev Bhoomi, Himachal Pradesh. We assembled at HUDA Metro Station and headed out to Delhi where another of our friends was supposed to join us.  Route : We took the following route  Delhi-Ambala-Rajpura-Banur-Kharar-Ropar-Nangal-Una-Bhota-Ner Chowk-Mandi-Bhuntar-Kasol-Tosh    1st stop :  Our first night halt was at Mandi, where we reached at 10.30 pm. A friend of a friend, who was travelling with us, had arranged our accommodation at IPH guest house at village Bijani at Mandi on top of a hill.  IPH Guest House, Bijani, Mandi Mandi town at night as seen from the guest house It was raining when we reached the guest house but still could not stop from admiring the Mandi town below and were