Hie steemit friends,
This blog is about my travel experience to Kalga and kheerganga, India in August 2015. I have had this amazing pictures and was waiting for a amazing platform to share my pictures and whole experience . Guess steemit was it !!
So Kalga is situated in north India, in state of Himachal pradesh. This place is hidden from most of the travelers and I guess I always had the passion for finding what was hidden. Beautiful things are always hidden, you have to go deep inside to find and cherish them. I got to know about this place from my best bud @nikpillai who is also the man behind all this amazing photography.We have known each other from quite a long time so he is my official travel buddy. It takes 9 hours approx to go from Chandigarh to kalga by car. We were old school travelers and wanted to go by bus, Also to get the experience of the bus life to the hills. I am sure after seeing this blog most of you would be interested in going to India so I would try to give the best information I can. My first tip is if you are a person who prefers luxury then this place is not for you but if you are someone who want to see life in its purest form! away from all chaos of the world don't even think twice. Also if you are looking for a cheap travel experience with some cheap marijuana to make your trip better. Not to mention kalga has most purest form of marijuana in the world people all over the world come here to smoke it up.
Lets start to explore! Due to more pictures this blog is divided in 2 parts, this part covers the kalga and next one will have kheerganga.
~This is the map of India showing the exact location of kalga. ~
We booked the bus tickets from chandigarh and it was an overnight journey starting at 1am. We were all ready with all our stuff guitar, ukulele, Canon camera, some snacks for the night.Honestly, It's not going to be very pleasant travel experience traveling in road ways buses of Punjab! especially the ones going up hills but trust me when you reach there its the me best feeling ever. This travel story is of @nikpillai his brother Prem and Sidharath @sukhpreetsingh (me) let me introduce everyone before we move forward.
I have already introduced myself. In the left picture is Nik pillai. Sidharth and Prem are the ones in right picture. I am the one with long beard in the starting of blog. Well don't have that long anymore but thats a different story.
On arriving close to kalga the first thing we could see was this beautiful river covered with fog on top. I felt like we were in heaven and our bus was going on top of clouds.
After this we finally reached kalga but to go where we were staying, it was another 1 hour of hiking. Our stay was on top of hill . We were staying their for 3 days before moving forward to kheerganga which is another hike for 7 long hours. We wanted to enjoy Kalga first then move forward. We had a week in a hand so it was fine.
~Have you ever experienced the real freedom ? The feeling of not having enough still having enough to make you happy and enjoy life ? life in its purest form I realised when I meet these kids on our way to kalga. ~zerofuckesgiven ~
On one hand it made me sad these kids couldn't afford good education but on the other hand I thought to myself it's just the society's notion of being successful and happy, one need to have good education and lots of money but I think if you are happy with what you have, lifestyle that makes you happy that is your wealth. Today people are rich but not wealthy. There was a lot to learn from these kids the happiness they have in little things and we don't even in the big ones.
Finally we reached and this was our place to stay for next 3 days it was basic as cheap as 4$ USD a night I know hard to believe but they have basic bed and light. We were out most of the day and only went to sleep at night.
The structure was made of old wood but the base was strong with mud masonry wall. They had used local material for the construction of this place. Well if you are wondering how I know that , I am an architect by profession. Had love for music, travel and still trying to give a short to live life before life lives over me. I guess I was never this person who could work 9 to 6 monotonous lifestyle. I know its hard to come out of it but we got to keep trying until one day it actually happens.
This is the whole view of the building where we were staying. The base of the building is basically mud masonry wall and wood and bricks used for the construction. Well I will not go more into architecture for that I would be posting different blog.
We were pretty exhausted after the long journey so it was finally time to drink and relax, lucky there was a shop which sold old monk and our excitement was doubled already.
The night hits
~Our official bartender for tonight sidharth sharma urf sharma ji all the way from Mumbai. ~
we called it a night and went to sleep.
Day 2
We woke up to the beautiful morning. we got the chance to meet the people who's place we were staying in and they had 2 beautiful kids. They were just so adorable one was called Shiva ( The name is taken from the hindu books as lord shiva) . He was really shy in the starting but then you know you give kids bribe to try new things and then they become your friends. We got the breakfast freshly cooked we ordered a ginger lemon honey tea its our regular for every morning. I completely love it.
Morning
After having the amazing breakfast in the morning we got a chance to play with the kids shiva and sema ( his sister) we also had binoculars. They had never seen that and was so excited to play with it. we showed them how it works. Sometimes you get to see the beauty of nature with the ones that kids have and compare it with the one you once had.
Then our morning started with rolling a joint, after few we could actually connect to our surrounding. I use to sit on the side and watch clouds pass away from the hills in front of me. The view was totally breath taking, then use to think about life and what I want from it. I guess every one has that phase in their life trying to find answers to the questions. I would say, "they are always hidden inside you, just have to be patient enough and give yourself time to figure that out".
~The view of the hills in front of me that I use to watch everyday ~
Kalga had beautiful dogs that will stay with you through out the day hoping you will feed them. They are self trained dogs that will just make your stay more peaceful. They will follow you where ever you go, you will feel you have become best friends with them. I made one too, I used to call him sheru. He stayed with me through out the trip, even when we went to kheerganga. Imagine he did the hike with us for 6 hours, there were times where it was hard hike and I would give up and would see sheru and start moving. I guess so is life , its like that 6 hour hike that you do everyday in order to complete it and meet your loved one waiting for you at home or that dream of being a musician or architect. In the end its not the destination that matters it's the journey that counts. Enough of the serious talk please enjoy us having fun in the hills and exploring the hidden.
Sheru
When the evening hit , it felt like sun has gone so far but still looking at us. We could only try capturing the image but the real one would always be saved in our eyes. With this we have reached to the end of the part one blog.
Thanks everyone for staying till the end and going through the journey for kalga with me. Please check the second part of the blog too. If you liked our work please FOLLOW, UPVOTE me and RESTEEM would really appreciate the support from steem community. The prints are available for sale and can be shipped to any part of the world. Will be posting another blog with pictures and their price soon.
I know I would have missed a lot of thing please comment on the blog and I would get back to you .
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