On the Road to Kasol: Exploring the Enchanting Journey

This trip should be titled “most unprepared trip in the history of this Poser”. Since I didn’t move my bum out of bed anymore after coming back from my 24 km trek, which left me fully sunburned, I neither knew the bus timings to Kasol nor did I get money to pay the hotel bill.

I randomly woke up at 7ish and was about to turn around to sleep a bit more, when I thought of checking the bus timings online. I couldn’t find much information but one site mentioned that the busses there aren’t frequent and one leaves at 9 am. This was enough to get me out of bed right away.

Looking in the mirror, I got the next shock: I looked even more red than in the night before. And damn, how it burned… Luckily the hotel provided moisturizer otherwise I’d be dying even more all day long.

The first task after packing was to find an ATM. The hotel guys confirmed that the bus leaves at 9 am, so I had only one hour to get everything done AND reach the bus stand. Of course, the closest ATM had no cash and the next one was another 20 min away by foot. I luckily finally found an auto half way which took me to the next ATM, back to the hotel and the bus stand.

I reached the bus 10 min before but was too anxious to lose my perfect seat, so I rather stayed hungry than getting breakfast for on the way. It was a local bus which stopped a hundred times on the way, whenever someone wanted to enter or to get down. It wasn’t even too full, only once when a bunch of school girls entered.

The next 5 hours were some of the best of this whole trip! The view was amazing, the Beas river in between mountains, passing many towns and villages on the way.

We took a 10 min break at Bhuntar where I had the choice between hot Jalebi or chocolate and chips for breakfast (to my defence, there was no shop with Samosas or Kachoris in sight). Some kids were after my life to get them snacks too. “Stop looting her!” the job keeper snapped when they wanted more and more and more 😀

Unfortunately, during this break the biggest spitter of all times took my seat and unknowingly of this fact, I took the seat behind him. The window which we shared was open and he kept spitting every minute or even more often. And how much of spit! At times I wasn’t sure if some of it even hit me. Luckily a seat in front on the other side got free after 15 min, before I would fully blast and throw him out of the window after his own spit. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with this guy…

Entering Parvati Valley, the next 2 hours were even better than the first part. Open window, driving on serpentine roads, the Parvati river in the valley below… I could’ve done this for the rest of the day, so amazing it was.

Kasol was like I imagined it, a typical commercialised place with many cafes, restaurant, the usual shops selling hippie attire… And Israelis everywhere! No wonder they call it “little Israel of the Himalayas” 🙂

My hotel, The Hosteller, was a bit apart from the main road and in a very quiet location. I loved it already! My room was great, better than the one in Rishikesh. Since this is also my favourite place for Nutella pancakes in Rishikesh (and even in general, haven’t had better ones anywhere yet!), I tried my luck here as well and indeed: it was as good, same recipe!

They offered different treks with stays on top, Kheerganga and Grahan. I decided for the latter since it was supposed to be much less frequented and they offered a home stay instead of tents for the night. After he showed me a picture of the Milky Way taken from up there, it was decided! Kheerganga would just be full of kids listening to rave music, getting drunk and smoking up.

My only agenda for the day had been to find out how and where to spend the next two days, so I had all day long to just roam around. I got some Cheesecake and a Brownie from the all-praised German Bakery at Moon Dance Cafe. Midway to Manikaran, I reached a bridge beside which I could reach the stones on the shore next to the river. The perfect picnic spot! Both cakes turned out to be rather sponge cakes than any of the indicated names. They were fine but… seriously, I could do it better. A bakery in the hills, that’s what I should do… 🙂

On the way, I came across a procession of villagers carrying an idol, a local deity (also called devta). Apparently, every village has to do some cleansing ritual with their devta once a year in a temple in Manikaran.

I could’ve sat there for the rest of the day but then I thought, it would be a pity not to explore some more. I found the “Chalal trek” on Google maps, starting at the Old Kasol Bridge which seemed the easiest option.

Easy it was… It must have been designed especially for potheads who could hardly walk anymore. The first half would’ve been nice, view over the river with many stones to sit on directly at the river…. if it wasn’t as polluted. Garbage EVERYWHERE. More than usual even I found. My heart broke a bit more with every minute…

Anyways, this will be a separate post about this topic, I don’t want to spoil my mood by ranting about littering right now.

I walked for maybe 2 km until a bit after Chalal village. On the first half, there were many camping sides with fixed tents. The loud rave music coming from those, and also from some of the cafes on the way, fully spoiled it. Some of the kids passing by even carried speakers listening to their own music. I’ll never get it in my head why they’d do that… My understanding of camping and being in nature is to listen to the sound of nature, not some insanely loud music. Why do you even come here if you anyways only want to listen to music and party? Just stay in Delhi or wherever you come from, at least you wouldn’t litter the shit out of this place… And there it is, I did it… the ranting started :-/

ANYWAYS… leaving all that behind me, I found a great restaurant directly beside the river (hence the name River View) where I had a super yum Chicken Schnitzel which could even be the best one I had so far in India! Many places prepare it rather thick, but this one was as thin as a proper Wiener Schnitzel!

I stayed there till around 10 pm till it turned into a light rave party. At least the music made a turn for the worse and some girls started dancing and whooing… a clear sign for me to leave.

So the rave parties are over, huh? Maybe when sitting in Pink Floyd Cafe in Tosh for days smoking your brains out… Duh!

At least the Hosteller was far off so that I could enjoy the rest of the night in peace.

But not to worry, the next day made the trip to Kasol worthwhile!

The Summary

Distance covered

By auto: 5.5 km (3 stops + waiting)

Cost: 300 INR/~4 $

By bus: 80 km

Duration: 5 hrs

Cost: 150 INR/~2 $

By foot: 9.5 km

Accommodation

The Hosteller

Cost: 2000 INR/~29 $ (via Make My Trip)

Rating: 4/5 (clean room and washroom. No towels though; generally nice ambience, chilled out and most of all: in a beautiful quiet location; plus they organise treks, day hikes and night hikes with bonfire)

Food

The Hosteller

Very late Breakfast: Nutella pancake, Ginger lemon honey tea

Cost: 220 INR/~3 $

Rating: 5/5 (my favourite place for Nutella pancake, be it here or in Rishikesh, ambiance is nice and service is very fast)

German Bakery at Moon Dance Cafe

Cheesecake, Brownie

Cost: 220 INR/~3 $

Rating: 3/5 (the Cheesecake wasn’t really a Cheesecake, rather a spongy version of it. Same with the so-called Brownie, it was like a chocolate sponge cake. Still, tastewise it was fine. Nothing German about it though. Even the guy there admitted it’s not German but Nepali)

River View

Dinner: Israeli Schnitzel with French fries and hummus, Hummus with mushrooms, Ginger lemon honey tea

Cost: 550 INR/~8 $

Rating: 4/5 (great view over the Parvati river and nice ambiance – apart from the music getting too loud and ravey towards the end; slow service; great Schnitzel, nice Hummus; good Ginger lemon honey tea, they gave the honey separately)