Bairagad with Hawaldars

Day 6: October 8,2011

Today was the most awaited day of the travel, but destiny thought otherwise. Sach Pass(ed) not yet. A half-bath and a sprint later, Chamba bus stand arrived. Met a HP Police Hawaldar(Constable) who asked me to rush to ticket counter , as the seats get filled fast.Window seat again Yay! The hawaldar was on his way to Trella, his posting. He was narrating his first day of duty in the region on the New years morning of 2011, when he woke up to waist height of snow. Also he that was the first time he saw snow. Soon the dreaded announcement was made . The bus to Killar(Pangi, local name) was canceled due to a technical snag.
The local taximen took this opportunity to make some money and hiked their tariff from Rs. 500 to Rs. 700. As I didn't want to be the the 15th chicken in a 8 people jeep. I opted for the next best option ,a bus ride to Bairagad which is 30 kms short of Sach Pass. Soon the sun came out bringing the vistas into prominence. Trella came and it was time to bid goodbye to the hawaldar .  Throughout our conversation I called him 'Hawaldar-Sahab' and he called me 'Bhaisahab' . I have this bad habit of ending the conversation even without asking their name. Another guy came to me and struck up a conversation, he too was a hawaldar who was joining office after a leave. He was on his way to Satrundi.he introduced himself as Om Pal, else I would have missed his name too. He too kept calling me Bhaisahab and i responded the same way.
Bhaisahab spoke to few pick up van driver at Bairagad on their way to Pangi to drop me there but they were fully loaded. The truckers were not willing to take a risk because of the snowfall beyond Satrundi post.Also I was turned back from PWD Guest House as some students from chamba have booked all rooms. Without much option I came back to the bus-stop , which also doubles up as the village boundary the other end being the PWD guesthouse. Rakesh Thakur , the man who runs the only Tea-stall cum - Dhaba- Hotel offer me a room for peanuts ,literally . A bakar session with truckers  and Mr. Thakur lasting hours followed.

Trucker: "Chalo chadate hai" (Lets drink)
Me: "kya?" (What?)
Trucker: "Bottle (sign)"
Me: "Mai peeta nahi" (I don't drink)

The truckers left for a drink disappointed with neither me nor Rakesh joining them. Soon raingods arrived with fury. A cup of maggi later I hit the bed as early as 6:30 PM .

Return of/to Chamba

October 7th,2011

Early morning and I am staring from the balcony at the same landslide view. Hadsar is one such place in the trip, where I wished I had an extended stay. It was time to bid goodbye to Hadsar now. Shared jeeps to Bharmour were in action as early 7 AM the previous day, but there were no signs of the Boleros till 7:30. I shamelessly asked the Sundarnagar family for a lift till Bharmourin their Chevy Spark, but they refused citing their aching legs needed space. Fair Enough. That day no Bolero guy was in a mood to start before 9. The first vehicle refused to take me. I was WTF! It was meant for the school kids, which every Bolero guy does on a rotational basis as a service to the village.

The next Bolero arrived in 10mins and I had to share the front seat with a drunken old man. It was 30 mins of pain till Bharmour. There are two main places of interest in Bharmour, The Bharni Mata temple and Chowrasi. Former required a trek of two hours one-way, on hearing this I immediately looked up in the sky and nearby mountains and a not-so-loud Jai Mata Di !from my heart. Next up was Chowrasi, a complex of 84 temples, 5 mins walk from bus stop. The only temple dedicated to DharmRaaj Ji is in this complex. There are two schools in the complex; students of the school were busy doing their Mass and prayers. The echo of the prayers created a strange but calm effect.

Of the 84 temples only 15-20 are big temples. Rest are small, some as small as 1*1 foot. I was just roaming there for an hour. It felt nice, the ambience was great, and the mountains were a perfect background in the scene. Lakhna Devi temple was the only one where I entered, because it was the only protected monument in the complex. Had a quick brunch and boarded a bus to Chamba. Window seat again. YAY!!!


Reached Chamba and got a dorm bed at Hotel Champak for Rs.165. Chamba had put me off few days back, but now a laid back hill town of my liking. The reason for the crowd was the famous Ram Lila on Dusherra. Around 2 lakh people had gathered for the occasion from all over HP. I finally had a much deserved bath, one after 3 days. Now it was time to take a stroll around Chamba. There is nothing much Chamba has to offer other than few temples, a park and over priced markets. I went back to the dorm after paying a visit SwamiNarayan Temple. Omar Abdullah was on TV defending himself in the Yusuf Murder Case. Then Barkha showed no signs of stopping and I had enough of it.

I went out in search of dinner. After enquiring with around 4 guys, Gupta Vaishno Dhaba was the unanimous choice for good vegetarian food. I ordered aalo mutter and 3 rotis and was eturned with a bill of Rs.29. Food was simple, not-extraordinary, delicious and filling. On the way back I had brought some Jalebis and Samosa, which should have been avoided as most of were awful and went straight to the bin. I had to spend a night alone in this 500sq. ft. dorm. It was noisy initially as the reception was just outside; then followed a peaceful night.

Route to Kugti Pass


The vistas make mornings special.


The Landslide view from my room


Entering Chourasi- Bharmour


Biggest Temple structure in the complex.


Poor Ponies


One of two schools inside Chourasi





The huge Deodar tree . Couldn't manage the entire thing in a single frame




An Enormous Deodar



The vistas surrounding Bharmour


Khadamukh


Raavi Valley


Raavi snake


Chamba


View from the Raavi view cafe - Chamba


Dorm at Hotel Champak(Chamba)

Chaotic Chamba- Peace at Hadsar

Day 3 of the trip

HRTC bus for Chamba arrives at the bus stand half filled. Atlast my engineering skills came handy. Whoever said education always comes handy was correct at least in my case. Few pushes and elbows later, I have the window seat. Yay!! All thanks to BEST route 512. Just as my I placed my luggage and stretch my legs, Mr. Conductor ordered everyone to get out of the bus and buy tickets. I was WTF!! Thanks to a lady seated next to me my seat was still reserved, while many others lost theirs.

Cool breeze and a less bumpy ride ensured that I could sleep peacefully for few hours. Woke up at Banikhet. Arriving at Chamba I got a rude shock, it was way too crowded and definitely not my imagination of a hill station. For a moment I felt Lonavla was much less congested. Enquired about the bus to Killar. There is only one HRTC bus from Chamba to Killar starting at 5 am. Then went straight to Tourist office at Bachat Bhavan near Iravati.One Mr. Rajiv there was of great help. He gave some contact details of home stays and advised to do ManiMahesh first and then proceed to Sach. He recommended Tashika travels instead of bus. Later in the conversation, the recommendation was more like an insistence and that’s when I decided no matter what I won’t be taking Tashika travels and HRTC will be my choice.

By noon, I was back at Chamba Bus stand and the bus to Bharmour was as 1PM. There is a Bus every hour from Chamba to Bharmour and vice versa. Bharmour came and Night Mare begun. Every single cabbie was sure that there would be no more shared Bolero to Hadsar that day and were convincing me to take their cab for Rs. 300. Next stop, Raju Guest House near bus stand. Beware of this place, gives only false info and is highly overpriced. He had almost got me convinced that there would be no guides available in Hadsar and I have to book one for here itself for Rs. 750 per day. Then he wanted me to take their cab for Rs. 400. That’s when I realized, what I was being made a Chutiya.  Next stop mountaineering institute in Bharmour. There was just one guy and he had nothing to rent out. While accompanying me to the taxi stand assured me that there will be a Bolero to Hadsar coming soon and guides will be easily available there.

Soon, a shared Bolero arrived and 3 people filled in with me, that guy had one more seat to fill for. I requested him to leave for Hadsar and agreed to pay Rs.20 extra. He agreed and dropped me at Shanti GH at Hadsar. I all this drama, forgot to get a pair of shoes for the trek. Damn!!

Hadsar is a lovely little village and I liked it very much. Got a landslide view room at 400 for two nights. Next day bargained hard and brought the tariff down to 350 for two nights with 2 dinners. Booked a local guy Mr. Negraj to be my trek guide@ Rs. 300. I wanted to trek as much as I could till 1PM and then begin the return journey. A family had come from SurendraNagar to visit ManiMahesh. Their plan was to trek to top and return the same day. We had our dinner together, where they advised me to continue to Manali from Killar and not to return to Chamba. 

That was it for the day. Good night