Time to say Good-Bye to that Beautiful Village Garli, surrounded by looming mountains with a promise in heart to come again.Adventure bug has already bite me. I started our new journey towards Bir. India’s best place for para-gliding.
Serene roads among the mountains made my ride even more enjoyable.I was not really strait-jacketed by schedule.Enjoying the journey to Bir.
We stopped at Jwala Mukhi Temple, one among the 52 Shakti Peethas. Sati’s tongue is believed to have fallen at Jwalamukhi and the goddess is manifest as tiny flames that burn a flawless blue through fissures in the age old rock.
It is said that when Mughal Emperor Akbar once tried to douse the flames with a stream of water but could not succeed in doing so. Out of reverence, he offered a Gold umbrella to the Goddess, but the it turned into an unknown metal suggesting that the Goddess did not accept his offering.
We started back our ride towards Bir taking this route via Palampur.
Jwalaji Temple – Ranital – Kangra -Palampur-Baijnath-Bir (100 km)
At Palampur we visited Sobha Singh Art Gallery, the famous contemporarypainter Sobha Singh’s house. His adopted daughter Bibi Gurcharan Kaur has converted Andretta into an ever popular tourist destination .
He received padmashree award in 1983 just three year before his last breath.
Photography is not allowed inside the gallery , so couldn’t capture more. But his paintings were so alive that hold your attention a bit longer as you see them. He painted even his own portraits including many famous paintings like Guru-nanak,Sohni Mahiwal’s painting .
We had a few words with his daughter Gurucharan kaur who is an artist like his father and very soft spoken lady.
The scorching sun made us realize that we had seen the day even more than the sun.I was loosing my patience and dropped our plan to visit Andretta artist village which is just 3 km away from Sobha Sing place.We were hungry but there was no food joints near by.With a hunger and daring heart we drove our enfield towards Baijnath. The famous Shiva Temple stands in the heart of the town.
After Baijnath we finally stopped at a road-side dhaba and believe me that simple veg thali was a true blessing to our hunger. Kadhi(made of curd) was amazing and we were happy souls at the end.
Traffic had been minimal after that. No more heat from the sun.Finally we reached our destination , our beautiful retreat was in the middle of that charming Tibetan village Bir just beside beautiful tea-garden.
The resort “Nimlang Himal” consists of small cottages with greenery all around ,tiny birds were breaking the state of tranquility by chirping in a while. They don’t open their restaurant before 10 am , so you can’t expect a hot bed tea there.
That day evening tea was at Landing Point , the best place of the town to spend some “ME” time with nature. Drastically the weather became chilled and gentle wind were greeted with cheers from Dhauldhar Range which was showing us it’s partial beauty from that tea-stall.For a second the whole world turned white to me . Soon the view disappeared as the sun went down.It was clear by that time that we are coming for the morning tea next day.
Stay tuned for my next day story , the day was well spent at Billing . 🙂
