H2) stay - Part II

We got up fresh in the morning. It had rained heavily during the night. It was drizzling in the morning too. We thought we would be stuck up in the place for the whole day. We were still very happy to spend time relaxing and watching rains in such a lovely surrounding. The home stay is an understatement for such a lovely place, surrounded by hills greenery and a river tributary flowing underneath our abode. It is a perfect getaway place, pristine and peaceful. A great resort like property sans the artificiality of swimming pool, a badminton court etc and off course the maddening crowd normally found otherwise in resorts near big cities. The roaring sound of the water falling in the small pond beneath our sit out area and then flowing down to join the main river was a great sight. It’s unspoiled by garbage, littered plastic and sea of human being generally seen in resorts elsewhere.

The Roaring sound was a bit too harsh on ears, however, the sound of water would be very musical & gentle when the rainwater does not gush down from the hills. That would make the place very romantic, I feel. The river nearby is a perfect place for outing, taking bath and having snacks served there. Instead, we had hot pakodas & tea because of the drizzle, and then went out for a little walk around the place, we were lucky as the rains stopped at about 10.30 AM. We decided to visit Khajjiar, the so called mini Switzerland of India and Dayan Kund. Khajjiar is a lovely little picnic spot thronged by tourists. It’s a good spot for taking selfies and photos. We had lunch in Patil’s Restaurant there.

We then proceeded to Dayan Kund. It’s a lovely spot, though we have to walk up the hill for about half an hour to reach a pagoda and then go to the Kund. We decided to walk down to the base as we did not have enough time. I personally liked this spot much more than Khajjiar, because of lovely 350 degree view of the valley & mountain ranges.

We had sumptuous tasty dinner in the night. Next day we visited the Church at Dalhousie had tea break and proceeded to Mandi for our night halt there. Dalhousie is highly commercialized now. In hindsight we all felt that H₂O was a great selection. In fact it should not be called a home stay, but a homely stay resort. The ever polite and gentle Sunny, the attendant deserves special Compliments. And yes, how could I forget Anvaya? She had put lot of efforts and done great homework for selection of stay and sightseeing and it reflected in the results thus far. Special thanks to her for this lovely selection. We felt reassured about arrangements & stay other locations too. For sure, she deserves to be recognized in a special thanks giving ceremony, in a post trip meeting in Mumbai. She is bestowed with such great organizational talents, so she should only take the lead and coordinate with all for a high tea at Pathak’s house only, ha ha, ha… As it is, the Phataks have been complaining that we Ganus do not visit them. Ganus say " May God give us wisdom to say Yes. And hold your breath !! God said Tathastu ". Now its left to Anvaya.