Aastha Homestay - Great Himalayan National Park (India)

 6/15

  • Found our pre-booked bus to Aut with little difficulty and departed on time. Went through flat desert for awhile before hitting the start of the Himalayas. It was really cool to watch the desert transition to the mountains throughout the day, but it quickly turned into a miserable, 12 hour travel day, as we got stuck in holiday weekend traffic going up the mountains. We both felt carsick and arrived in Aut about 2 hours late. 
  • Luckily, a very nice man helped us catch the last bus of the day to Sainj, which went along a beautiful road with mountains and a river view. The bus was packed to the brim and since we were in an area that sees few western tourists, people were very curious.
  • We got off at Ropa and the pre-arranged transportation up the mountain to our homestay was ready for us. We met Girdhari, one of the hosts at Aastha Homestay and walked to the beautiful village. I found this homestay when I was poking around on Google Maps in Great Himalayan National Park and I’m so incredibly glad I did!
  • We were exhausted so we sat out on the porch area at dusk, drinking amazing chai and chatting with some domestic tourists from New Delhi. We learned a lot from them and they were very kind in helping translate between Hindi and English for us and the homestay hosts. Even though there was a bit of a language barrier - we got by just fine and it was fun to use gestures to learn about the village.
  • We met all of the very kind homestay hosts and children, showered, relaxed, breathed in the fresh mountain air, and ate a wonderful dinner. The Aastha Homestay was so accommodating of Tyler’s gluten allergy, which was especially kind, considering gluten allergies aren’t much of a thing in India.
  • We had a wonderful sleep after a long travel day, finally in our element :)

6/16

  • Woke up very late (whoops) and ate a wonderful breakfast before heading out on a short hike to the waterfall with Girdhari and some of the other tourists
  • We had a wonderful lunch and I finally got my appetite back!
  • Tyler and I tried to climb part of a nearby trail but got lazy and decided to just sit in a small meadowy area with beautiful trees and grass and just soak in the mountain air. It was such a perfect and relaxing day, which was everything we needed.
  • Girdhari took us on an evening walk through fields, orchards, and traditional Himalayan houses in the village (some there for 500 years) to the meadow next to the village’s primary school where we watched people hang out and play sports. We sat in the meadow and watched horses run around near the local temple and then continued on our walk around the sacred lake in the village.
  • Had more chai, ate an amazing dinner, and went to bed

6/17

  • Went for a morning walk around the orchard to the edge of the mountain with Girdhari, ate a yummy breakfast, packed up and said goodbye :(
  • Girdhari walked us back to the waterfall and we continued on to our accommodation in Shangarh, which was about 4 miles away on a set of trails and mountain roads
  • We had such a wonderful time at the homestay, felt so touched by the kindness and generosity of the hosts, and learned so much! It was very cool to see all of the subsistence farming and we are still dreaming about the food every day! Tyler has tried to re-create some of the meals we ate there and has figured out how to make chai as authentically as you can in the states :) I truly can’t recommend this homestay and experience enough! 




































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