Date: 17-21 June 2018
Venue: Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh

We would have been to Himachal a zillion times and yet there is so much that we keep discovering. During our recent to Tirthan Valley – we saw a completely new Himachal Pradesh. During our stay at Tirthan Angler’s Retreat, we did quite a bit of travelling in Tirthan Valley and this post is about our visit upto Sarchi village. The good guys at the resort had arranged for cabs and it took us about an hour to drive up.

There is nothing touristy to do here except for marveling at the village. It is a stunningly beautiful hamlet with Himachali houses. Multi storied structures with colorful roofs dotted the otherwise green valley. We met the village headman Sri Jivan Lal and he was extremely kind to take us around.

In this process we saw some amazing sites such as the grand temple for the Goddess Gara Durga; old style granary; random apple orchards and hand cleaning of garlic crop! It seemed we were in the Amish era of the 18th century.

Some ladies were going about their business with baskets tied on their back. They were wearing the traditionally woven Himachali shawl wrap called Pattu.

Jivan Lalji also took us to the house where Gara Durga idol had been temporarily placed. We had ghee as Prasad here. In fact, everybody was super kind and hospitable and offered us tea. We also saw some amazing votive handicraft made as offering for the Goddess. These were made with sequins, gold thead and bird feather.

Sarchi is a base for treks to higher points on the Himalayas here. Lambri Top is a very popular trek. To cater to trekkers and tourists, there are some homestays at Sarchi now. However, they did not look luxury so be prepared for some austerity if you come here. Life in Sarchi looked idyllic and fuss free anyway.

For many of us Shimla is Himachal Pradesh. But our Tirthan Valley trip was a reckoning in this direction. There is so much more in Himachal than Shimla and snow.  To that end Sarchi village was an eye opener. The cherry on the icing was the beautiful rainbow we saw on our way back.  It was drizzling before that and the rainbow was out in full size and colours. The whole spectrum was clearly distinguishable and we followed the rainbow for as long as we could.

Could we have asked for more form the Sarchi village visit?