At the far end of the Parvati Valley lies the beautiful, rustic and naïve village of Tosh. Despite the characteristic hashish fragrance that welcomes you, what you will love most about this place is the warmth of the people.
We left most of our luggage at the base camp in Kasol, and reached a place called Barshaini by a local bus. Here there’s a small café called Rio with a spectacular view and we ordered everything on the menu. From pancakes, Nutella milk, eggs, parathas and the staple bowls of Maggie.
The people who work at the café live in the house on the left.
A sure shot way to find them is to spot this graffiti.
Made a friend and ended up helping her with Maths.
I also entered the little kitchen and helped out a bit, so much joy! Oh, and I generally dislike cooking, but the people here are so friendly.
This is happy us, not knowing what was going to follow.
And boy were we in for a serious workout! We hiked, for I don’t know how long. The uphill climb of 5 kilometers may seem like child’s play, but it isn’t. Take the cab in my opinion, especially if you’re not a seasoned hiker, you can get one at Barshaini.
The water on this pathway had a thin layer of slippery ice!
The only thing that kept us going was this view.
And not to forget this – our destination = food + a warm bed.
The colourful village of Tosh (at 7874 feet) was waiting for us.
During the day it is pleasant outdoors and extremely cold indoors, if you don’t have a fireplace. Its the exact opposite at night. As soon as we stepped in our rooms, we realized our sweat (from all the hiking) was going to give us a chill. We quickly took hot showers and bundled up again.
This was the view from our balcony a.k.a home for the next two days.
Cameras didn’t know what to focus on. That’s chicken lasagna.
We ate a lot during our entire trip and I can’t wait to share it with you.
The sun was setting behind the mountain, so at about 3:30 the warmth of the balcony turned ice-cold. The transition takes places in less than 10 minutes and its an experience worth having.
From bright and sunny to pitch black in 10 minutes!
Me, in the corner of our balcony with 3 layers of clothes and a blanket.
It gets dark pretty early up in Tosh. We played a few games and were ready to go down for our bonfire, but were too late.
Raj, the chef of the hotel, was a sweet chap who felt sorry for us with all our shivering and decided to start one again 😀 God bless his soul.
I don’t have a picture, but imagine a sky filled with stars that you CANNOT count on your fingers. Music playing in the background, but you can still hear the crackle of the wood as it bursts into flames. And conversations.
Raj taught me how to start a bonfire and spoke about his life. He also made fun of the way we were shivering. But then he spoke about his Goa trip. Where he’d run across the sandy beach because it would burn his feet. So, much for poking fun at me, eh?
While he was talking I kept moving closer and closer to the fire, wanting to roast my fingers, medium rare would have been perfect. Sparks of the fire flew very close to my face and some made holes in my pyjamas too, but it was completely worth it!
The Little Things 
impressive photos, thanks for sharing! PedroL
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Thank you, Pedrol. So glad you liked it 🙂
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Such a lovely blog, you literally took me to a place where i hven’t gone before. The pictures and your interesting tone do so much justice to this piece of art. Keep travelling Keep writing! Would love to read more from you. All the best dear
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Thank you so much, Priya :* This means a lot 😀
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