Kasol-Manikaran-Kheerganga : Himalays are calling: 4 Days and 3 nights for just 1200 rupees!

We did Kheerganga trek , visited the hot springs and vintage temples of Manikaran and explored the magical Parvati valley and village with the budget of 1200 rupees from Chandigarh to Chandigarh.

Bellow are the deatils how we did it without any trekking gear and with just the on point available resources -

Day 1:

A day before Dushehra i got the news that we are having a 3 day off from the college and I was not willing to celebrate this festival either at college or home(Shimla). So I convinced all my friends to plan a trip to some magical place.

Well, when it comes to Dushehra, the first place which strikes in mind is Kullu and the regions nearby. I had heared a lot about the magical beauty of Kasol and Kheerganga so I decided to go and explore it. Being college students we did have financial crisis but decided to leave it all on our fate and manage the whole trip with the sum we had.

We reached Chandigarh ISBT43 at around 8p.m but were little afraid to see the hustle-bustle at the ticket counter. For a moment we thought that these tickets are not in our luck. But as fate would have it! We got the tickets for Rs359/- per person (ordinary bus). The night travel was mesmerizing and full of excitement.

Day 2 :

We reached Bhuntar at about 5:30 in the morning, located an ATM and boarded a bus for Kasol with a ticket worth Rs 30/- per person. The thing we regret is that we missed the beautiful sunrise while taking a nap.

We reached Kasol at 7a.m and the view of the Parvati river was breathtaking. We had breakfast at a nearby dhaba for Rs50/- per person.

Later we walked towards Manikaran by the road only, one can take bus also but with those beautiful views and Parvati river flowing side by side the road we preferred walking(4km from Kasol).

The natural beauty of the place was such that it could leave anyone speechless. On reaching Manikaran we explored the age old temples and the gurudwara and also had our Lunch for free at gurudwara only, food ws amazing. The bath at the hot springs releaved the stress of last night.

At around 2p.m we took a bus for Barshaini village (Rs 20/- per person) from Manikaran. This is the starting point for the Kheerganga trek. It felt as if the upstanding mountains were talking to me. We started our trek at 3pm and reached Rudranag(2Kms) , we had snackes at Rudranag(the resting point) and reached Kheerganga in the next 1 hour and 15 minutes, it took us 2 hours in total from Barshaini to reach Kheerganga.

So just after reaching the top we had some tea and we got a tent for ourselves , we were 4 and we got tent for 400 rupees which makes it 100 rupees per person.

All tents were booked but so it wasn't easy for us to get the tent for such low price but we convinced the shopkeeper by little chit chat.

The campfire was a beautiful part. We enjoyed the night and I started with my astrophotography experiments.

I tried it for like first time and i totally failed and then we just started with our crazy conversations.

Dinner was so delicious , we had Rajma Chawal and Chapati in dinner and that too for just 100 rupees per plate at that altitude.

Day 3 :

Next day we woke up late and had a bath at the Parvati Kund (Hot water spring) and it was the best part of our trip , it felt so good in that Kund and we enjoyed a lot and we were in there for like 2 hours , than and we the Kartik cave and the Shiva temple.

We had our Breakfast at around 10 am for 50 rupees per plate (Maggi and Tea) , and later we started our trek downhill.

We Reached Brshaini , the base from where trek starts at around 2p.m and then got a bus to Manikaran from there (Rs 20).

After reaching back to Manikaran, we had lunch at the Ram temple. We took a room in the Dharamshala of same temple for Rs 200 only(Rs 50/ person) .

We explored the temples of Manikaran after that and also talked to the local people and got to hear some great stories about the place.

Had our Dinner in the Temple only for free and also there was so much of variety in food in the temple unlike the Gurudwara.

Day 4 : We had our breakfast in temple only for free and started walking towards Kasol from Manikaran and when we were just about to reach Kasol , HRTC bus showed up and the bus was going directly to Delhi and to that we responded and got that bus from there to Chandigarh. (Bus far - Rs 400)

Beas river flowing alongside the road and the majestic valley views made the journey back to Chandigarh very small.

So that's how in less than 1200 rupees we managed everything from Chandigarh to Chandigarh and it was our first trip to that pl

#travelplanning #Travel #Kasol #Kheerganga #Himachal #Kullu #BudgetTraveling