Our home for 3 weeks, in Himachal Pradesh, was the village of Sungal, near the town of Palampur, in the Kangra Valley. The weather was cool but sunny at first, warming pleasantly a little more each day. We had lugged our thermals, hats, gloves etc. around South Africa in expectation of cold weather in northern India, but weren't too disappointed when we didn't get to use them!
Although the roads were no better than we'd experienced before in India, there was much less traffic. We found that the whole atmosphere much cleaner & fresher - & the scenery & views were wonderful. We were surrounded by tea plantations & there were lush fields of rice & vegetables, not to mention healthy green beds of cannabis growing by all the roadsides. And, of course, there were the mountains, our main reason for choosing to come to this area. We were in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Palampur is a busy market town, just 15 minutes & a 5 rupees bus ride away from Sungal, which is a delightful village with brightly painted, well maintained houses.The paths that meandered through the village led to a clear, fast flowing river scattered with enormous boulders. It was a peaceful spot to sit & contemplate the mountains with eagles wheeling overhead, parrots in the trees & bulbuls (birds with fantastic blue plumage) preening on the rocks.
For the 1st time in India, we were able to get away from the madding crowds. We weren't hassled by passers-by, touts or beggars when we went into town & although we came across locals out walking or grazing their cows, horses, donkeys & gorgeous Kashmiri goats, nobody bothered us with more than a smiled greeting. Nobody asked to have their photo taken with us (it's mainly Howard who gets this request!), stared at us, formed a crowd around us or tried to sell us anything.
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