In love with a Himalayan homestay

Tucked away across the gurg­ling Beas, away from the chaot­ic touristy caco­phony of Man­ali, lies the quaint vil­lage of Jag­at­sukh. One of the old­est vil­lages in the Kullu dis­trict of India’s Himach­al Pra­desh state, Jag­at­sukh is nestled in the lap of nature. It’s the per­fect get­away for the slow traveller.

Himach­al Pra­desh is also called Dev Bhumi, the play­ground of the gods. It is a moun­tain state nestled in the Great­er Him­alay­an ranges of north­ern India. Snow-clad peaks, mean­der­ing rivers, apple and apricot orch­ards, and a people and cul­ture that will steal your heart are a few of the things that Himach­al Pra­desh can be proud of.

The inside track

Vandana Vijay is the Founder & CEO of Off­beat Tracks, India. While volun­teer­ing in 2014, the micro­bi­o­lo­gist and then Face­book employ­ee real­ised that she loved work­ing with rur­al com­munit­ies. “I decided to start on a ven­ture of my own that com­bined travel with a pos­it­ive impact on rur­al lives.”

Vil­lage-based exper­i­en­tial travel is gain­ing pop­ular­ity in India. It is the per­fect way to intro­duce people to slow, cul­tur­ally-immers­ive travel. We at Off­beat Tracks have partnered with Lagom Stay, a quaint fam­ily-run homestay tucked away in Jag­at­sukh vil­lage near Man­ali. What I would like to share below is how I spent a leis­urely week based at Lagom Stay, soak­ing it all in.

Around 12 km from Man­ali, at the north­ern end of Kullu Val­ley, lies Jag­at­sukh on the left bank of River Beas. A quaint yet bust­ling vil­lage, it is home to sev­er­al temples and is con­sidered to be one of the biggest towns in Kullu Val­ley. Loc­al lore says that it was the first cap­it­al of Himach­al Pradesh. 

I flew into Chand­igarh and endured an 11-hour drive uphill to Jag­at­sukh. (There were a lot of mis­haps with our car, en route!) When we reached Lagom Stay, we were greeted by the two friendly dogs of the prop­erty, Kalu and Smal­ley. Wag­ging their tails, they escor­ted us down the slope to the bright green pick­et fence and rose garden.

I had worked with Priy­anka and Gand­harv, the hosts of the three-bed­room prop­erty, for more than a year. Now I finally got to exper­i­ence their warm hos­pit­al­ity first-hand. They impressed me right from the word go. I was wel­comed with pip­ing hot cof­fee and a piece of chocol­ate cake; very wel­come after a long road trip. And my room was cosily done up with scen­ted candles, fresh lin­en and tow­els, and a wel­come note on my pil­low. It is small ges­tures such as these that make you feel truly at home.

The next day was leis­urely. We drove to the adja­cent vil­lage of Nag­gar and vis­ited the Nag­gar castle with its unique moun­tain archi­tec­ture. Uma ji wel­comed us into her 100-year-old ances­tral home where we shared with her fam­ily an authen­t­ic Himach­ali thali (meal) fea­tur­ing the loc­al spe­ci­al­it­ies siddu and gic­cha.

Man­ali absorbed my second day. I vis­ited the fam­ous Hadimba Devi Temple, the Manikaran Hot Springs, and walked the lanes of Old Man­ali and the Beas river­side. Man­ali is a place for Maggi lov­ers; yes, the two-minute ramen-style noodles, which are the basis of a favour­ite snack in India. Man­ali street vendors serve it pip­ing hot in the cold moun­tain air; vari­ants include egg, cheese, and mas­ala. None of them disappoint!

Our third day was like no oth­er as we headed towards the trans-Him­alay­an won­der­land of Lahaul. The drive there fea­tures the world’s longest tun­nel above 10,000 ft that cuts through the Pir Pan­jal Ranges. The light at its end is a gor­geous land­scape of rugged moun­tains, snow-capped peaks, and the frozen Chandra river. The views left me mes­mer­ised and lit­er­ally gasping.

We shared a lunch at the home of a tra­di­tion­al Lahauli fam­ily. The Lahaul­is are of Tibetan des­cent and for a long time were a nomad­ic people. A typ­ic­al Lahauli vil­lage has flat-roofed homes adorned with flut­ter­ing Buddhist pray­er flags and small barns for live­stock. We spent some time explor­ing the vil­lage and inter­act­ing with the locals.

The next two days we filled with a mod­er­ate trek uphill to Tilgan, guided by Raju Ji. Raju ji is a seasoned trek­ker and cyc­list who knows this land­scape like the back of his hand. After a five-hour walk through the mead­ows we camped for the night at a vant­age point made for the movies. With our tents pitched beside a cosy fire, we enjoyed the sun­set, the stars, and the snow-clad peaks glisten­ing in the moonlight.

The next morn­ing we trekked a little fur­ther up to the snow line, observing wild horses and moun­tain foxes along the way. We also saw the tracks of a leo­pard, which was excit­ing. We returned to Lagom Stay for lunch and spent the rest of the day relax­ing with mugs of Priyanka’s hot chocol­ate, soak­ing our tired but sat­is­fied feet in hot water.

For my last day in Jag­at­sukh, we wandered down past the apple orch­ards to the bank of the river Beas for brunch. Gand­harv and Priy­anka had packed us a bas­ket of home-baked bread and cook­ies, fresh cheese from the vil­lage, some moun­tain wine, and more of that won­der­ful chocol­ate cake. The meal trans­por­ted me back to an Enid Blyton novel!

Later we headed back up for a her­it­age walk around the vil­lage. I sampled more cheese at the loc­al cheese shop, Him­alay­an Dairy, which pro­duces some amaz­ing cheeses ran­ging in style from Gouda to Parmes­an to loc­al Him­alay­an and a lot more. My final pit stop was the loc­al sweet shop spe­cial­ising hot jalebis and pakor­as, which I enjoyed with a warm cup of tea as I soaked in the moun­tain views for the last time.

It was a teary adieu to my hosts. They had become more like fam­ily to me over the week I was there. I prom­ised that I would return very soon with many more friends who would love to exper­i­ence this beauty and their hospitality.

I have no doubt a week at Lagom Stay will leave you with a rich­er under­stand­ing of the var­ied Him­alay­an cul­tures, and a new or deep­er love for the Him­alay­as. Every guest leav­ing Lagom Stay does so with memor­ies to cher­ish for a life­time and a yearn­ing to return again as soon as possible.

Where is this?

Lagom Stay
Oppos­ite Pun­jab Nation­al Bank, Jag­at­sukh, Man­ali, Himach­al Pra­desh 175143, India
Tel: +91 84475 73002 | E‑mail: reservations@lagomstay.com

Off­beat Tracks
You can also book Lagom Stay and oth­er Him­alay­an exper­i­ences with Vandana’s busi­ness. Tel & What­s­App: +91 76740 62581 | help@offbeattracks.us

Where next?