40 degrees celsius. The temperature in Delhi that led the British to chose Shimla as the winter capital of India during their stay here. Delhiites, of course, have no such option as our work doesn’t play nice and it makes it really difficult for us to evade the heat here. When it does give us a chance, which is not very often, we do try to make full use of that opportunity.

This summer, we went to Ranikhet and Kausani. Both hill stations that have been given a lot of publicity on travel shows and magazines. And there’s the problem. Of all the people visiting these places, Indians are generally the only people who invariably make a mess of the place with packets of paan masala in every nook and corner. If you go for a trek, you’ll find packets of Lay’s and cans of Mountain Dew in an environment otherwise free of the nuisance that people are in metropolitan cities. Both places are superb and very well developed for tourists.

We escaped all this by deciding to go to Munsiyari this time. Munsiyari is a place that’s approximately 300km from Haldwani which is in turn 300km away from Delhi, our starting point. From Haldwani, it took us 12 hours to reach our destination. We were slowed down because of the hill driving and the landslides that had taken the roads down with them. The long journey puts off most people which is probably why in its present state, it isn’t like a typical tourist destination.

Pristine is the word that describes the place. You’ll enjoy the scenery and love your stay at this town with extremely friendly people. No touts and beggars to ruin the atmosphere. When you walk, you can hear your footsteps, and see eagles take off in front of you. There was one thing that was disappointing though. The food at KMVN was aloo this and aloo that. The Rajma they grow there are sold off as soon as they are collected. The only thing that’s left is the aloo.

I’m going to stop describing the place now. You can go see the place for yourself. When movie critics try not to spoil all the fun, why should I? More so, because it is a much bigger than your big screen. And more awesome. Of course, you could let your eyes feast on this Flickr set of mine. It has some nice pictures with dad in them, and some pictures of the Panchachuli peaks too.