Munsyari - A Trip To Paradise

Where is that?
This is what I am asked every time I mention that the most beautiful hill town I have
ever been to is Munsyari.
Munsyari is a place that I had never heard of until a few years ago. Yet, strangely, the
seed of desire to visit the hill town was sown as soon as I first heard of it. A cousin from
Shantiniketan first mentioned Munsyari to me. This cousin took to the hills like a fish
took to water and despite having lived in Shantiniketan for four decades, she hadnt
succeeded in expunging the allure of the blue hills from her being born and bred as
she was in the beautiful town of Shillong. Sitting in the living room of her house, I saw
glimpses of Munsyari through her beautiful pencil sketches. I also heard her sing a song
in a Hindustani classical raga that she had composed in the Munsyari valley while facing
the Panchchuli peaks.
Getting to Munsyari is not easy. It needs a lot of planning, patience and most of all, the
absence of vertigo. For more than five years, I planned trips to Munsyari without
actually undertaking them. Information on the Internet routinely cautioned travellers
against landslides and bad roads. Munsyari remained unvisited for a long time till I
found an eager partner in Jishnu, together with our respective families. Besides being a
childhood friend, a successful marketing professional and an experienced traveller,
Jishnu is a passionate photographer. All the photos in this article are by him, taken on
his Nikon D80.
There are two ways of getting to Munsyari the first via Nainital, Kausani, Baijnath,
Chaukori and Thal; the second, by a more direct northbound route via Pithoragarh and
Thal. We took the first route, halting for a night each at Nainital and Kausani, before
heading out on the final stretch towards Munsyari. The time was October 2009, a week
before Diwali. The air was crisp and very cold, the sky a spotless shade of deep indigo
and our spirits, blithe and effervescent. We travelled by a Chevrolet Tavera, which
turned out to be a good choice of vehicle considering the advantage that its high chassis
provided on some of the really horrible stretches on the way.
At Kausani, after sighting the
most spectacular sunrise
imaginable, we packed
ourselves four adults, three
children and the driver in
the Tavera and started
descending towards the valley
of Baijnath, home to the

Sunrise over Mt Trishul, from Kausani

famous Baijnath Shiva temple. We viewed the temple from a gas station by the
roadside without actually going inside the temple premises were set a few hundred
metres away from the road and took pictures. Trekking trips to the Pindari Glacier are
organised from Baijnath.

We headed for Chaukori, another

picturesque little town en route to
Munsyari, set in the foothills of the
Kumaon Himalayas. The drive from
Baijnath to Didihat was an absolute
dream with beautifully surfaced roads
meandering almost endlessly, hill after
hill, through thick pine forests. The air
grew colder as we ascended the hills, the
fragrance of pines hanging heavy in the
air, sunshine breaking through the
canopies of the trees and piercing the
mist in clearly defined yellow beams!
There were pine forests for as far as the
eye could see. I was reminded so much
of my hometown, Shillong. If driving was
a dream, then this was a highway of
reverie!

Green Paradise on the way to Chaukori

We arrived at Chaukori a little past noon, famished and spoiling for a feast. We drove
into the KMVN resort and ordered lunch. The view from this resort was breathtaking!
The small, idyllic cottages of the resort were scattered at the base of a tea garden. In
the background, at a northerly direction, the mighty Trishul stood in majestic splendour.
The peak was pristine white at this hour, quite different from the golden hue that it
projected at sunrise. The sunrise over Trishul that we had viewed from Kausani earlier
in the morning had been almost unreal in its beauty! The KMVN resort at Chaukori had
a tall watch tower on its premises, which we climbed to take photographs. The kids
enjoyed this part immensely. Lunch over, we got back into the car and started off on
the remaining leg of the journey towards Munsyari.

The Magnificent Panchchuli from Chaukori

The reverie broke as we approached Thal, where we were met with bad roads and
landslides. The luggage carrier atop the Tavera gave away due to all the bumping and
we had to lower our bags from the roof and pack them at the rear of the car. The
progress from this point, approximately 20 kms before Thal, was painfully slow. Huge
boulders lay scattered on the way, almost blocking off the entire road. There were signs
of fresh landslides all around.
It was late in the afternoon when we crawled into the hamlet of Thal (1100 metres),
where the road from Pithoragarh to Munsyari joined ours. From Thal, a single ribbon of
a road climbed up, hugging the facade of the steep and imposing Kalamuni Parvat. (The
last gas station is located here in Thal. The next one is in Munsyari, 74 kilometres away,
which we discovered later had no stock of fuel! Therefore, filling up the fuel tank at the
Indian Oil gas station at Thal is a must.)
We travelled uphill from Thal, the road rising steeply. As we gained elevation, the views
that we got from the road were grand but scary. The Kalamuni mountain appeared to
be battered, bruised and falling apart, with landslides down almost every slope. Looking
down the sides of the road was a scary experience. A fall from here would not only be
fatal but also probably never be detected. As we drove on, the rays of the afternoon
sun fell on the hill lighting up the bare rocks with brilliance. We surmised that the rocks
contained lots of mica. Occasionally, a waterfall would cascade down the hill and a
stream would flow across the road. We climbed higher and higher. The road that we
had driven on started to look like a long serpent below us. The vegetation changed and
alpine forests started appearing on the landscape. We passed the Birthi waterfalls on
the way, where a huge sheet of white water dropped vertically from the hills, close to
the road.
We crossed the Kalamuni mountain (2800 metres) just when the sun was about to set.
As soon as we crossed the pass and emerged on the other side what we beheld was
possibly the grandest sight imaginable. The Panchchuli range stood before us in
ethereal elegance, all the five peaks lit up in a bright orange hue and within almost
touchable distance. We got out of our car to absorb the sight and to soak in the

ambience. We caught the first sight of Munsyari town from here, set in the valley below
(2250 metres) the valley being the last entity separating us from the mighty snow clad
Himalayas.

Sunset over Panchchuli from Kalamuni Pass (2800 m)

In front of us were the five imposing peaks named after the five Pandava brothers,
resplendent in their snow-clad cloaks, now shaded in a surreal golden-orange and kissed
by columns of billowing clouds. The sheer scale of the beauty and grandeur of
Panchchuli has to be experienced from Munsyari to be understood. Having been born
and raised in the hills and after having visited almost all the hill towns in India, I can
speak with an unequivocal certainty that few places come anywhere close to the magical
beauty of Munsyari.
We reached the KMVN resort in
Munsyari just as the clock struck
6:00 pm. The sun had already
set. The stars had come out bright and sparkling. We
shivered in the mountainous chill
and the now greyish outline of the
Panchchuli peaks hovered over us
like a ghostly silhouette. We
checked in, ate dinner and called

Dusk over Panchchuli from Munsyari

it a day. The journey had been very tiring.

The KMVN resort at Munsyari was picturesque, but pretty basic in its features. Munsyari
is a quaint town tucked away in the final folds of the sub-Himalayan ranges, far away
from civilisation. Therefore, the luxuries that one would normally associate with a well
appointed hotel were not available here, and expectedly so. Our rooms were spacious
and had balconies that provided unhindered views of the Panchchuli peaks. (However,
some rooms on the first floor had the view of the peak obstructed by trees). Of course,
every other spot in the town provided an unhindered view as well so close that we had
come to the snow covered range. The sole restaurant at the resort was functional at
best, without much variety on offer. There werent many places where we could go out
to eat either. In fact, Munsyari is so small that one could easily walk from one end of
the town to the other in less than half an hour. There was a sprinkling of hotels and
lodges in the town, but KMVN easily looked the best among them. The most convenient
aspect about KMVN resorts in Uttaranchal is that all bookings can be easily done online.
We ate simple food during the three days that we spent at KMVN Munsyari, but culinary
delights and living comforts had receded to the farthest corner of our priorities,
overwhelmed that we were with the unmatched natural beauty that we saw all around
us. Lovely, colourful flowers were in blossom all over Munsyari and the town basked in
the reflected glow of the snow clad mountains throughout the day. Munsyari was sheer
bliss!
No mobile network other than BSNL works here and this factor was a blessing as it cut
me off totally from unwelcome calls from office!
On the first morning after our arrival, we set
off on a trek to the temple of Nanda Devi.
Opting not to walk down the motorable road,
we chose to take the hilly terrain that offered
the challenge of steep climbs and sharp falls
alike. The valleys surrounding our trek were
full of terrace cultivations and this imparted
to the hills a chequered appearance in
various shades of green. The trek route was
circuitous but immensely enjoyable. We
crossed meadows with cattle grazing lazily
on the grass the Bugyals of Kumaon! We
inhaled the fresh unpolluted mountain air.
We let the chilled breeze caress our skin and
hair. We saw the mountains all around us
and got the feeling of standing in the middle
of a gigantic amphitheatre. Everything
seemed so good with the world. This was

heaven! And, Jishnu kept clicking away photos of this heaven.

Terrace Cultivation on the slopes

After two hours of hiking, we reached

the Nanda Devi temple, a small white
structure set on a plateau surrounded by
woods. An orchestrated chorus of
crickets came from the woods. But
everything else was so peaceful out
here!

Nanda Devi Temple against a mighty

backdrop

Scenic surroundings in Munsyari

We undertook two more very enjoyable treks on the following days.

The first was uphill to Betulidar, past waterfalls and streams. It was quite an arduous
trek. At a crossing of a stream, Jishnu lay himself flat on a rock midstream and took
some beautiful photographs.

Cascading streams of clear, cold water

It was an hour long climb at the end of which we reached a flat and an opening in the
hill. There, we set up a camping tent that we had taken with us. It took us some trials
to figure out the various components of the tent and after that, some effort to set them
up. Once the tent had been erected, we entered it and partook of the snacks that we
had carried with us. Outside, a young boy in school dress emerged on the scene. We
learnt from him that he walked downhill to his school in Munsyari every morning and
came back the same way in the evening. Quite a contrast from our children who are so
used to being driven from home to school and back!
The next trek was a longer and more taxing one to Thamri Kund, a lake in the middle of
the forests, some 600 metres above Munsyari.

The Picturesque Thamri Kund

We drove to the same spot where we had first viewed the Panchchuli peaks at sunset
two days ago, at the top of the Kalamuni mountain. From there, we hiked up and down
hills, through thick forests and fecund vegetation for 4 kms to a lake, set in a hollow in
the woods Thamri Kund.

Sheep grazing in a sylvan setting

We had hired the services of a local guide, an affable young man named Mahesh, to
escort us on this trek. Of all the three treks that we undertook at Munsyari, this one to
Thamri Kund was the best. The forest was a multicoloured spectacle, straight out of the
films shot in the European Alps. Through the foliage, the white peaks of Panchchuli
peeped at us every now and then. We also came across a group of nomadic shepherds
herding their flock of sheep. We spoke to one of them who informed that travelling with
the animals from Milam village, 45 kms into the Himalayas from Munsyari, down to the
plains of Haldwani was an annual ritual during the autumn-winter season. They would
again start climbing back towards Milam at the end of winter. There were hundreds of
sheep, minded by shepherd hounds, clustered under towering trees with multicoloured
leaves it looked like a scene out of the epic film Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli
that I had watched decades ago as a schoolboy. I couldnt help but wonder why
Munsyari hadnt yet been discovered by Bollywood. On second thought, it seemed a
boon that it hadnt.

Nomadic Shepherds pausing for a smoke

The town presented a calm and serene look throughout our stay. Munsyari was a place
that seemed frozen in time. There was a small market towards the lower part of the
town through which ran a narrow street with shops on either side. One of the evenings
that we spent there was on the occasion of Dhan Teras. We saw people buying utensils,
as is the tradition. The vegetable shops in the market seemed to have little other than
cabbages and onions, besides the ubiquitous potatoes, on sale. An uphill walk from the
market brought us to the bus stand.

The Munsyari Valley

There was a makeshift stall Giri tea stall near the bus stand, where we spent the
evenings sipping tea while sitting on roughly sawed log benches and observing the
changing hues of the setting sun reflected off the Panchchuli range. It drizzled one such
evening. We sat under the tin covered awning of the stall, watching the rain fall on the
surrounding mountains. An elderly man sat beside us, spinning yarn. Jishnu got a
conversation going with him. The gentleman lamented that the young generation had
migrated to the bigger towns in search of jobs. Munsyari offered heaven to the tourists,
but had little to offer the local lads in terms of livelihood.
One of the highlights of our stay at Munsyari was
a visit to Masterjis Museum. Dr S S Pangtey, a
retired professor of Munsyari College had started
a museum in his house with a modest collection
of artefacts belonging to the valley and the
passes leading to Tibet. Pleased with his
initiative, the government granted him funds for
expanding his museum. Prof Pangtey turned out
to be an extremely friendly and knowledgeable
man, probably in his late sixties, with a penchant
for explaining things in a very simple manner.
His collection was impressive and his
descriptions very informative. The most
amazing part of his collection was a rare species
called Yarsa Gomba, a caterpillar found above
the snowline, which mysteriously turned into a
plant once the snow melted! Gathering the
Yarsa Gomba from the mountains had apparently
Masterji

become a profitable activity since these caterpillars fetched huge money. We returned
from the museum with a deeper understanding of the people and the habitat of the
Johar Valley, of which Munsyari was a part.
On the last morning of our trip, we checked out of the KMVN resort after breakfast and
hit the road towards Thal. Our destination was Ranikhet. It was Diwali and the
mountains were glowing with a multi-coloured brilliance in the rays of the morning sun.
As our Tavera climbed up the hilly road, we looked back at the town with a tinge of
sadness in our hearts. It felt like leaving behind a sweetheart on whom we had
developed a huge crush, not knowing when we might ever meet again. Munsyari had
already carved a permanent place in our hearts.

Information :
-

Distance from Nainital to Munsyari = 290 Kms

Distance from Kausani to Munsyari = 160 kms
Elevation of Munsyari = 2250 metres
For KMVN hotel bookings, log onto www.kmvn.org
Last petrol pump before Munsyari is at Thal (72 kms)
Best season :: Mar-May and Sep-Nov (both winter and rainy seasons are best
avoided)