Pin Valley National Park - A Life Changing Experience

Sometimes travel teaches you more lessons than all the books you might have read in your school days. On one such trip to the Mud village, located at Pin Valley National Park; we experienced something that changed our life forever. So here is out short but sweetest travel story.

Mud is the last village of Pin Valley National Park, which remains completely cut off from rest of the world for nearly 6 months.

How to reach Mud- Pin Valley?

You can reach Mud by taking HPRTC bus from Kaza. The bus runs daily, around 4 PM afternoon, from Kaza and leaves back from Mud next day 7AM. If you are on a road trip, then take your vehicle to Pin Valley National Park and at the end of the road you will reach a small village surrounded by snowy heavenly peaks called Mud Village.

Where to Stay in Pin Valley?

There are plenty of Home Stays in Mud village. Few of those, you can prebook with your packaged tour operators or you can also book directly from online portal. It’s better to book ahead as there are only 42 homes. There are also few other options outside Mud, in nearby villages.

Our Journey to Mud Vilage

As part of our budget travel, we have visited many places including cities, beaches and mountains. Above all, what amazes us is the fact that, as much remote places we have visited we have came across locals of these places with purest souls. And this is what have always touched our lives forever.

Our story starts, when we were on a road trip to Spiti Valley. We heard how spectacular Mud village is. Therefore, how can you miss such a beautiful place? So we decided for a night stay in Mud village, and started our journey from Tabo.

We had booked an entire car, so we started from Tabo post breakfast, spent an ample amount of time in Dhankar. Hiked all the way up to Dhankar lake in the afternoon. We started our trip to Pin Valley post lunch, Amit was not feeling well. He had severe headache, cold and felt feverish.

While he dosed off after a dose of paracetamol, I was enjoying the spectacular view of the valley. You have to travel through these roads to understand what I am talking about. Every turn we took presented us with breathtaking views of Himalayas. Pin river along side the road and small villages surrounded by few snowy peaks was a treat to the eye. Some of these villages have a population of 12 people staying in harmony.

Finally we reached our destination; the Mud village. Upon reaching we quickly started searching for a place to stay and we were told that all the home stays are full. That left us with only one option, to go back to Kaza for the night. Our driver was very happy as he hated remote locations, as a result he wasn’t much help to look for a place to stay there.

A life changing experience

Mud village is located at the lap of mountains by the river side. A small village with 42 household with a population just above 170 people. We could not believe it that we can’t stay here. It was already getting dark, suddenly I saw a homestay board in a rickety house, so decided to check on it. I went inside and asked for some help. What happened from there on was unexpected for us being staying in cities like Mumbai!

The home owner stays with his wife and son’s family. However, our home stay was fully booked by other tourists. On hearing our problem without any delays the owner decided to help with his own bed room. They just asked us to wait and cleaned the room. We were allowed to stay at their personal bedroom, whereas he and his wife chose to sleep in their kitchen.

Our story doesn’t end here, our hosts took good care of Amit. They served him warm local tea and made sure he is comfortable. They even advised him to occupy one of their warmest room, yes their extended kitchen area. This is the place where the entire family stay during winters. Meanwhile I got to see the sunset from their terrace. Amit was all ok in the evening. We met other guests in the property who instantly became our friends.

At night we heard rats roaming on the roof! We discussed this on dinner table with few other travellers sharing the place with us. Then, our hosts confirmed that and explained us that they were harmless.

As the weather cleared out at night we all went up the roof to see the stars. First time in our life we saw zillions of stars and the milkyway with our naked eye. All of us spent quite sometime enjoying the the cold night with blanket of stars. Later we called it for a day and slept peacefully.

This home we stayed was not perfect or luxurious, we could hear rodents running on the roof but it was the most memorable stays we had. Mainly because of our hosts, they were as pure as the nature in Mud.