Billing - Sun kissed Hill and a Lone Tea Stall

Billing Hill Top 

Billing in Himachal Pradesh is the world renowned place for paragliding. Words can not do enough justice to describe it's beauty. One can either trek the route or can just use vehicle. The height increases from 1350 m to 2400 m in a route of 14 km. The road has been cut through the dense forest. The road is quite narrow with lots of hairpin bends and blind curves. One gets to see beautiful views of valley. One has to be experienced enough to drive through this road. My intent of this post is not writing about Billing because one can find a lot of literature available on net for this picturesque place. Nevertheless few pictures for your eyes.

Hill in the Evening Hues

Beautiful View from Top

View of Valley from Trail

View of Forest

More than a place I was so impressed by a lone shop owner aka Chachu ji. The lone shop is known as Chachu Tea Stall and is on the top of hill. The owner is here 12 months a year and lives in a complete solitude with no human population in vicinity.It can have pretty harsh winters. The water supply reached this place in 2013 only !! There is still no electricity and the source of energy is few solar panels. These too were given by Government in 2013 only. He lives alone in his hut cum shop and is a one man army ! Quite an interesting fellow with plenty of stories about place and paragliding. Such an optimist and effervescent fellow. I saw few polythene bags filled with water hanging from roof. He told that once a team from discovery channel was visiting and they gave this advice to get rid of houseflies and this works!

Chachu Tea stall



Remedy for Houseflies

The Man Himself

His positive outlook compelled me to think that city dwellers like me have so many facilities at our hands but whenever it comes to complaining about life , nobody can beat us.He never overcharges unlike other places I have visited where inaccessibility adds an additional price to commodities or food items.He made best ever Maggi and we were so tired and hungry that it was like a panacea for us.

 Joy of eating maggi in such a serene and calm place in sun kissed mountain is heavenly. For me slurping hot maggi in rains and under clouds is always a high point of any visit to hill.Call it childish but somehow I just relate so much to Maggi and mountains. I think people who have visited Himalayan lower hills will agree with me.

People can do day trip to Billing and enjoy tandem rides for paragliding. I do not have heart to do paragliding :(. Adventurous people can do camping here itself . For rest they can park themselves in Colonels Retreat which is down there in valley and just go for a day trip to Billing and can slurp tasty Maggi made by Chachu Ji.