Placid Pangot

My recent trip was to Pangot, a charming hamlet in the Kumaon hills, Situated amid beautiful high-rise hills. Pangot is the right place for nature-lovers, birdwatchers, and people who appreciate a life of serenity! It’s 15 kilometers from Nainital at an altitude of 6500 feet. A scenic drive, occasional clouds encasing the roads and the desolate hills; Pangot is a stark contrast from buzzing Nainital.

Typically, Pangot is a small town, a modest temple, a village post-office, and a population of around a few hundred people!! Yes, you read that, right!!!

The best part, you get to experience life before mobile phones! Yes!! It’s a no network area! No mobile Connectivity and no social media!!! Shocker for an addict like me! But after spending two nights there, I cherished the serenity of the place and the much-needed social media detox!

A Birders paradise, you can witness over 500 different species of birds, A birder's Paradise! You almost immediately fall in love with the tranquillity of the place!! The weather is chilly round the year, and in winters can get to sub-zero too. So it doesn't matter what time of the year you are going, don't forget to carry your jackets or woollies.

We stayed at the Jungelore Birding Lodge. There are other resorts too, but this one is closest to nature — a beautiful and warm retreat. The interiors are wooden and snug. The Dining area especially is exquisite and cozy; you just want to spend your time sitting outdoors and “Dolce Far Niente” Italian for The Sweetness of doing nothing! Home-cooked meals are what you can expect, nothing fancy or elaborate but comforting for sure.

They also have an in-house naturalist, and she’s a delight to spend time with and extremely knowledgeable, while on treks or nature walks, the views of the Himalayan range can be breathtaking!

There’s absolutely nothing to do in the quaint little town except take a walk and meet a few locals, go for birding treks in the morning; different walking trails are possible depending on how much you want to walk. The weather changes without notice, and it's pretty exciting to see the clouds coming in from a distance and getting closer to you slowly and giving a cold hug right into your patio!

It was raining cats and dogs on our second day… and there are times when it starts raining it doesn’t stop for days on end.

Although we were pretty close to Nainital, we decided to skip it, didn’t want to mess around in our heads with the traffic and tourists after the composed state of minds we were in post-Pangot.

A must-visit destination as per me if you want to Go Offline from the World!!!

You can also read more about other top travel places on TBO Academy to plan your next travel.