That Time When Ziro Valley Stole My Heart!

"This year is really about, like the year of just realizing stuff."

- Kylie Jenner

I never thought I'd quote any of the Kardashian-Jenner people (or the others) but here I am, doing exactly that. 2016 is a year that I'll probably look back at, in retrospect of course. It was a year of learning a lot of essential and valuable lessons about life - most importantly, the fact that all problems in life irrespective of the scale, are short-lived (wow I'm still whining since this post), 2016 was also the year that was quite successful in terms of my travels.

One of my favorite experiences was a short trip to Ziro Valley with my father. I'm especially grateful for this one particular trip which taught me how to appreciate simple and quality living over the fast and unnecessarily complicated lifestyle that we all are drowning ourselves into, which we don't even put much thought into, as a person living in a city. The trip was organised primarily for the research-work for my Architectural Dissertation, but I did learn a  lot more beyond that. Lastly, I also want to give credit to my late grandfather, without whom, we wouldn't have thought of going there anytime soon.

You see, places like these gently whisper to your soul, inviting you to an experience which evolve you into a greater human being, leaving you with lessons worth much more than a lifetime~


Although I can go on and on about what you should and shouldn't do in the valley, I'll leave that bit for another post and focus on my favourite things about the valley for now.

The Part With The Oh-So-Lovely People!

Apart from commuting from the railway station to the valley (which took us a whooping 8 hours!), most of day 1 went into sightseeing and village hopping. I was in the search for a house that I could base my research on. I'm not quite sure what the name of the village was, but it's likely to be the village of Hija where we spotted this beautiful house with an even prettier garden in the front.

We had a forest ranger accompany us, who was also out guide for the stay along with our driver, both of them were locals and were kind enough to speak to lady on our behalf. In the local Tani language, they had a conversation which lasted about 30 seconds after which we were invited in without any hesitation!

Soooooo pretty..

We stayed there for about 20 minutes where I clicked tonnes of pictures of the house, the lady and her beautiful gardens. As we proceeded to leave, the lady asked me to follow her to the back of her vegetable garden, and my oh my! Never had I ever seen such beautiful fresh produce in someone's own house.

How gorgeous is this garden!

While I was distracted with the sheer greenery, she called out for me. There was absolutely no sign of communication between the both of us, but things just fell into place perfectly. At the very back of the garden was an elderly lady sitting amidst the plants and climbers, who was nothing short of being shy!

Surprise surprise!

I took more pictures, it was so beautiful - the garden, the people, everything! The valley has something about it, it's in the very air itself, I kid you not! The ladies were so kind, they even gave us a (giant) cucumber, straight out of their own garden. It perhaps weighted about a kilo and was the freshest produce I had seen in years. In other news, the cucumber had also made a successful journey back to Delhi in mint condition - there was no way that we would have been able to finish that cucumber in 3 days!

The Part I Realised How Little We Help Each Other

Just outside the same beautiful house was an open field with a small football goal post fixed. There were also poles erected in the same field to tie cows and mithuns so that they could graze on the grass around them, which were pretty close to the goal post.

Can you spot the house?

A little calf had somehow managed to get it's head stuck in the net. The Forest Ranger and our driver were nice enough to take the net off the calf's head - they indeed saved the day! Come to think of it, I can't imagine this happening in any city whatsoever. It's so sad.

A tiny little rescue operation~

The Part Were There Were Doggies Everywhere!

I love doggies! There's absolutely no doubt that they catch my attention at any given point of time, under any situation whatsoever. As a kid who had been bitten by a dog, I am a bit skeptical at first when it comes to dogs following or chasing me. I'm not scared of them, I'm just very alert in their presence - domesticated or stray. But oh my my! Ziro Valley is home to THE most friendly and adorable dogs, who'l follow you everywhere possible.

This little one followed me for a long time.

They're super cute and adorable that I'd pick one up and bring them home if it were up to me. These fluffballs were so playful and absolutely harmless, they're so full of love!

Casually chilling, these fellas'.

That Part About Red Tea

'Yummmmmmmmmmm!" (Sluuuurp) - me

The fresh air and perfect weather of the valley enhanced our tea-drinking experience to a couple hundred notches. the freshly brewed tea, which is commonly known as Red Tea was the best thing ever after a long day's work. Perhaps it was the tea leaves, it could also be the water - or probably both. It's just something you have if you're in the valley yourself. Extremely invigorating, you must not miss out on this!!

Oh how much I wish I had clicked a picture of it for ya'll to see. Sigh.

The Part Where I Took Casual Walks In The Middle Of Forests and Bamboo Plantations

(I'm not going to write anything about this. Just take a look yourself..)

Part A: When we sneaked inside someone's private bamboo plantation. Tee he he! Don't do it.

Quaint little bamboo plantation~

Part B: The one where we hiked in the middle of the forest, looking for an old house.

We started in from the forest..

.... ended here!

Currently Listening:

Can we just take a moment and appreciate how soothing Conan Gray's voice is?

Be back in a few, love~ Catch up with me on social media till then: Instagram/ Facebook/ Snapchat/ Bloglovin'