Amazing Banjar Valley

Mr. Rana – owner of Dolly Guest House in Jibhi, recommends Chaini fort the most, for half day’s hike, to his guests. Chaini Fort – locally known as Chaini Kothi, is the highest tower in that area. These types of towers were made in the ancient times to place the soldiers on the top storey and keep a watch.
A day’s visit to Seolsar lake is also not a bad idea. One just has to reach Jalori Pass from Jibhi and walk for five kilometers through the dense Himalayan Oak forest. Almost a leveled walk takes you to a small circular shaped holy lake. There is a small temple of ‘Boodhi Nagin’ – an old female snake, at the banks of the lake and before that a shepherd serves tea and biscuits to the visitors at a reasonable cost. He has created a small hut with stones and wood. This hut has a small charcoal stove in the middle of the room with a pipe taking its fumes out and a sitting place has also been created with slate stones covered with rags of gunny bags. He has placed a few benches around his shop but he does not mind if on a rainy day you enter his shop and get warmth from his charcoal stove.
Locals visit this sacred lake and the temple frequently. This trek does not end here. One can also walk down to village Ghiyagi near Jibhi through some located villages, pastures, fields, waterfalls and a small rivulet. and to other end of the trek is other option is to Jibhi is a small hamlet in Banjar valley, district Kullu in Himachal Pradesh in the North of India and Rana has converted his small village house at the bank of a small rivulet, to a guest house. Originally this traditional house was built by his ancestors. Every winter they came to live in this and returned to their native village up on the mountain top during summer. Rana spent few years of his life in Germany where he learnt to deal with foreigners and when he returned to his native village his vision had widened enough to introduce tourism in the valley. He became the first one to take initiative and proceeded to convert his traditional house to a guest house.
It was not an easy job as he had to face the strong objections of his family and village fellows. No one from his area favored him, but Rana had taken a step ahead to complete his mission and there was no looking back for him. He kept the structure in its original style and added western style bathrooms and toilets to every room. Along with geysers he also added showers and covered the walls of bathrooms with modern tiles. In small cozy rooms he kept the mud walls, traditional ceiling, white washed them, fitted them with basic electricity bulbs and switches and decorated rooms with soft beddings and clean linen. He kept the wooden doors as originally they were but overhauled them up to the better appearance.
He was already rich with the knowledge of the historical and natural places in the valley so he did not have to bother about what his guests would do in that region. He collected information about the history, accessibility and treks so that he could keep his guests busy.
He named his place as Doli Guest House and spread awareness about his place to some of his old friends in Shimla who were deeply involved in tourism business. His vision worked and he was able to open gates of Banjar Valley for budget class foreign travelers. Banjar valley gained the name as a new tourist destination.
Many times people have suggested him to dismantle the original house and erect a new building but Rana has decided to maintain the real ambience of the house. “Frankly speaking I am not very keen to advertise my place, since would like to keep the valley secret for special people and for myself at large” says he.
Jibhi one of the greenest valleys in Himalayas is famous for Himalayan architecture, temples, forts, remote villages, smiling faces, hospitable villagers and thick Himalayan forest. There are waterfalls, rivulets, streams, lakes, an old fort a kilometer above Jalori Pass, a vertical 11 story watch tower called Chaini and peace.
I walk down to the stream next to the guest house and stretch my legs on a rock. The murmuring sound of jade blue waters of stream slightly bothers the silence around. Behind me there is a small traditional Himalayan house where I stay every time I come to Jibhi. There are a few European young boys and girls staying in the house. They are back packers and spend along time of their travel here, in Rana’s guest house. They read, meditate, walk around, paint, write or just stay here and sometimes return to this place after visiting other places in Himalayas.