My visit to Garli, Himachal Pradesh (4 km from Pragpur) started on an interesting note. Our driver (and taxi owner) Amit pointed out to a huge home and said this too was being converted in a hotel. When we asked if we could enter, he nodded yes. We checked with a man coming out of the house and he too said yes, we could go. Pooja and I went clicking for a while and then out walked the owner of the house Mr. Atul Lal! He greeted us and welcomed us to his home! When we asked if he had plans of converting it into a hotel, he said no, where we were standing was his private home! His wife also came out to say hello. Now if everyone welcomed trespassers like this.
I felt a little red faced, after all people assured that we could walk in but I would never dream of walking in to someone’s private home. Atul soon put us at ease and started telling us about Garli. He pulled out a map of Garli which lists all the heritage buildings in the area. He advised that the best way to see the places was to walk, alas we just didn’t had time, we still had to go to Chamba Pattan and the day was racing to an end.
Atul told us about his move back to Garli, leaving the corporate world behind. He has recently opened a property- Naurang Yatri Niwas. Due to lack of time I could not go inside but I ever ventured that way again, I would like to stay there. He wrote to me about its history.
Naurang Yatri Niwas was originally built in 1922 by my Grandfather, Rai Bahadur Mohan Lal to facilitate the stay for the Lt Governor of Punjab to attend the wedding of his eldest daughter, Hema. A mettaled road was built from Bani to Garli for this purpose. Later the building was used as a sarai for travellers, and the general use of the public. Around 50 years ago, it fell into neglect, and was ransacked by various elements over the years.
We decided to renovate / restore the building in 2013 and after one year of effort we have tried to bring back her former glory and also put in modern amenities like electricity, water and toilets and re christened it Naurang Yatri Niwas.
If you wish to book the place you can write to [email protected], or call Mr Ravinder Singh at 01970-245096 / 09418602132. The tariff is in the range of 1500 Indian rupees as of now but do check again. Then there was another coincidence. I looked at another property which was being converted into a hotel at Garli.
We were walking around the place as it was so picturesque, the caretakers were quite courteous to us. They mentioned that the other property the owners have is Chalets Naldhera, a place I have been invited to before! Now Chalets is a very beautiful place and I am sure Mr Yatish and Minu Sood would make this place equally remarkable.
I would have loved to walk around the place and discover the heritage buildings but then what all can you do when you just have two half days to spend at a place!
Like Pragpur, Garli also has a taal. Like Pragpur, Garli has also been declared a heritage village by the Himachal Pradesh government. I just got a fleeting glimpse of Garli on this trip. I hope my travels would take me that way once again. I would also say if you are in the vicinity do go, before it gets properly discovered!
Interesting indeed! Pragpur and surrounding area has some lovely buildings. Garli almost resembles Kanadukathan in Tamil Nadu famous for its Chettinad houses. You may read about it here. http://journeys2remember.blogspot.com/2011/07/india-travel-blog-chettinad.html
Thanks for the link Poorna.
hi mridula, so good to read about garli…we’ll go there together inshallah!
I too hope so Anu that we will travel together again.
Beautiful home/ hotel 🙂 loved photo of taal , have never heard /seen about Garlii before. looks interesting 🙂
I too only got a fleeting glimpse Deepa.
Have never been to the place. Thanks for the photos especially the Taal which is something that might attract me towards the place in future 😀
I hope you do go Anmol.
Looks like an European street… almost
Thanks for the perspective Shrinidhi!
Surely a must visit at leisure
Yes Deepak, this was too rushed a trip.
love to visit and stay at such places….Most of the famous hill stations are now commercialism ……liked it
Me too Mahesh, I like to stay away from bigger places that are just too commercialized.
This is the first introduction with this heritage village and nice to know about it…a peaceful , serene village it looks..beautiful photos and it so nice of Mr.Lal and his family to welcome strangers so warmly… 🙂
Yes Maniparna what a fool we made of ourselves, only the Lals were so graceful!
Garli my native palace. very beautifull palace in kangra Distt.all facilities available in this palace . new hotels, hospital, universty, govt school . Pvt. academy is also available there like Minerva Academy , Sarswati vidya mandir etc. nearly bus stand , taxi on hire with tourist permit at taxi stand. now garli has become a film shouting area . m proud of my native palace garli. Garli is such wonderful palace for visit.
what a beautiful Himachal is ! wow , u give us a brief of himachal in the small packet of Garli
Thanks Yogi.
wowow.. that hotel looks good and the niwas and history
kudos to Amit for taking that step . leving the corporate world and going there ..
Thank you so much MAM for taking us on this tour.. Small places but so beautiful .. I am definitely going there on my next visit to india, as i usually go and stay in shimla for a couple of days every time .. so can g a bit furthur tooo
Bikram
I hope you will like it Bikram. And do tell us about your experience.
I would love to take a walk there. 🙂
Indrani I hope you do soon.
Beautiful place. Yeah, wish strangers were invited home like how he did.
I know Niranjan that was so nice of them. But just can’t imagine that happening in a big city!
wow..this place calls me..need to explore it as i love historical and Heritage places, just love the feeling of traveling into time when these places were in their young age.
Tarun whereas it is the nature that attracts me most 😀
The place looks quite unlike Himachal Pradesh. I’m amazed how beautiful our country is! There are unique surprises everywhere!
I agree Renuka, particularly how beautiful the Himalayas are.
Never heard of this place,but looks like after this,I am adding it to my list when in Himachal.Btw I love the 3rd pic,the most,so colorful.
Thank you Anki, I hope you do go.
What a beautiful place! I guess, people love their place a lot and they have well maintained it! Wishing if we could restore the cultural India to the most extent!
Thanks a lot Mridula! Garli is such a wonderful post to visit!
Regards,
Sindhu
Tantu
The Arts & Me
It was a beautiful experience for me too Sindhu.
Its seems to be a peaceful place to spend time away from the chaos
It was a peaceful place indeed. 😀
Never heard of this place before. Is if famous for garlic?
My Village proud to be a citizen of garli
hello ,
i am avani , an architect from ahmedabad,Gujarat, i am planning to visit garli , pragpur, and other places around kangra valley so i want to know about naurang yatri niwas at garli ,is it good place to stay means all facilities and all
Hi Avani as you can see this post is from 2013 and I have not visited recently. So really sorry, can’t give you an update on this.