Satkhol- A Promised Land

India is melange in itself. One can have many fascinating things in many aspects. The country has a unique taste at a place and have totally different taste just by travelling few kilometers. In same month, one can experience hot weather at some places and extreme cold environment at another. Desert in one side so as beautiful mountains at another side.

Having mountains all around, Satkhol, is really a promised land on the Earth. This land is a boon of nature. It has beautiful, charming and stunning atmosphere. The Golden valley and whispering willows make the place even more appealing.

Uttarakhand state has two regions. Garhwal region and Kumaon region. Satkhol is located in the Kumaon foothills of outer Himalayas. From Dehradun, the distance is 333.6 kilometers and from New Delhi, 356.4 kilometers. It comes under the Nainital district and have a co-ordinates 29.49°N 73.62°E and elevation of 1900 meter.

The weather during the months of winters say October to March, is cold enough and sometimes it has temperature variations -2°C to 8°C, which makes the place very cold. In the month of April to September weather is quite unpredictable. Days may be warm but the nights still have cold. If you want to enjoy the snowfall there, then you must go in the winter season.

The place also has its spiritual importance for the seekers who have been practicing heart based meditation, a new, unique and refine approach of meditation. Here is an ashram, named "Satkhol Himalayan Ashram – Heaven on Earth" maintained by "Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Shahjahanpur." At Satkhol, nature shows itself here as its best. The ashram too have a stunning ambience. The place is full of beautiful flowers of different species, can attract anyone easily.. You may ask to have a meditation session in the ashram, which will surely lead you to the lightness and calmness. Honestly it will give you a inner joy.

The main attraction of Satkhol is Himalayan Ashram, its beauty and of course its lofty infrastructure. They have multiple varieties of beautiful flowers. You can learn the approach from them. The sightseeing of sublime Himalayan range will surely take you to the another world. At some places you can go deep down and can see the farming fields. But for that, be careful, have shoes and never go down at night. Satkhol is in between of Nainital and Almora. You can have fun in Almora and can go Nainital as well. In Nainital there are so many lakes and temples.

Whenever we are travelling for enjoyment and spending some time away from a busy schedule, there are always certain things to take care about so that our trip will remain longstanding in our memories and we will feel happiness and inner joy by recalling it.

1-Clothing

Some sort of clothes are always necessary while travelling to Satkhol. As you can experience a cold weather at night even in summer days, so you need to have some warm clothes with you like shawls and sweaters in which you feel comfortable and warm. You must have woolen clothes including warm hats, mufflers, inner and socks for winter months. Good and supportive shoes are of course necessary.

2-Food & Accommodation

You may have variety of foods here. They gave samosa in a very unique way with some sort of liquid vegetable. We have samosa with peas and onion at some places. You may not have your favorite food sometimes as you are too far from the ground, the restaurants have lack of raw material for the finished dish. There are only certain shops which have snacks of branded companies, so you have to carry your loving one. But, no doubt, the local one is better enough in taste and quality.

For stay, there are several hotels in different range of prices. You can book a hotel either online or at the location. But if you are travelling in the summer season, make sure about the availability of rooms in the hotels first as there will be heavy rush.

3-Emergency Situation

You are going to travel to the mountains. Very first thing which is necessary is to carry all your regular medicines. Suppose you are travelling for a week, then carry medicines for 20 days. This is due the lack of availability of the kind of medicine you needed and sometimes due to snowfall and some other reasons, the roads get blocked, in such conditions you can’t go anywhere. The another important thing is to carry the first-aid pills for vomiting, as majority of people face the same issue while travelling to the mountains because the roads have extreme curves almost at every 100 meter and then nausea will arise. Some other important medical things like pain removal spray must be carried.

If you are travelling by an airplane

Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi (DEL) and Pantnagar Airport (PGH) are the nearest airports to the place. After that, you have a option to use private taxi or train or bus from New Delhi Airport and from Pantnagar Airport, only taxi service is available.

If you are travelling by train

Kathgodam (KGM) is the nearest train station. You can book a taxi or use a local bus to reach to your destination.

If you travelling by road

If you are planning to travel with your own car then simply use google maps for the same and start your journey.

♥ Carry sufficient cash. ATM’s are there, but you must have a sufficient cash for the local shopkeepers as some of them still do not use the online payment.

♥ Don’t forget to see the 'Sroat'.

Sroat is a natural source of water for drinking as well as for other purposes. It is a major source of water for the people, who lives here. The other source is rain water.

♥ Have a good number of clothes while travelling to avoid washing of clothes.

♥ Have a look of the tree of Pear. Don’t forget. It gives immense happiness if you are seeing the tree for the very first time and the fruits on ir.. If possible, have a taste of totally fresh fruit.

Satkhol is a very charming and awesome place to visit in Uttrakhand of India. Its beauty can never be defined in words. In the morning, as soon as you leave your bed and go to the window or balcony, you have beautiful Himalayas in front of your eyes, covered with the white layer or shining in orange, leads you to the heaven. This is a place which can never be forgotten.