Bir
My journey to Bir, also known as Beed by Beedkars started from Mumbai. Mumbai is my first stop from Pune for most of my trips. Oh yes, it was my birthday on the day before my journey. I started from Pune at 6am to catch the train to Mumbai. Mumbai, we call as Bombae, is where I did my post-graduation. I do visit Mumbai often to meet my good buddies.
I took the train from Mumbai to Delhi, reached 3 hours late, my first stop was at my friend Uzair’s home. His mom always invites me lot and lot of foods, though she was not happy because the laddoo were not ready when I was living his house.
The bus to Bir was from Kashmiri Gate, the pollution was at the high. Since it’s my first blog, let me share how I choose places for my destination. I like to travel through villages, use local transport, explore foods and like to walk kilometers and kilometers. Most of the time I travel with friends and this was my first solo trip.
Day 1- 19Jan2026
I reached Bir at 7 in the morning. Some cab drivers came to me, but I chose to walk. After 200meters of walking, I saw a bus and got a seat in that. The bus dropped me almost a kilometer from hostel. The morning was pleasant there. Silent roads, clear blue sky, cotton clouds at the top, mountain dogs, praying Buddhist flags all along the way, school kids, closed cafes and people waiting for the local bus. I dropped my bag at the hostel reception as none were awake, I walked towards the landing area, which is one of the prime locations in anyone’s Bir itinerary,
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Bir is famous for its paragliding activity. Bir landing area welcomes you with the board “Drive carefully, gliders ahead”. They glide from Billing, a village which is almost 13km from Bir.
I had my breakfast from June16 café. They serve the best ginger-lemon-honey tea. The BEST. I had the same from different cafes, but they serve the best one. The small café, couple of minutes from the landing area, has a small nest on the right side of the entrance. The chirping and sipping the chai from the extended side of the café towards the road gives a good peaceful morning of the day. Headed back to the hostel, happy to see that people were there at reception, I went to the dormitory which was allotted for me.
After rest for couple of hours, I came back to the same place and started café hopping. I found an amazing café named Cafe360 with amazing view, paragliders gliding at the top of our head, birds, wooden benches and the sun.
The sunset at Northern café was the one which I decided should not be missed. Through the way infront of café June16, I walked through a half-meter width way with waterway on one side and paddy on other. A peaceful café with lot of dogs and trees. I ordered thuppa and climbed the wooden steps to get my seat. From a corner, I heard someone speaking Malayalam, my mother-tongue and the inner linguistic chauvinist stood up. Two friends, who have been travelling for a month, and we exchanged good talks and their plans in Bir. We tasted Himachal Siddhu from there, which has a walnut filling. That’s someone should not miss when you visit Himachal. We walked out after the amazing sunset with gliders landing.
People were warming themselves with the warmth from firewood, we stood there for half an hour and moved to the hostels to sleep.
