During the summers, I ensure that we visit Himachal once in a month and this time we also planned to go to Rewalsar and Naina Devi temple on one of the highest peaks in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. This Photo Journey shares more photographs from Rewalsar Lake and surrounding places along with appropriate details. Rewalsar is not a very big name on tourist map of India or Himalayan State - Himachal, but has it's own significance to specific set of travelers.
Rewalsar lake is famous for it's countless fishes. The most exciting thing to do in Rewalsar is to watch these fishes playing with each other and level of excitement can be increased if you offer them something. This time I noticed that lake is not well maintained, which is very unfortunate. Rewalsar lake has also some significance from religion point of view. We noticed some folks washing taking water from the lake and having a sip. For a moment I couldn't believe that water of Rewalsar lake can be drunk.
Here is a quick glipmse of fishes in the Rewalsar lake. They are found in abundance. Due to religious reasons, it's prohibited to do fishing around the lake.
Here is a view of a monastery from the lake. Zigar Gompa is the newest of the Rewalsar monasteries. I have been to Rewalsar many times and this is first time, this monastery was so clearly noticeable from the lake. There is a huge statue of Padmasambhava installed on a platform which doubles as working monastery space can be seen for great distances away from the Rewalsar skyline.
Rewalsar is visited by Budhist tourists or local travelers. At times, folks prefer to visit Rewalsar while driving back from Kullu Manali to Delhi or Chandigarh. Road connecting Mandi town to Rewalsar is pretty good now. One can take this route to hit Hamirpur or Una from Mandi. It's a highway which has improved a lot in last one year or so.
The sad part of the visit is cleanness of this lake. It seems that market around the lake makes it dirty and there is not enough policing to ensure that lake remains clean and regular maintenance happens. It was not a pleasant experience to go closer to these fishes. The water was stinking when fishes were in full excitement.
Tourists may not be very happy coming to Rewalsar but there is enough to explore for a traveller. Apart from the main monasteries around the lake, there is a Gurudwara and few hindu temples. If you walk around the streets you will experience a different town and as you climb towards any of the monasteries, things change suddenly.
After our brief visit to Rewalsar, we went to Naina Devi temple which is located on one of the highest mouantain-peaks around the lake. It takes around 30 minutes in taxi to reach this place and views from the top are amazing. We shall be sharing another Photo Journey about Naina Devi and other lakes come on the way.
Since connectivity was a big problem in Rewalsar town, it was difficult to use any of the Android apps like Facebook, Instagram or Blogger. So I had to find a workaround to be connected to my followers and friends. One of my techie friend suggested shared a thought of installing Opera Mini browser and he claimed that it works pretty well in low bandwidth conditions and on top of that you would be saving roaming charges, which are significant in India. And I was happy with the results. The browser compresses webpages on it's servers before sending it our phones and helps in browsing faster. Now Opera Mini is there on my Mobile, although I don't use it much in the city and prefer to use different apps but Opera Mini is the saviour when I travel to Himalayan ranges in India or rural parts which are favorites of TravellingCamera.
.jpg)