Included: every meal
Three meals plus tea. There is no restaurant bill because there is no restaurant.
About the house
We had a house
that got too quiet.
In 2016 the younger of our two children left for college in Dehradun and the first floor went silent. Kamla said we should put a bed in the front room. That was the whole business plan.
Ten years later there are four rooms, a rebuilt byre, a fibre line and a website. The house is the same house. The cow is a different cow.
First principles
Three things we decided early and have not changed
We would not grow past four rooms
Five rooms would mean hiring someone to manage guests, and the moment there is a manager, there is a front desk, and the moment there is a front desk you are in a hotel. Four is the largest number Kamla can cook for without it becoming catering.
We would not employ anyone from outside the valley
Every person you meet here — the cook, the two drivers, the woman who brings the milk, the men who rebuilt the byre — lives within four kilometres. This is not a marketing position. It is the only reason the village tolerates the traffic we bring.
We would not lie about the weather
A homestay that promises mountain views in August is selling a photograph, not a place. We tell you the visibility odds for your dates before you pay, and if they are bad we tell you to come another month.
Two extensions, one regret
The building
Stone below, timber above, extended twice
The original section was built by Deepak's grandfather, Kishan Singh Pant, some time between 1938 and 1944 — nobody wrote it down. Dry-stacked local stone, half-metre walls, deodar beams cut from the slope behind. The first floor was added in 1979 in cement block, which was fashionable and is a mistake we live with. The byre collapsed in the 2013 rains and we rebuilt it in 2021 as the Stone Cottage, using its own stone.
- Original constructionc. 1940
- Wall thickness, ground floor500 mm
- Rooms available to guests4
- Maximum guests11
- Altitude1,740 m
- AspectNorth-facing
In plain terms
What is included, and what is not
Included: almost every experience
Walks, farm work, cooking sessions, the bonfire, the telescope, the sunrise trip. No activity menu, no per-head pricing.
Included: laundry on stays over five nights
Twice a week, line-dried, which in monsoon means three days.
Not included: long drives
Munsiyari, Patal Bhuvaneshwar, Pithoragarh. We charge exactly what the driver charges us and show you the number.
Not included: alcohol
We do not stock or serve it. Bring your own; drink it on your terrace.
Not included: a guarantee of mountains
Nobody can sell you a clear morning. We will tell you the odds for your dates.
The numbers
Ten years, counted
Kept in a ledger by Kamla, transcribed once a year, and not rounded up.
2016
First guestA cyclist from Pune who stayed one night and came back for eleven.
2,140
Guests sinceAcross ten seasons, four rooms and one very patient dog.
214
Written reviewsAveraging 4.9. We publish the four-star ones too.
38%
Return rateThe number we are actually proud of.
Around the house
What is actually here
No spa, no pool, no gym, no lobby.
The shared veranda
Six chairs, one table, the best light in the house from 3 pm.
Two hundred books
Mostly left behind by guests. Take one, leave one.
The chulha kitchen
Open to you. Kamla will hand you the tongs on day two.
Four terraces
Vegetables, apricot, apple, and one left wild for the bees.
Next
Come and see whether it suits you
Three nights is the minimum that works. Two is a long drive for one dinner, and we will tell you so if you ask for it.