Bir Billing- The Paragliding Destination

There are a lot of hidden treasures in the beautiful valleys and meadows of Himachal Pradesh and add to that adventure sports and then you would never want to come back from such a paradise. Quaint and beautiful, such a place is BirBilling in the Kangra valley of Himachal. The place is famous for paragliding and not a very crowded spot which is nestled in the foothills of the snow covered Dhauladhar mountain ranges.

We reached Bir after travelling for 4 hours in a local bus from Mandi.  Bir is a small town and provides a spectacular view of the mighty Dhauladhar ranges standing tall in front of us. The paragliding spot was at Billing at a height of 1350 metres. We decided to go half way from Bir to Billing by car and then trek on rest of the route to reach the top. We reached Billing in the evening after an hour long trek and decided to camp there. The camping and food arrangements were already made for us up there and there were 25 more people with us who were camping. We had a sumptuous meal consisting of chicken, rajma rice, roti and salad. The meal was cooked fresh by the camp owners in the small hut like kitchen and tea and popcorns were also served to us in regular intervals. After dinner, we all played antakshari for around 2 hours and it was fun. The guys were making all sort of funny jokes and after playing for some time, we wrapped up the night. The weather was quiet till then but an hour later when we were asleep, it started raining and strong winds began to blow. The winds were really strong and it became cold there at night. Our tents were blowing like crazy due to the winds. In the morning, it was still really windy and we had our breakfast consisting of hot paranthas.



We were waiting for the weather to clear so that we could do paragliding. Till then, we went uphill and visited a monastery at the top of a nearby hill. We spent some time there clicking pictures and roaming around. The weather cleared till then and our paragliding guides arrived. We paraglided for around 20 minutes and it was the best experience I ever had, filled with thrill and adventure. Flying up in the sky was like a dream and the view was amazing. After landing in Bir, we had lunch and then set out to explore the town. Bir has tea gardens and small fields where rice and wheat are grown. The area is mostly inhabited by Tibetan people and you can find Tibetan flags everywhere. The green fields with snow capped mountains in the background gave the place an enchanting look. While exploring the place, we came across this cute cafe called Garden cafe and sat inside for some tea and pancakes. The lemon ginger tea was good and the chocolate pancakes were delectable. After spending some time there, we boarded our bus back to Delhi and bid goodbye to the beautiful quaint town promising to return back for some more fun and of course, paragliding.


Location: Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India

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