A new Himalayan hideaway delivers a fresh take on India.
By the time I reached Shakti Prana, a new luxury lodge in the Himalayan heights of northern India’s Kumaon district, half of the adventure was already behind me. Days earlier, I had touched down in Pantnagar, a modest airstrip some 50 minutes in the air north of Delhi, and spent the better part of the day on a road that zig- zagged through dense pine forests and along dizzying mountain drops.
The drive delivered me to the starting point of my ‘village walk’, a guided hiking and driving route between the small hamlets and remote mountaintops of this little-visited corner of India. My first stop, Shakti Panchachuli, was one of the village houses marking the way: three sleekly designed cabins fitted with hot showers, plus wool blankets and pieces from Bombay- born Shakti founder Jamshyd Sethna’s private art collection, all pitched up along a terraced farm field overlooking the snow-cloaked peaks of the Panchachuli range. It was a wood fire-warmed base camp for hikes to ancient hilltop temples, through rhododendron forests and wildlife sanctuaries where visitors can spot leopards on the prowl.
A few days, a four-hour drive, and a steep, hour-long walk later, there I was, lungs burning and beads of sweat rolling down my spine. There’s no road to Shakti Prana’s perch, just a dirt trail that climbs past grazing goats and stone farmhouses. It was the same route used to transport every door frame, shingle, and window pane by mule from the lodge’s original site a few valleys away. Admittedly, it’s an improbable location for a lodge of this caliber, but therein lies the appeal: “Such raw nature has a wonderful effect on people,” Sethna told me when we met over chicken korma that night. “It helps them take back balance, a little bit of peace, and a greater sense of who they really are.”
From below my villa, the forest-covered slopes tumbled down until they met the silvery stream of the Ramganga River writhing through the valley far below. In the early hours, it held a bowl of clouds and, at the end of each afternoon, the setting sun cast the distant peaks’ edges in gold. Prana’s seven villas, all stacked slate and straight-lined timber, made full use of their perch: windows on three sides brought the outside in, while yak-wool rugs and cast-iron Bukhari stoves fended off the high-altitude chill.
Days quickly fell into an easy rhythm, starting with a knock on the door and milky ‘bed tea’ delivered at dawn, followed by a punchy masala omelet and fresh fruits for breakfast on the terrace out front. From there, we’d head out for hikes to lonely hillside farms and villages in the valley, where we’d trade our packed snacks for just- plucked oranges and chili-sprinkled cucumbers. Picnics appeared as if by magic in the shade of village trees and, by late afternoon, I was usually back at the lodge, easing my tired legs into the steaming hot tub hidden in a cabin at the garden’s edge.
In the moments in between, with a cup of chai in the lounge or on an early-morning stroll along the ridge behind the lodge, Kumaon’s head-clearing stillness took over. Out here, I started to find luxury in the simplest of joys: the morning sun streaming through the windows, the crackle of a fire, and the way the valley slipped into near-silence once dusk dropped, ever so gently erasing any sense of elsewhere.
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 6 – CREATIVITY, CHANGE, FREEDOM – out March 18th! Order your copy here.
Photographer and Text CHRIS SCHALKX
10’s BLACK BOOK
NEW DELHI
Most guests of Shakti from the US fly into Delhi, which is certainly worth a few days of exploring on either end. Here’s
a guide to experiencing the best of what India’s capital city has to offer.
STAY: THE OBEROI, NEW DELHI
An ultra-polished local stalwart where the service never slips and the rooms, fitted with soundproof windows, deliver a welcome reprieve from the city’s perpetual horn-honking. oberoihotels.com
EAT: BUKHARA
Dinners at this pan-Indian powerhouse arrive like they have for more than four decades: tandoor-charred, unapologetically hearty, and served without cutlery to stay true to north India’s dining traditions.
itchotels.com
DRINK: SIDECAR
At this hush-hush drinking den in the M Block Market, award-season regular Yangdup Lama pours drinks from an ever-changing menu, drawing on small- batch Indian spirits, global classics, and little-known herbs and spices from the country’s northeast.
sidecarindia.com
SHOP: KARTIK RESEARCH
One of India’s leading young fashion talents, Kartik Kumra, stitches his menswear collections with a fixation on craft: expect to find jackets covered in embroidery, patchwork pants, and block- printed shirts that make for brilliant wearable souvenirs.
kartikresearch.com
