Bara Bangal: A Himalayan Village On The Path Of Alexander The Great

Bara Bangal, India (CNN) To the naked eye, the terraced fields seem close enough to touch: hardly four kilometers as the crow flies.

But in the ancient way of Himalayan travel, they're still 20 switchback roads and several torturous hours away.

My blistered feet and the blighted weather have been my companion since I began my trek five days ago from Manali sanctuary in the same northern Indian state, Himachal Pradesh.

But that doesn't matter anymore.

I'll make it to Bara Bangal -- a village wrapped in legend, sandwiched between the Kalihani (4,800 meters) and Thamsar (4,766 meters) Passes, protected by impregnable mountains on the third side and the raging Ravi River on the fourth.

A village hidden from the world

If Google's the yardstick for measuring how much is known about our world, this village would rank pretty low.

Some blogs and a handful of images are all that the search engine reveals, apart from travel agencies touting it as a hard or strenuous trek.

There are conflicting stories about how the hamlet came about.

One speaks of residents of West Bengal fleeing a flood and finding shelter in the mountains.

Another credits a band of tired nomads with setting up the village because it was the only flat piece of land for miles around.

For the record, Bara Bangal holds the title of being the oldest village of the pastoral Gaddi tribe, the oldest settlement in the Kangra district, and the remotest polling booth in Himachal Pradesh.

The difficulty in reaching Bara Bangal is, perhaps, why it's been left to its own devices for so long.

Even today, horses carry rations for the villagers during the summer.

For most of the year their only contact with the outside world is through a satellite phone installed by the government -- to be used only in emergencies.

The most hospitable villagers