Himachal Trip Part - II

Next morning, we left our camp and went to see Khajiar, also known as 'Switzerland of India'. It is basically a plain field surrounded by trees and mountains. There was a golf course at this place during the times of English. But if you go there in summer, it is more of a picnic spot. The pic here would tell you that due to the adventure activities like paragliding, zorbing etc. it is a famous tourist attraction. I had never tried zorbing, so I did give it a go. Other than that, there was not much to do.
If you get your hands on DvD of 'The Blue Umbrella' which is shot almost entirely here, you would know how beautiful this place is when its not treated as an amusement park, i.e. during winters when its completely hidden in snow. Even the lake is frozen.

After that we took a taxis to Dharamshala, our next destination. The road passes through many villages, so there is not much to look for in terms of natural beauty. But, the villages themselves are good to look at.

Getting there
I did not know too much about Dharamshala. So, after getting there we came to know that Mcleodganj is the place people come to, which is a few km from there. As we got to know at the bus stand, that state transport has bus service to Delhi but all the tickets to Delhi were booked at that point. So, book your tickets in advance during summers.

Staying there
The chances of getting a decent economical hotel were looking slim in the peak season for tourists in Mcleodganj, so we had to go up till Bhagsu to get a place to stay.
There are many good restaurants, so we had dinner and after some roaming around got ready for the next day.

It started raining in the morning, and the view from our hotel was breathtaking, as dense clouds were passing right in front of us at a good speed.
Our initial plan was to see both Mcleodganj and Dharamshala and head back for Delhi the same day. But I was so delighted with the place where we stayed in Bhagsu and the market in Mcleodganj cannot be seen in a single day that I decided to stay for another day. Three more of my friends also decided to stay, the other seven of them were in a hurry, as they did not want to use any more holidays.
So, they booked their tickets for an overnight journey in a bus at a private tour operator at some Rs.600.

Sight seeing
Considering that 7 of us were leaving in the evening, we hired a taxi that would take us to all the important places in the day at Rs.800 per taxi, which I found to be very economical.

The main stops were
1.Church of St. john in the Wilderness (Built 1852)
The setting of the church was very beautiful and it was a perfect start to the day, as the rain made it look even more exquisite.

2.Dalai Lama temple
I had never been to a buddhist temple, and my very first was The Dalai Lama temple. It was very peaceful and serene. We sat there for a while to feel the quietude and we could feel the difference. A hot drink was also offered to us, which we drank and after looking at some amazing statues of Buddha we took off for our next stop.

3. Bhagsunag Temple
It is an old temple and has a history associated with it and the waterfall which is some distance away from it. The trek, waterfall and temple package makes a visit to this place worthwhile.

After few other stops, like Dal lake etc. we bid farewell to our 7 friends and had dinner at a tibetan restaurant. The food was delicious and cheap.

Next morning we again took the option of hiring a taxi and we saw:
1.Triund
It is a place where experienced trekkers start their 14 km trek. The road is not made for a car, and at some point I felt we might slip down the valley. But the view from above was great.

2. Tea Garden





















3.Kunal Pathri temple




















4.War Memorial















5.Museum of Kangra Art

Special mention has to be made about the market and shops in Mcleodganj. They sell art pieces, accessories, ornaments etc , all from the Tibetan and Buddhist culture. Also, the prices are not too steep. The colourful shawls and woolen clothes are also something to look forward to. As you can see in these photos.

Himachal Trip - Part I (Dalhousie(Panchpulla) , Daikund - Jot)

Writing about a trip that happened 1.5 years can be frustrating, like if you don't remember the name of a beautiful place which you thought you would never forget in a million years! But thanks to the photos you don't need to pull your hairs out to remember everything about the trip.
So this is the first post about the Himachal trip that we went on, in June 2009.
The most difficult part of planning our trip is, where our trip would be. This is because of the sheer number of friends that are involved. This time around there were around 11 of us, so to take into account the preference of each one, which place a guy has already seen and which place he has not, a time when holidays of each coincide and so on. So after much discussion, the place that was decided upon was Himachal Pradesh, more specifically Dalhousie and Dharamsala. It was the peak of summers and so peak season for such hill stations, where the weather is pleasant, but with a smaller and more adventurous group we would have personally liked to go to a much colder and lesser known place.

Getting there

We booked a train from Delhi to Pathankot, which was an overnight journey. The journey was fun with cards playing, eating the food we had got packed at Comesum at the Old Delhi Railway Station and just the usual fun. Dalhousie is around 80km from Pathankot and we were not sure how we would get there. There are buses which get you there in two hours and many people use that mode of transport but after an overnight journey in the train and due to the luggage we had, we were not in mood to try traveling by bus just yet.

So we looked for taxis, but what we found was even better. It is something called Tata Winger (we had not heard of it before), and to our surprise there was a vehicle that could just seat the same number of people as us. Not more, not less, just 11. We booked that and were on our way to Dalhousie.

We stopped on our way at this place to have breakfast, and the place was cheap and located at a beautiful place. So after what must be a half century of paranthas, we were back on our way to Dalhousie. As this was the peak season we had trouble finding a hotel. Usually the cheapest and best options are the Himachal Tourism hotels, but as this is the busiest time of the year, we could not find rooms there and in few other hotels nearby. It had never happened on previous trips, but we kept on looking and found one that suited our budget. Even after that what I could think of was that we could have stayed at the hotel in the pic (right) for dimes compared to what we were paying at our present accomodation.

Sight Seeing
After a quick shower, we started to explore Dalhousie on foot. The first place on our list was Panchpulla. It was more than 3km from where we stayed and the view was not something extraordinary. We had the same feeling when we reached the spot. It was nothing great, just 5 wooden bridges and hence the name. But so that our efforts don't go to waste, we started exploring the areas around and started trekking to the top most point of a nearby peak, and that was tiring yetexhilarating. Especially because there is no predefined path like the usual treks, and you have to make your own path, which can often get you in trouble. After all the exploring that was possible in the small area, we headed back to the city.
It was evening when we came back. Like every hill station established by the English, there was a Mall Road here too, or otherwise the main place to shop. Something which made me very happy, was a Nescafe outlet nearby. (It has fed us starving IITians for many years)

At the end of the day we started looking for finalizing the one thing that we came here for, i.e. trekking. The charge was Rs.1500 per person, so after a good night's sleep we started early in a taxi to get to the place where trekking started. Luckily, the weather was even better the next day, with rain, and the whole place just sparkled.
We reached the spot from where we had to start our trek, and there were many people who had come to that place, so trekking seemed like a popular option.

The trek was pretty easy, if it could be called a trek. After the initial climb, the whole path was at the same level, though all through mountains, and accompanied with some great visual beauty. Two person who were guiding us carried our lunch with them. It was better than expected.
At night, dinner was provided by them and we had fun around the bonfire and slept in the sleeping bags provided by them.
I would recommend this package for families but not for people who want to go for real trekking. It has all the elements of it , except the difficulty involved.
Though, the fact that we were not tired even after 7km of 'trek' proved that we did enjoy it.