Himachal Diaries - Part III - 3 Day Trip to Dharamshala, McledoGanj and Dalhousie

-
This is the final post on our 10 day Himachal Trip. I will describe our experiences in Dharamshala, Mcleodganj and Dalhousie.

 Suggested Itinerary:
Day 1: Dalai Lama Temple, Triund Trek
Day 2: Dharamshala Cricket Ground, Church of St. Johns in the Wilderness, transfer to Dalhousie
Day 3: Khajjiar, Rock Garden, Chamera Lake View, Rabi River Bank, Tibetan Market, Gandhi Market

 Trip in Detail:
We headed to Dharamshala from Kullu. We took a bus till Mandi and from Mandi, took another bus to head to Dharamshala. Dharamshala is the town at the foothill while Mcleodganj is on top of the hill.

 We reached Mcleodganj at around 6pm. We dropped our bags in the hotel and headed out for dinner. We wanted to try out the local cuisine in Mcleodganj. Now, Mcleod is a very hippie place with lot of youngsters, foreigners and monks! We hardly came across any honeymooners or family groups! A quick walk lead us to the Mcleodganj square. It has lot of Tibetan and Chinese joints where one can try the exotic dishes! We tried the Four Season's Cafe, situated in Mcleod Square. We tried out a new dish called Soutsemen - which is basically noodles with gravy sauce!
Yummy Egg Soutsemen!!

The next day was long one for us. We had planned The Dalai Lama Temple visit and trek to the Triund Hill top! Will let the pictures do most of the talking!

The Rotating Prayer Wheel inside HH Dalai Lama Temple
Rotating the Prayer Wheel in the Clock-wise direction
The Sanctum Sanctorum
We finished out temple visit by around 8am. Post temple, we grabbed quick breakfast on the go and started for Triund Trek. We started walking right from Mcleodganj square which is around 3kms from the trek base camp. The actual trek from the base camp is about 8kms and this strech of 3kms took it to a whopping total of 11kms!

The first milestone towards the base camp - Govt Primary school. The red wall on the left has an arrow which points towards the base camp (Below)


The base camp for Triund trek is the Gallu Devi temple. There would be 1-2 forest officials who enter trekker's details in a register. They will ask for the hotel name where you are currently put up, in Mcleodganj. Post that begins the trek! Triund trek falls under the "Easy" category. (Most mountain treks are graded depending on their level of difficulty. Triund is among the easy ones, and no guide is needed for this trek). 

The Trek trails!
                                           With the Co-Trekker

 Almost there!
                                                  On the Hill top finally!!

Once on top, we enjoyed the weather with Maggi, Bread Omelette and Rajma Chawal. Everything hot in the piping cold weather! Dont forget to carry plenty of water, chocolates and warm clothing for the trek. You will get 2-3 cafes on the way to the trek. We had planned to return back on the same day. We started at 10am and reached the top at 2.30pm. Stayed there till 4pm and started descending. The weather on top changes pretty fast. We saw hail storm, followed with rain and then the eventual clearing up of the clouds - all in an hour! The view on top is totally worth all the toil to come up!

We returned back to our hotel and called it a day! Next day was Dharamshala and then travel to Dalhousie. Dharamshala is famous for the erstwhile cricket stadium - the one with the highest altitude in the world. 

Dharamshala Cricket Stadium
On the way from Mcleodganj to Dharamshala is the Church of St.John's in the wilderness. We had a pit stop here to check out this beautiful church!




That was our Dharamshala and Mcleodganj diaries. The next and our last destination for the trip  was Dalhousie. We reached at around 6pm in the evening.  We ventured into the local Tibetan Market and the Gandhi market. Do try out the Iraani Chaaps! Lip smacking they are!

We hired a taxi the next day morning for local sight-seeing. We visited Khajjiar - the Switzerland of Himachal Pradesh



Paragliding and Zorbing in Khajjiar

 Rabi River Bank
Chamera Lake View

We ended the trip with a visit to the Rock garden!

At the Rock Garden

Thus ended our fun-filled, frolic 10 day trip to Himachal!  The tranquil while trekking up Triund, the thrill of rafting on the Beas river - every one of the experience was amazing. It was a trip worth all the efforts and completely rejuvenated both of us! I'm really looking forward to travel and trek more, and connect with myself once again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Day Trip to Coorg/Madikeri/Kodagu

-
Image
Hello People! I will talk about our 3 day Coorg Trip in this post, that we went in June, 2016. Coorg/Kodagu is a district in the Indian state of Karnataka and Madikeri or Mercara is this small hill station nestled in greenery all around. All costs mentioned below are in Indian Rupees(INR), for 2 pax. Suggested Itinerary: Day 1: Central Square, Madikeri Fort, Raja's Seat, Raja's Tomb, Omkareshwar Temple, Abbey Falls, Thalacauvery & Bhagamandalam Day 2: Dubare Elephant Camp, Namdroling Monastery, Nisargdhama, Day 3: Nalaknad Palace & Tadiandamole Trek Cost of Trip: Train till Bangalore(From Hyderabad) and Bus to Coorg (To & Fro for 2 Pax): 6200Rs Hotel:1360Rs Food & Sight-seeing: 3200Rs Total: 10,700Rs Trip in Detail: We started from Hyderabad and took a train to Bangalore (You can also drive down, but we chose to go by train and then a bus from Bangalore to Madikeri). We reached Bangalore in the morning, and the bus was at 9am from the Mysore ...
Read more

6 Day Trip to Srinagar

-
Image
This is a couple trip, that we took from Mar - 2nd to 10th, 2016. The Itinerary is below: Suggested Itinerary: 1. Srinagar - Day 1 & 2 : Dal Lake, Shankaracharya Temple, Chashme Shahi, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar Bagh, Pari Mahal, Tulip Garden 2. Gulmarg - Day 3, day trip Gondola Phase 1 & 2, snow activities 3. Sonmarg - Day 4, day trip 4. Pahalgam - Day 5&6, Overnight trip Aru Valley, Betaab Valley, Temples on the way, Apple Garden 5. Srinagar - Day 7 - Return flight from Srinagar (Do include Sonmarg in the itinerary. Depending on the time of the year, you will be able to access this place. We could not go there due to excessive snowfall) Cost of Trip: All amounts mentioned below are in Indian Rupee(INR), for 2 pax Flight Round Trip (from Hyderabad to Srinagar, via Delhi)- Rs 22000(2 pax) Hotels - Rs 16000(2 pax, for 7 days) Food & Sightseeing - Rs 17000 Total -Rs 55000 Hotels for Stay: We stayed in Hotel Welcome, on Boulevard Road. It was opposite Dal Lake, and ha...
Read more

2 Day Trip to Kandy & Nuwara Eliya - Sri Lanka

-
Image
Kandy is a major town located in central Sri Lanka. It is famous for the Tooth Relic Temple and Perendeniya Botanical Garden. We arrived in Kandy from Dambulla by a bus. We reached at around 12 noon. We checked into a hotel booked on the spot through booking.com We freshened up and went to the Tooth Temple on road. It was a 10 minutes walk from the hotel. The Tooth Temple is a very sacred temple for Buddhists, which is believed to house an ancient tooth relic of Lord Buddha. This is housed inside the royal palace and the lake complex. There is an entry ticket for foreign tourists. The Royal Palace and temple complex On the Temple grounds! We did not visit Perendeniya Botanical Garden, since it was in the outskirts, and we strolled around the central railway station area. There were lot of food joints and bakeries in Kandy! We bought packets of Plum cakes and fruits cakes (by kilos!), and savored them in the evening. We started for Nuwara Eliya from Kandy, by road. The...
Read more