Dalhousie..!!

Dalhousie

We reached Dalhousie at 8.00PM with our heads falling below our knees due to the tiredness. There were 200 stairs to reach our room at birds and chirps, immediately I thought of an elevator, and how helpful invention it would have been!!

Anyways I didn’t have that option so had to climb through those stairs. After reaching our room, I took bath and then with immediate effect, fell sick. Still I managed to go to the dinning area, where Mrs. Bhalla gave me medicine and after having dinner I was off to bed.

Starting of stairs towards Birds n Chirps

Early morning I woke up with the chirping of birds and when I opened the door I could see number of small birds of various colors and sizes, hopping from one tree to another and the only audible sound was theirs. At around 6.30AM the bed tea was sent to our room what else one can ask, spent our morning appreciating the serenity of the place and left room around at 10AM.

We headed towards Khajjiar if you are lucky with a clear sky you might get a glimpse of snow covered peaks of Dhauladhar ranges which I witnessed last time, but this time we weren't so lucky. We reached khajjiar in less than an hour time. It is a flat plateau surrounded by tall and thick deodar trees. At the day time it is very commercialized with lot of vendors roaming around for food item, photos, horse riding and other kids games. It is like a crowded picnic spot, but in off season it is worth to pay a visit here.

Khajjiar

Baby Rabbit @ Khajjiar.. Lots of Rabbit were available there, for holding and clicking photos with 10 Rs/person

Two government cottages are also available with night stay facility. Staying here at night it is quite an experience. While staying, if you happen to go towards the forest at night you might listen one or two animal sounds as happened in our case(last year), so it is advised not to venture into the forest at night time. One can spend some time at the flat grassland and enjoy the night full of stars.

Anyways back to our current visit, as me and my husband was spending time looking at the people around suddenly from nowhere a sound came “Oye kya haal chal?” I turned back and realised it is our ex-colleague and friend Gaurav, we don’t get time to see each other in Delhi (in spite of living in the same city), that busy our lives have become!!

But finding him and his family here was a pleasant surprise. We spent some time together exchanged our travel notes, made plans to meet next weekend (which obviously didn’t materialise) and headed to our next destinations. My initial plan was to go towards Chamba and Sach Pass but we dropped it one the sach pass was closed and two Rahul didn’t support the idea of going and coming back from Chamba as we had limited time. So, we took a 'U turn' and went to Kalatop Sanctuary.

Khalatop Wildlife Sanctuary is on the midway while going to Khajjiar from Dalhousie. You can walk through the Sacntuary or can take your car inside by paying a minimal amount of Rs. 200. In cloudy weather walking is a very good option as you will be walking through the mist. 

Not much of wildlife to spot. Few adventure sports (Rappelling & Zipping) are available inside and at the top there is a beautiful forest guest house along with few eating options. Few Bollywood movies has also been shot here.

We opted for the going via car, as we were taking the car ticket for Kala-top Wildlife sanctuary, again Gaurav bumped into us. So we decided to explore it together. We spent some time remembering Old time made fun of each other. Then Gaurav and his family left as they had to go to the Panchpula waterfalls. Myself and Rahul stayed there, walked through the wildlife sanctuary and visited the forest guest house where Bollywood movie “Lootera” was shot.  

@Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary... Forest Guest house where final scenes of Lootera was shot !!

Then we were done sightseeing for the day and headed towards the market to stuff our stomach with Mc-cains & Other junk food selling by the market area of Dalhousie. Next we went to Tibet market, immediately realised that we shouldn’t have come here. The path between the shops is so narrow that even one person cannot pass easily, and you will find only cheap stuff (few items looked second hand to me) being sold out here. We went back to the main market area, sipped coffee in a beautiful small coffee shop, strolled through the market for 3-4 times and called it day, At the homestay we had some awesome homemade food and after spending an hour in our balcony, retired to sleep.


On the way back to Dalhousie

Again the morning was a repeat telecast of previous morning. After breakfast we checked out and got a shock due to the partial and immature rules of  Birds n Chrips when Mrs. Bhalla charged us extra (for breakfast and dinner) despite of it being mentioned otherwise in the confirmation e-mail and when we sought for an explanation she told, that this disparity is because we booked it online and others didn’t. So we paid 800 Rs extra for booking online (Hostel Booker Charges) + Very Expensive Dinner & Breakfast, which inflated our total cost of stay by 50% compared to others. This left us with a feeling of being cheated. Every time I visit a popular and common tourist destination in North India, my belief about the rude, un-courteous and unjust behaviour of people (of such areas) gets reconfirmed with some or the other incident!!

Anyways we went ahead to Pachpula Waterfalls, it was a small 10-15 mins climb towards the waterfalls. A beautiful falls but similar to other sights it was also crowded. After having next round of tea here we headed towards Dainkund Peak and our mood spoiler driver was again in action he stopped the car in the midway, with a phone dialed-up to his boss and expression of denial (to move) on his utterly shrewd face. OHHH MY GODDD!! This guy was now playing on my nerves with his new gestures of lying on our face. Again Rahul had to talk to the Cab owner and explain him that the driver is lying and we haven't visited the place yesterday, then only he drove further.

Finally we reached Dainkund with kind of bad mood. But as soon as we started climbing up the mountain my mood was reset, as the clouds were playing hide and seek to give a blissful sight of the lush green mountains. The trek offered awesome views of the nearby mountains, as the Dainkund peak is one the highest among the nearby hills, good top view of the valley. The total walking time is required to visit the Kali Mandir at the top of the peak is around 1.5 hr - 2 hr (to and fro).

Dainkund Terk

After this we headed back to the city for lunch to walk around thandi and garam sadak, spent time strolling here and there, then left for Pathankot at around 4.30-5.00 to catch our train. On the way, just before entering the city (Pathankot) you will find lot of farm houses which offer good variety of food with nice ambiance. We halted at Mama’s (the only good thing our driver did in entire trip) they served awesome food and nice garden seating was available. With our stomach full till neck we started for the railway station and then to Delhi.

So this was the end journey of Mc-leodganj and Dallhousie except the last bit of nagging at the station which our driver did to complete our experience. Our trip is concluded such an eventful trip with some good, some not so good and some bad experiences*...  But all that makes it a memorable trip, with lot of stories to remember or forget ;-) :-P !!

*All not so good and bad experiences are related people, and their behaviour!!