Munsiyari.. with an icing of Binsar!!

Generally managers (especially in India) believe that one should not get any holidays apart from Saturday/Sunday/Statutory Holidays (those too, only when you don’t have work)! In such circumstances asking a leave without some medical/legal emergency, without some relatives wedding is like a Non-Bailable Crime and I have been guilty of it not only once but many a times!  And yes, I shall continue to do the same in future also, as I can’t live without travelling to unknown routes, meeting people from different culture, breathing the clean and fresh air of some distant mountains, dipping feet in the cold stream of water.. and the list continues..

As I had recently switched job and took quite a few leaves when I got married (one year back) I started to think about the options I had for taking the leave.  After much of brainstorming I decided to try to convince my boss for the actual reason i.e. travelling. Believe me it was much easier, as I didn’t have to think of a lie for every counter question he asked. That was an unexpectedly pleasant start to my trip planning activities..

Early Morning View at Munsiyari

This time it was Munsiyari, the trekkers paradise and we were not going there for trekking! After the June Floods in UttaraKhand, I had to alter my plan a little, had to drop Dharchula from my itinerary as the road was completely washed-off especially near Jauljibi, so I included Binsar in our trip and struck Dharchula off with a heavy heart, not that I regret it now, as Binsar offered some equally awesome memoirs to remember.

We started from Delhi on Friday night, took a train to Kathgodam, from there on we had pre-booked a taxi. Morning 5.30 AM when the Sun was still asleep under the blanket of dark clouds, we started our road travel.

Total 12 hrs road journey through the broken roads, water crossings, few distant recent landslide areas, unmatched mountain views and awesome monsoon weather of hills, a normal drive through the clouds. We reached Munsiyari at evening 5 PM. If I have to describe the village in one line than: A small and pretty tribal village with a daunting view of Snow covered Pachachuli Peak from almost every nook and corner of the village. You are likely to find a lot of trekking groups as lot of small & long, easy & difficult treks start from here.

The distant landslide enroute munsiyari

Road through clouds

Next day morning I woke up early in the morning, to my luck it was a clear morning with awesome view of the Snow Cladded Mountains. As the day progressed the clouds come up and cover the higher peak. The only things to do in munsiyari either go for a trek or just laze around and embrace the stillness, calmness, and listen our own heart beating against the cool breeze. For a change I did the later..

View from our room

Nandadevi temple is located right in the middle of lush green high mountain peaks and offers some awesomeeeeeee paranomic views of snow covered peaks, The small walk till the temple is through the tall green pine trees. I thought of spending some time at one of the benches but the house flies were guarding the place like anything!

View from Nandadevi Temple.. though covered under clouds but thats a small price you have to pay enjoy weather that awesome

Rainbow on some unknown road @ Munsiyari 

Spent the evening walking around the village, sitting on the edge of some unknown road, watching the sun-set behind those huge Blue Mountains having small patches amber-pink clouds. That pristine sight was captured in my heart for ever and ever!!  To have an un-interrupted encounter with nature, I didn’t carry my camera that evening, to avoid any urge to click the photograph.

Next day we started early morning for Binsar accompanied by some heavenly view and landscapes. We halted at Kali mandir which is supposed to offer some awesome views but by the time we reached there, the entire atmosphere was full of clouds, though there is no comparison of such hilly monsoon weather but we were devoid of some spectacular views. We were walked amidst of clouds, removed our slippers and entered into the old open corridor of temple of Goddess Kali..

Suddenly, our driver stopped the car and pointed towards a distant falls and told that is Birthi Falls, from road it seemed a little far, so we decided that we will walk to have a somewhat closer look and come back.. As I started walking, my feet started itching to reach the falls.

There was not a single soul near the falls or enroute to falls. As we reached near the magnificent and loud falls. The Cool breeze of air, the water mist, the grey cloudy sky gave a feeling of rain though it wasn’t. It was totally worth to climb through that steep and very slippery route, just to experience that surreal environment. 

First Sight of Birthi Falls; I couldn't do any justice while capturing the magnificence but still.. 

It’s not that I haven’t seen huge and magnificent water falls, but there was something different about this one. Maybe it was the (rainy) weather, serenity, calmness & stillness, solitude or it was my state of mind, but it looked Divine!!

The broken road to Heaven

While driving to Binsar, we were accompanied by the Ganges for a long time, also the ‘Sangam’ (confluence) at Bhageshwar can be easily seen while crossing the city. By the time we reached Binsar the Wildlife Sanctuary was closed so we headed straight to our resort. The huge glass window in our room gave an un-interrupted view of the sun-set behind the snow-cladded white peak..

Sunset at Binsar

Early morning we went to the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, while tracking we saw few distant peaks. But could have the paranomic view of the Nanda Devi, Nanda Kot, Panchachuli, Chaukhamba and Kedarnath because of clouds, but the track itself was worth an early morning walk.

After a filling breakfast we headed to Rahul’s favorite hill station i.e. Nainital, and did some touristy activities such as boating in Naini Lake, visiting the artificial Caves, roaming on the mall road, taking a cycle rikshaw ride on mall road (must do in Nainital) etc..

The everrefreshing beauty: Naini Lake @ Nainital

With this pleasant evening our trip was summed up and we were refreshed to go back to our hectic corporate lives with fixed schedules, until the next holiday!!

Shillong

Our Itinerary:
Day1: Delhi-Guwahati-Cherrapunjee
Day2: Cherrapunjee & Cherrapunjee - Mawlynnong

Day3: Mawlynnong & Mawlynnong - Shillong

Day4- Shillong + Day 5: Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi

We reached Shillong again at around 6.30 PM, by now it has become our official checking-in time for any city. As it was 26^th January (Republic Day) the entire market was closed, my first task at hand was took look for some open bakery to purchase a cake for 12’o Clock Birthday celebrations. The each and every shop in the market was closed, all the passages were empty as if, there is some curfew, but we kept on driving here and there. Finally out of nowhere I found one very nice looking bakery, while walking my eyes got glued on bakery only and I fell into a Deep (around 2 feet) drain kind of thing. Never the less I immediately got up and completed the task to purchase an awesome and expensive cake!!

Mawphlong Dam @ Shillong

**Interesting Fact # 7: Awesome Non-Veg Food

Shillong is a hub for Non-Veg food, and some really awesome non-veg food is prepared and served here, we had to rely on other tourist feedback for that. While deciding for dinner options our driver told that around 300 Pigs are consumed every-day in Shillong itself!!

Shop Selling Raw Meat

Our booking was with Aerodene Cottage, a homestay run by two ladies with a purpose to serve this heritage cottage. As soon as we looked at our room, we simply fell in love with it. The entire room decorated with whites and all items placed in a tasteful manner. Icing on the cake was a private sit-out to spend the evening having beautiful plants all around.

A cup of tea, some cookies and endless calmness, what else one need to complete your evening!! The dinner was being served at common dining area at 8.30 PM. At the dinner table we met a girl who had quit her job and was on indefinite vacation spend some time with herself. I envy such people so much, who have a courage to quit everything to follow their heart!!By the time we were finishing dinner met we met Amit he was there for work. He does exactly the same job (to earn bread and butter) as I do. So we got a common topic to discuss and got some tips for Shillong as he knew that region pretty-well.

For morning we had plans to go to the Scared Forest in Mawphlong. We took a guide named Bond and he told us some stories associated with the forest and while doing so he was also collecting each and every food/beverages wrappers littered in the jungle. An idea just floated through my mind, instead of cribbing about the litter, if we also do the way Bond did, who knows Delhi also might become cleanest capital city!!

Bond was kind enough to invite to his home for some refreshment, we had a good discussion with his father who seemed to be a respected man in their village. After that Nanu parked the car in an open complex kind of thing and took us to climb few stairs by the side of a huge wall. Suddenly out of nowhere we reached a beautiful Mawphlong Dam, and there was nobody not a single living soul to admire the deep blue river surrounded by the mountains and imprisoned by the Dam.

Mawphlong Dam

**Interesting Fact # 8: Land of Waterfalls

Meghalaya has several waterfalls in each and every corner of the state. There are numerous waterfalls in and around Shillong, the famous ones are:  Bishop Falls, Elephant Falls, Spread Eagle Falls, Sweet Falls, Crinoline Falls and Beadon Falls. In Cherrapunjee (Sohra) also, the heavy rainfall has sculpted beautiful rock formations and waterfalls namely: Nohkalikai falls, Dainthlen falls, Khoh Ramhah, Kynrem Falls, Nohsngithiang Falls.

Sweet Falls @ Shillong

We skipped to go to the most famous tourist destinations as we just has half a day remaining with us, we shortlisted few of then began with our little touristy stuff like visiting Shillong View Point (entire city can be seen from here), Sweet falls (Distant View of Falls with no-one around, Some locals say that these are haunted falls) & Cultural museum (Museum showcasing the culture and tribes of Seven Sisters, very informative), roam around in the market (nice small market with quite a few good cafes) to do some souvenir shopping and finally headed towards the Dinner at Tripura Castle.

Next day morning we got up early, had our morning tea at the sit-out, got ready and headed for dinner. At breakfast again I met one of my old colleague, we did some general catch-up as again Rahul got bored listening to our office talks. While chit-chatting we also got delayed by 30-45 mins so we had to skip Watch Lake and directly head towards Guwahati to catch our Flight back to Delhi.

We bade our final good-bye to this Fairy Land with heavy-heart and the feeling that, we could have spent some more time here.. 

Mawlynnong

Our Itineray:
Day1: Delhi-Guwahati-Cherrapunjee
Day2: Cherrapunjee & Cherrapunjee - Mawlynnong

Day3: Mawlynnong & Mawlynnong - Shillong

Day4- Shillong
Day5: Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi

We reached Mawlynnong at around 7.00PM. Nanu had arranged for a beautiful homestay at . They just have one bamboo cottage, to accommodate at maximum 4 pax. Henry’s mother served some delicious home-made food which was at very reasonable rates as well.

River @ Indo-Bangla Border

**Interesting Fact # 5: Asia’s Cleanest Village

Mawlynnong is also referred as God’s own Garden and was identified as Asia’s Cleanest Village in year 2003. As soon as we entered the village we could easily comprehend the basis behind it. One can spend good lone time here, the village is very calm and quite. Ultra clean, small passages having beautiful trees on both side of the passages.

The local residents are very conscious about the cleanliness. The villagers picking up the dried leaves and disposing them to the Bamboo Dustin, which are installed at every 10 feet of the village. The visitors are not allowed to dispose of plastic waste even in bamboo dustbins. They have to carry it back to find a proper disposing place.

Passage inside the Village

Brooms drying under Sun

There are Bamboo tree houses across the village, which offers breathtaking view of Bangladesh plains as it is located on the Indo-Bangla border. Though ascending & descending through those bamboo slopes can we little slippery and shaky at times.

Steep & Shaky Bamboo Tree House to get a top view of Bangladesh !

We started our morning with walking around the village soaking the calmness and simplicity of the village. After lunch we drove through the road surrounded by fields where boom sticks were being grown (Many villagers are into the business of making and selling brooms). The village offers picturesque natural beauty, a small 15 min trek to the living Root Bridge at a neighbouring village Riwai. The Living Root Bridge looked much older, taller, stronger, quieter (with no human soul around) and much accessible than the other bridges in Cherrapunjee.

Living Root Bridge @ Mawlynnong

**Interesting Fact # 6: Indo-Bangla Border

Unlike India-Pakistan (or India-China) Border, India-Bangladesh Border is quite clam and peaceful. These is not LOC defined with no “No-man’s land”. It feels good with neighbouring country share ecological resources with friendliness towards each other. The road for good 25-30 kms towards dawki, is so close to Bangladesh that if you take leap (and mind it, it’s not Spider man leap!!) you can easily enter it.

Kids Playing in Bangladesh

Near Dawki Dam

So we drove next to open fields of the Bangladesh for good 30-45 mins and ventured into Bangladesh at two places. The drive to Dawki is very picturesque, especially while driving by the side of Umngot River you enter into the fairy land, with turquoise Blue River being surrounded by the huge mountains on the either side, which are connected through a concrete bridge (Dawki Bridge) over the river. We visited the checkpost at the border didn’t get down.  It is an official border crossing area which allows vehicles and people to pass through (With valid papers off course).

For here we took a “U” turn and headed towards Shillong our last destination for the Tour. 

Cherrapunjee

Day1: Delhi-Guwahati-Cherrapunjee

Day2: Cherrapunjee & Cherrapunjee - Mawlynnong

Day3: Mawlynnong & Mawlynnong - Shillong

Day4- Shillong

Day5: Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi

The hotel we were staying, was an ECO RESORT Sai-Mika, off course arranged by Nanu and verified by me. Huge open property, with spacious cottages build in old style. The place is very quiet and beautiful. The restaurant is a stand-out, decorated with portraits of Rock Stars, dim lighting, rock music (of 70s-80s) at backdrop and small sit-out with bonfire arrangement. Good Chinese food was served in a huge tiffin style box. I spent some alone time in the balcony just to soak the quite surroundings and appreciate the sight of diamond studded sky and then retired to sleep after finishing of some office work, which I forgot to do on Friday!!  

Morning 6.30, the sun was up with full swing, gazing right into your eyes. Our geyser wasn’t working, so we had to call Antanu to correct it. Due to this we were delayed by an hour. We wanted to start-off early as today was going to be the most tiring and adventurous day.

**Interesting Fact # 3: Living Route Bridges

The living root bridges, are the tree roots grown to the other end of the river to form a bridge. The Rubber fig tree routes are trained to grow through the hollow betel tree trunks (which are placed across the gap) until they root on the other side of the river/gap. The thin long and tender roots of trees are passed through the hollow halves of betel nut tree trunks and as the root grows the bridge takes it shape and strength. It generally takes 10- 15 years to grow a functional living root bridge. Stones and mud is put on the bridge to make the surface smoother and walkable.

As the bridge grows older it also grows stronger, they are naturally self-renewing and self-strengthening as the component roots grow thicker. These bridges in are approx. 150-200 years old.

 There are several living root bridges in this area. The most famous ones are Double Decker and Long Root Bridge. As the name suggests, the double decker bridge is grown in at two levels for crossing the same river. The Long root bridge is thinner and leaner in structure and around 100 feet long.

Front View of Dobule Decker; Living Root Bridge

The route to reach the double decker is not that easy. One has to climb down around 4000 stairs to reach the bridge and also climb those back to reach the car parking area.we started at around 9.15 AM. On the way we encountered beautiful sceneries of the lush green forest on both side of the stairs. At midway there is a villages, the route for Long Root Bridge and Double Decker Bridge diverts here. As suggested by Nanu we first went to Double Decker as it was quite far. Enroute Double Decker we found two rope bridges. The first one was small bridge build on the shallow flowing river. These had lean structure with just enough space for one person to cross at a time. At first those rope bridges look little too lean to cross but once we got on it, it felt perfectly safe and serene.

The unending Stairs

The second bridge was a two stage bride having a pillar in the middle to support the structure. This one had cleaner and bluer water flowing beneath it. The landscape was giving a feeling as if you have entered some live (water) painting having vibrant such blues, greens & browns, with colorful butterflies flying on the beautiful flowers blossomed here & there.

The Rope Bridge

Capturing that image in our mind we moved forward and after some time there we encountered our first living root bridge. It was a small one, giving a far view of the double decker towards its right. Now we climbed up a little to cross the Nongriat village and Reach Double Decker.

Side view of the Bridge

While returning we took the diversion towards the Long Root Bridge it was a 15 mins climb up to the bridge. And after that the mammoth stair-climb was staring at us. Somehow we managed to reach the parking at around 1.30 – 1.45 Pm, with no energy for doing even nothing.

**Interesting Fact # 4: Caves

Meghalaya is home for number of Caves especially in Khasi hills near Cherrapunjee. Just to name a few, Krem Liat Prah (Janita Hills) the longest caves in India, Siju Cave (Garo Hills) is famous for bas and offers some of the finest river passages. 

Then we went to visit Mawsmai Caves, small and fully commercialized caves just to get the feeling of the cave one can visit here. We couldn’t do full-fledged caving in Mawmluh Cave because of shortage of time, as that would have required minimum 6 hrs and full energy.

@Mawsmai Cave

Now we were heading to Mawlynnong, enroute we visited two water falls Nohkalikai and Dainthlen falls.

Sunset Near the Dainthlen Falls

Meghalaya

Our Itineray:

Day1: Delhi-Guwahati-Cherrapunjee

Day2: Cherrapunjee & Cherrapunjee - Mawlynnong
Day3: Mawlynnong & Mawlynnong - Shillong
Day4- Shillong
Day5: Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi

The year 2014 was dedicated to sky high Himalayas. It started from the trip to heaven on earth Kashmir in January, progressed with the adventurous tour to Kalpa-Sangla Valley and Lahaul-Spiti in June, Chandrataal in August and ended with the eventful tour to Mcleodganj and Dalhousie.

We planned to start this year with some awesome beach destination, and when it comes to white sand beaches with crystal clear waters, what better location can there be than Lakshadweep Islands. Somehow we started off little late for planning, and it couldn’t materialise, but cancelling the trip is never an option in my world that too when it was planned to celebrate Rahul’s Birthday!!

We shifted our destination from the untouched islands of south east India to the wettest place on earth towards the North east India, Meghalaya. The entire planning for the trip was done in a jiffy, Rahul called up his friend who recently visited there, took the cab driver’s (Nanu) number and the other arrangements were based on Nanu’s recommendation. The suggestion we got from our friend was just to follow Nanu’s advice and everything will be sorted. I tried to do that but the travel freak inside me didn’t let me do that. So just to satisfy my hunger, I had to do basic secondary research to design the itinerary and at least verify our stay option suggested by our driver.

**Interesting Fact # 1: Tribes of Meghalaya

There are primarily 3 tribes in Meghalaya: Khasi, Garos & Janitas. Garos are settled in the Garo hills of Meghalaya, while the Khasis are scattered all across the state and are known by different names. Mainly the pure Khasis can be sited at the Khasi hills where as the Pnars or Jaintias can be located on Jaintia hills. Garos are known as the descendants of Bodo family of the Tibeto-Burmar race who came down to the north eastern states, all the way from Tibet. The Khasis and Pnars or Jaintias are the believed to be descendants of Proto Austroloid Monkhmer race.

Shillong, Cherrapunjee and Mawlynnong are all part of East Khasi Hills.

Waking up early on a Saturday Winter morning is a task in itself but somehow we managed. We could barely manage to board the connecting at 7.50AM for 7.45AM flight, as Delhi was on highest security alert as US President Obama was coming for 26^th January.

Just 15-20mins after the take-off, all I could see was snow covered Himalayan Peaks making their way out of the greyish-white cloud blanket. Though I couldn’t recognize the exact name of the peaks but most likely we would have seen Dhaulagiri (8,167m), Annapurna (8,091m), Everest (8,848 m). Not every day you get such spectacular views through the window!! The sight mere sight of it was enough to re-kindle my love for sky high Himalaya and I suggested Rahul to divert our journey towards Tawang. Little did he agree with me!!

We started our trip by paying a visit to Kamakya Devi Temple. There was huge queue of Worshippers to get inside the temple. There were two shorter queues one with 100 Rs payment (which closed by the time we reached) and another with a payment of 500 Rs to get an express entry into the temple. The temple door closes at 1.00PM and opens at around 2.30 PM.

The temple is one of the 51 Shakti peeths of Goddess Durga and has special importance for ‘Tantrik Kriya’. Legend has it that following the destruction of Daksha's sacrifice and the Rudra Tandava of Shiva parts of Sati's body fell at several places throughout India, and these places are revered as Shakti peethas. The reproductive organ of Sati, (the Yoni) is said to have fallen here.

At the outer area of temple there is an idol of goddess Durga. There were 5 goat heads (separated from their bodies) lying in-front of the Goddess Idol (Goat sacrifice is a common ritual followed here to worship the Goddess). It also took us 1½ hrs. to enter (after paying 500 Rs each) and offer our prayers at main sanctum which is in in the form of a cave, which consists of no image, but a natural underground spring that flows through a yoni-shaped cleft in the bedrock.

We headed towards our destination, Cherapunjee via Shillong. On the way to Shillong we halted a Umiam Lake, which offered an spectacular view of the Sunset. While talking to Nanu we came to know about many traditions/facts/culture of the Meghalaya and its people.

Sunset @ Umiam Lake

**Interesting Fact # 2: Matricidal Society

The tribes at Meghalaya follow matrilineal lineage whereby a property's inheritance is traced through the women. Children keep the surname of their mother in few cases. Unlike other part of country girl child is considered a boon here, as by having a girl there blood line keeps on growing.

Though the women section of the tribes at Meghalaya take the responsibility of the household work, men are responsible for the mental and material life of his family.

After marriage if a man has married the youngest or only daughter of the family, then man moves into the woman’s house and they reside with girl’s family. And if man has married other than the youngest daughter then the couple has to move out and build their own home separately. Neither can they stay at guy’s house nor at girl’s house. The property also gets transferred to the women in the house. There is only one restriction i.e., one cannot marry in the same clan and the marriage should get the approval of the family members. 

Khasi Women in Meghalaya

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!!

McLeodganj

We started our journey by taking the train to Pathankot from Tuglakabad (Delhi) at around 10.30PM (please keep a buffer of 15-20 mins extra if you ever are planning to take the train from here). We were supposed to reach Pathankot at 11 AM but thanks to our railway system we were 3 Hrs late.

As soon as I de-boarded the train, the first thing visible was army tanks in huge number, so much so that one entire railway track was occupied only with tanks.

At around 2 PM we started our journey towards Mcleodgunj and within the first 5 mins we realized that its going to be very difficult to handle this adamant driver. Anyways we ignored the fact and reached Mcleodgunj at around 4.30PM.

The first thing was to have lunch. This time I had pre-decided each and every restaurant we were going to eat at. So we went looking for SEED CAFÉ. After walking around 1 km from the main square we reached this small & sidelined café. There was nobody in the café at that time we took one table and the view from the café is just amazing. Fog was playing hide and seek against those huge lush green mountains. All fatigue was gone in just 5 mins after sitting there. We ordered some Italian food and started enjoying the music and view.

Seed Cafe

After spending an hour there, Rahul said let me call the hotel guy to check for the route to hotel and to our shock the manager informed that there has been no bookings done from Expedia against our name. We tried calling Expedia around 50 times, but no one picked up. After paying full money in advance they didn’t even bother to inform/block the room at the hotel. There we were, in the middle of the busy Jogiwara road, with no room and almost all hotels being sold out.

At the back of Seed Café there were few hotels so we went to check in each one of them, just to try our luck. Finally we got a room for one day in Hotel Moon River. I literally loved the room as it had green and refreshing view from the balcony. 

We decided to take a walk along the market and trust me it was a very good experience to walk around the lively and colourful market having shops of antique/junk jewelry,  colourful shawls and woollens, trekking/camping materials, food stalls/ restaurants and what not. I just loved it!!

After spending 2-3 hrs shunting in the market we decided to have dinner and there were so many good options in Mcleodgunj. One can easily get confused where to eat and where not. Finally we decided to eat at Clay Owen at Main square. The ambiance was rustic with clay walls, wall hangings made out of wooden clogs, bamboo shades to hold the bulbs emitting yellow light, open ovens to make wood fired pizza, Tibetan style seating and the soft relaxing music being played at the backdrop. All this  made it a very relaxing and soothing place to have dinner. There is a small sitting area in the balcony of the restaurant also where one can enjoy the dinner. We ordered some thai curry & rice +  khotey momos both of the dishes were delicious and till date I regret not ordering Waffle with ice cream and Chocolate sauce, as it was looking so tempting and every single table on the restaurant had that dish. Anyways we summed up our dinner with that thai curry and rice.

We spent our rest of the evening roaming around the market area, observing people and chit-chatting amongst ourselves and soon we were off to bed to get a good night sleep.

The combination of cool breeze and bright sunlight  gave a refreshing start to a new day full of excitement to complete the trek (Triund) which was left unfinished last time as we took the wrong trek and had to return from the jungle at the night. But first we started-off with some local sight-seeing, which included the Church, Dal Lake (dont go there) and few other points. 

Outserspace of the Church

Glass Paintings at the Church

For Triund one can start trekking from Dharamkot itself/ or hire a vehicle and go till Golu temple and start the trek from there. It is not exactly a trek, but a hike to a fully carved stone path, with a lot of broken stairs. If you start early then it's doable in one day (to and fro). The only troll is the huge broken stairs which drains some energy out of you. There are two midway cafes on the route where you can get tea and basic stuff for eating. Lot of horses (carrying various stuff) climb up the hill along with you. One need to be careful of them, as one of the horses which overtook me got misbalanced while climbing and fell rolling down into the valley.

Triund Trek

You will find 4-5 small shops selling almost everything you might need during the night stay at top of the hill. They even arrange tents and sleeping bags, but it’s better to carry your own as availability of those depends on the number of traveller staying there. During the right season the entire hill is full of tents so much so it becomes difficult to get a place for your tent. So the place is fully crowded if you are looking for secluded place for trek then this is definitely not the place. If you want to trek further, one can go to LAKA Glacier (8Km up and down from triund) or till Khabrotu (4 km up and down from triund) those must be less crowded.

Top of the Triund

My Camp

Sunset At Triund

Our tent was ready when we reached there, we spent our time roaming around the hilltop watching the sun go behind the hills and (on a clear night) making way for moon and stars to shine with full glaze. Along with that listening to one of the groups who was playing some awesome guitar with some beautiful songs. Watching the sky full of stars is one of my favourite time-pass. I did the same for few hrs and then went to sleep. Next day we had to trek down to Golu Temple then according to the time in hand visit one/two places of interest along with the Dalai Lama Temple and then leave for Dharamshala.

Though our driver wasn’t interested to go to any of the places we wanted to see. He tried his level best to spoil our mood and negating to drive to each possible place. It’s a lesson learnt for lifetime whenever I will go on such trips I need to ensure that I get a good driver with bearable attitude.

As a result I was in fully attentive mode and was tracking our car's movement(through GPS) to each kilo meter driven,  as I was afraid he might take us to some notorious place.

Rest of the journey Later.. 

Planning Phase for McLeodgunj & Dalhousie..

Mcleodgunj & Dalhousie

Best time to Travel: March to June & September to November

Itinerary:  Night1: Delhi to Pathankot (8-10 Hrs by Train),

Day2: Pathankot to Mcleodgunj (2-3 Hrs By Car) (Link to Detailed Mcleodganj Experience)

Day3:  Mcleodgunj to Triund (3-6 Hrs by Foot, depends on you)

Day4: Triund to Mcleodgunj (2-4 Hrs by Foot), Mcleodgunj to Dalhousie (4-5 Hrs by Car)

Day5: Dalhousie – Khajjiar (half hrs by Car) (Link to Detailed Dalhousie Experience)

Day6: Pathankot to Delhi (8-10 Hrs by Train)

Planning for the Trip:

I wasn’t much excited about the journey: one because this would be my 2^nd visit there, two because both are very popular destination and must be crowded because of the extra-long weekend. But my husband (Rahul) wanted to go there so I agreed with few initial reservations. How long my reservations can sustain knowing that it’s a tour and that too, to the mountains with a special attraction of 2 Day Trekking to Triund. So, I started planning for the trip, smartly covering the places which were missed in earlier trip ;-)

First thing I did was to book ticket as it was a long weekend it was very difficult to get tickets for such a popular destination, I could manage to get 2 of the last 5 ticket on the only train left with confirmed booking options. Such a relief!!!

Next was to get our hotels booked, which was again a herculean task on those particular dates, I had to go through to each and every website to get the hotels bookings. The only booking I could get was through expedia for a Hotel,  to our despair 3 days after the booking expedia people called us only to inform that there was some fault in their system and there is no room in that hotel. Finally after a lot of hustle bustle we could get a booking for Hotel Natraj and for Dalhousie I booked "Birds & Chirps" to experience a Homestay for the first time. Next was to make arrangements for a guide, camping at Triund and a cab.

Taxi Services: Rana Travels Pathankot, would recommend NOT TO USE Rana Travels for booking taxi not even as last resort

McLeodGanj & Dharamshala:



Sunrise at top of Triund

Tip: Try to get an accommodation at Jogiwara road or at Rangrik (at the road parallel to jogiwara) instead of Bhagsu or Dharamshala. Trust me it is a different experience altogether, a very different culture and lifestyle compared to other hill station in North India.

Places to Stay: Hotel Moon River, Jogipura Road, Meclodgunj – Awesome Hotel with excellent views & hospitality of the staff

If staying in Triund either you can plan for camping or Forest guesthouse (only 3-4 rooms, need to book in advance)

Main Attractions : Dalai Lama Temple, Bhagsu Waterfalls, Bhagsu Nag Temple, St. John church in the Wilderness, Dal Lake, Roaming and shopping on the market street, Triund Trek, Dharamshala Cricket Stadium

Food: Seed Café (Italian Food + one should go for the view), Nicks Kitchen (awesome Italian & Richard Gere’s Favorite restaurant), Clay Owen (rustic ambiance and good Tibetan, Chinese and Thai food) Tibet kitchen (Tibetan Food), Bakery at Main Square.

Dalhousie:




Beautiful Roads at Dalhousie

Tip(s):

1. You can try your luck for booking the two Government Cottages at Kajjiar.
2. If you have some time you can go to Chamba via Khajjiar and return to Dalhousie via Chamera Dam/Lake.
3. If you are adventurist and have 2 extra days then take an excursion to Sach Pass. Please check its accessibility before going there. 
4. You can also go to Bharmour & Manimahesh, around 60km further from Chamba (108 Kms from Dalhousie). It is a hindu pilgrimage sight AKA land of lord Shiva. The scenery and landscape of these places are also exceptional, which is a bonus..

Places to Stay: Birds & Chirps Homestay, Panchpula, Dalhousie – Home amidst tall trees and chirping birds, its literally Birds and Chirps 

Governement Cottages at Khajjiar

Main Attractions: Khajjiar, Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary, Dainkund Peak, Barkota Hill, SaatDhara (don’t go there), Pachpula Waterfalls, Gandhi Chowk (Market Area), St. John's Church, Chamera Lake (enroute to Chamba), Chamunda Devi Temple, Manimahesh Lake, Sach Pass

Detailed travelogue will follow..