Dharamsala - Could I Ever Afford to Miss it!!!

Well, feels nice to be blogging again after so long!!! It feels like a lifetime already (though its just a lil more than 1 month). So it was a period filled with office, traffic, horns and quarrels on the roads, loads of travel for work & the good old Delhi Rush (which I guess all of us are addicted to by now)

View from our room

But all this motivated me to finally head to one of my favorite destinations, Dharamsala! Incidently my first post on this blog was also about a visit to Dharamsala and I must admit, this second time was no less :) This time I went with my family and it was a 3 day trip. This time around, instead of Bhagsu Nag I decided to stay in "Naddi" which is a small village 6 KM above Mcleod Ganj. Let me tell you one thing - if you are looking for some peace and solace, this place is a must visit. Though it now has a fair bit of hotels, but still the nature overshadows the crowd here.

We stayed at a budget hotel "Hotel Shikhar", on the basis of a recommendation from one of my good friends who stayed here sometime back and now I second his opinion about the hotel. Its a nice place to be - not a luxurious hotel, but it has a "Chummeshwari" view!!! The food was also nice and tasted as good as home cooked food :)

Me and my wife

Day 1: We decided to check out Naddi, click some fantastic views up for display and then head to Mcleod Ganj (6 KM walk downhill) to have a gaze at the market.The walk took my heart, though it reminded me of a recent horror movie owing to the church and grave yard on the way. In Mcleod Ganj, we decided to have some nice pastries :) and shopped a bit before returning to Hotel (by Auto this time) as we had a long day planned next.

Day 2: It was time to please the Almighty! We decided to hire a cab and visit the "4 Devian" in the area - Kangra Devi, Nagarkot Mata, Jwala Ji, Chintpurni Devi. A totall of 200+ KM of driving on the hills was tiring but the experience was amazing! The scenes at some of the temples were not so impressive with too much of crowd, but none the less as they say in hindi - Darshan Khule Ho Gaye :-). Came back after 13 hours of drive to the hotel and the night was waiting for us with the IPL Final on that day! Cheers to MSD...

Day 3: Our last day on this trip, the nostalgia was already on a high - I did not want to go back so early :-( but had to else I would not able to earn mullaahh for my next trip :-) We first went to Bhagsu Nag and went to my fav cafe`... Some old memories were refreshed, we even had Bhagsu Cake (its a special cake made in Bhagsu Nag) and then headed towards Mcleod Ganj again, from where we had to catch our bus to Delhi. After a bit of shopping in Mcleodganj - it was time to say good bye to Dharamsala, Bhagsu Nag, Naddi and Mcleod Ganj.

View on the way to Mcleod Ganj - Walk

Also, before I forget, The bus journey was horrendous!!! If you are travelling to Dharamsala, beware of "City Land Travels" in Pahar Ganj... Trust me, their buses were horrible and you can only regret ever stepping into these buses... The best way to travel is only by a Volvo (run by DTC and HP Transport) even a private Volvo is cool, but do not, I repeat do not travel by Non Volvo AC buses!!! Overall, a happy hangover and some unforgettable memories is what I came back and am already gearing up for my next visit to Mumbai for a week now :-)

Will come back with more travel adventures, till stay plugged in to me and keep visiting Sumit ki Duniya... In case you want to check out a few pictures of this visit then click here

Cheers

Keep Smiling

Sumit