Dalhousie-Khajjiar-Chamba-Himanchal Pradesh
Hey all
If I say Mountains do have some kind of charm of there own, probably I won’t be wrong. As I took my very first breathe in "Dalhousie", it felt something #Magical#Peace#Happiness.........
The best part is its super duper awesome weather. One will instantly "FALL IN LOVE" with Dalhousie. OMG!!! It's Paradise for Trekkers, a gateway for Hikers; simply a perfect place to feel and experience serenity.
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| View from Bakrota Hills, Dalhousie |
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| Dainkund Peak Dalhousie |
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| Beautiful Sunset at Dalhousie |
After beholding the Mountains of Uttarkhand, J&K and Sikkim; this year it has to be the state of "Himanchal Pradesh". The state being replete with beautiful places with beautiful landscape, it was truly a tough call to finalise on one town. After a lot of reasoning we finally finalised on "Dalhousie-khajjiar-Chamba".
It was last week of September 2016. We board from Lucknow and reached Pathankot Cantt by train (almost 17 hrs journey)…............. opps our train got late by 3 hrs. It was a hot afternoon in Pathankot. Further 3 hrs and we reached Dalhousie by around 5:30 pm.
By a local taxi we reached our "Hotel-Satyam International". By the time we checked in our hotel it was dark and cold outside. As we were exhausted, we had early dinner and went to sleep.
DAY
1
We raise and shine early to see the sunrise, nothing less than a "MAGICAL" moment….. golden rays peeking through the mountains……simply
spectacular. As compared to the previous day, the present day was
bright and sunny.
Got ready and opt not to have breakfast at hotel,
instead we headed to Kapoor Food Point (local dhaba) just adjacent to our
hotel. This guy served us yummy yummy Parathas, Omelette with hot
tea/coffee. Right after our breakfast we headed to Dainkund
Peak (we hired a local taxi for all site-seeing , for all days).
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| View from our Hotel |
Dainkund
Peak –NOW THAT'S WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT "MOUNTAIN CHARM".
Dainkund Trek starts from"Alha Village", just 15 mins ride from our hotel. It's a trekking (almost took 2 hrs), leading to "Pohlani Mata Devi Temple" at the top of the peak; as an old saying in ancient days Mata(Goddess) protecting the entire valley from 'Witches'.
Dainkund
Peak known to be highest peak in Dalhousie. It's best place to view the entire valley, if lucky one can view Khajjiar toooo from the peak ; though the day we visited it was quite a fogging day.
Dainkund Trek starts from"Alha Village", just 15 mins ride from our hotel. It's a trekking (almost took 2 hrs), leading to "Pohlani Mata Devi Temple" at the top of the peak; as an old saying in ancient days Mata(Goddess) protecting the entire valley from 'Witches'.
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| Trekking at Dainkund Peak, Dalhousie |
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| Trekking at Dainkund Peak, Dalhousie |
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| Trekking at Dainkund Peak, Dalhousie |
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| Pohlani Mata Temple at Dainkund Peak, Dalhousie |
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| Pohlani Mata Temple at Dainkund Peak, Dalhousie |
I wish I had more time in hand to praise this endless and timeless beauty.One is left with this beautiful smile................. a beautiful memory :)
Khajjiar- "Khajjiar" CALLING !!!
It took us almost 45 mins to reach Khajjiar from Dainkund Peak; it's 25 kms from Dalhousie. It was 12:30 pm by now. By the time we started planning for this trip; Khajjiar was all over my mind. Being Internet flooded with wonderful pictures of Khajjiar, it made me more inclined towards it……. mini Switzerland of India.
It took us almost 45 mins to reach Khajjiar from Dainkund Peak; it's 25 kms from Dalhousie. It was 12:30 pm by now. By the time we started planning for this trip; Khajjiar was all over my mind. Being Internet flooded with wonderful pictures of Khajjiar, it made me more inclined towards it……. mini Switzerland of India.
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| Khajjiar |
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| Khajjiar |
"Khajjiar" is a flat lush 'Green Meadow' with saucer shape water body in middle, tall deodar
trees surrounding it. It's simply spellbinding for the
nature lovers like me.
Khajjiar
has something for everyone. People looking for adventure activities
can opt for paragliding(chargeable Rs. 2500-Rs. 2000) or zorbing(chargeable Rs. 300), or simply horse riding (chargeable Rs.500-Rs.300) just
like we did). Kids and even big ones will love to get clicked with these cute rabbits
(chargeable Rs. 20).
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| Horse riding at Khajjiar |
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| Zorbing at Khajjiar |
Personally i preferred long walks at
Khajjiar ; it's best way to explore this Beauteous Place with awesomeeee Landscape. We took a side trail and traveled through the path , deodar trees standing tall at both the sides.
I wish this extraordinary nature's gift be maintained more. Himanchal Tourism should work more actively towards preserving and maintaining of Khajjiar; since its the main earning source for Dalhousie and nearby people.
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| Khajjiar |
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| Kajjiar |
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| Side trail at Khajjiar |
I wish this extraordinary nature's gift be maintained more. Himanchal Tourism should work more actively towards preserving and maintaining of Khajjiar; since its the main earning source for Dalhousie and nearby people.
After
lunch , we headed to "Jagdambe Mata Temple" just 2 kms
ahead of Khajjiar. The main attraction of this temple is "80 ft tall
Lord Shiva Statue".
Evening was spend at Gandhi Chowk (local Market). We visited St. Francis Church (from British time) and simply enjoyed our ice-creams in this Chilly Weather :)
After early breakfast we commenced for "Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary", just 15 mins ride from our Hotel Satyam International.
Kalatop Wildlife Sanctaury- It is undertaken by Forest Department.The way to Kalatop starts from Lakkar Mandi. The Main attraction of Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary is Kalatop Guest House-Movie Lootera frame. There are three ways to reach Kalatop Guest House.
3.Third and the most exciting way is to trek through forest; the way we opted. I think it's the best way to enjoy and explore. It's almost 2 hrs trek to the Guest House. The trek was very difficult, at times it seemed really impossible to reach the destination. Since we visited after monsoon; the entire way was filled with wild plants and to that the fallen trees made it worst. We took Sonu(Guide) with us, he made our trek successful; many many thanks to him. Charges for guide is Rs. 500/-
Finally after 2 hrs of trek we were thrilled to see the road....haha; and there was this beautiful Guest House. Sonu(guide) was happy to share movie- Lootera experience; after all it was the very first time he saw a actress, lovely Sonakshi Sinha :)
Chamba- It was almost 1 pm by now, we headed to Chamba. It's almost 50 kms from Dalhousie, 90 mins to reach Chamba via Khajjiar. Chamba is one of the main city of Chamba distt situated at the "Bank of River Ravi and is quite populated as compared to other nearby towns. It's situated in valley. The town looks spectacular from far away. The Houses are as colorful as 'Festival of Holi'.
The main crop cultivate in this area is of Corn (Maize).One can see corns getting dry at locals house roof.
As compared to Dalhousie, Chamba was quite hot. River ravi flows through the Chamba city. We wandered around the main market and visited the "Laxmi Narayan Temple- the Oldest Temple".
Disappointed by Panchpula we moved to Gandhi Chowk and from there we decided to take a long walk, since the weather was awesome. We started from Garam Sadak to Subhash Chowk, almost 2 kms . There we paid our visit to St. John's Church and walked back to Subhash Chowk via Thandi Sadak. It turned out to be a perfect stroll.
DAY 4
Time to say goodbye to Dalhousie.................................
Important piece of information-
Previous Travel Blogs-
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| 80 ft tall Lord Shiva Statue |
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| St. Francis Church at Gandhi Chowk Dalhousie |
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| Street Food at Gandhi Chowk Dalhousie |
DAY 2
Kalatop Wildlife Sanctaury- It is undertaken by Forest Department.The way to Kalatop starts from Lakkar Mandi. The Main attraction of Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary is Kalatop Guest House-Movie Lootera frame. There are three ways to reach Kalatop Guest House.
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| Trekking at Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary, Dalhousie |
2.Other way is to walk to Kalatop Guest House by main road; charges for guide is Rs. 100/-, is almost 3 kms walk from one side.
3.Third and the most exciting way is to trek through forest; the way we opted. I think it's the best way to enjoy and explore. It's almost 2 hrs trek to the Guest House. The trek was very difficult, at times it seemed really impossible to reach the destination. Since we visited after monsoon; the entire way was filled with wild plants and to that the fallen trees made it worst. We took Sonu(Guide) with us, he made our trek successful; many many thanks to him. Charges for guide is Rs. 500/-
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| Trekking at Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary, Dalhousie |
Finally after 2 hrs of trek we were thrilled to see the road....haha; and there was this beautiful Guest House. Sonu(guide) was happy to share movie- Lootera experience; after all it was the very first time he saw a actress, lovely Sonakshi Sinha :)
Kalatop Guest House- It's lovely Guest house; surrounded by lawns with ample number of flowers. There are few Guest rooms and also V.l.P rooms, pre-booking can be done from Chamba. One can enjoy adventure activity like Zip-Lines here(chargeable Rs. 500). There are few eating points , one can sit and relax and enjoy hot pakoras with hot tea.
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| Us at Kalatop Guest House Dalhousie |
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| Famous Kalatop Guest House |
Chamba- It was almost 1 pm by now, we headed to Chamba. It's almost 50 kms from Dalhousie, 90 mins to reach Chamba via Khajjiar. Chamba is one of the main city of Chamba distt situated at the "Bank of River Ravi and is quite populated as compared to other nearby towns. It's situated in valley. The town looks spectacular from far away. The Houses are as colorful as 'Festival of Holi'.
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| Photo credit-Tripoto, Chamba Town |
The main crop cultivate in this area is of Corn (Maize).One can see corns getting dry at locals house roof.
As compared to Dalhousie, Chamba was quite hot. River ravi flows through the Chamba city. We wandered around the main market and visited the "Laxmi Narayan Temple- the Oldest Temple".
One can buy Walnuts here, it's cheap as compared to other cities.
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| Laxmi Narayan Temple, Chamba |
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| Laxmi Narayan Temple, Chamba |
On returning back we drive down via Benikhet. There is diversion for Chamera Lake. Chamera lake is actually a Dam, almost 3 kms long. Since we were not interested in boating we skipped Chamera Lake but visited Rock Garden just 8 kms away from Benikhet.
DAY 3
The third and last day was time to relax and to explore local. The day started with ease; late breakfast. With few steps ahead of our hotel we walked to "Bakrota Hills" to enjoy the great views of Dalhousie and also explored "Ahla Village famous for Potato Farming".
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| Potato farming at Ahla village Dalhousie |
Later we commenced to Panchpula(Local) nothing much to see here, except the little water fall at the top.
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| Amazing Street Art at Garam Sadak Dalhousie |
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| Garam Sadak on a fogging day, Dalhousie |
By the time we reached Gandhi Chowk, it was time for lunch. We had our lunch at Dalhousie's Oldest Restaurant "kwality". It's perfect place for fine dinning with your loved ones.
Time to say goodbye to Dalhousie.................................
- Buses and Private Taxis both are available to reach Dalhousie.
- Charges for Adventure Activities varies(Peak season and off season).
- Do carry Woolens and comfy shoes(lot of walking involved).
- Our Hotel was Hotel Satyam International, Rs. 1500(Duluxe Room-for off season). Rooms were spacious, clean with wooden flooring.
- Since the best way to travel Dalhousie and nearby places is by private car; it's better to book same travel agent for all the places for all days.
- Raju Travel Agent-9418943000
Chetali from Travelbazzinga wishes you......HAppY TrAvellinG!!!
Previous Travel Blogs-
Wow i think its heaven in earth and you described very clearly about the trip
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot
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