Driving through an Unforgettable Himachal Pradesh

 

My kids have always been wanting to witness snowfall, always had skiing in mind coupled with some amount of hiking, trekking etc. So after a lot of iterations we decided to visit Himachal Pradesh and planned for a 10 day trip. Interestingly , while we were trying to optimise travel time, break the trip so as to decrease any chance of motion sickness that some of us suffer from, we ended up exploring more of the beauty, diversity and colours of HP which we would have missed out if we had gone by the popular choices and focussed only on the touristy places.

Here’s a small account of our tour experience in the mountainous Himachal.

Day 1: Pathankot:

We started our Himalaya sojourn on Oct 4th by boarding our flight to Chandigarh. On arriving at the airport, we were received by driver ‘Happy’ who was to drive us around. We started our drive to Pathankot which was a good 5 hours and more away.

Pathankot was surely in the news with the cross border tension on. We were told by Happy that the hotel is close to the border and that we would hear some firing! However to our disappointment we later on found that our hotel was a good 50 km away!

The hotel (Corel River Resort) lived up to its name as it indeed was on the banks of a serene and scenic river. It was also close to the main road which was noisy and busy as well.

Day 2: Pathankot to Dalhousie:

Next morning after a good breakfast we headed to Dalhousie. We stopped by beautiful Chamera Lake en-route to Dalhousie. Not being a busy time of the year, we had the boat all for ourself! We possibly couldn’t miss out on a jet boat expedition – happy faces (as you can see!) On the suggestion of our jet boat driver/ guide, we decided to visit the Bhalai Mata Temple (6km away). We were quite hungry though and decided to stop over to eat something and we had a splendid feast of Maggi and fruit chat.

Post lunch, we continued our drive to Bhalai Mata temple. Although we tried climbing the steep walk path to the temple, we ran out of energy half way and drove up-to the temple!

The Bhalai Mata temple on the Shivalik is a lovely temple, the deity being a small idol of Durga mata. We considered ourselves quite lucky to manage a visit which was not on our cards during the Dussehra period. We were advised by the priest to have lunch in the temple to get an essence of Himachali food. We did and it indeed was great, our palms smelt of herbs even after washing our hands!

We ended our day by checking into the Grand View Hotel. And boy! The hotel was surely grand; it had superb views, great food and hospitality. They even conducted a game of Housie which we ended up winning (never happens)!

Late in the evening, we visited St. John’s Church built in the 18th century. The much-talked about Gandhi Chowk was like any other hill station street.

Day 3 Khajjiar – Kalatop – Dainkund Peak:

After breakfast, we headed to Khajjiar – the ‘mini Switzerland’ of India. (Don’t get surprised, if you have heard this before, there are at least half a dozen more names which stake a claim to this title) Khajjiar is a green table top in a valley admidst deciduous trees. The kids took to horse riding along the periphery of the table top as we walked along. They ended up petting rabbits that run in plenty in Himachal.

There is a Khajji Nag temple close by and lores of the place states that a king cobra resides deep in the waters of the lake and is worshipped at the temple! There are wooden idols of the 5 Pandavas in the temple as well.

After spending time in Khajjiar, we drove to Kalatop National Park. I would recommend a night stay in the park to experience any wildlife (very lucky if you spot any!)

We are not a trekking family but we were on a roll! After conquering Kalatop, we headed out to the much talked about ‘Dainkund peak’. A family from Canada gave up during their trek but we continued to press on and comfortably scaled the 2.5 km stretch of Dainkund Peak! The views along the trek path were very scenic and we stopped by many a times to click pictures. On the top, we were greeted by a the pink temple of Pohlani Mata. Not far away from the temple is an idol of Lord Shiva.

The day was still young and we made our way to the Panchkula falls. The water was freezing cold for us South Indians. Apart from the adventure rides, there is not much here to explore.

Day 4 Dalhousie to Dharamshala:

We relaxed for a couple of days in Dalhousie before heading out to Dharamshala. Our first stop was at the HPCA cricket stadium – the highest stadium for international cricket. The cricket stadium surely has a fabulous setting surrounded by the mountains. The game versus the Kiwis was 2-weeks away when we visited.

Late in the evening, we visited St. John’s Church which is in the midst of the woods and an old cemetery. The grave stones there had markings from the 18th century!

After visiting the church, we headed to McLeod Ganj to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Llama and his monastery. The whole street leading up to the monastery is largely commercial. We couldn’t meet the Dalai Llama but we did meet a few monks and managed to strike a pose with one of them!

We picked up some fruit barfi which looked special enough to take back home.

Day 5 Dharamshala – Kangra – Lunj:

Making a habit of early morning walk has its perks, especially when you stroll down the Dal Lake and meet an inquisitive group of school children. Well this ain’t as beautiful as Dal Lake of Srinagar although we have never been there but worth a walk!

After breakfast, we were treated with the historical Kangra fort built by the Katoch dynasty. There are audio guides of the fort available online, and it was very informative, you should try it! For probably the first time, I didn’t minf my kids plugged in!

The current generation of Katoch dynasty stay in Delhi and they drop by once a year especially for the pooja of their family diety – Ambika Mata. An interesting fact that it is named after Emperor Jahangir and Alexander the Great (better known here as Sikandar) for according to the Katoch legend, Porus is said to have defeated Alexander the Great here! Isn’t that news?

My husband had read-up on trusty Wikipedia about the Masroor rock-cut temple. After another round of – what else, Maggi/ Toast – we made our way to Lunj to see what the temple had to offer. It was 36 km away and the last 6 km took the longest as we had to travel through narrow, winding roads.

We finally reached Masroor rock cut temple which looked like a lookalike of ‘Angkor Wat’! As per the legend, this monolithic structure is believed to be constructed by the Pandavas (from the epic Mahabharata) and who resided here during their exile from the kingdom.

There are certain parts of the temple that look unfinished, but we learn the temple was deeply affected by the earthquake that struck the region in 1905. The same earthquake impacted the Kangra fort as well. This temple houses the deities of Lord Ram, Lakshmana and Sita.

Our last stop of the day was Bhagsunath falls, but we were pretty late and ended up only visiting the temple We did notice a mountain goat beside the Bhagsunath temple, which I thought was worth taking a picture of and it was such a poset!

A slight anti-climax to the trip was my husband being stung by a small scorpion in Bhagsunath temple which he unknowingly stamped upon. My son was obviously terrified as he was accompanying him! Thankfully nothing untoward happened although a couple advised a visit to the doctor.

After a busy day, we retired to our hotel in McLeod Ganj to the comforts of warm, homely food.

Day 6 Dharamshala to Manali:

En-route to Manali, we visited the ancient Baijnath temple with numerous Shivlingas. The highlight of this temple was a standing Nandi (bull) which we haven’t seen in any other temple till date. As per the legend, it is here where King Ravana placed the shivlinga down when he was on his way to carrying it to Lanka. We gobbled some yummy paratha’s for breakfast and continued our journey to Manali.

We stopped by at Kullu to do white-water rafting in the Beas river. The water was really cold but it was an enjoyable session of rafting.

From Kullu, we continued our journey towards Manali and stayed at Hotel Whistling Pines. The kids were thrilled with the hotel as they had an independent room ( as it was a family suite). What we didn’t like much in Manali is the traffic -terrible!

After a quick check-in and some refreshments later, we went down to Him River Resort for a cultural performance ( Bhangra and Himachali dance). It was fun and infestious and we joined in as well. The kids did a fair bit of zip-lining and witnessed the magic show. It was getting pretty cold but that didn’t stop us from looking forward to cover Rohtang Pass the next day!

Day 7 Rohtang – Manali:

Next day we woke up really early (5:00 am) to head out to Rohtang La (Pass). On the way we rented jackets which covered us from head to toe, gum boots, gloves. We were certainly looking like astronauts, all set to explore Rohtang Pass 14,000 feet above.

Vehicles other than Himachal registration are not permitted to drive to Rohtang Pass due to the norms put up by a strong Drivers Union. Thanks to Beyonder, everything was already in place. We travelled to Rohtang with a new driver / pilot who was quite a happy and gay fellow. I must say, one needs to be skilled to drive on the roads leading to Rohtang Pass. We passed a place where a make-shift house was constructed for shooting of a Bollywood movie that starred Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan. Looking forward to seeing it when the movie releases!

After an hour’s drive, we were at Rohtang. It was definitely cold and breathtakingly beautiful with the snow clad mountains far away. The kids were quite disappointed as there was no snow around, at least not as much as they would have hoped for! Afterall wasn’t this whole Himalayan expedition focussed at snowfall? We walked a good distance towards a frozen pond which aroused their interest and excitement as they could break the ice and play around. The road to Rohtang also leads to Leh. We would like to explore Leh one day!

The descent back to Manali was terrible as the path was chock-a-block with vehicles wanting to go up-to Rohtang Pass. We had to give Solong Pass a miss therefore.

Despite our low energy, we did push ourselves to visit the Hadimba Devi temple, and the day coincided with Dussehra. The queue appeared to be standstill and seem to not move. Only later on entering the temple did we realize the reason – the temple houses a large rock and there is no space to walk. The temple has the footprint of Hadimba devi (Ghatotkach’s mother) which everyone pays respect to.

We all have heard about Hadimba Devi temple but a temple dedicated to Ghatotkach was unheard of! It is here we saw the fluffy haired rabbits, something unique than all the rabbit holding the kids had done. The kids had a good time with the traditional himachali attire and yak riding.

The much talked about Clubhouse was disappointing (a popular choice of accommodation may not be always the best). The silver lining of course was the fact that the kids enjoyed a form of zip lining which dropped their feet into the cold waters of the river flowing below.

Day 8 Manali to Shimla:

After our 2 day stay at Manali, we headed to yet another long drive to Shimla. On the way we were greeted by people donning the dresses of Lord Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman on account of Dussehra and we cheered them up by saying ‘Jai Shree Ram’! We also noticed preparations for Ram Leela under way in many places and fire cracker burning. Ram Leela is certainly popular in the North and has zero presence in the South.

Last but not the least my husband did pick up a crate of Shimla apples to carry back home.
After a long drive, we only wanted to relax at the hotel in the evening.

Day 9 Shimla – Kufri:

Next morning we headed off to Kufri and visited Kufri national park also called as Chinni Bungalow. This mini park houses a few black, brown bears, musk deer, leopards, cheetahs and numerous birds.

From here we headed to Jakhoo temple to see the 108 feet structure of Lord Hanuman which is visible from Shimla limits. The van could only climb up to a certain point as the roads are narrow to the top. We hired a Maruti 800 which comfortably took us to the top.

As per the legend, it is said that Lord Hanuman rested here when he went searching for the Sanjeeveni booti (herb). Interestingly enough there are many monkeys around Jakhoo. We walked back on our way down chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ so that the monkeys don’t attack us!

Our next stop was of course Shimla. We strolled around Mall road limits and identified the location where a scene from ‘3 Idiots’ was shot. Visited Christ Church (The Ridge) which is more than a century and a half old. Although we had deliberately budgeted for a shorter time in Shimla, I personally felt the city needed more time as there are many heritage walks that one could explore.

Later that evening, we caught the UNESCO heritage toy train ‘Shivalik Deluxe’ to Kalka. The train journey is a long one and goes through 100+ tunnels and many bridges. The train also takes a 48 degree curve at one point! Food served on this train was quite decent and we were sure that had we driven down, we would have reached faster but would have definitely missed this experience!

Day 10 Kalka – Chandigarh:

On reaching Kalka station, our driver was there to take us to Modi Resort in Kalka. Next morning we checked out and paid a quick visit to Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden’s of Chandigarh.

It was pretty hot to visit ‘Sukhna lake’ during the day, however I felt it would be nice to take a stroll in the evenings. We didn’t do justice to the ‘Rock Gardens’ as we rushed through it in 20 minutes and we didn’t want to miss the flight. Chandigarh is definitely well planned with sectors and nice roads.

We all travelled back home with very sweet and refreshing memories of HP. Though we had snow and mountains in minds when we were planning the vacation, we came back home richer with varied experiences…a dash of culture, cuisine, serene nature, mythology and some amount of adventure. Not to forget the lovely and simple people from the hills. And I must say that Happy did ensure that our vacation was full of happy memories. It was indeed a Beyonder experience.

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For more such nature based experiences in India, check out the tourist places in India in the lap of nature. In case romantic destinations is of your interest, check out the top honeymoon destinations in India.

In case you are keen on traveling to northern India and wish to cover the ‘Queen of the Hills’ – Himachal Pradesh, you could take a look at the itinerary of Himachal.

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