Mcleod ganj (july8-july9)

It was a trip long overdue. Last we had gone out somewhere was rafting to rishikesh and thats well over…well, couple of months to say the least and thats not good for ppl our age.

We were planning for around two weeks and the plan was to go to some hill station, away from this scorching heat of delhi for a weeeknd. considered quite a few options but considering that monsoon is just round the corner, it was decided not to go somewhere where roads were more prone to landsdiles. Taking all the factors, it was decided that we go to dharmshala (in himachal pradesh).

Now the plan was that the se7en ppl for the trip (seven isliye bcoz th cab, Tavera accomodates saven only )namely Choubey , vinod, narinder, sandy , me, vinit and sahu (well it was a different set of seven ppl initially but koi gaya n koi aaya n here we were finally…) were supposed to start friday eve at around 8pm from Noida, reach dharmshala by sat morning (the distance from delhi was approx 520, out of which around 70 were supposed to be hilly roads), be there for two days, hav a look at places near by, enjoy nature with some smoke n booze and return back by monday morning.

Wat actually happened is- we were all set to start by friday eve 8:30 but damn, as always sandy screws up, had some release so he kept on telling us 10 minutes, 10 minutes for around an hour an half! Finally he did released (…watevr tht is!), and we started at around 10 pm. Our cab driver “Sanju bhaiya”was a guy our age, not very out spoken, listening_to_evrybody_but_doing_wat_i_want but chilled out kinda guy. The cab was in good condition, AC was good n the cd player was good…so we left noida listening to songs, dancing and listening to sandy’s nvrending crap (i luv u Sandy ). The road to chandigarh from delhi is a good one but nothing is good enuf for the population of india so traffic was heavy n we did get stuck in jams a couple of times before finally making it out of delhi. Took our first stop over for dinner at a roadside dhaba near panipat, if i remember correctly around mid night . We get dinner at our office but didn’t hav it that day just so we can hav it at roadside joints. Had tandoori aloo paranthas n chai….paranthas were really tasty, so much that we had paranths all through the trip !and yes this was the time whn choubey’s photography adventures started n then continued throughout the weekend…..only pics which didn’t hav choubey in tehem were the ones that were clicked by him.

Day oneOnly few of us slept in the night and by 4:30 we were in chandigarh, took the road through mohali to kangra. And by the time sun light broke out, we were into hilly roads. Took a break for morning tea smwhr near kanga, I guess. And here we had our first confrontation with the clouds. Some of us were having our tea and smoke at the back side balcony of the dhaba, which was just above the valley…very scenic view. Choubey was busy with his camera, taking pics of the valley n enjoying top view of stuff , we were busy having our tea n all and BAM! Scene change, baadal zameen par utar aaye….literally….all of a sudden, the visibility was close to zero (little exaggeration) and nothing was visible in the valley….very nice moment. And then they went away.
mayb the ppl up thr were having their morning smoke.

We again started frm there, thinking we’ll reach dharamshala by 10 or smthing…..and now on, even sanju bhaiya (driver, yaar) was not aware of the roads so we asked ppl and roamed around in the lap of himalayas for quite some time……but nobody was complaining….and why should one? Ek taraf pahaad, ek taraf khai n sharp curving roads….yahee to hai jindgi…only less scenic…or mayb more .

around 1 pm ppl felt we should hav our lunch because the destination was still atleast 2 hours away!

So we pulled over again at a roadside dhaba, had aloo paranthas, chai n all….n a very long photosession. Paranthas were good though the ones we had last eve were better. Anyways we were again on our way and after an hour or so, we were above clouds, yes we could look down upon clouds in the valley ! Sometimes between the clouds (which made visibility very poor, small droplets on the windscreen and very low speed). I was wondering how the hell was the driver managing to concentrate on the road when the scene off it was so breathtaking as this.
Anyways after much fight, we reached dharamshala at around 2:30. nice small town in the middle of clouds, pretty crowded, mostly foreigners. we had some information that Mcleod ganj (also known as upper dharmshala)which was 6-7 kms frm dharmshala (or lower dharmshala) was less crowded. So we decided to stay there. asked the way and moved on.
As soon as we left the lower town, the haze was so strong that it was almost impossible to see anything even 6 feet apart. The only thing tht Sanju bhaiya was following to get the curves of the road were the white strips which divide road! Speed must not be anything more thn 20-25 kmph and then honking came an army truck behind us, sanju bhaiya let him pass as he should hav. The truck was going at no less than 40 kmph!! either the armymen (or that truck driver atleast) are insanely brave or he was really familier with the curves and bends (logic tells me, latter is the “sahi javaab” ). so we reach the town of mcleod ganj covering that distance in like…half an hour…it was all coverd in mist and light showers. Thr were cars evrywhr…we managed to park our vehicle at a place high up in the town and set out in 2 teams of 2-2, me-vinod and choubey-sandy to search for some place to stay. Saw a couple of places in the main town, luxurious and hence very expensive….we didn’t need that. We were seven frustrated souls who just needed a place to get fresh and sleep for a couple of hours in the night….so we kept on looking hotels n lodges (actually not we, just one group thts me n vinod, the other group was busy following chicks …..so finally we got a very good lodge….costing around 1000 for 24 hours. This was without any bargaining so the PR specialist choubey was called and as expected he delivered…..500 for 24 hours .
The lodge was decent, ok kinda rooms and neat n clean bathrooms with water geysers; good for our requirements. Unpacked, and got fresh. The drizzling used to change into heavy rain sometimes. The lodge had a balcony with breathtaking view of the valley (which we were to know only the second day, that too for less than 15 minutes …when the clouds were off for smtime). It had nice cozy couches and a table with ashtray …almost perfect! Now smthing interesting, when i had first come to checkout the lodge for the first time, there was a Sue sitting there smoking a reading smthing…..now when we returned with our stuff, there were 2 other Sue’s going in another room . (for thoz who havn’t cn RDB, Sue = Videshi Kanya)
so naha dhokar we set out to roam around a bit and hav sm lunch cum dinner. Nice small town with lot of caffes/restaurents, soveneir shops, artifact shops with a lot of tibetan population. Infact tibetans form the major population of the place and its also the official residence of His holiness Dalai Lama. This is the place which he came to with thousands of tibetan refugees in 1959 after Chinese invasion of Tibet. So if you want a taste of tibetan culture but can not afford to go to tibet, go to Mcleod ganj .
We had a heavy meal at a restaurent (which had yummy looking cookies at take away prices, we ended up having lots of them ). then we roamed around the town, had chai at some places….ppl bought some souvenirs…kept roaming, enjoying the great weather and so many Sue’s . returned to the lodge with some Madira at around 9pm. We had plans for some cards, preferrably 29 or bridge over some booze (and cold drinks for non drinkers). Other than me, only Sahu and sandy had played either of the ganes earlier. Even i had not played’em in last year n half so had to call kolkata to babajee n refresh the rules. Then i taught it to ppl n the engineers picked it all up pretty fast. Sandy n choubey had other plans, to talk to the Sue’s (btw, did i tell u tht by now we had come to know that there were in total 6 Sue’s there, one dannish, 3 french…n two we didn’t talk to…so dont know whr frm )
i went downstairs to call choubey n sandy up for cards and saw them chatting with the dannish Sue. I decided to hav a look at the things for a while, was looking interesting….participated in the chito-chat for a while, heard a couple of big time fattes from our desi Romeos (kyon choubey?)….so asked ppl if anyone was interested in cards….as expected, none was….i rushed back…..we then played 29 till arnd 2am and thn slept.

Day two (Sunday)

Woke up at arnd 9, got ready by 10. It was raining like anything….some ppl went out to get momos which the place is really famous for, others kept sitting in the balcony taking snaps, enjoying the view (well clouds evrywhere…evn in the balcony ), it got clear for around 15 minutes…and the view from the place was beyond the words!)…..had momos, tasty but the chutney tht is served with them was kickass…i mean just a bit of it n smoke was coming out of the ears. Still raining but we decided to go out anyways as we planned to leave the place by 4 pm so that we have enuf day light for the 100km or so hilly roads. Went uptown to the famous shivmandir on foot (as the car was parked smwhr thr only and sanju bhaiya’s cell wasn’t working), had some tea on the way…and by the time we reached there, we were all wet. Returned from the mandir, got settled in the car and set out for Dal Lake which was some 4 kms from this place (dont confuse it with Dal Lake in Srinagar). Reached at the lake, not very big one but very scenic, surrounded by Fir & Deodar trees, rain was at its peak, evn then ppl got out enjoyed the place, meanwhile sandy got us some kurkure .
we left the place at around 3 pm and set out on our way back. Decided to take a different route this time (through Pathankot) which had low probability of road blockages due to land slides….Sanju bhaiya stopped the car at a road side “restaurent”this time, we had a look at it and decided not to have our lunch here….we were determined to eat at dhaba’s only. So next time he stopped at a dhaba, we had our trademark paranthes with butter, achar and chai. Meanwhile photoshoots were happening at evry stop over, evn thoz to answer the nature calls ! had tea at a couple of more places…..didn’t need to turn the AC on this time unlike the “to” journey. Weather was good all through, we were thinking that after 2 days of such a great weather, again the delhi heat but it had rained evrywhr….we had brought the rain with us, it seemed. Some of us had punjabi style lassi at some places, had our final paranthas at a place near jalandhar at around midnight. I had them with Lassi. Yummy !Most of us were sleeping, except vinod and choubey who were accompanying sanju bhaiya. At around 4:30, vinod checked news on his cell n told us that Italy had won the world cup…..i performed a song cum dance sequence in the car and woke evrybody up . Well I have always liked the Azzuri, i dont know why but right after i started following soccer, i have a soft corner for them. Though i didn’t expect them to go beyond semis….but then, they made me happy and Zizou made me sad. Shouln’t have hit him Zizou, no matter wat he said…anyways, where was I…..hmmm so by 4:45 we were at my apartment, went up and slept.
9 am, another Monday morning .