Why of all places......Dalhousie. Review on Dalhousie

What Dalhousie..."that ghatiya jagah wahan kyon?"

This was the first comment I got from a stranger on the train, when I told where I was going to go from Pathankot.

For those of you who dont know Hindi-it means, that yucky place, but why?

That comment put a knot in my stomach immediately and maybe prepared me for the place I was about to see.

Maybe, just maybe I went there in the wrong season, but then I never expected it to be so hot.almost as hot as Hyderabad at that time.

I was on a whirlwind tour of Delhi,Agra and Dalhousie in Independence Day week.

I was in Dalhousie on 17th Aug 06 2:00pm, hot, no clouds, no breeze and feeling sick after being through a hundrend hair pin bends on the way up.

This was not I expected, It was my worst Nightmare....first time in a North Indian hill station and its not cool, no way near cool and all the himalayas I got to see was huge grey rocks taller than anything else and which has no snow caps.

I suppose I saw the wrong photos, read the wrong article in rediff and came at the wrong time.

Triple whammy.

Now what next...the knot in the stomach got tighter..I got a hotel recommended by my taxi driver..was decent enough.

now I asked him to come back "tomorrow when I can think of anything other than a spinning head"

Good soul he was, he promptly was back 10:am sharp and offered to give a tour for Rs:1200 , I very cleverly made him agree to do the job for a hundred rupees less.

We saw lot of places with nice names and as small as your backyard and some as small as our Presidents' backyard.

Things to see Dyan kund, Kalatop and especially Khajiar.

All others on the pamplets are just commas and fullstops.

It was hot, bright sun and a little breeze as you reach the top most point near an air force station and trek up a hill to see dhyan kund.

By the way if you have cell you will see pak-tel signal on it here. Dont select it. OK.

after the tiring trek, in your car you can see the dense forest.

Khajiar will be pleasant surprise..to keep it that way,I will not tell you what you can see there.

The next moring was a surprise, no sun only dense white

clouds..you can touch Misty, dark like a secret. ethereal..like dream.

unfortunately I had to go...

to Delhi.

Better Luck next time. Say that to me OK.