Cool Icey!!. Review on Dalhousie

I always wanted to go to some place where one could see everything covered with white carpet and the sun rising from behind the snow clad mountains. Every vacation I would request to visit such a place and for my every request, there would be prompt reply from my hubby “Oh!! Ice, (holding my hand he would take me in front of our fridge, open the freezer) here you can see it right here in our fridge, why do you want to travel so far at sub zero degree temperature.” And I wouldn’t know whether to laugh or get angry at this stupid joke!! Finally a week ago we got a chance to visit Dalhousie. Here I share my experience with u all…

Our journey to Dalhousie was the worst journey we have traveled in recent times. After finding out that there are no deluxe/AC buses for Dalhousie, we took ordinary bus, from Amritsar to Dalhousie, via Pathankot. The crowded bus, along with luggage, made it difficult to move and we had vicinity only to move our hands and legs unto 5 inches. For the first time, almost for 8 hours I and my hubby were just too close to each other, but not comfortable ;o)… The last part of our journey, we were so lost in the beauty of the deep valleys and huge snow clad mountains surrounding us, that we forgot about the mess we were in. My anticipation grew as we started seeing patches of ice on the sides of the road...

Being off peak season, we got good bargains in hotels (50%), we checked in Hotel Shangri-La which was close from the market place. It was evening by the time we reached, I was excited to check how DalHousie looks like, so we decided to just dump our bags and move out… just outside our hotel I saw ice (which I missed earlier, as hubby dear was already too tired, irritated and angry), and though it was covered with dirt, I touched it with all my exhilaration… the market place, was just like any other hill station market… having nothing much to see or buy, we had dinner, booked cab for 2 days for site Seeing and went back to hotel.

Next morning we started at 9:30, for checking out a well-known place Khajjiar, we had to go via Chamba as the direct road was blocked with ice and it was not possible to take vehicle from that road. It was drizzling a little and we were in doubt weather we will be able to enjoy the outing or not, decided to carry on, as its no point just sitting in the room and missing on the beauty outside… just when I was getting in the cab there was a loud thud, no it wasn’t thunder lightning, it was my head which banged on the cabs door roof, My head was rolling for a few seconds and I later found a lump on the top of my head, which occasionally pained as and when I remembered, the other time I was busy watching the beauty outside. On the way we chkd out different points…

First we saw “Bhuri Singh Museum”, just from outside as it was closed due to Mahan ShivRatri (Birthday of Hindu god), :o( I was a bit upset, asked the driver what’s there inside and got a prompt reply in his himachali tone (which we liked a lot) “pata nahi bas tourists ko lata huun , kabhi dekha nahi andar jake” ( I just get tourists here, have never checked in myself). Ok!! Next we were shown a small ground (1/5th of wankhede stadium) and said this is the next point, “Chamba Chaugan” the most popular spot and center of all activities and a colorful minjar festival takes place here in august, I wanted to shout where the hell is the colorful festival and all activities its just a mud-covered ground, we did not even bother to get down from our cab… finally we were asked to get down and check on ‘Lakshminarayane Temple’ which was build in 8th and 10th century, I guess the driver thought we were lazy bones, he parked the car and will not move until we get down once. So, having no other choice we got down and rushed inside the temple (as it was still raining) only to tuta phuta mandir (broken idols temple), without chappals (shoes), we both were shivering, as the floor was wet and freezing cold. Had tea, were surprised to feel so warm and comfortable within seconds of having tea and decided to carry on….

At last we reached the point for which we had to check on the earlier so-called points…“Khajjiar”, as soon as we got out of the cab, one word that came out from both of us was “Wow”, it was a huge field, with a beautiful small lake (half filled with water) in the middle, ice all around the edges of the field and entire field surrounded by thick green jungle of tall Christmas-tree shaped trees. No wonder its called Mini-Switzerland of Himachal. We wanted to go in the thick jungles but fear of something just held us back, played in the ice for almost 2 hours, Caution: don’t make thick ice balls and throw on one another, it really hits hard, and you will know the actual pain in that chilly wind ;o). Just when we were returning back to our cab, all of the sudden we found the entire field covered with thick fog and the visibility was hardly up to 5-10 feet. We really held each other tight with the fear of getting lost or fall on mushy ground. ;o)…

After having lunch in the restaurants there we moved on our return journey back to DalHousie… on our return journey, as it has stopped raining now, we got down to check “Ravi River Point”, this river we saw in the entire journey from chamba to khajjiar, finally could go near it, it was beautiful surrounded by rocks on either sides. Next we halted at “Chamera Lake View”, and I was so taken back, as it was just like getting down at any point, whilst traveling on a hill station, to check the valley with a lake flowing between two mountains. In “Rock Garden” we just found big & small rocks scattered here and there, were wondering where the garden is? Lolz!! That’s it, the days site seeing ended with this point…

Evening was really cold and windy… we wandered around in the market when it started raining again, took shelter in one of the hotels, where we also had dinner. What we observed here was we hardly felt hungry, couldn’t understand if it was due to the weather or because the food which was not at all good…

The next morning… I got up and while hubby dear was still asleep, I decided to check on the beautiful site along with getting some exposure to the sunlight outside our room. As soon as I opened the door of our room, I was rejoiced looking at the awesome site, everything, mountains, house sheds, trees, cars, streets, fields was covered with white shinning (snow) carpet. Hearing my shout hubby came to check what was so astonishing? He too was almost lost looking at the beautiful site. For once I forgave him for praising someone else’s (nature) beauty when I was besides him. Lolz!! The only regret we both had was missing on snowfall, while we were fast asleep…

Sorry Continued in comments...