Back after an exceptionally magical trip. Magical because the experience was beyond what my creatively limited mind could ever dream up. And it was exceptional because of whom I traveled with, the places we went, how we went and all that we did.
I want to write this post as a travelogue but afraid it may come across as impersonal and detached. I want to write this post as an enriching, earth shattering personal experience but afraid it may come across as too personal, emotional and perhaps too mushy and sentimental. So how should I proceed? Oh well, indecisiveness prevails...but here goes and hopefully the narration lies somewhere between impersonal and personal. Not too detached and yet not too personal where either case, one reading, may not be able to relate.
We went to Uttarakhand (somehow Uttaranchal sounds more beautiful than Uttarakhand.Why did they ever change the name?) and explored Dehradun and Mussorie which were rather disappointing and Rishikesh which sort of made up for the earlier disappointments. Rishikesh was decided over Haridwar and
floating a flower platter in the Ganga and witnessing the
Ganga aarti together was an experience that will remain beautiful, overwhelming,
meaningful and extraordinary to us. Later people told us of places where we may have enjoyed more but at the time, especially after our profound experience at Rishikesh, we felt it had to be something beyond to maintain the state of mind we were in. That is when, on a whim, we decided to travel to Himachal, all the way to Dharamshala or to the land of the "Buddhas" as I would like to call it.Thank god for off season travel, acquiring last minute bus tickets to Dharamshala and return tickets to Delhi, to catch our train back home was rather easy.
After a 12 hour surprisingly comfortable journey, disregarding the bone freezing cold( it was early Feb but being from the warm, tropical South the night temperature was sufficient to feel ourselves freezing) we reached Dharamshala early dawn, when the town was still sleepy and dark, except for those small motels guarded by sleepy recptionist/watchman expecting that odd tourist showing up at odd hours.
Since our trip to Dharamshala town was completely unplanned and since we had not done any reading on the place, we were not sure what to explore. And since time was limited, after checking into a small lodge, a quick cleaning up, a nap and a breakfast later we set off to McLeod Ganj. With frequent buses from Dhramashala , reaching MG was pretty fast and easy and we felt instantly at home in the small hippie, buddhist town. Again thankgod for off season travel, we found rooms at cheap rates. After checking in we did the usual touristy thing as well as non-touristy things and after two days of careless wanderings, bid farewell to the town with an excellent lunch of fried momos, tandoori chicken and chilled beer at a reasonably fancy place. From a purely tourist perspective, visiting naddi for a proximal view of the snow capped mountains and the Dalai Lama temple was indeed lovely and definitely recommended.
Our return bus ride to Delhi was not the most comfortable which is putting it rather mildly, and neither was our return train ride back home as magical as our onward journey( blame it on a rather well packed noisy compartment) but none of the experience-good or bad would have meant much without the company I was in. It was all of 10 days that felt like a lifetime well spent, in a far far magical land, blissed out and incandescently happy! *touchwood*
Sharing some pictures hoping it inspires someone to pack that bag and travel and as a concerned citizen perhaps boost India's tourism revenue.
 |
| Urban Sprawl- Mussorie |
 |
| The Ganga At Dusk |
 |
| Floating Flower Platter |
 |
| Venerating the Ganga |
 |
| The Sadhu At Ganga Ghat |
 |
| Snow Capped Mountains-Dharamshala |
 |
| The Buddha-McLeod Ganj |
 |
| McLeod Ganj-Streets |
 |
| McLeod Ganj |
 |
| The "Royal" Machine At McLeod Ganj |
