Our first trip of 2010 - Delhi - Amritsar - Dharamshala - Delhi

[v&v]

we are a travelholic family with 5 - 8 trips a year discovering India. I am pretty bad penning down but I am motivated by seeing lots of travelogues here.
Now with kids exams in progress and no major family activity plus a long holi weekend thought of penning down my first travelogue.

Every year we plan a vacations during kids winter holidays and this year it was long pending visit to Golden Temple ,Amritsar.To make the trip more interesting we planned our week long vacation with 3 nights at Amritsar, 3 nights at Dharamshala.


Route planned -

Delhi - Ambala - Ludhiana - Jalandhar - Amritsar

Amritsar - Batala - Pathankot - Nurpur - Gaggal - Dharamshala

Return - Via Kangra - Una - Anandpur sahib - Ambala - Delhi


Amritsar - Golden Temple, Wagah Border, Jallianwala bagh

Dharamshala - Billing - (One day program)

Dharamshala - Mcleodgang (One day program)

Around Dharamshala

[smartcat]

Were you impressed by what you saw in Dharmashala? Maybe I went there at the wrong time or didn't do enough research - but the Tibetan Monastery at Kushalnagar (near Coorg) in Karnataka is much more impressive.

[MX6]

Wagah looks cool. Golden temple is mindblowing. good start.

[v&v]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Were you impressed by what you saw in Dharmashala? Maybe I went there at the wrong time or didn't do enough research - but the Tibetan Monastery at Kushalnagar (near Coorg) in Karnataka is much more impressive.

smartcat , there is lot to see there. Our aim was to go to billing, it around 80 km for dharamshala. its around 8500 ft on Dhauladhar ranges and is one of the best gliding sites in the world. This is a must visit place with a solid 14 km climb from Bir. I think there is enough place for a 4 to 5 days visit.
We are lucky enough as it snowed a day before.

v&v

Originally Posted by MX6

Wagah looks cool. Golden temple is mindblowing. good start.

Thanks MX6.

[ampere]

There are three main settlements in India. Gangtok, Dharamshala and Coorg. All three places are amazing. In terms of maintainance Coorg (Kushalnagar) ranks the best. In terms of the place its Dharamshala (Mc-Leodganj) and Sikkim for its Natural beauty.

I am fortunate enough to have seen all the three places and hence can venture to make the above comment.

V&V, did you visit that residential school at the top point.
Its amazing to sit there and sit "chai" and just stare at the wide angle panorama.

[v&v]

Originally Posted by ampere

There are three main settlements in India. Gangtok, Dharamshala and Coorg. All three places are amazing. In terms of maintainance Coorg (Kushalnagar) ranks the best. In terms of the place its Dharamshala (Mc-Leodganj) and Sikkim for its Natural beauty.

I am fortunate enough to have seen all the three places and hence can venture to make the above comment.

V&V, did you visit that residential school at the top point.
Its amazing to sit there and sit "chai" and just stare at the wide angle panorama.

Well said ampere. The entire region is so beautiful. We went to he Tsuglagkhang Temple complex, or the Dalai Lama Temple , did lot of shopping. Also did a lot of photography too. will be posting it soon.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by v&v

Well said ampere. The entire region is so beautiful. We went to he Tsuglagkhang Temple complex, or the Dalai Lama Temple , did lot of shopping. Also did a lot of photography too. will be posting it soon.

We stayed at McLeodGanj. The residential school was about 1/2 KM by walk. I had gone there with my parents 6 years ago. We went around the place. Once my mom dad were tired after the day's visit, I took the evening walk and felt re-born!

[v&v]

Day - 1

We started early morning 5.30 am. It was foggy and visibility was just around 100 meters. Visibility got worse as we approached Kundli. After a couple of kms it became even worse.With just around 20 feet visibility and we were dependent on our fog lamps and the center divider on the NH 1.

Traffic was thin and we are constantly crusing around 60kmph and things improved nearing Panipat. We crossed panipat around 7.40 am, Karnal by 8.40 am, Ambala by 9.30 am. Slowly Visibility improved to 50 meters. The only relief was the traffic was very little.

Note : After Rajpura there is a McDonald on the Right Side ie toward Ambala road.

We took a break at McDonald after Khanna. Nice spot for a break. Ample parking space too. Another surprise was that we saw atleast 10+ limos between Rajpura and Ludhiana. We crossed ludhiana by 11.30 Am.




Crossed Jallandhar at 12.45 pm . Lots of eating outlets like McDonald, KFC , CCD on the highway itself. Reached Amritsar by 2.30 Pm. City Traffic was bad, we had already booked Hotel Alstonia at Ranjit Avenue.

Climate - Chilly, foggy and windy. May be around 4 to 5 degrees.

Total Distance = 476 Kms Time = 9 Hrs. Stopage = 40 Minutes


Our Plan for the Day

Vist - Golden temple in the evening.
Dinner at Crystal restaurant.
(This is amongst one of the must visit restaurants if you are in Amritsar)

Had a nice nap till 6pm, we booked the Mega Cab for our evening activities as I was not much familiar with roads and traffic too was pretty heavy. Reached the temple , shoes deposited at the shoe stand and then with in minutes our feet were numb. To make things worst it started drizzling and the carpet too were wet. But one thing to say, the energy level there is so high, one forgets everything else to become a part of it. The crowd was heavy and there was heavy rush for Hari Mandir Sahib darshan.

We did a parikrama and planned a visit next day morning for Hari Mandir Darshan. Inspite of the chill we spent around 2 hrs there and then headed to our second destination Crystal Restaurant for dinner which was on cooper road. The ambience and crowd was nice, food was good. Worth visiting once! Bit expensive! Kids liked the Sizzling Brownie with ice cream. After a satisfying dinner were back to our hotel.

Our next day's plan was to visit the temple again in the morning , then Jallianwala Bagh, Durgiana Temple, and then by noon head to Wagah Border at Attari.

[hvkumar]

Thrilling to see that you dared the heavy fog and chill to go anywhere in Punjab region this season!

If I may:
- Is there any dislocation or traffic jams because of the road widening between Panipat and Ambala?
- Is road widening between Jalandhar and Amristar complete?
- Is the Chakki Bank bridge on NH 20 after Pathankot town towards D'Sala open, or still closed?

[breezydrive]

Let me reply to this!

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Thrilling to see that you dared the heavy fog and chill to go anywhere in Punjab region this season!

If I may:
- Is there any dislocation or traffic jams because of the road widening between Panipat and Ambala?

Not much!
6 laning of Panipat- Jalandhar Section shall be completed by end 2011 ( as per initial program) but this does not seems likely as 71 new flyovers are proposed in this section.

- Is road widening between Jalandhar and Amristar complete?

Not yet
- Is the Chakki Bank bridge on NH 20 after Pathankot town towards D'Sala open, or still closed?

The new bridge is under construction, however, all vehicles incl. HRTC buses/ trucks cross through a temporary bridge & katcha track.

[v&v]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Thrilling to see that you dared the heavy fog and chill to go anywhere in Punjab region this season!

If I may:
- Is there any dislocation or traffic jams because of the road widening between Panipat and Ambala?
- Is road widening between Jalandhar and Amristar complete?
- Is the Chakki Bank bridge on NH 20 after Pathankot town towards D'Sala open, or still closed?

Fogy condition driving is pretty fun, even kids to get involved , and play the role of navigators. Chill was expected in Amritsar.

As for your queries, I had already mentioned, the traffic was thin till Jalandhar so we didn't face Jam. We had a 20 Min waiting at Jalandhar to Amritsar RED Signal. Construction is still in progress for the entire stretch after Jalandhar.

Some shots of our driving condition




Chakki Bank bridge is still under construction. I rained there and was in a messy condition. I think it will take another 6 to 8 month to complete. here are a few snaps of chakki bank.

[hvkumar]

Thanks for the info, v&v. That looks some real dense fog, happily NH1 has well-marked white lines on the road and on occasion when I've travelled in such foggy conditions, I've blindly kept my eye on it and driven safely!

Looks like the detour to the Chakki Bank bridge is on the existing road itself. In between, they used to diver traffic on a small village road that used to start before the bridge and end on NH1A beyond Pathankot town.

[v&v]

Day - 2


As per plan, we headed to Golden Temple, reached by 8.30 am. Temple parking was full, parked the car in the market local parking area (Almost full) which is about 700 meters away from temple. Visited Darbar Sahib, Saw Sikh Museum, Did a parikrama, spent some time there. Kids liked the Amrit Sarovar and fishes in it.

[v&v]

JALLIANWALA BAGH.

it around 300 meters from temple.

"The incident in Jallian Wala Bagh was 'an extraordinary event, a monstrous event,
an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation"...Winston Churchill




Entry to the bagh.

[hvkumar]

When I last visited the Golden Temple 2 years ago, they were refusing to allow out-of-state vehicles to the car parking next to the temple and restricting us some distance away, forcing us to park in other parking areas and walk the rest of the way.