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8th November 2022, 03:52
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| BHPian  | Navratri in the Himachal - A 4500+ KM Roadtrip from Kolkata in an Innova Crysta The 2022 Durga Puja was nearing and our annual vacation destination was still to be decided. The first preference was Kedarnath - Badrinath and seeing the Uttarakhand travelogue of DBHPian Samba I had made up mind to lock it but the news of an all time high pilgrim rush made us drop the plan eventually. Next up was Arunachal Pradesh, and the itinerary was readied after due discussion with resident AP expert BHPian @gunin but we had to drop it considering the shortage of leaves and holidays by at least 2 days. Eventually we zeroed in to Himachal.The vibes of the vacation and upcoming Durga Puja season had soon started to set in, keeping our kiddo busy with listing down things of the trip including medicines or seeing Durga Puja theme getting moulded into literally everything was indeed a grand feeling to have as we made the reverse countdown.  A wonderful surprise came in the form of postponing of a program where our little one was participating so we essentially got an added day into our vacation. All hotel bookings were duly adjusted and now we had one more day to add to our vacation. All hotel bookings hence were promptly pushed out. Our beloved companion for such tours, the Innova Crysta completed its minor servicing with all check ups duly done. And I carried the regular car survival toolkit (Tyre Inflator, Emergency window pane breaker and seat belt cutter, puncture repair kit, ropes, camping mini folding shovel, torch, car inverter, jump start cable). While you read on the details of our journey, sharing a few of the nicer captures for the cover. We did miss the Kolkata Durga Puja but saw a lot of Durga Pujas across several states during the Navratri period.  ~~Navigation~~
Last edited by haisaikat : 16th January 2023 at 03:22. |
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8th November 2022, 03:59
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 0-1 / Sep 24 - 25 / Kolkata to Lucknow Mahalaya - Day marks the advent of Devi Durga Route: Kolkata (Bengal) -> NH-19 - till Aurangabad (Bihar) -> NH-139 until Tarari (Bihar) and crossed Son river through Daudnagar-Nasriganj Son Bridge -> NH-120 to NH-922 until Bharauli (UP) and crossed Ganges over Veer Kunwar Setu-> NH-31 until Pakhanpura (UP) -> took the diversion to enter Purvanchal Expressway until Gosaiganj (UP) -> NH-731 for a short stretch after the full length of Purvanchal Expressway -> Lucknow (UP) Distance: 1147 KM Time taken: 22 hours (including 4 hours break) It was Saturday, meaning no rush of wrapping up office and then leaving, but last moment shopping made the day ever busy as it can be. It was past 9 pm we finally hit the roads but kid felt hungry soon after so effectively it was 10 pm that we properly started. Kolkata city traffic was not much of a hassle, and we went past its limits soon to join NH-19. It was past 11 pm, huge traffic of trucks from Dankuni onwards severely slowed us down in crawling traffic. We utilized this time to dine on our pre ordered wraps while kid had fallen asleep  The truck traffic cleared after crossing Bardhaman but the true joy was the sudden opportunity to listen to Mahisha Shur Mardini on FM radio until the signal faded away as we moved into the beautifully lighted up highways of Jharkhand around 430 am  Crossed Barhi in Bihar around 6 am  Somewhere before Chouparan we made a small tea break, self made of course while kid was still asleep inside the car Attachment 2383032  Witnessed abundance of Kash flowers while crossing the bridge over the Falgu river of Bihar  It was around 8 am when we passed by the quaint village of Budhaul with distant hills near the horizon    Our initial Google Map plot indicated we need to take the right turn after Mohania to join the Purvanchal Expressway but without our knowledge Google had silently rerouted us to take the turn from Aurangabad. So we took a 90 mins breakfast halt at this awesome resort Gargee Surya Bihar at Aurangabad who has an excellent breakfast buffet and a well maintained lawn garden. We resumed around 10-30 am but soon we encountered sudden burst of rainfall which slowed us down to some extent for concerns of safety.  After taking hours to cross the NH139 with single lane, broken tarmac and unruly local traffic, we crossed Son river from a little upstream location around Pokharaha and saw again a region full of Kash flowers, and once again good roads began, seemed new construction  Another nightmare soon encountered was the small stretch of road with highly congested market in Dumraon  We crossed the Ganges and finally entered UP, yet there was some distance still left to hit Purvanchal Expressway. After some searching settled at Gurudev Family Restaurant at Mania for lunch. It was a rudimentary roadside dhaba on NH-31 and the last one it seemed to us in a distance. But they served excellent vegetarian food, an hour seemed to pass just like that until 3 pm. Minor glitch, kid got little indigestion owing to the heat outside.   Finally we entered our long sought highway, the Purvanchal Expressway post 3 pm   330+ KM of solid yet boring and excellent highway, driving was breeze.     Entered Lucknow around 7 pm and then reached our hotel MANHATTEN GRAND in Alambagh area. This is the same hotel we had stayed last year during our Kolkata to Kashmir Roadtrip but the name and ownership was different (Buddha Residency). Sad to see maintenance of rooms has degraded to some extent and the 24 hour in-house bakery has also been dissolved. Yet due to its proximity to Agra Lucknow Expressway this is still our best choice. We ordered for room service of dinner and crashed after almost a 21 hour journey.  Day 2 / Sep 26 / Lucknow to Phagwara Pratipada / Navratri Day 1 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Shailputri avatar Route: Lucknow (UP) -> Agra Lucknow Expressway -> Yamuna Expressway -> Eastern Peripheral Expressway -> NH-44 -> Phagwara (Punjab) Distance: 900 KM Time taken: 16 hours (including 3.5 hours break) We started by 630 am sharp from our hotel  navigating through the early morning fog  within 10 minutes we entered Agra Lucknow Expressway but the fog continued  As the sun started to show up the fog began disappearing. We made a 90 min leisurely breakfast halt around 845 am at the food court along ALE near Kathua and also packed some Kati Rolls for our lunch, this is the only food court we encountered that has a dedicated stall serving Kolkata Kati Rolls, well it not entirely the original taste but finding that on ALE, we could not complain much.  Cruising steadily, we advanced well and around 1 pm we made our lunch halt at the Convenience Center near Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway  Resuming after lunch, we crossed the Yamuna expressway in a breeze and entered the eastern peripheral expressway, bypassed NCR and took the NH-44  Aero plane themed restaurant, Hawai Adda at Murthal Haryana, had been on our wish list for long, so we made an hour long halt here on request of our little one who enjoyed it to the fullest. It wasn't long after lunch, yet we decided to taste their excellent vegetarian offerings and they were great merging well with the ambience  We left the place around 530 pm with the sun gradually inching towards the horizon  Rest of the journey on NH-44 was as fine except a few stretches of heavy traffic and congestion after entering Punjab mostly around the toll plazas. Last year during the farmer protest none of the tolls were charging money and passing through them was breeze, we weren't lucky this year though.  Found an interesting quote on a Thar that we were trailing for some time while we continued on NH-44  Pathankot was still 2 hrs away and it was past 10 pm, kid was becoming restless and wanted us to stop. So after some searching on GMaps and calling up a few hotels, by 10:20 pm we checked into Hotel Ashish International since their kitchen was still serving dinner suitable for all and called it a day. ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 19:52. |
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11th November 2022, 22:21
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 3 / Sep 27 / Phagwara to Khajjiar via Dalhousie Dwitiya / Navratri Day 2 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Bhrahmcharini avatar Route: Phagwara (Punjab) -> NH - 44 until Pathankot -> NH-154 / 154A until Banikhet -> Chamba - Dalhousie Road -> Dalhousie (HP) -> Dalhousie - Khajjiar Road -> Khajjiar (HP) Distance: 230 KM Time taken: 9.5 hours (including 2+ hours break for lunch and Dalhousie selective touring) Hotel was so so, in spite of how it looks outside, Lift was not working and AC was fixed at 24 which was too cold. Lessons learnt, these marriage centric hotels are not that great always for regular stays although their room service even past midnight was great and room was otherwise excellent for the price. We checked out at 10 am and headed for Himachal.  NH-44 was a breeze to drive except a few stretches where there were crossings, but tarmac all around was flawless and the drive was scenic   We passed Pathankot on our way and the hill climb had started while still in Punjab, there were a few bad patches of road in this route. It was near Dhar Kalan that we got a glimpse of the beautiful Ranjit Sagar dam. We intentionally were driving slowly to soak in the beauty of the surrounding. Complementing this was Radio Amritsar broadcasting series of Kumar Sanu superhits on the FM    A timelapse of moving cloud shadows  We passed through Dunera, the scenic beauty doubled, but more importantly we noticed abundance of Aam Papad shops, we bought some locally knowing its famous in this area. The black aam papad with rock salt sprinkled on top was awesome (in Bengal a different version of this is called Aamsi)   Around 130 pm we entered Himachal and roads continued to be as great     We crossed the Rajat Thakur toll tax plaza near Rauni by 2 pm and were searching for a place to dine, but nothing was showing up to our liking on the GMaps along our route  The attempt  And the result  Same attempt but different perspective  And another one   We entered finally Dalhousie, crossed the Subhash Chowk, wanted to halt but parking was all occupied by local cabbies so moved along  We reached Gandhi Chowk and found parking (unofficial) just on the level road below and entered the Kwality restaurant at the beginning of it. I wanted to dine at JK Clarke Exotica who had wonderful rooftop restaurant The Bridge, but it was closed for renovation as they informed us over phone and hence we dropped it  Kwality turned out to be an awesome choice, every type of cuisine we ordered including their combos, they aced, all of them, hour long bliss, more so as we were starved  Post lunch we came back to Gandhi Chowk   Visited the St John's Church at the Chowk, met another family on a similar travel itinerary as us and also headed from Kolkata  Next we entered the Indo Tibetan market, had mainly woolens on sales apart from other things but at highly reasonable price   Had forgotten to bring a single waist belt in luggage, bought one leather belt for 300, its still serving strong  We exited the market and fell for Cafe Dalhousie's call  The cafe still had the heritage touch be it outside . .  . . or inside  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 13:27. |
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11th November 2022, 22:25
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 3 / Sep 27 / Continued Part 2 of Phagwara to Khajjiar via Dalhousie Dwitiya / Navratri Day 2 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Bhrahmcharini avatar Route: NA Distance: NA Time taken: NA We enjoyed the reducing daylight while sipping into our Coffee and Hot Chocolates inside the cosy Cafe Dalhousie   We left Cafe Dalhousie around 530 pm and took a walk along the market in front of it, most of the shops were closed, not sure why       It was getting darker, we eventually left Gandhi Chowk by 6 pm   With a small detour we visited Ajit Singh War Memorial  . . then Panchpula falls, although we did not get down from our car  .. then the Satdhara falls with 7 water streams merging, the golden hour in hills created a magical light     By 630pm we began our climb towards Khajjiar  The road continued to be scenic even in the last light of the day  A few big schools were on the way  with beautifully Army themed parks along the roads  As the golden hour transitioned into the blue hour the magic of nature continued      Approaching Khajjiar, I had missed one diversion and taken the route towards Dainkund, observing Google Map's sudden increasing timing wifey pointed out the mistake, called up the hotel and got the route rectified and were back on track descending towards the valley, roads although single lane were excellent Finally by 8 pm we checked into Hotel Devdar at Khajjiar, no lift and some good amount of stairs to climb, the ball boys did an excellent job carrying our luggage to the room in no time  After settling down we headed for the restaurant for the dinner  By 1030pm dinner was done and we headed back to our rooms to call it a day  The Khajjiar ground with the glowing houses in the darkness and the glittering night sky full of stars was a perfect sight to behold for calmness and serenity with nature sounding its tones all around  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 01:45. |
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12th November 2022, 03:01
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 4 / Sep 28 / Khajjiar Valley Touring Route: Walking around Distance: NA Time taken: Morning to afternoon The morning at Khajjiar is magical, the fog appears to cover the ground like a blanket, I stood at our balcony staring at it for quite some time  Then the sun showed up, gradually over the distant hills  It was not even 7 am, I had come back inside the room to get ready for the breakfast, thankfully I had closed the door of the balcony, suddenly found this lad using our balcony as transit corridor. I must mention that they were harmless from future observations, never seen bothering humans in this area  The fog started clearing up as the sun rose higher, who knew these empty roads would soon become crowded   More guest appearances at our balcony  and for those who are superstitious about seeing one, here is the other one, making the pair complete  Breakfast was great, with simple items though, HPTDC service was awesome. The restaurant offered excellent view of the valley  Even the view at the back of the hotel was beautiful, there seemed to be an entire hoard of monkeys out there, we finally realized the source of the noise on our roof during last night  By 10-30 we entered the ground and after some initial photo shoot including those in the traditional Himachali attire we started roading around the ground  The ground is not as big as some of the other similar grounds like Doodhpathri we has seen earlier but this has a charm of its own. Our little one was excited to explore it, just that one needs to be cautious about not stepping on the horse poop or the muddy areas not visible outright from the glass layer above.   Tall Deodars provide a natural boundary to the field and is beautiful in itself  Time seemed to pass unnoticed as we walked around, sat on the chair for hours chit chatting and enjoying the view around   We headed for the shops to the east of the ground for fulfilling our promise and got an opportunity to see the Khajji Nag Temple which got this ground its name  We did not dare to go near the lake as its all mud around and there is some cleaning and restoration going on, the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai movie shooting made this place popular    Although our little one was hell bent to try out this sport we were not convinced he is up for it so at the cost of agreeing to buy him his favorite snack we managed to steer him away  This is the official entrance to the ground on the other side as that of our hotel, tourists on day tour crowd this side mostly   A visit here is not completed without an interaction with the ever eager and over observant Jari Booti walas of Himachal, although we found them only at Khajjiar during our entire trip   This is a cottage of our hotel out in the field, for those who wants to stay there, for us considering we have a kid and the service availability for anything emergency we had chosen to stay in the main house  It was past 1 pm and we decided to head back to our hotel for lunch, instead of walking through the field we took the road going around the field  It was a beautiful and scenic walk back  For those who need a haircut, there is a basic open air saloon too  Parampara, Pratishtha, Anushasan (Tradition, Honour and Discipline), this is only meant for legends to understand  We gave a final stare to the ground from the parking lot and headed back into our hotel for lunch, seems one day is not enough  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 01:44. |
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13th November 2022, 11:24
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 4 / Sep 27 / continued Khajjiar to Chamba Tritiya / Navratri Day 3 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Chandraghanta avatar Route: Khajjiar -> Dalhousie - Chamba Road -> Chamba -> return to Khajjiar using the same route Distance: 44 KM Time taken: ~ 2 hrs (plus local touring on foot at Chamba) Post lunch we rested for a few hours since there was forecast for rain during the afternoon, also the day time walking touring the Khajjiar ground had burnt us out, thanks to our exemplary fitness levels, a good afternoon powernap refreshed us  It was 4 pm, sky was clear again, no rains, we set out for Chamba town. The Dalhousie - Chamba Road was scenic and full of surprises from nature with small water streams here and there along the road  We went past the Jagdamba temple and the huge Lord Shiva statue just opposite to it  Several para gliders were hovering around  Beautiful sight of hills under cloudscape and step farming mountain slopes were all around   We reached Chamba within an hour, beautiful sights of the Ravi river flowing at one side. We were lucky to find a good parking at the old bus stand but they charged us for the entire day, but nevertheless it was peace of mind  We walked past the Chougan ground on our way to the Laxminarayan Temple. We spotted Navratri program arrangement and Durga puja pandal inside the ground and made up mind to pay a visit during our return   It took us almost twenty minutes to eventually reach the Laxminarayan temple crossing the market . .  . . and the steep final climb although short and not that difficult  Temple did not have any crowd and our Darshaan was smooth   The pujari ji told us that Navratri evening puja will start from 7pm, of course it would be late so we could not wait till then  We roamed around the temple and amazed by it simple yet mix of rocky and wooden architecture       Rang Mahal was closed by 5pm as we learnt after enquiring locally post coming out of the Laxmi Narayan Temple. The locals did recommend us to visit the Chamunda Temple which is about 2 KM from there and offers good city view from the top but decided to skip it and head for the Chougan ground. It was almost 6 pm and the daylight was slowly diminishing, but we enjoyed the walk through the Chowgan Mohalla with streets full of markets from stationaries to local bakeries and cloth cut pieces or shoes   There were a few administrative buildings too on this road which were colonial era buildings  Entered the Chama Chougan ground, grassy ground with stunning views of hills all around, perfect place to sit down and relax  We may have missed the Kolkata Durga Puja, but Maa Durga darshan was not missed at all, we offered our prayers at the pandal   There was Ramayan Path (recitation) going on the stage where there were arrangements made for Ram Leela programs in the evening. We sat there for some time listening to the beautiful recitation and roamed around the field for some time before heading back towards the parking Just a few metres before the old bus stand parking we found a Shiv Mandir . .  . . with two young lads selling piping hot Samosa and Gulab Jamun and locals flocking their roadside shop, enough signal for us to plunge ourselves. Excellent would be an understatement, so much so that in spite of being a bit spicy, even our kid loved it to the fullest  All in all, Chamba was an excellent pick for visit and demands more quality and leisurely visit to be able to completely explore. We left with memories, roaming around like locals on foot  It was almost 630 pm when we had left, and with a little traffic on our exit from the city we were back on track soon. This is a glimpse of Chamba from the the other side of Ravi river clicked during our return  We reached our hotel by 8 pm, the distant cottage of HPTDC on the Khajjiar ground, looked romantic being lighted up in the dark  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 01:44. |
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13th November 2022, 18:16
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 5 / Sep 29 / Khajjiar to Chamera Lake and Dainkund Summit Chaturthi / Navratri Day 4 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Kushmanda avatar Route: Khajjiar -> Chamba - Dalhousie Road -> NH 154A -> Taleru Boating Point (Chamera Lake) -> return via same route -> Dainkund Summit drive and trek -> return to Khajjiar Distance: 106 KM Time taken: 7.5 hrs (including time for local tours and treks) Office had been too harsh, was awake till almost 3 am in the morning for urgent work. So decided to start the day late. Got up at the sight of first rays of sun entering our room  Breakfast was done and we got ready to leave for the day, just then we saw from our balcony a group of locals entering the Khajjiar ground from the opposite side dancing their way through, dressed in beautiful Himachali and ethnic attire and matching the mood with folk music  They came all the way to this side and boarded cars to leave for their destination, first we thought marriage party but later on hotel staff clarified its Mastak Mundan ceremony  We came to the parking lot and boarded our car, the Khajjiar ground looks as beautiful as ever from this angle  Our destination today was Chamera Lake and Gmaps showed us faster route through the east via Chamba town but we already took that route yesterday so decided to go via the western route through Dalhousie. Also taking the western route would provide us advantage of having Kalatop sanctuary and Dainkund right on the way  Roads continued to be beautiful all through passing high up hills . .  . . to low lying valleys  Some view points made getting down for a click highly compelling  Being a weekday, several school goers were spotted on the way  We skipped visiting a tourist attraction Rock Garden at Devi Dehra, which we passed around 1 pm. Primary reason was to save time. Roads were great until we arrived near the dam, google map did not show us that there is a direct route to reach the bating point without taking the route through Chamera Tunnel. The result, we encountered among other things . . . . broken bridges, with Govt Municipality sign board of no liability if that breaks yet leaving no option than to cross over them with enormous hesitation  . . small street side waterfalls that still allows going over them (this we liked)  . . a great Dam view point giving a complete view of this side of the Dam and Lake  . . a view of the water coming out through the lock gates  . . some steep and narrow roads or paths without any tarmac, and some small water streams flowing over the roads that need to be crossed, wood / timber businesses working while gradually descending from heightened mountain roads, the rapid altitude decrease does make its impact felt to us who are not so frequently used to it . . and last but not the least the Chamera Tunnel, water leaking from every nook and corner  By 2 pm we reached the Taleru boating point after parking the car at one side  Bought our tickets   Got down the jetty and landed in our boat, we were alone over there, probably being a weekday  It was a solid 20 - 30 mins of pure speed boating fun as the driver twisted and turned the boat to make it more thrilling as we enjoyed the high surrounding hill views  The water was muddy as this was post monsoon, but in Spring and Summer this should be complete Turquoise color        Here is a video I made of our boat ride After getting out of the boats, Maggi was the only descent food option available there as otherwise our little one was indicating a halt  By 330 pm we left Chamera Dam and headed back towards Khajjiar via our onward route. Caught some more glimpse of the Dam and also got to take the shorter route bypassing the Chamera Tunnel as guided by the local shops. Saved us at least 30-40 mins   Spotted several truckloads of folks gearing up for Ram Leela play in the vicinity, in suitable make overs. We were hurrying so as to reach with ample day light at hand to be able to do Dainkund and Kalatop  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 20:16. |
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13th November 2022, 23:47
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 5 / Sep 30 / Continued Khajjiar to Chamera Lake and Dainkund Summit Chaturthi / Navratri Day 4 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Kushmanda avatar Route: NA Distance: NA Time taken: NA It was 430 pm when we reached the Lakkadmandi checkpoint before entering Khajjiar, they charge 100 rupees for the day for entering Khajjiar (we have paid on the previous day too, and do not recall a similar check post on the Chamba side, its there only on the Dalhousie side. The folks at the check post hearing our plan recommended that Kalatop closes by 5 pm and consideiring the daylight left Dainkund is the better of the two. So we turned our car back and headed for the drive up the Dainkund, excellent roads although single lane, this is where I had entered by mistake on the arrival day A little before 5 pm we started the climb up the trek after parking the car at Army Naka above it. There are further roads upward too but its reserved for army personel   After some distance wifey and kido decided to give up and rather sit down at one of the chairs which were place every now and them along the climb and I decided to continue . .  . . looking down every now and then to see if they are still seen and of course catching up breadth as i moved up the stairs   Arrived the top, met on my way a group of folks from Bangalore who were coming down from the top, reassured me to go up there till the Pohlani Devi Mandir, so I headed towards the temple following a similar but much level path   Caught a glimpse of the Khajjiar ground from the top of Dainkund  It was almost 6pm when I decided to pause as the temple was still 500 metres of mountain walk, and it was getting dark so decided to climb a temporary rocky top . .  . . and caught the glimpse of the temple from there   The surrounding of the temple was stunning  Distant snowy peaks were also visible     It was an heavenly view    The golden rays of setting sun lighted parts of the hills  I decided to head back at this hour sending my prayers to goddess from the distance and apologizing for not being able to make it to the temple   By 620 pm arrived at the view point, the glimpse of the view towards the road down below which I came up climbing  At the view point  A 360 degree pan video from the viewpoint A started the descent and was surprised to see no one on the way, including wife kid. Could not call them as there was no cell tower  Found them waiting in the car, thankfully she had the spare key to unlock and sit inside, we left by 640 pm, caught several golden hour shots on the way back   There was one more surprise waiting for me, we checked back into our hotel by 730 pm, I came back to the car parking to pick a few essentials and suddenly my attention went to the sky, the milkyway was clearly visible. Never shot one before so using the tripod for next 30 mins made few attempts and got not so bad ones for first time milkyway shooter, although I messed up with the color balance and exposure in post but liked them eventually. Wifey penalized for coming late, I got only the last of few cold pakoras and coffee.    Yes, our last night at Khajjiar, we did our dinner but then my office bugged again till late night. ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 14th January 2023 at 19:53. |
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15th November 2022, 01:14
| #9 |
| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 6 / Oct 01 Khajjiar to Naddi (McLeodganj) via Jot Pass Panchami / Navratri Day 5 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Skandamata avatar Route: Khajjiar -> Dalhousie - Chamba Road -> Jot Pass -> Lahru -> Nurpur -> NH-154 -> NH-45 -> NH-503 towards Naddi Road -> Naddi Distance: 122 KM Time taken: 5.5 hours (including 2 hrs break) It wasn't even 6 am, a momentary sleep disruption, went out to the balcony in the cold thinking of witnessing the sunrise, but had to be contended with this, beautiful it was, did not wait for the sunrise and went back to bed  The hotel was pretty much 30-40% occupied and all guests were from Bengal, I was surprised of no Dussera time crowd from the North, but the hotel staff clarified that the North crowd comes only post Dussera and more during Diwali. For the hotel, this is Bengali season. Further there was a 20% discount scheme offered by HPTDC after we had booked for all new bookings, they extended the same discount to us adjusting over our food bill, another great gesture. the Eventually after getting up and ready and doing our packing (including our kid, we made him in charge of managing his own recreational back pack) we checked out from our hotel by 11-30 am after a few parting clicks.  Our destination for the day was to reach Naddi in upper Mcleodganj, and took the route via Jot Pass and further the Nurpur diversion since as per the map the Nurpur route has lesser twists and turn, additional advantage is with kids on board with history of motion sickness. We halted briefly for 10 mins at the other side of the Khajjiar ground . .  . . to take that mandatory pic and headed on our way.  A portion of the route to Jot Pass coincides with the route to Chamba and we were able to get a closer glimpse of the huge Siva statue opposite the Jagdamba Temple while we went past by it  Was lucky to get the timing right this time, attempting since the past 2 days   The broad daylight and clear skies made the distant peaks more prominent.   Finally we managed to get a glimpse of the famous Manimahesh Kailash peak , something I had heard is visible from the Pohlani Devi Temple on Dainkund Trek that I had skipped visiting yesterday. Observe the white peak exactly at the center, looking like 2 side by side brother peaks. We bid our prayers for Shiv ji directed towards the Kailash peak and moved on  The road was indeed scenic, although we did not stop as it was past 12 already, yet we made the drive intentionally slower to soak in the views around, probably we would never come here again in our lifetime.   Here is an edited dashcam capture of our drive from Khajjiar to Jot Pass View Point (start of the pass) We reached Jot View point by quarter to 1 pm and climbed up, the small set of stairs (nothing compared to Dainkund) after parking the car at the road below   The view point offered 360 view of the Himalayan peaks around  Also we saw there are several view points created all around which can be reached by easy trek including reaching to the Jot Nature Park but we skipped all of them in the interest of time.  After spending some time we headed down as it was lunch time already, something we try best to stick to the general timings considering our little co-passenger. That red roof house in the middle, we dined in the restaurant just to the right of it. Next to each other all of these are restaurant and some hotels are also under construction  The two Cows in same frame, as critics praise my bullock cart style driving, but both are utilitarian in there own ways  . Jokes aside, in search of fodder several cows seem to be climbing up the stairs for grazing. So one needs to be careful so as to not accidentally step on their droppings all around. Lunch was fine, purely veg and we also ordered Maggi and last but not the least the famous Khoya Barfi of Himachal, it tasted similar to our Bengal made Sorpuria  A small timelapse of moving clouds captured from the video of the car dashcam We started again on or way past 2 pm. The road was twisty and also quote narrow but occasional wider sections for cars to cross each other from opposite sides especially when there are bigger vehicles. Several sections are also under moving cloud, but was drivable and our objective of taking this route got fulfilled. Here is a precise video from the Dashcam capture of this Pass. On the left the Jot view point which we left behind can be seen  Gradually we went past the Sela town   We crossed the Uhl river, which is formed from the waters of the Beas river  It was near Taragarh that we noticed several Red rock hills all alongside the river canyon    A bit rare in Himachal, straight highways, NH154 (Mandi Pathankot road), a little later around 430 pm we refuelled at a IOCL station of Nurpur  Driving was almost uninterrupted, excellent roads, around 6 pm we crossed the Chari Red Bridge, locality was Har  The Gaj River was flowing underneath the Chari Red bridge, and surprisingly due to its origin, the water was blood red in color  Red water flowing through Gaj River Our destination was near, in another 20 minutes we entered Dharamshala and as recommended by GMaps we exited NH45 around Loharkar and bypassed the crowded streets of Dharamshala Attachment 2379583 The road was foggy in the evening hours with little daylight left and was steep and narrow in few stretches  Here is a video of our drive along this bypass road Eventually we reached our hotel Himgiri Resort by 640 pm. Lucky to got a good slot in it limited parking space. We were done with our dinner by 10 pm in their restaurant. Service and food were nice, although rooms were small considering the price. We had booked this hotel hearing about the Dhuladhar view from the balcony but at night nothing was clearly understandable, so decided to check next morning.  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 15th January 2023 at 10:06. |
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18th November 2022, 04:27
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 7 /Oct 01 / McLeodganj - Dharamshala local tour Shashthi / Navratri Day 6 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Katyayani avatar Route: Hired Cab based tour within McLeodganj and Dharamshala Distance: NA Time taken: 8 hours Sunrise along with a panoramic view of the Dhauladhar, right from our balcony, I never expected it to be this close, made our morning.  The hotel is spread across a large area, not evident from the front entrance, formed of smaller cottage type buildings each having various room categories and identifiable by the same white and blue shade colors. Rest of the place was green grassland.   As the day extended, clouds started forming over the range  It was almost 930 am and we walked across the lawn to the restaurant building, considering the cold outside we decided against dining in the open although provisions were there, the complementary breakfast was excellent  Considering the traffic and limited parking options within the locality we hired through the hotel an Alto 800 for our day tour and set out by 11-30 am. Covered several points throughout the day starting with Dal Lake, a little downhill from our place     Next stop was the St. John's in the Wilderness Church    Outside the church found them, kid refused to take a photo with them, I did not lose the opportunity, there is another park under construction just opposite to the church, probably would be ready in a few months  On the street  Before 1 pm we entered the Bhagsu Nag temple    Darshan was done in 20 -30 mins, we walked through the market and got access to some of the best collection as excellent price in entire trip, not even Shimla came close this, we wish if we could have known this before  The parking outside the Bhagsu temple complex was filled and busy but it seemed not so difficult to find a parking. We skipped going to the Bhagsu waterfall which involved almost a kilometre trek  We were heading towards the next stop, found a spot to catch a glimpse of the Bhagsu Nag waterfall, as if water flowing down from the clouds above  A closer look at the Bhagsu Nag waterfall  There was dense traffice once we arrived at the Central Square of Mcleodganj  Traffic was not moving, so we took the best advantage of having a chauffeur driven cab, got down walking and headed for the Wooser Bakery expecting to top up of our energy levels at this lunch hours  For almost an hour until 3 pm we spent over having some delicacies at the Wooser Bakery, there was an open terrace at the back giving panoramic view of McLeodganj but the weather was windy and cloudy so we decided to remain inside, which itself was also tastefully organized. They offer excellent Vegan pastries too  We started walking next for the Dalai Lama temple complex and chose to walk, went past the SkyWay cable car complex which takes directly to Dharamshala City Center in 5 minutes bypassing all trafiic . .  . . and has a parking too with Dhauladhar in the background  The next hour we spent at the Dalai Lama Temple complex of  I missed capturing his smile, the one he gave when I first asked his permission for a click  There was a fast moving queue here, like others we made our prayers too  We spent our time roaming around, rotating prayer wheels including the giant one, the complex was crowded on that day with lot of foreign tourists  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 15th January 2023 at 15:31. |
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18th November 2022, 04:34
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 7 - part 2 / Oct 01 / Continued McLeodganj - Dharamshala local tour Shashthi / Navratri Day 6 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Katyayani avatar Route: Hired Cab based tour within McLeodganj and Dharamshala Distance: NA Time taken: 8 hours Back on the streets again, walking towards our car. Free Tibet seemed to be a consistent outloook here.  By 4 pm we arrived at the Dharamshala War Memorial and spent some great time at the beautifully maintained garden inside the memorial.  Some construction work was going on      Adjacent to the garden was the Army museum, we had a few places still to visit so we headed out but did not miss the excellent pani puri just outside the memorial complex  Next we arrived at and entered the Dharamashala Cricket stadium  But had two disappointments, firstly the cloud covered all of the Dhaladhar range taking away a lot of the charm and secondly the entire pitch including the field around had been dug up as part of some maintenance  There was bowling machine for the common visitors to practice cricket    The sports complex was just on the opposite side of the road . .  . . since it was 5PM and day light has started to degrade we decided to head back without entering, peeked inside over the boundary walls  We skipped visiting Norbulingka Institute hoping to catch a glimpse of the Sunset from the view point close to our hotel, but seeing the fog on our way back hopes had started to diminish   We went past the Dal Lake, evening seems to be popular place among local kids playing there   A little before 6 we arrived close to our hotel and visited the Naddi View point, got a superb view of the surrounding hills of Dhauladhar Range and the houses down below  But the peaks were mostly covered in cloud   Further path leading to another view point  Gradual build up of evening fog had started  So without further hesitation, at the sunset point, since nothing could be seen owing to clouds so we decided to go one of the two Cafes situated there. We chose the more rudimentary one on the left as it had a better positioned top floor  We spent some time over hot chocolate and maggi before returning to our hotel, the cab driver waited all this long although our hotel was just 2 minutes walk from there. Just before we came, we met the same folks from Bangalore whom I met on the Dainkund Trek. One was a doctor and the other one from service (same profession as mine ). Their hotel was a little way down in McleodGanj and they also headed their way after we exchanged a few words, they were highly cordial. After returning, we debated whether we should have dinner at the adjacent terrace retro outside our hotel but considering our check out tomorrow and some of the packing efforts involved for all the shopping done here we decided to stick to in-house options for the night  The Crysta was parked and planted well, I managed to get the service of two ball boys from the hotel to do a car wash, to my surprise they did an excellent job  While we focused on the packing, excellent Fish Fingers from the room service kept him busy  Dinner was done by 10-30 pm and while others went to sleep I stayed up to try my luck on another Milkyway shot, downloaded the Stellarium app and discovered there was not much prominent option at that hour, this is best I could get around 1-30 am. Another family was there too in the adjacent building within our hotel, they were also up till late night celebrating the weekend by breaking the silence of the place over some loud music, dance and wine and dine . ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 15th January 2023 at 16:27. |
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19th November 2022, 01:47
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 8 / Oct 02 / Naddi to Shimla Saptami / Navratri Day 7 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Kalaratri avatar Route: Naddi -> NH-503 -> Kangra (Brajeshwari Temple) -> NH-503 -> NH-303 -> Jwalamukhi -> NH-303 -> NH-3 -> NH-103 -> NH-205 -> Shimla Distance: 234 KM Time taken: 16 hours (including 7.5 hours halt for the darshan) We had to get up quite early as we knew it would be a long and hectic day as we would be driving all the way to Shimla and also make halts on the way to visit Jwala Mukhi devi temple. We had initially planned to offer the Ashtami Anjali puja but due to preponement of our journey start date by one day (24th Sep night instead of 25th Sep night) we pushed that plan for Shimla Kali Bari on the next day. Yet we did plan to visit Jwaladevi Temple since it is also one of the 51 Shakti Peeths. It was past 6 am but the sun was not yet up, a pan shot of the view from our balcony We checked out from the hotel before 7 am and on the way decided to add a visit to the Brajeshwari Mata Temple (also called Kangra devi) which can be accommodated with a little detour and was highly recommended yesterday by the cab driver who drove us for the local tour.  By 8 am we entered the municipal parking lot of the Brajeshwari temple navigating through some narrow roads with little congestion . .  . . but it was not smooth, a state transport bus had halted to pick up passengers and while I wanted to get past it suddenly the bus rolled backward and the left ORVM hit the bus. The impact was hard, so much so that the mirror panel folded and hit the passenger side window glass. The mirror got shattered instantly and later on I saw there has been permanent scratches on the window glass, also the chrome strip on the left door panel got damaged. Driving without this mirror proved to be a little inconvenient during overtakes, lane changes, parking but the 360 multi terrain camera was intact and worked flawlessly. Even the door handle and the electric folding of the mirror continued to be working fine.  From the parking it was a steady walk all the way to the temple, defined pathway has been built with shops on both sides, everyone was wearing yellow in line with the color of the deity.   We reached the mandir, after depositing our shoes at a shop outside from where we got the Daali. There was long queue as lot of people have come to offer prayers during the occasion of Navratri   A video of the people waiting in the queue and chanting The entire temple was decorated in humongous amount of flowers    Our puja was done in around 90 minutes  A photo of the deity, taken from a shop there  We started for Jwala devi temple by 10 am started, met a procession on our way set forth for some local law and order official's death  The folks in the procession slowly allowed all cars to pass through and we finally reached JwalaMukhi devi parking complex by 11am, putting a short video of this journey. We found a decent parking in the multi-level parking lot of JwalaMukhi Devi temple easily  Instead of walking all the way up through the regular front entrance, we took an auto rickshaw as instructed in a lot of Google reviews which would take us to the back side of the temple from where walking is minimal  We passed the main entrance on our way  The auto ricksaw took a narrow inclined road to drop as close to the temple, notice one thing that there are several local houses offering parking and one could directly park there as close to temple as possible and then walk the rest of the way up. They may not need an auto rickshaw in this case.  Once again a massive queue in this temple as well, several times longer than what we had seen at the previous temple. We took turns in standing or resting in the queue    A 12 noon the temple closed for an hour for cleaning and lunch hours. The standing queue became a sitting queue all of a sudden.  Killing time was difficult, mobile phone and chatting with fellow devotees helped a lot. The queue started moving again after 1 pm, we gradually reached the 2nd level of the temple in 15 - 20 minutes  We realized majority of the queue is here, so what we saw at the level below was only the tip of the iceberg. At one place a guy was stationed whose sole job was to take out any Coconut in the Daali as outside shops did not inform that to us and sold us  The temple, we were finally nearing it  The eternal burning flame at JwalaMukhi devi, photography not allowed inside, this one is sourced from the internet. Once we entered the temple the Daali was placed on the flame and handed over to us. We offered prayer to the goddess and lifting our little one in arms waved our down-turned hands over the scared flame and sweeped them up his and ours forehead and over the head, thereby wafting some of the warmth and auspicious aura of the holy fire over ourself. Considering there is huge crowd behind, we exited the main temple.  Our darshan of the flame was done by 3 pm. We visited the adjacent temple which had the idol of JwalaMukhi Devi . .  . . and adjacent to that is the famous metal umbrella donated by Mughal emperor Akbar, there are several anecdotal stories, one which says this was originally made of gold and on placing over the eternal flame turned into another unknown metal.  We bid good buy to our fellow devotees who shared lot of experiences over the last couple of hours standing in the queue, all hailing from different states and various backgrounds. One of them was an youtuber too named Sumit, he gave us lot of tips of Spiti roadtrip and return to Delhi via Parwanoo route. We had two options to exit, one the regular main entrance and the rear entrance, we chose the later since our shoes were deposited in a shop at the rear entrance. While navigating back to the rear entrance, this is the crowd we had to pass through in opposite direction, the density of people in the queue had reached a crazy level and we were thankful that its over for us finally.  We headed from lunch, we were completely exhausted after standing in the queue for so long, based on direction given by a local shopkeeper (kiddo was hell bent on buying a photo of the deity) followed a shortcut and joined the main entrance connected covered pathway. Both side of this path had lot of shops, many of them serving variety of local street food  By 330 pm we reached Fatte da Dhaba the most renowned eatery here, entered their AC restro, they do also have a non AC place just opposite to each other. Food was excellent to say the least and probably our fast since morning made everything taste twice as better. The owner (visible in the bottom left image tile) himself took great care of all guests as he sat at the reception of the non AC restro.  Here is a short video of our exit from Jwalaji Parking, there was congestion but manageable. Also lot of hotels around if someone wants to stay a night here. We tanked up around 630 pm on NH-103 at a BPCL of Jangal Chhanjyar. We were looking for a place to have some evening team to keep us charged up, found one finally at Ghumarwin along the highway. It was named Lucky da Dhaba and while we spent half an hour them resting and charging up, the owner chatted with us, asking about our destination and also said a lot about himself, his son is studying MBBS. By 730 pm we resumed on our journey towards Shimla. We understood reaching Shimla would be late, and to ensure we have proper dinner ready we spoke to Kiran the restaurant manager at Hotel Combermere who ensured we have food per our choice reserved. By 11 pm we arrived at the parking lot of our hotel in Shimla and received a lot of assistance in parking and transferring our luggage. Check-in formalities were completed by 1130pm. We had our dinner served in room and they exceeded our expectations as not only they tasted good but served hot even past midnight. After that we crashed, it has been such a hectic day. ~~Navigation~~
Last edited by Aditya : 20th January 2023 at 22:42. Reason: As requested |
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19th November 2022, 17:32
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 9 / Oct 03 / Shimla Mall tour Ashtami / Navratri Day 8 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Mahagauri avatar Route: Ashtami Anjali, Walking tour in and around Shimla Mall Distance: NA Time taken: NA I did not have to ask, hotel reception called us to suggest visiting Shimla Kali bari for the Ashtami Anjali , We were already on fast anticipating this, so by 10-30 am we took the hotel's internal lifts and directly reached the Mall level. Asking people around we headed eastward towards the Kali Bari We walked past the hawker market along the Kali Bari Road on our way after crossing the Mall Market  To the left, there was uninterrupted view of the Shimla city and the surrounding hills  After a tiring walk we arrived at the Kali Bari, we were getting concerned if the Anjali time would be over as it was already nearing 1130 am  Followed the directions and landed into the Anjali hall  First glimpse of Maa Durga, we were fortunate to know that there would be 1-2 more rounds of Anjali as more and more people are coming in, not just Bengalis  Everyone stood around the railing to offer Anjali and waiting to receive the flowers  Flowers were distributed in an organized fashion  One of the priests started reciting the Pushpanjali Mantra  Everyone started reciting after him  There were many types of people in the crowd, starting from the highly devoted ones . .  . . to the ones who have concerns  . . and the ones who have other interests  After the mantras were chanted, the turn to hand over the flowers started  This was repeated 3 times and then the Tilak . .  . . and ashirbad rounds started  Here is a video of a Pushpanjali round After our Pushpanjali was over we took the mandatory selfie, something we are accustomed to in Kolkata . .  . . had the Prasad  We also did a darshan of the Kali Mata in the adjacent hall and came outside in the terrace  There was a group of artists playing Sanai in the open terrace, clubbed with the panoramic view of the Shimla City from the terrace it was an awesome experience  Did not miss to pour water on the Shiv Linga in another temple inside the same complex before exiting the place by 12-30 pm  We passed through the same Kali Bari Road markets . .  . . with mountain view on one side    Walked past the Scandal point    And finally halted in front of the Fire Brigade building  Spent an hour at the excellent Hideout Cafe over some continental and asian food with superb desserts, this was a late brunch so had to be heavy  Took the lift of our hotel from Mall directly and came back to our room in no time. Tired of walking and a bellyfull of lunch, perfect recipe of sleep and we abided .~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 16th January 2023 at 00:40. |
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20th November 2022, 22:22
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 9 - Part 2 / Oct 03 / Continued Shimla Mall tour Ashtami / Navratri Day 8 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Mahagauri avatar Route: Walking tour Distance: NA Time taken: NA After some good resting we started again by 530 pm, the Sun was gradually going down as evident from our room  We came to the open terrace Bar - Be- Que restaurant of our hotel  Witnessed the Sunset       Then we came up to the Mall Road walking towards the Ridge. We went past the Lower Mall Market which had already started crowding   We climbed the stairs to reach the Ridge  Had wonderful view of the Mall area in the blue hours with still having a part of the sky in beautiful orange tone near the horizon   Ridge was also quite crowded and we roamed around   Had some chatpata Aloo Tikki Chat  Indeed a relaxing place    Some part of it reminded me of Champs Elysees    The Hanumanji Statue on top of the Jakhoo Hill    We sat down at one place at the Ridge . .  . . watching the city lights from top of the Ridge . .  . . under the moon. It was getting colder so after some time we headed out  Thereafter we spent close to an hour doing shopping lower mall market, realized nothing could beat the McleodGanj markets  By 930 pm we came to the Cafe SOL restaurant of our hotel and completed our dinner, calling it a day. Food was once again excellent and we remained loyal to continental style food which are less spicy.  ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 16th January 2023 at 01:10. |
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22nd November 2022, 03:11
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| BHPian | Re: A little tour of Himachal with Devi Aradhana in a Innova Crysta Day 10 / Oct 04 / Daytour from Shimla to Mashobra and Naldhera Navami / Navratri Day 9 - Worship of Devi Durga in her Mahagauri avatar Route: Hired Cab Ride Distance: NA Time taken: NA Uncertain about the parking availability of the area we decided to take a hotel cab for local tour of Naldhera and Mashobra, they gave us a Crysta. I wanted to start sooner before 9 am but in reality since no cab was available they tried over simplifying that this tour can be completed sooner. Eventually by 10-40 pm we started from the hotel Our first stop was the Talai Temple  Outside the temple there was a beautiful green meadow  Next we visited the Craignano Nature park and it was by far the most scenic nature wrapped park in our entire trip. There was a walk needed uphill, wifey and kido sat down after a little climb but I covered till the end and came back  Found maples in beautiful fall colors       After almost an hour spending amidst nature headed down         Next stop was Regional Horticultural Research and Training Station (RHRTS) of Mashobra since we asked to show us some apple orchards but there were no apples here, all seemed to have been harvested, perhaps some private apple orchard would have been a better option  But the view from this place of the surrounding was stunning   There was a small, picturesque garden too    We were stuck here for some more time as it has started raining, but seeing no sign of rain stopping we had to rush back to our cab amidst rainfall only  It was late for lunch so the cab driver took as to Sharma Bhojanalaya for quick 30 minute lunch. Food was fine although purely veg.  We started again at 330 pm and before 4 we came to the long awaited Naldhera Golf Course, one of the most beautiful places we saw on our entire trip  Looking at the terrain, we were hell bent not to get on a horse but instead hired a horse rider as our guide to take us around and also help tricky slopes with our little one, this thing paid off greatly     ~~Navigation~~ Last edited by haisaikat : 16th January 2023 at 01:28. |
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