[deky]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Another excellant travelogue! I am waiting to do more North India trips in coming years! At least 5 are in pipeline.

Ravi.

Ravi it was great meaiting you in Jaipur, Looking forward to your next trip in the north!!

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Lovely captures. Really enjoyed it! You should've opened up the aperture a bit for the waterfall. The milkiness is a bit overdone. f13-16 works normally for my 500D

Thank you for the comments, The original photo was a wider angle pic and was cropped. Do you think the milkiness is more since I was not using a filter?

The original pic

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Hi deky,
Very nice pictures!! The pictures of your daughter enjoying the ride and the place is awesome. Kids these days don't get such open areas to play and have fun and when they get a chance they just indulge in it. Reminds me of my 2 yrs old nephew who was so happily running all around the place when we went to a resort.
Pictures of the place have come out very good.

Thank you. My daughter loved the openness, the new surroundings and all the attention from us.

Originally Posted by dadu

Very nice compilation of photo's + narration, am enjoying it to the core.

Thank You.

Originally Posted by aryashiv1

Deky...lovely pics. I am reading your travelouge and going back to my school days. I studied in a residential school which is around 40 Kms from Palampur (Sujanpur Tihra). Very good small town. Wish you had visited that place. This place is surround by Tihra Fort from one side and Beas river flowing on the other side. There is a big playground just between the hill and river and the town town surrounds the ground. During my hostel days we bunked our sundays and used to visit Palampur often (one of my class friends parents used to live there). If I am not wrong YOL is a mililary camp area. Right...I was a volleyball player in my school and if I am not wrong we had a vollyball training camp there for two weeks and we stayed at the Yol Camp. During that time had visited the Baijnath Temple also. You had taken my back to my school days....cheers...

You right YOL camp is basically a military station.

Originally Posted by amip

Great pics Deky - I've always thought Kangra was a particularly beautiful valley - especially the area around Palampur. I've spent almost a week in that area just reading books, lazing around, drinking hot coffee on cold misty mornings ..sigh

Totally agree with you, my routine was almost the same except that the hot coffee was replaced by hot tea on cold misty mornings!!

[deky]

Today was the last day in YOL and we decided to go to the zoo, that was closed the previous day and show Aira some of the animals.

Look at the dirt surrounding the animals cage. Who is to be blamed? Us all the tourists...Disgusting.


I for one wasnt so happy to see these magnificent animals in cages. Just look at him in his eyes, he looks so sad.


Even Aira wasnt thrilled seeing them in cages and got bored. She started playing with stones. Mom was not to happy about that.


So Aira had to be given a lift and for which both were not happy.


Then came the leopard...why cant they have big big cages for them. This guy with his mate was placed in a 20 feet by 20 feet cage.


and the vulture with its wings clipped...sigh!!!


I had had enough of the zoo, and it was time to move on. Aira found a nice place for herself. On the Swings.



We decided to go back to Mcleodganj and indulge in some nice Tibetan lunch at a typical Tibetan place and support the SAVE TIBET cause.

En route to Mcleodganj


An old old church with some special affects by me


It started to rain, the first bit of rain that we got during the entire holiday so the camera went under wraps for a bit.

As the clouds dissappered we bid our farewell to Mcleodganj and drove back to YOL.


Next day we would be saying good bye to YOL and drive to Jammu. This visit to Jammu was a surprise visit for my Mother in Law

[deky]

Finally the Kangra Holiday was coming to an end. Next morning we were ready to leave this beautiful, green and quiet place and head to Jammu.

It seems, apart from Aira not being happy even the skies were dull and grey.


We will definitely going to miss the beautiful place and the unspoilt nature.


I wanted to click everything and anything beautiful that passed my way for memories.


Beutiull meadows


Grey rain clouds were hovering, but luckily they didnt rain. Hill driving and rain would have been too much for me to handle.


We still had all these valleys to cross before we reached Pathankot


An old iron bridge


And then the skies opened, but luckily did not last for long.


The narrow gauge line that connects Pathankot to Kangra city and goes further till Baijnath.


I dont drive fast but thankfully I was faster than this train on hilly tracks and caught it at a crossing.


The rain disappeared and we got to see clouds with silver lining.


And a half rainbow at a distance.


We didnt go for the pot of gold as our pot of gold was right there with us in our car sleeping peacefully, satisfied with all the fun she had.


We spent another 2 days in Jammu and returned back to Jaipur. There is nothing much to write except the fact that on our return journey the roads on NH1 were horrible specially at the major cities like Jallandher, Ludhiyana. Ambala etc etc. I guess that was due to the fact that heavy rains had created havoc just 2 days back.

Overall the trip was very satisfying. Our kids first holiday, I am sure she wont remeber much of it when she grows up, but thankfully she gave us such good memories of the trip that both my wife and I will never ever forget this trip.

[breezydrive]

Kangra valley at its best!

[anujmishra]

Hi deky there is no update in your travelogue? When we will get next installment?

[gostel]

Lovely travelogue: I enjoyed the narrative and the beautiful pictures. A lovely start for a Sunday morning reading. Good going Deky!

[predatorwheelz]

As Gostel said, beautiful reading on a Sunday morning. You daughter is an angel, and you have taken some lovely pics of her and the surroundings.

Can you share a little detail on the hotels you've stayed in during this trip and the approximate rates for each? Also, if one were to plan a road trip from Delhi, what would be the ideal time to go?

[deky]

Originally Posted by breezydrive

Kangra valley at its best!

Yes, it was awesome

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Hi deky there is no update in your travelogue? When we will get next installment?

Hi Anuj, I have finished. Didnt want to write about Jammu as we mostly stayed indoors relaxing, was too sultry in the days to be out. And the return journey was mostly highway drive hence not many pics

Still I have jotted down the details of the return drive in my first post.

Regards

Originally Posted by gostel

Lovely travelogue: I enjoyed the narrative and the beautiful pictures. A lovely start for a Sunday morning reading. Good going Deky!

Thank You

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

As Gostel said, beautiful reading on a Sunday morning. You daughter is an angel, and you have taken some lovely pics of her and the surroundings.

Can you share a little detail on the hotels you've stayed in during this trip and the approximate rates for each? Also, if one were to plan a road trip from Delhi, what would be the ideal time to go?

For me the ideal time to visit a hill station is in winters. The morning chill, the nice warm'ish wafternoons and evening bon fires are a totally out of this world experience. Plus usually in winters there arnt many tourists around. This time i.e at the fag end of the monsoons was also great. Everything was lush green and washed clean due to rains. The roads werent that good at some places, but then you cant ever gauarantee good roads in India. Summers would be the worst time to visit as I believe Dharamshala and around gets flooded by DL & PB cars due to the close proximity.

As for the accommodation, there is plenty good accommodation in Dharamshala and Mcleodganj. We were lucky to be hosted by a Fauji relative in an Army accommodation in YOL.

Regards.

[gd1418]

Deky,

An excellant phot travelogue to Kangra valley. Would love to go there sometime..