Travelogue - Miles to McLeodganj

viva1986

Disciple
This is my first ever travelogue. I started my journey on night of Saturday on July 5, by not sleeping just because of the excitement and making route way planning papers and also filling my Phone’s card with new song files. On 6th of July (Sunday) I and my three friends started our journey from Rohini in my friend’s Swift Desire (Petrol) in morning. The Main Purpose of our journey is to get medicine of CANCER from Tibetan doctor (Dr. Yeshi Dhondhen) for the mother of one of my friends, which is diagnosed recently. Besides this we all are in mood of enjoying our long ride.

We took the following route:

Delhi > Karnal > Ambala > Banur > Kharar > Anandpur Sahib > Nangal > Una > Amb > Mubarakpur > Gaggal > Dharmashala > Mcleodganj

Day 1:
I along with 3 friends started from Delhi at 8.00 AM on July 6 (Sunday). We planned the trip on Sunday morning because in Mcleodganj coupons for meeting doctor distributes on Monday at 2:00 P.M. for which queue starts building up 12 at midnight. The reason behind the long queue is that doctor sees only 45 patients in one day and everyone wants to be in that list of 45, that’s why people starts making queue As Soon As Possible. As we enquired from the authorities earlier that Saturday is weekly closed for the coupon Distribution and Sunday is closed because of strike or some other reason, that’s why we started on Sunday morning.

We took our first halt after crossing Toll Post of Ambala City. After spending one hour for eating and relaxing we started again on the roads. After taking 2 small stops especially to capture the natural beauty on the way, we reached Mcleodganj at 7:00 P.M. in the evening. This is first time I drive car on hills and the experience is amazing, roads are very narrow and steep in Dharamshala and Mcleodganj. Overall condition of roads is good but between Una and Amb it’s in bad condition because of construction work. After parking our car in HPTDC guest house car parking lot we searched for cheap and best room in which we all four can stay, although room is not best but it is cheap and the view from the balcony of the room is amazing. After refreshing we all go to markets for food and information on coupons distribution timing and system. For Food we searched many restaurants for only vegetarian cuisine because I am vegetarian but we were unable to find because all of the restaurants there have Veg and non-veg(Even I searched on tripadvisor.com and Zomato), after all we ate at multi cuisine restaurant. At 12:00 A.M. two of us get ready for queue and at 3:00 A.M. I replaced one of them and the turn continues so on like this. Coupons distribution starts at 2:30 P.M. and our no. is 5 after waiting for 14 hours in open in cold weather we get our reward.

Day 2:
At 4:00 P.M. we all decided to see some nearby places because for today we are free. Firstly we go to Dal Lake, it is a small lake. Personally I don’t like Dal Lake because it is not clean and after that we go to sunset view point. From here we can see the peaks of Dhauladhar Range covered with snow, the view is amazing. And at last we saw St. John Church , this is also beautiful and peaceful place.

Day 3:

The day started with going to doctor’s clinic for medicines. There is no need to take patient , one can have medicines after showing the reports and sample of toilet of patient taken in early morning. After taking medicines and breakfast we started our back journey at 11:00 A.M. in the morning. At Nangal we goto Bhakra Nangal but unfortunately it is closed by the time we reached , also to see the Dam one has to take permission from the Dam authority. Views are awesome on the way and we reached at home by 11:00 P.M.

Overall route is 504 Km from delhi and average given by our vehicle is 13KMPL.

Here are the Pics

He Welcomed Us after reaching HPTDC House.
20140706_195104P by viva1987, on Flickr

More Poses of him
20140706_195117P by viva1987, on Flickr


20140706_195203P by viva1987, on Flickr

Waiting for Sunrise, But bad weather
20140707_052414P by viva1987, on Flickr

View from Sunset View Point but again weather is bad
20140707_164435P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_164458P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_164520P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_165239P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170321P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170340P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170530P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170815P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170827P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_170924P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_171015P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_172220P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_172542P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140707_172550P by viva1987, on Flickr

These are the Peaks Dhauladhar Range
20140707_180701P by viva1987, on Flickr

These are the Peaks Dhauladhar Range
20140707_180704P by viva1987, on Flickr

St. John Church
20140707_182455P by viva1987, on Flickr

St. John Church
20140707_182554P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_130926P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_131026P by viva1987, on Flickr

St. John Church
20140707_182702P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_120901P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_120910P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_120920P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_120953P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_120958P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_121002P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_121136P by viva1987, on Flickr

20140708_121255P by viva1987, on Flickr

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20140708_123535P by viva1987, on Flickr
 
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I had been to Dharamsala and Mcleodganj in 2008. Its really beautiful. Your travelogue brought back some fond memories.
 
thanks yes you are right it is really beautiful and 1 thing which i like most is that you can have rest at full peace there because there are not so much palces to watch near it and it is not so much crowded.
Also the weather is very much pleasent there.

I am also uploading Pics for this travelogue.
 
a) Its Swift Dzire, and not swift desire
b) The route you guys took is horrible
c)
this_thread_is_worthless_without_pics.gif
 
The default route is Ambala- Ludhiana- Jallandhar-Pathankot-Dharmsala-McLoedganj.

Nobody goes through Anandpur Sahib unless one is going to Manali.
 
Did you not visit the Buddhist monasteries (the isolated ones, lower than the HQ of Dalai Lama), those are serene and nice. I sat there for hours.
 
Reminds me of my school days :p I went to McLeodganj/Dharamsala back in 7th/8th class. Our boarding school had an yearly trip in Sep/Oct and have visited quite some places: Gangotri, Yamnotri, Leh Ladakh, Rohtang Pass, etc etc Good memories. Now been planning a backpack trip of South India....been ages in planning only :(
 
The default route is Ambala- Ludhiana- Jallandhar-Pathankot-Dharmsala-McLoedganj.

Nobody goes through Anandpur Sahib unless one is going to Manali.

Delhi to Ambala-: 209KM
Ambala to Ludhiana-: 107KM
Ludhiana to Jallandhar-: 61KM
Jallandhar to Pathankot-: 112KM
Pathankot to Dharamshala-: 86KM
Dharamshala to Mcleodganj-: 5KM
Total= 580KM
(With reference to Google Maps)

And we covered only 504KM upto Mcleodganj

Did you not visit the Buddhist monasteries (the isolated ones, lower than the HQ of Dalai Lama), those are serene and nice. I sat there for hours.

Actually we dont have so much time. Thats why we go to sunset view point only.
 
@viva1986 next time you can go a little higher... like Triund and above. you'll get to see some real wildlife :p

BTW, Bhakhra Dam is not open to the public. even photography is not allowed due to security reasons. you can just go near to it and have picnic in the gardens.
 
The route suggested by me would be the fastest route.
The roads from Delhi to Pathankot are just awesome. Awesome as in broad 6 lane stuff. Not the scenic kind of awesome.
 
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