Finally
visited Dalhousie, the hill station that was in my must visit list for a long
time.
My first
impression – crowded with people and hotels/motels/malls. Fortunately for us
our hotel, though next to the Bus Terminus, seemed secluded once we entered and
the view of the Pir Panjal
range of the Himalayas from the hotel premises was
magnificent.
Dalhousie, a
hill station in Chamba district of the State of Himachal Pradesh, was named
after The Earl of Dalhousie, who was the British Governor-General in India
while establishing this place in the 1850s as a summer retreat, at a height of
1970 metres above sea level.
Our local
sight seeing started with a visit to Panjpula where one can avail of the
adventure activities
like walking across the rope bridge and zip lining or
chill in a mountain café with a tea, coffee, soft
drink or maybe a
hookah/sheesha of your favourite flavour.
You can start your souvenir shopping
right here or move on to Gandhi
chowk where there is a pedestrian zone for a mall. Do check out the
St.John’s
church established in 1863 in Gandhi chowk and then move on to the next chowk, the
A tiny temple on the path to Subhash chowk.
Rock art on the path to Subhash chowk
Subhash chowk seen from Gandhi chowk
The mall between Gandhi chowk and Subhash chowk
Coffee if you wish to feel refreshed in the mall.
Subhash chowk, where you can check out St.Francis church built in 1894.
In Shubash chowk there
are plenty of restaurants that serve excellent food. We ate at Shere-e-Punjab
which afforded beautiful views too apart from wonderful service and delicious
food.
Next morning
we decided to explore Khajjiar, 22kms from Dalhousie, as the roads had opened
up a
couple of days earlier after the snow was cleared. Khajjiar is famous for
its bowl shaped, pine ringed
meadow. It offers a lot of photo ops which we
indulged in, had lunch there and started back to
Dalhousie.
The return drive
was made memorable due to a massive traffic jam in the narrow mountain roads. We
were stuck in the traffic for an hour and a half.
A couple of
nights in Dalhousie, I think, were good enough, and am glad I knocked it off my
list.