For the first time this trip, we start and rise before the sun, much to the disbelief of Rajinder-our driver. That early morning drive from Manali to Dharamshala, despite the sleepless night before, couldn’t have been any better: with mountain roads, blooming mustard flowers in fields, grasslands in the valleys, winding through creeks and running along rivers and streams. Throughout, we drive at 1300-1600m above MSL, as indicated on the occasional milestone.
En route to Dharamshala we stop by at the Baijnath Shiva temple, supposedly one of the oldest temples in India. The architecture does look old and ancient but it is the view of the horizon from the gardens that make it a worthwhile detour to any trip.
We were ahead of schedule reaching Dharamshala and so we also stop by the Chamunda temple. I wouldn’t deny that quite a few friends were surprised that we out of all people were visiting temples; in fact we were surprised at it ourselves!
Now that everyone has been surprised enough, we move on to McLeod gunj and further to the Bhagsunag temple, this time more for the Bhagsu waterfall nearby than for the deity. The trek to the falls was exciting, the view of the town breathtaking and the panorama picturesque; and I’m being conservative with my adjectives here.
Returning to McLeod gunj, we notice that the town has just woken up from its slow paced day to the Saturday night fun. Much to our surprise, this place looked and sounded like a free city- such as the like of Christiania in Copenhagen. With an active night life, teeming tourist and visitor populace and countless resto-bars of various cuisines, everybody will feel totally at home in his place. For our part, we try a la carte at Tibet kitchen- vegetable soup, flat noodles, fried rice, and chicken cooked three ways (the Tibetan names of which I can’t pronounce nor spell). The best part of the meal was the Tibetan Butter tea in the end- refreshing and reviving indeed.
The Vagabond Ways 