A weekend getaway to Dharamshala

I made a dash for the mountains last week. It was unplanned, as everything else in my life is. I languished in office till 4 AM that Saturday morning and hadn’t an inkling that anything different from my normally drab weekends was afoot.

We left by an Indica from Delhi on Saturday night and returned on Tuesday morning. There’s an eminently forgettable strip of road from Delhi to Dharamshala. Its good till Ambala, manageable till Chandigarh, and gets progressively worse thereafter. The mountains become visible only as you get really close to Dharamshala, and by the time you’re up there, especially at McLeodganj, you’re right next to the Dhauladhar range. My motto in life is that “The journey IS the destination” – I’m generally not headed in a tearing hurry to get to anyplace. But for Dharamshala, the journey was not as impressive as the destination itself.

The taxi driver was an out and out Punjabi – he wasn’t particularly impressed when I handed him over a CD of the Eagles. Tequila Sunrise didn’t seem to grip him, and he quickly switched back to some loud Punjabi music. We didn’t insist on a change back to anything else as we figured nobody could sleep with the brand of Punjabi music he played, so atleast the driver would be wide awake. The best of U2 (1980-1990) and Guns N Roses languished in the glove compartment.

We gathered that most of the joints to stay were at McLeodganj so we went thither. We stayed at the Hotel Bhagsu, which is a joint run by the HP Tourism department and it was ok for a single night. The rates were reasonable too – somewhere in the Rs 800 to Rs 1000 range for a day.

Tibetans evidently like to dig into their breakfast with gusto. Breakfast consisted of bread (including some thick Tibetan bread), eggs and steamed vegetables which I loved.

The good thing about the place is that you don’t need to land up there and make a beeline to the famous tourist spots around town. We preferred sitting in the sunshine outside the hotel at a table, sipping some tea and readi ng. I happened to be reading William Dalrymple’s ‘In Xanadu’ at the time. My friend was reading some heavier stuff written by a female author – the kind of author I generally steer clear off.

We did drive around the town, visited a pond which they wishfully called the Dal Lake. It wasn’t an arresting spectacle by any stretch of imagination but the road beyond the pond led to a place called Sunset joint where we got some good views.

The Namgyal monastery we visited on Sunday morning was one of the bright spots in the trip. It was calm and soothing and everything you’d expect a place of worship to be. I’m a Hindu but seem to find religious places of other religions more conducive to reflection and prayer – I loved the Hazratbal mosque in Srinagar and most churches. I’m adding Buddhist monasteries to that list of peaceful places I’d like to visit if I ever want some soothing silence.

All in all, I'd rate Dharamshala as a great getaway. Do it if you find time hanging on your hands on a weekend. Air Deccan is planning to start a service there so the only low point of the journey, which is the road, should be out of the way.

PS: All photos are from my Sony DSCH2 Digital. My much touted Nikon SLR is down with a broken lens.