Before covid, our last vacation was in Jan 2020 to Hampi. Post covid we have been lucky to have been able to take short trips to places around Mumbai Lonavala, Pune, Mahabaleshwar. So this time when at a short notice, we got a free slot at Club Mahindra Dharamshala we were quite thrilled and were all geared up and looking forward to the trip. Since Amritsar had been on our radar for a long time, we took this opportunity to route our journey via Amritsar. My wife is a great one on meticulously planning trips to optimise time for sightseeing. She decided the best way for us to optimise the itinerary was to take the late night flight out of Mumbai with an early morning change over at Delhi for Amritsar. With this we would land in the wee hours of the morning at Amritsar giving us enough time to visit the Golden Temple enroute Dharamshala by road. All planning done, it was left to me to book the flight tickets.
The day of travel being a Sunday, it was a hectic day with a couple of social engagements but we were comfortable, (or so we thought) since we had decided to have our driver available for a drop for the late night flight out. All engagements done, we got ready with two bags for check-in and one backpack each as a carry one and we left in our home around 10 pm.
As we settled down, I checked the boarding pass and all hell broke loose. To my horror,the boarding pass had 10:05 pm as our boarding time with flight departure at 10:45 pm. It dawned upon me that instead of booking the 11:45 pm flight, I had ended up booking the earlier 10:45 pm flight. A quick check on google informed us that the travel time to the airport would be a minimum 20 minutes. Fortunately as our flight was from Terminal T1 (the smaller of the two terminals at Mumbai) we decided to continue and take our chances. I quickly tried calling the GoFirst customer care centre to check on the flight status. As I navigated the interactive voice response (IVR), I was informed the wait time for me was 10 minutes or else I could opt for a call back. I weighed my options and decided to opt for a call back (which never came).As we reached the airport at 10:20 pm, I went straight to the GoFirst airport counter at the entrance to explain my predicament. A quick look at the boarding pass and the counter staff rolled their eyes and suggested not to waste time but to book for the next flight which was an hour later. As I insisted on pressing for a refund on my ticket cancellation, he directed me to the duty manager inside. At this time, I decided to split the tasks , with my wife continuing to engage with the counter staff to get us on the next flight as I stepped inside to have a word with the duty manager on my predicament. Fortunately for me, being late in the night, I was able to jump the short queue and approach the duty manager. Since we already had our web-check in done, the duty manager was quick in suggesting that we take a chance and rush to gate#29 by opting to take all our luggage as carry on. I was out in a giffy and called out to my wife to hold off on buying the fresh tickets. We were lucky that the CRPF at the entrance did not fuss and ushered us in quickly as we rushed to the security check with 4 bags. We jumped the queue, got our bags into the screening as we prayed for no hold ups seeking for bags to be opened for additional screening etc. Here too the CRPF co-operated and ignored the scissors/ liquid gel or house keys etc which were supposed to be part of the check-in luggage. Having crossed security, now was the time to sprint to gate#29, which incidentally is the last gate on this terminal. Once again, we decided to split duties as I waited for the screened luggage to be taken off the belt and my wife went ahead to the boarding gate. Having managed thus far, she sprinted to reach the boarding gate. It was 10:40 pm. As she approached the airline staff, she realised all was quiet and quickly thought all the effort had gone to waste. To her relief, the staff informed of a delay in the incoming flight had led to a delay resulting in boarding yet to be announced. For once she thanked god for the flight delay and plonked herself on the seats waiting for me to catch up. This was truly a thrilling start to our vacation.
We landed in the wee hours of Monday morning at Amritsar. We had booked our car on Savari for an airport pickup. As planned the driver took us straight from the airport to the Golden Temple. Being early, we were able to drive through the extremely narrow bylanes and arrive right at the entrance. We followed the ritual of covering our head, keeping the shoes at the counter and walked into the temple complex just at sunrise. The temple was already buzzing with devotees making a beeline to visit the sanctum sanctorum in the middle of the holy pond. We did a parikrama and then were lucky to have got a contact who made special arrangements to get into the shorter queue. This saved us half an hour to forty five minute to say the least. After this we got a taste of the langar.
All this took about 2-2:30 hours and it was 10 am as we stepped out to visit Jalianwal Bagh which is next door to the Golden Temple Complex. The entrance lane taking you to the Jalianwala Bagh is an extremely narrow lane, barely 4 feet across. In the recent renovation, murals depicting protestors trooping in have been introduced in this lane to bring the historic significance of the place to light. Once inside galleries have been introduced to take you back in history to relive those times. The well, the bullet marks and the monument make this place quite solemn as you try to imagine/ relive the eventful day.
As we stepped out and walked to our car, we got the taste of our first Amritsari lassi in the bylane. Now it was around 11:30 am and we were done with our morning itinerary. My wife had done her online research on her trusted Tripadvisor. She had got a recommendation for Kanha Sweets which was enroute as we exited Amritsar for Dharamshala. We decided to break for an early lunch at Kanha. The chole puri and lassi were amazing as this place certainly lived up to its recommendation. All done, we left for Dharamshala, a 200 kms, 4-5 hour road journey via Pathankot and Kangra. This road is also known as Grand Trunk (GT) road which has a fork which takes you to Dalhousie as well. We reached Club Mahindra late in the evening around 6 pm.
The next day as we got up, we got a magnificent view of the Dhauladhar mountains right from our room window. At Dharamshala we were footloose as we were yet to plan our itinerary. We did a quick online search for places to see and zoomed down on the cricket stadium and also came across MadTrek Adventures website site (https://madtrek.com/tour-activity/tandem-paragliding/) promoting paragliding at Bir-Billing (60 kms- 2 hours drive) at just Rs 2000 per person which includes GoPro video recording of the flight. The view from the cricket stadium lived up to its expectation as it is the world’s highest cricket stadium and is also set against the majestic Dhauladhar mountains.
The next day as we got up, we got a magnificent view of the Dhauladhar mountains right from our room window. At Dharamshala we were footloose as we were yet to plan our itinerary. We did a quick online search for places to see and zoomed down on the cricket stadium and also came across MadTrek Adventures website site (https://madtrek.com/tour-activity/tandem-paragliding/) promoting paragliding at Bir-Billing (60 kms- 2 hours drive) at just Rs 2000 per person which includes GoPro video recording of the flight. The view from the cricket stadium lived up to its expectation as it is the world’s highest cricket stadium and is also set against the majestic Dhauladhar mountains.
From there we drove down to Bir-Billing for paragliding. As we reached the landing area at Bir (4,300 ft) , we had to transfer to another vehicle which would take us to the top along with our pilots with whom we would be doing a tandem jump, for the take off area at Billing which is at 8,000 ft. During the drive we got to know this is Asia's highest and the world’s second highest paragliding spot.
Bir-Billing is a very popular spot with good arrangements done by the HP tourism at the takeoff spot, more than 400-500 licensed and well trained pilots, approx. 50-100 sorties taking place everyday. As we jumped off the cliff and soared into the crisp air , the adventure experience was thrilling to say the least. We were airborne for 20-25 minutes as we descended to 4,300 feet for a landing at Bir. This is the second time that we have undertaken paragliding. The earlier one was near Manali in 2004-5 with our kids.
Having completed the thrilling adventure, the rest of our trip was dedicated to some food adventure at joints highly recommended by Col Gajanan Umranikar, who was introduced by one of my ICICI Bank colleagues and is posted at Yeol cantt. Near Dharamshala. Enroute on the way back from Bir Billing, we stopped over at Sarovar Portico, Palampur which has a 360 degree restaurant on the 6th floor that provides a view of the mountains and valley. We opted to have dinner at Cafe Encontro (https://www.cafeencontro.com/) which offers Tibetan food which includes 3 types of Momos (Steamed, Fired and Kothey) , Thukpa and Tingmo. The dessert was a peanut butter cheesecake, which was yumm. Next day we visited the Norbulingka Institutewhich conducts courses for artisans as well as in Tibetian literature.
The Divine Hima is adjacent to the Norbulingka Institute.
The Divine Hima is a seven room house converted into a tastefully decorated boutique hotel by Sanjay Kumbhakarni. He is a geologist by profession with interest in photography who decided to follow his passion in hospitality to set up this hotel. It has a well stocked library with a fireplace, an art gallery which displays his geological photographs. This is located at the foothills of the Dhauladhar range. The terrace has a bar which provides a majestic view of the mountains. The Divine Hima offers world cuisine and is a must stop place for either breakfast lunch or dinner.
Next on our agenda was Mcleod Ganj. Since the Dalai Lama monastery has been shut down for visitors since Covid, we opted to roam the market for woollen shopping and visited Morgan's Place (https://www.instagram.com/morgans_place/?hl=en) , Dharamkot for lunch. Morgan is on a downhill slope and has Alice in Wonderland decor and a menu to match. Dharamkot is a popular starting point for most of Dhauladhar mountain treks which take you deep to the glaciers.
On return to Amritsar, we left early in the morning to reach in time for the Wagha Border ceremonial parade. As we reached Amritsar well in time, we opted once again to grab a chole puri lunch with Lassi at Kanha Sweets and then proceeded to Attari (30 kms from Amritsar) to reach ahead of time for the 4:15 pm event. At Wagha, Border Security Force is in charge as being the first line of defence for the border, they shoulder the responsibility. The arrangements are very systematic with ample parking for visitors, speakers belting patriotic songs and colosseum type stands with a seating capacity of over 2-3 thousand. Ladies are given the special privilege of being allowed to line up for a walk up to the border post carrying a national flag.The entire event is very well choreographed with both sides playing to their respective galleries. An interesting trivia about Wagha Border, Lahore is just 22 Kms while Amritsar is at 30 kms.
For the return journey, at Amritsar, we had booked our stay at the Ramada Wyndham, since it is walking distance from the Golden Temple. This gave us enough time to look around the surrounding market in the bylanes shopping for the Phulkari dupatta, Jutti and also visit Golden Temple at night. This was followed up by dinner at the famous 100+ years old Kesar Da Dhaba and Jilebhi in the bylanes of the Golden Temple.
With all ticks in all our must do boxes, as we packed our bags to get ready to leave the next day for Mumbai, we were in for a surprise. We got to know about the new travel advisory from Maharashtra requiring compulsory RT-PCR before entry into the state. With hardly any time to get the tests done, we decided to proceed and take our chances since both of us have already been fully vaccinated. Fortunately by the time we landed at Mumbai, we were relieved as the state government had pulled back its compulsory RT-PCR advisory due to strictures from the central government and decided to stick only to the vaccination certification. Thus ended our memorable trip with exciting stories to tell - starting right from our near "miss adventure" at the Mumbai airport to the thrill of paragliding at Bir-Billing with of course the highpoint being the beauty of the Golden temple by night. All's well that ends well. So cheers for now. (For the travel tips, do look up the P.S below)
P.S - Travel and shopping Tips
1. Amritsar - Dharamshala road trip is between 4-5 hours. In case you wish to avoid this, you can opt for flying into Kangra airport (Chandigarh or Delhi has connections) which is just 30-45 min by road from Dharamshala .
2. In case you are into adventure sports and wish to try paragliding at Bir Billing, plan your trip to book online on https://madtrek.com/tour-activity/tandem-paragliding/ and catch lunch at the Sarovar Portico, Palampur followed by a visit to one of the tea estates around before proceeding to Bir-Billing. For paragliding, remember to wear layers /thick clothes to save you from the chill in the air as you soar. Don't forget to wear jeans and ask for knee pads since the take off and landing can get rough.To know more click here :- (https://www.outlookindia.com/traveller/ot-getaway-guides/paragliding-in-bir-billing/)
3. Must visit places for foodies- Encontro, Divine Hima at Dharamshala, Morgan's Place at Dharamkot, Palampur- Sarovar Portico for the 360 degree view and tea estates. At Amritsar, opt for electric rickshaw for travel around the bylanes surrounding the Golden Temple. For tourists they will quote Rs 100 but a local would typically pay Rs 20 per head.
4. Shopping - must do - Fulkari dupatta, Jutti, Pathani, Rambaugh for Pickles, Wadiyan (masala for cooking preparations), Amritsari black pepper papad
5. For Wagha border - it's free, with adequate amphi-theatre style seating providing a good view to everyone. There are ample government parking arrangements at the site, do not fall for the temptation of opting for private car parking being flagged by touts 500 mtrs prior.Ladies must lookout for and volunteer to participate in the flag run.
6. Amritsar airport (approx 30 kms) drop by private taxi would typically be Rs 1,000-1,100.
Acknowledgements- My friends Sheetal Nagle and Ashish Parulekar for being a solid member of my blog support team.: To read my Musings on Cricketing / Corporate Tales, Start up stories, Covid Times, Friends, Family and Marriages, Travel, Movie reviews and more click here
